In what has been viewed as one of the most contentious MOU negotiations in recent history, the Monrovia Police Officer's Association has prevailed. Every now and then you find a city manager that fails to recognize a common principle that even criminals on the street understand. That principle being, don't pick a fight with the police and expect to win. There had been some significant increases in neighboring cities in police compensation and Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa took it upon himself to stop the trend that he claimed was "fiscally irresponsible."
While City Manager Ochoa put up a good fight and eloquently defended his position, at the end of the day, the community sided with its police officers in providing a fair compensation package and the City Council approved a new 5-year deal.

The City of Monrovia had over the years significantly increased City management salary, including yearly cash bonuses. The City was able to accomplish this by not fairly compensating the City's line level employees, especially its police officers. Over time this resulted in police officer compensation falling well below the market level of their surrounding communities. Although the economic down turn in the State was not helpful to the situation, the MPOA decided it had had enough and this was the negotiations year they were going to demand the City bring them up to par with their survey cities.

Part of the "scheme" the City had developed over the years was to include the employer PERS rate in a total compensation formula thereby holding salaries down due to the fact that Monrovia had the highest PERS employer rate in the survey. Monrovia POA had not used a professional negotiator in recent years and did not understand the complexities of the employer PERS rate and the fact that the City has the ability to increase and decrease that rate based on factors it controls. Since the City had an incentive to create an over-inflated employer PERS rate (thus allowing it to provide minimal salary increases) it did not take advantage of pursuing ideas to reduce its rate with PERS. Accordingly, one of the big issues in negotiations was to compel the City to eliminate the employer PERS rate from its total compensation survey. In the end it agreed to do so. Remarkably, the City then decided to implement costs saving ideas mentioned by the POA at the bargaining table, such as paying the PERS rate down by using a bond.

To avoid making the issues complex in negotiations and looking at numerous total compensation components, the MPOA decided to focus on the three components that they were significantly down from their counter-parts. These components were salary, medical and POST pay. The City continued to argue its position to the public that in "total compensation" (including the employer PERS rate) the City paid 5% above the median to its police officers. With the three components we singled out we were able to illustrate to the public how significantly below Monrovia's compensation was compared to surrounding communities. We also explained that 15 experienced officers had left to other agencies in recent years to obtain better compensation and the City was finding it hard to fill the vacant positions, leaving the City's patrol force cut by one-third. As you might expect, the community was outraged at the City for allowing its police department to fall into such disarray. This information was put out in mailers, provided in recorded phone broadcasts to all the registered voters in the City and provided in press releases to the local newspaper.

During this same time period, the POA initiated three separate lawsuits against the City. First, a writ of mandate was filed by Lackie, Dammeier & McGill over the City's failure to comply with a California Public Records Act request that had been filed in regard to seeking compensation documents of the City Manager, including paperwork on a $250,000 home loan provided to the City Manager by the City. Depositions of the City Manager, some City staff and the City Council members were quickly scheduled in this case to obtain explanations in regard to the City Manager's compensation level. Secondly, LD&M filed a FLSA lawsuit on behalf of the canine officers for compensation to cover the care of the canines while off duty. Finally, LD&M, requested and obtained coverage through PORAC's Legal Defense Fund to pursue a petition to compel binding arbitration based on SB 440. The constitutionality of SB 440 is still being contested by cities and PORAC's desire is to obtain resolution on this issue and thus supported the litigation.

With the City maintaining its posture in the backdrop of all the above issues going on, the MPOA decided to ratchet up the public debate another notch. The POA obtained 2 billboards near entrances to the City, one being on the 210 Freeway. They had a picture of a police car with caution tape and read " Caution, you're approaching Monrovia-higher violent crime-fewer officers patrolling-thank the City Manager and City Council." The billboards raised the level of attention to the controversy significantly, including broadcasts on every local television station, the radio and of course local newspapers. Business owners in Monrovia began to complain that the billboards were impacting their revenue by driving people away from the city. Residents began to complain that their property values and the City's image was being impacted by the billboards. The MPOA's position remained that it was not the fact of the billboards going up but the truth of what was on the billboards that were in fact impacting the community that the City Council had the power to remedy.

With the community supporting its police officers, the City began to change its tune and began seriously discussing brining its officers up to the market level. First, the City agreed to eliminate the employer's PERS rate component from the survey and finally agreed to bring officers up to the average of the survey cities in salary, medical and POST pay. It is important to note that during the contentious negotiations, without agreement, the City Council did provide a salary increase in hopes that the membership would be quelled and not continue the fight. The end result included a 5-year compensation package. During the first year (including the imposed salary without agreement) officers received a 7% increase with an increase in years two, three and four of 4% each year and in year five a 5% increase. Of great significance in the package is that in year one medical coverage increases from $666 to $806 and by the end of the contract to $1246. Most significant was the increasing POST pay which in year one took Intermediate POST Pay from $75 to $213 and Advanced POST Pay from $125 to $501 per month. The contract also calls for increases in POST pay each year of the contract whereby at the end of the agreement, Intermediate POST Pay will be $313 and Advanced POST Pay would $701 per month. Accordingly the net result for an officer with an Advanced POST Certificate, including the salary and medical increases is a 19% increase during the first year along with an additional 4% in year two 4% in year three, 4% in year 4 and 5% in year five for a total of 36%.

The Monrovia POA appreciates the assistance of its surrounding POA's that came to its aid during the negotiations battle as well as PORAC and its Legal Defense Fund for assisting with some of the litigation costs that put pressure on the City. Monrovia is happy to have not only the significant compensation increases it has received but to finally have restored the respect and recognition it once had from City Hall.

About the author, Dieter C. Dammeier is a Partner at Lackie, Dammeier & McGill specializing in contract negotiations for the firm's police association clients throughout California.