For months, city leaders have publicly brushed aside a sense of
urgency about talks with the police officers union over proposed 5
percent pay cuts that were accepted, and effective, in November of
last year for the rest of the Hollister employees. City Manager
Clint Quilter with each passing month has indicated administrators
are wrapping up talks with the police union to accept the 5 percent
reduction. His latest response: It’s just a matter of figuring out
the deal’s language.
For months, city leaders have publicly brushed aside a sense of urgency about talks with the police officers union over proposed 5 percent pay cuts that were accepted, and effective, in November of last year for the rest of the Hollister employees. City Manager Clint Quilter with each passing month has indicated administrators are wrapping up talks with the police union to accept the 5 percent reduction. His latest response: It’s just a matter of figuring out the deal’s language.
But that is almost the precise definition, the point, of a contract. You could start at Step 1 and use the same reasoning in describing the likely prospects looking ahead. Getting the right language is, in general, the crux of every contractual negotiation.
That is why it was particularly troublesome to hear Quilter recently elaborate on the police union’s delay in an approval. It signifies a need for city officials to get tougher at the negotiation table and, if serious progress isn’t made soon, take it a step further and propose laying off the necessary number of police employees to equal the 5 percent, department-wide wage reduction.
There also is an underlining problem that rears its head during such negotiations – the lack of public involvement and the law’s allowance for officials to vaguely, and with a pointed brush of over-optimism, explain the latest progress in talks.
In such times of financial crisis, every city employee should accept the same sacrifice, whether they deal in public safety or public works. It’s the only, fairest way to address the structured financial mess at Hollister City Hall. Sacrifice is necessary throughout city government, whose taxpayers have suffered tremendously in recent years in a town with 23 percent unemployment and one of the highest foreclosure rates in California.
Quilter initially followed his standard response from over the past eight months about the police union talks by noting they are nearly done and the two sides just need to agree on language. Asked if police officers are willing to accept a retroactive cut to align with the November time frame when all the other city employees started taking their reductions, and the city manager subtly revealed the cause of the holdup.
And it’s a big one. He acknowledged that the time frame for when the cut is retroactive has been that aforementioned issue with the technicalities of language. It is not only months of potential savings involved, but the police union’s talks also could have a direct effect on other of the agreed-upon contracts between the city and other employee groups. Those agreements say if one of the unions does not accept the same terms for pay cuts, then their deals are null and void.
Considering the financial distress in Hollister government, it is unfortunate that such a reasonable cut – looking at the budget trends, it’s the first of more reductions to come, barring major layoffs – is taking this long to enact.
Even with these cuts budgeted, which they are, the city still faces continued deficits and a bankrupt general fund reserve within three years. This is not the federal government. City leaders cannot merely print more money when they need it.
Hollister leaders must get bold and serious at the negotiation table. This is just the beginning. If the police union doesn’t fully understand the grim reality of the local economy, then proposing layoffs in the near future is the only way to proceed.
