Council Approves $6.5M Bond for PBA Contract

The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve a $6.5 million, 15-year bond measure to pay for mandatory retroactive salaries to members of the Long Beach Patrolman’s Benevolent Association. 

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The PBA had been without a contract since 2008. In May, Arbitrator Arthur Reigel decided to award the PBA a seven-year contract, which runs from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2015, including five years of back pay and incremental hikes through fiscal year 2014.  The first three years of the contract each include a pay increase of 3.75 percent, a 3.5 percent increase for 2011, and 3.15 percent for each of the final three years, as well as longevity increase based on years of service.

Prior to Tuesday’s vote, City Manager Jack Schnirman said the bond was required to pay the retroactive payments pursuant to the arbitration award that is a mandatory item, and that payments were estimated and accounted for to cover the costs of the contract, noting that $211,000 was included in the 2013-14 budget “as a conservative estimate for a potential award.” The bond in part would pay the annual interest on the arbitration award, at approximately $195,000.

“This will cost no new money to the city,” Schnirman added. “ … And there is no hit on the tax bill going forward; these are costs that have been estimated.”

In September 2012, after negotiations between the city and PBA had reached a stalemate, the city council voted 3-2 to grant an independent arbitrator the authority to decide on a seven-year deal, instead of a contract covering the first two years as required by state law.  

Councilman John McLaughlin, who was absent at Tuesday’s meeting, voted in 2012 against giving an independent arbitrator the authority to decide on a seven-year deal. He contended that the city should have allowed the arbitrator to approve a two year deal, “which would have meant that we would have had to negotiate further, but that’s what we pay our corporation counsel for,” McLaughlin told the Long Beach Herald.