CYPRESS : Settlement Near for New Police Contract

After two years without a contract, police are nearing settlement for a new pact, both city and police association officials said Tuesday.

“I would expect settlement in a matter of days,” said Sgt. Gene Komrosky, president of the Cypress Public Safety Employees Assn.

City Atty. John Cavanaugh, in a separate interview, said, “We believe there will be resolution (of the new contract) within the next couple of weeks.”

Details of the proposed new contract have not been released. But Cavanaugh on Tuesday said the proposed new pact is for more than one year and represents “give and take on both sides.”

The lack of a contract between city and police had caused tensions over the past two years, including picketing of council meetings last November and December by police and their family members.

One item of contention between city and police has been a pay raise given last year to City Manager Darrell Essex. Some police complained that Essex was given special treatment in his contract and questioned whether the city was spiking, or artificially increasing his retirement pay.

The city released a copy Tuesday of a June 30 letter to the police association, saying the city had negotiated a three-year contract with Essex last year to avoid the possibility of “unfunded liability,” or retirement spiking.

The city’s letter noted that Essex’s old contract would have allowed him to retire this year and to legally convert some fringe benefits into final pay for retirement purposes. If that had occurred, the city’s letter said, the city would have owed the state Public Employment Retirement System up to $200,000 in unfunded retirement pay for Essex.

Essex’s new contract with the city gives him a 15% pay raise over three years, but in the new contract the city manager is “relinquishing conversion benefits,” which might have been used to spike his retirement pay, the city’s letter said.

Cavanaugh, in an interview Tuesday, said the city “wanted to avoid an unfunded liability situation such as the one in Huntington Beach.” His reference was to the retirement-spiking controversy in Huntington Beach, which currently faces an unfunded state retirement bill of up to $13 million.

Komrosky said Tuesday the police association now has no suspicions about Essex’s contract and are satisfied with the city’s explanation.