The latest skirmish in a decade-long struggle between the San Luis Obispo Police Department and its employer, the city, erupted last week when the San Luis Obispo Police Officers Association (SLOPOA) filed a lawsuit against the City of San Luis Obispo.
The lawsuit states the City Council has violated its obligation to meet and confer with the city employees before making any decisions that affect the retirement plans and negotiation rights of either police officers or firefighters. The decision in question is whether or not the citizens of San Luis Obispo will vote on two measures by mail-in special election that will change the city’s control of the firefighters’ and police officers’ terms of employment.
If approved, the measures allow the city to alter the police officers’ retirement plans and eliminate their right to binding arbitration, which gives the unions the rights to sue.
President of SLOPOA, Matt Blackstone, said the lawsuit is a last resort.
“At this point we have no other recourse (than) to file this action,” Blackstone said.
Though it may seem like a new dispute, the lawsuit is part of a continuing struggle between the city and its police officers and firefighters, one that dates back to November 2000, when binding arbitration was first put in place as an alternative to striking. Measure S, approved by 57.3 percent of voters, allowed for an impartial third party to decide matters of pay, hours and other conditions of employment when the city and police officers and firefighters could not agree.
The city council will put the proposed special election to a vote next week, without altering the language of either of the proposed measures as the police officers wanted.
SLOPOA now objects to the city’s rush to put binding arbitration and retirement plans to a vote.
“There is no hurry to go forward with this in August by mail-in ballot,” Blackstone said.
The suggested August election would exclude a number of San Luis Obispo residents, such as Cal Poly students who go home for the summer, Blackstone said. He also said the council created a special charter to allow for the mail-in ballot.
“They’re reinventing the wheel here to do what they want to do,” Blackstone said.
Attorney for SLOPOA Allison Berry Wilkinson said the lawsuit is an attempt to make the City Council put off next week’s vote until the police officers and firefighters have had a chance to look over and amend the proposed measures.
“Essentially what we’re doing is we’re asking the court to order the city to do the things they’re supposed to do before they put the measure on the ballot,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson also said if the city agreed to meet and confer with the unions, then there was the possibility that a compromise could be reached. According to Wilkinson, the city refused.
“The city only wants to push its agenda,” Wilkinson said. “It doesn’t want to hear the other ways in which the city can accomplish their goal.”
The San Luis Obispo Firefighters’ Association has already proposed alternative language for the measures that would not allow the city to alter the retirement plans as drastically, but these alternatives were ignored by the city, Blackstone said.
San Luis Obispo Vice Mayor John Ashbaugh said the proposed measures are an effort by the City Council to repair a broken system, but one he doesn’t agree with.
“It’s really a question of control and power and my feeling is the power arrangement of our charter is flawed, but it doesn’t need to be repealed,” Ashbaugh said.
Though he could not comment on SLOPOA’s suit, Ashbaugh did say some tension between SLOPOA and the city was unavoidable.
“There’s always going to be sort of an adversarial relationship there just as there is between any labor union and an employer,” Ashbaugh said.