Police union, SLO near settlement on labor dispute resolution process

The city of San Luis Obispo and the local police officers’ union have reached a tentative agreement that would give the final say on any impasse in contract negotiations to the City Council.

If adopted by the council, the agreement would end a long-standing legal dispute. On Tuesday, the City Council will consider the tentative agreement, which union members have already voted to approve.

“The tentative settlement retains local control by leaving the ultimate discretion in the hands of the council while setting up some requirements for final action if the association thinks the council is going beyond its authority,” City Attorney Christine Dietrick said. “The end game with this process is that the council never cedes to a third party.”

The legal dispute stems from an August 2011 vote by San Luis Obispo voters to overwhelmingly repeal binding arbitration — the use of a third-party arbitrator to decide labor disputes — as a way to negotiate wages and benefits for the city’s police and fire unions. Two months after that vote, the police union filed a claim with the Public Employment Relations Board (also known as PERB) — which oversees collective bargaining statutes with cities — saying San Luis Obispo used unfair labor practices by placing two related measures on the August ballot:

Measure A removed a city charter section requiring voter approval before retirement benefits for future employees could be reduced, and Measure B overturned the use of binding arbitration.

Opponents of binding arbitration had argued that in 2008, a decision by an arbitrator gave police officers a 30 percent raise when compounded over a three-year period, steering away funds for city infrastructure investments and other services.

In February 2014, administrative law Judge Valerie Pike Racho, a PERB employee, ruled that the city violated the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, which governs labor and management relations in local government, when it “refused to meet and consult” with the police union over the proposed Measure B. The city was not found to have violated labor laws by putting Measure A on the ballot.

The city appealed that ruling, which was suspended until the appeal process was completed. A hearing on the appeal was delayed while the PERB awaited a ruling on a similar case by the California Court of Appeal involving the city of Palo Alto.

“That case has now been decided by the Court of Appeal, generally against the city of Palo Alto, but has been remanded to PERB for further review of its remedy order,” Dietrick wrote in a staff report.

In the meantime, the city and police union hammered out the tentative settlement agreement as a way to avoid costly litigation. The union replaced its longtime negotiator with the law firm Adams, Ferrone & Ferrone of Westlake Village in 2015.

“We’ve been trying to build relationships with the city since I’ve been the (union) president,” Aaron Schafer said Monday. “We’ve had a lot of meetings and discussions, but this has been a reasonable dialogue to get things that we both want. We’ve worked hard to make sure this is a fair process for both sides.”

Under the new tentative agreement, if the union feels the council isn’t basing a contract resolution on the preponderance of the evidence — including a factfinder’s determination — the union may ask for a review by a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge.

The judge’s ruling wouldn’t be binding, but it would give the City Council another independent assessment to use before its final determination.

The tentative agreement also recommends that the city pay the union $150,000, with the understanding the union will drop its pending administrative action with PERB, and the matter will be resolved.

The San Luis Obispo city fire union has sought to join the police union in the claim before the PERB. It’s uncertain what action the fire union would take if the police union drops its case. The fire union’s representative couldn’t be immediately reached Monday.

This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 9:40 PM with the headline "Police union, SLO near settlement on labor dispute resolution process."