Long Beach City Council rejects police contract

The Long Beach Police Department continues to tap its collective fingers, waiting for a new contract after the City Council shot down the latest proposal at Tuesday's meeting.

Council members Thomas Sofield, Mona Goodman and John McLaughlin voted against the contract, and Mike Fagen and Len Torres abstained from voting on the two-year, retroactive proposal, which features 3.5 and 3.25 percent salary increases for the past two years and would expire on June 30. The estimated cost of the contract to the city, without factoring in overtime, holiday and other additional pay, is $620,000.

"I'm voting 'no' because I don't agree with the mediators' negotiation," Sofield said.

In December 2009, negotiations between the city and the Long Beach Police Benevolent Association stalled when the union's members voted against a proposed contract that the leadership had favored. An impasse was declared and the negotiations went into mediation.

During the mediation process, an administrative law judge made contract comparisons between Long Beach and other Nassau County municipalities, and decided what the agreement would be, based on the Taylor Law, which sets the standard for arbitrators in contract negotiations.

With Tuesday's night "no" vote, the negotiations will now go into arbitration, the outcome of which bypasses the City Council and depends strictly on an arbitration judge's decision. The arbitration is binding and cannot be appealed.

Resident Karen Adamo questioned whether the arbitrator considers factors such as a community's population, its crime rate and the types of crimes that are committed.

"There should never be a question about police performance — you guys do an outstanding job," Fagen told the policeman who were in attendance before he voted, "but the question is whether the city's finances can bear this [contract] at this time."