SANTA ANA : Council Votes Hefty Pay Raises for Police

After 10 months of negotiation, the City Council approved a contract that will make its police the third-highest-paid officers in the county.

Officers will receive a 4% increase retroactive to July. They also will receive a 10% raise in July, 1991, and another the following next year. Officers who are bilingual also will receive an additional 5% increase.

Police union officials say only Irvine police and sheriff’s deputies are paid more.

The 351-member Police Officers Assn. had overwhelmingly approved the contract in a vote on Monday.

“This is a beginning of a new relationship for the association and Santa Ana,” said Don Blankenship, association president. “We’re finally pulling together.”

Police officers had been working without a contract since July. Negotiations began in January.

One item conspicuously left out of the new contract is work schedule calling for four 10-hour workdays, which had been discussed for several years. But Blankenship said the union had to give up the plan up after the city negotiators said it would cost too much.

Contract time for the city and the police has always been notoriously bitter. This year, council members wrangled over the budget because the police contract had not been approved. The Police Department eventually received one of the largest chunks of the $218-million city budget. Its $40-million allocation represents approximately 40% of the city’s general fund.