In Maywood, the City finally brought in some high caliber leadership that recognized that if you want to truly have a high quality police department you have to pay for it.  Unfortunately for Maywood, they were not lying when they said they could not afford it.  Many POA's would give up at this point, but Maywood POA, led by its President, Emil Florez, saw an opportunity and seized it.  The police officers were due a long awaited raise of 4% in the second to last  year of their contract.  The City was asking the POA to give up that raise (they too read the League of Cities playbook) given the "economic times." 

City management was convinced that if it was going to make Maywood PD a high caliber agency it had to significantly increase compensation as it was one of the lowest paid in the area.  It simply was not in a financial position to do it this year.  A deal was hashed out whereby the POA did give up the 4% raise for this year, agreeing that would get a previously agreed raise of 5% next year and added to the contract that in July 2011, Maywood officers' pay would be brought to the average of the surrounding cities.  This is expected to be between a 15% and 23% increase in July of 2011.  The City saw the economy coming back and was open to giving the officers fair compensation when it could afford it in exchange for the POA helping out the City now.  They should add this to the League of Cities playbook as it may help out those cities that are truly hurting for funds right now.  Maywood POA turned a bad situation into a golden opportunity.