Don’t mess with the MPOA

Contract disputes between city governments and their accompanying police departments aren’t new. We’ve seen it in Baldwin Park, we’ve seen it in Arcadia and now we’re seeing it in Monrovia. What usually ends up happening is negotiations either drag on for months before the two parties meet in the middle, or police end up taking a contract they really aren’t happy with, but vow to fight at the next set of contract negotiations.

But in Monrovia, the police officer’s association isn’t letting things go that easy. Star-News reporter Melissa Pamer reports the POA has slammed Monrovia with three lawsuits.

Read on:

MONROVIA – The Monrovia Police Officers’ Association has served three lawsuits on the city, following the unilateral implementation this week of a contract the union had opposed.

Only one of the three suits deals directly with the 11-month contract negotiations, which reached an impasse two weeks ago when the 72-member Monrovia Police Officers’ Association (MPOA) rejected the city’s offer of a 16.5 percent raise over 3 1/2 years.

The MPOA had wanted a 23.2 percent raise.

On Tuesday, at a contentious meeting that was picketed by police officers and their families, the City Council unanimously approved a one-year retroactive contract – which includes a 4.68 percent raise for officers – that will expire June 30. The MPOA was opposed to the action.

Outside the meeting, MPOA attorney Dieter Dammeier vowed to step up his public outreach tactics, which have included mailers, automated phone calls and e-mails to residents.

The lawsuits, at that point, were already in the works.

One of the suits alleges the city improperly rejected the MPOA’s demand for binding arbitration at the end of contract negotiations.

“If the city’s deal was so fair, I don’t know why they wouldn’t go through arbitration,” Dammeier said Thursday.

The case depends upon a California law that allows public safety employee unions to request an arbitration panel following failed negotiations. The statute was in recent years declared unconstitutional and then amended by the Legislature, Dammeier said.

“We’ve already told them we were not interested, but we will respond to it,” City Manager Scott Ochoa said of arbitration and the lawsuit.

The second suit is a public records filing that seeks to force the city to disclose documents in relation to Ochoa’s compensation package. Dammeier said City Hall had been “piecemealing” documents he had requested.

The third suit – filed by Sergio Bostick and Patty Newton, two individual officers – alleges federal labor violations in relation to a stipend that the MPOA said is due K-9 officers.

Ochoa said he wasn’t surprised by the suits, calling them “par for the course.”

“It’s an ironic way to go about getting more salaries and benefits, in an era of economic downturn, to force the cities to spend money on attorneys instead of spending money on the requested salaries and benefits,” Ochoa said.

The three suits were served on the city Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Two were filed in Pasadena Superior Court. The federal labor suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.