2-Year Pact Resolves Dispute Over Police Salaries, Overtime

MONROVIA — city and the Monrovia Police Relief Assn. have reached a compromise on a new salary contract, ending an impasse that drew community support for the sworn officers’ position.

The dispute revolved around the federal Fair Labor Standards Act requiring the city to pay police time and a half for overtime. The amount of the overtime pay, estimated at $23,000 annually, represented a 1.4% difference between the police request for a 10.11% pay hike and the city’s offer of 9.07%.

Under the compromise, the city will pay the disputed overtime and not subtract it from the salary proposal. In exchange, the police association has agreed to a two-year contract, rather than the standard one-year contract.

In the first year, the package includes an 8.65% salary increase. The agreement for the second year provides for a minimum 4% salary increase, with an additional increase, if necessary, to maintain salaries at the average of those paid in other San Gabriel Valley cities.

After talks broke off, the police gathered 600 signatures from residents and merchants on a petition supporting their position, and several residents urged the City Council at its Aug. 6 meeting to pay the cost of the overtime. The council approved the agreement at its meeting Tuesday.