Archived Story
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
By GUS LAMBERT Staff Writer
BARSTOW -- City council members emerged from closed session and announced a 25 percent pay hike for Barstow Police Department officers.
Voting 3-2 for the raise, council members cited competitive forces of other agencies vying for trained and experienced officers as the reason for voting to modify the present Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) that were set to expire in 2007.
The new agreement means a $10,517 raise for an officer earning the base pay rate of $42,068 per year.
Det. Joe Silva said he is hoping that it will "make us more attractive to the candidates down in the valley."
In addition to the pay modification for Units Three and Eight -- the Barstow Police Association and the Police Officer Management Association -- the MOAs were extended an additional year.
Mayor Lawrence Dale said he was opposed to the agreement and voted against it because it doesn't leave funds in the city budget for any other employee group, but in fairness to them the council agreed to negotiate with the other three city employee groups.
Also voting against the modification was council member Paul Luellig Jr. who said he's afraid the city is returning to an era of fiscal irresponsibility.
While both Dale and Luellig praised the Barstow police force as the finest in the state they agreed that it is unfair to all the other city workers who are also quality employees.
"We jumped off the deep end and slashed a knife across the jugular of this city." Dale said.
And echoing that concern, Luellig said that Barstow was one of only three cities in the state that did not have to lay off public employees when the budget crisis hit Califor nia several years ago.
But he said this raise will put Barstow $1.5 million in the red for the next four years.
Council member Gloria Darling said she voted for the raise because Barstow has been suffering the loss of good personnel for the past five years.
"We can't get people that qualify to come to Barstow," she said.
But Dale decried deficit spending and said the city will have to reduce people down the road if new sources of revenue are not found.
The meeting was attended by a large group of officers and other supporters who took tur ns speaking in favor of the department and Lt. Rudy Alcantara praised the council's decision. He said it will greatly assist the department's retention efforts.
Joe Gomez, City Council member, said he "is proud of our police department" and that public safety issues are his first priority.
While also citing retention concerns, Gomez appealed to local officers to convince the disgruntled members and those ready to leave that things are going to get better.
Although he agreed that council needs to address the public safety concerns, especially attrition of trained officers, Luellig said that the average total compensation package for a police officer in Barstow is $147,000 per year and that every dollar increase in pay also costs the city 41 cents in benefits.
While Darling made it clear that none of the money is coming from the new hospital trust fund, Dale and other officials, speculated that $300,000 of the $724,000 total cost of this proposal can come from interest ear ned on the $12 million hospital fund.
City Spokesman John Rader said that the entire amount of public safety funding comes from the city's general fund and will be included in a budget proposal presented by Interim City Manager Hector Rodriguez.
While the agreement remains to be ratified by the police union membership, Albert Toro, a spokesman for the Barstow Police Association, said he is pleased with the adjustment and the council for acting responsibly and predicted that the membership will vote to accept it.
Toro also predicted that the lateral movement of trained and experienced officers will begin moving towards Barstow.