Police OK 4-Year Pact With 18% Pay Raise

Los Angeles police officers gave an overwhelming thumbs up to a proposed contract that will grant them raises totaling 18% over four years, according to balloting that ended late Friday.

Of almost 4,000 officers who voted, 94% approved the contract.

The contract will cost taxpayers about $130 million, and does not require officers to give up any perks, as had previously been demanded by city negotiators.

“We’re happy as heck about it,” said Bill Harkness, the notorious hard-liner who was elected president of the Police Protective League two days before negotiations with the city turned around last Friday, resulting in the current deal.

The contract would increase the pay of a beginning officer just completing the probationary training period from $40,549 a year to $42,575 next year and $48,436 at the end of the contract. A new lieutenant who now earns $66,085 would receive an increase to $69,389 next year and $78,795 at the end of the contract.

Officers cast ballots at police headquarters downtown, in divisions throughout the city and at the Police Academy. The sweeping approval, coming a week before the current contract expires, is a marked contrast to the last round of negotiations two years ago, in which officers staged a “blue flu” sickout to protest the city’s offers.

“It’s a validation of my firm belief that this is a very good contract, and one [officers] would come to with open arms,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who heads the Public Safety Committee. “It has put the LAPD up a rung or two to become the best-paid police agency in the region. It’s an important thing to do, not only for morale, but for attrition, and to turn around the image” of the department.

The rank-and-file’s enthusiastic support for the contract is not surprising, considering the union’s victory last week in removing all the items it objected to from the negotiating table without sacrificing the three consecutive 5% raises officers had been lobbying for over the last several months.

The officers who voted Thursday and Friday constitute about 44% of those affected by the contract.

Originally, members of the City Council and Mayor Richard Riordan had wanted officers to give up four sick days each year to help offset the cost of the raises, and wanted the union to take over payment of salaries for people to defend employees accused of wrongdoing.

Union directors, many of whom have previously served as so-called “defense reps,” demanded that reform of the entire discipline system be discussed outside the contract.