As most of you have heard, this year has been a difficult one for El Monte's police officers. City management in El Monte made poor decisions in recent years that put them in a weak position to weather the economic downturn we had this past year. The City spent tens of millions of general fund money (loaned to the Redevelopment Agency) to purchase real estate at record high prices. Despite the warnings from several in the community, including the POA, the City kept making poor financial decisions, including providing record level compensation packages to select City officials.

When the economy started going south, instead of the City trying to work with the POA, it decided it would place blame on what the City claimed were "greedy" police officers. This set the tone for the next ten months. Despite the City's incompetent handling of its finances and posture it took with its police officers, the POA still tried to work with the City to address the economic problems. The POA asked for no-cost items such as binding arbitration for disciplinary cases and for a guarantee of no layoffs without at least a six month notice in exchange for taking significant financial cuts in compensation (5% cut in salary). The City's leadership continued to exhibit the attitude that lead them to the hole they found themselves in and refused the POA's generous offer. Without at least some decent notice guarantee on layoffs, the POA could not reasonably take a pay cut, given the City could then just layoff police officers anyway on top of any pay cut. The POA did agree to defer a 4% pay raise that was due July 1, 2009 until July 1, 2010.

As a result of the City's financial "planning" it decided it could no longer afford the number of police officers it had. The City eliminated 17 open spots and decided to lay off 17 of its loyal police officers. Not only did the City put 17 officers out of work (fortunately, most were quickly picked up by other agencies) it forced its remaining officers to do the workload of what the Department used to do with 34 more officers. Of course, the Police Chief, who was one of the select "taken care of" City officials (among highest paid Chiefs in California) took the City's side in the fight against the POA.

The repercussions of El Monte spread far beyond its City. El Monte was the first (and still only) city in Southern California to lay off working police officers. This was the example thrown out at many cities in Southern California to force officers into pay cuts, raise deferrals and even furloughs. Since cities were out there using the threat of what happened in El Monte against its officers, we decided to make El Monte an example also. An example of what happens to politicians that lay off police officers.

The POA, led by its president, Brian Glick, decided to ratchet up the fight. Under the circumstances, this was a very courageous position to take. The Police Chief and his supporters (a few of which were vocal POA members) were constantly attacking the POA leadership for sticking up against the City. Despite this vocal minority, the POA was able to get its members to divert 100% of its dues to the POA's Political Action Committee fund. It was decided that rather than roll over and continue to see its compensation and number of positions cut, it would take a stand.

Most politicians realize it is political suicide to lay off police officers. Unfortunately for the Mayor and council members in El Monte, their political astuteness matched their ability to financially manage the City. This lesson was readily learned by the Mayor and one of the incumbent council members who were the first to face reelection after laying off police officers. The POA

took an unprecedented roll in the elections. Utilizing its community support, the POA put out mailers, phone blasters and other campaign literature pointing out the numerous mistakes made by the incumbent politicians. The support by the Community of its police officers was overwhelming. As karma goes, a few weeks before the election, the City Manager was arrested for soliciting prostitution and resigned. When the election came November 3rd, the Mayor and incumbent councilmember the POA sought to remove from office were soundly defeated and replaced by two community leaders endorsed by the POA.

Although the economy has created difficult times, El Monte was an example of City leadership refusing to work with its police officers and instead took advantage of the crisis to impose reductions in public safety resources. Apparently, the City leadership felt the economic crisis would shield them from the repercussions of such actions. They were wrong. In economic crisis, the community is even more supportive of public safety since those are the times that crime usually rises, as it did in El Monte.

The lessons of El Monte should be shared by City leaders and POA's alike. City leaders should realize that the economic downturn is not something that it should use to take advantage of to impose reductions in public safety or it will face the consequences. Instead it should be reasonable in working with the POA. The POA's should learn the lesson that even though now is not the best time to seek support from the public on compensation issues, when forced to pick between supporting public safety or supporting politicians that lack planning skills, they will support public safety every time.

El Monte POA once again has a bright future. It is very thankful to PORAC President Ron Cottingham and Vice President Mike Durant for supporting them during this difficult year. The leadership and resources of PORAC were instrumental in the POA making this fight a victory.

About the author. Dieter Dammeier is an LDF panel attorney and partner at Lackie, Dammeier & McGill who represented El Monte POA in its fight with the City.