LAPD Officers Flood City Council Chambers, Frustrated with Pay

By ELIZABETH HSING-HUEI CHOU
City News Service

Hundreds of unionized police officers packed the Los Angeles City Council chamber today to demand higher salaries and improved working conditions, with some saying officers’ pay is so low that some are forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

The rank-and-file officers, part of the 9,900 represented by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, contend that despite making sacrifices in recent years to help the city’s budget, they continue to receive low pay and are subjected to an unfair disciplinary process, which has contributed to low morale among their ranks.

David Nunez, a 31-year veteran of LAPD, said with officers risking their lives everyday to keep Angelenos safe, “at the very least they deserve a salary that allows them to afford the basic necessities of life.”

“They should not have to work overtime for officers to be able to afford food, housing and clothing. They should not have to work two or three jobs to put their children through school like I did,” he said.

The officers and union officials appealed to the council for raises, saying the city’s salaries do not measure up to those in neighboring cities, resulting in many officers leaving to join better-paying law enforcement agencies.

“Officers were offended that there was no recognition by the city that LAPD officers were paid less than their neighboring city’s officers, with nowhere near the complexity of law enforcement problems faced by L.A. city officers,” said Lou Turriaga, a member of the LAPPL board.

“This is not a math a problem,” he added, referring to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s recent statements that the city’s ability to increase pay is hampered by a “mathematical problem,” in that there is no money in the city coffers.

“This is a priority problem and a trust problem,” Turriaga countered. “Officers feel alienated from management and the city. They do not feel like partners.”

Union members earlier this month rejected a proposed one-year agreement that would have restored overtime pay to a budget of about $70 million and raised officers’ starting pay from $49,000 to $57,000.

But the proposed contract lacked pay raises for existing officers, which LAPPL President Tyler Izen called a “slap in the face” to his members and led to the agreement being voted down.

Garcetti has responded that while he would not budge on withholding pay raises, but said he is willing to negotiate other terms in the police officers’ contract, which expired in June.

The officers who filed into the council chamber today appeared unmoved by city leaders’ recent overtures to them, including a YouTube video in which Garcetti explained that the proposed contract offered restoration of overtime and higher starting pay. Police Chief Charlie Beck, meanwhile, expressed during a recent commission meeting his appreciation for officers’ work and contributions.

Despite the strong showing by officers, Councilman Mitch Englander, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, reiterated that the city cannot afford to give raises.

“They want more and they deserve more,” but “the real question isn’t whether they deserve the money or not,” he said after the council meeting. “They do the work every day. They deserve the money, period. Whether we have the money right now, and if we have money going forward, is another question.”

The police department budget is $1.3 billion, which translates to about 16 percent of the city’s $8.1 billion budget. The city pays about 9,720 police officers with rank of lieutenant and lower a total of $976,217,315 in salaries.

Raises for sworn and non-sworn city employees were left out of the $8.1 billion budget city leaders adopted for the 2014-15 fiscal year. The budget partly depends on savings from yet-to-be-obtained agreements from tens of thousands of city employees to pay a higher percentage of their health-care premiums and contribute more toward their retirement benefits.

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