City hires counsel for cops’ contract

If early signs are any indication, contract negotiations between the City of Long Beach and the local police union may be headed down a rocky road.

Last week, the City Council voted 3-2 to give City Manager Charles Theofan the green light to retain Bee, Ready, Fishbein, Hatter & Donovan, a Mineola-based law firm specializing in police arbitration, at a cost of $24,000. The contract included negotiations with the city’s Fire Department later this year.

Democrats Len Torres and Mike Fagen voted against hiring.

The city opted to retain outside counsel after the leadership of the union, the Long Beach Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, agreed to a proposed contract that its members voted down in late December. The city’s police force, which has about 80 members and is among the largest in Nassau County, has worked without a contract since July 2008.

Both Theofan and corporation counsel Corey Klein said they didn’t lack the necessary labor law know-how to oversee the negotiation process, but simply wanted to bring in a specialist for the job.

“In any other municipality the attorneys are brought on board to negotiate contracts, and we didn’t do that; we did it ourselves,” Theofan said. “But now that it’s been rejected, we’re going to get the right help on it.”

The rejected contract included salary increases over five years ranging between 3.5 and 3.85 percent, and called for givebacks on retroactive pay raises equal to three-fourths of the value of future raises.

Theofan called it “unfortunate” that the givebacks did not match the future raises, and said they are necessary given the economy’s impact on the city’s coffers, which were hit by reduced state aid and an MTA payroll tax.

“That appears to be the reason [the contract] was rejected,” Theofan said of the givebacks. “It’s unfortunate, especially when you consider it was over a period of time when the cost of living has not gone up statistically.”

Michael Bulik, president of the Long Beach PBA, declined to comment about the reasons the union leadership accepted the contract while membership rejected it. "It was the city’s prerogative to bring in outside council, and we do not have an issue with it,” Bulik said in a statement.

“The PBA has been and remains committed to meeting with the city to reach an agreement that is fair to both sides. The PBA welcomes anyone who can assist in getting this resolved."

A city official who declined to be identified said that the issue of repayments involved as many as 13 officers who were incorrectly overpaid for at least a year. “Yes, there were some officers who were incorrectly paid, maybe over a year’s time, and we’re talking about a few thousand dollars,” Theofan said. “It was our mistake, and we don’t want that to be punitive.”

Other sources told the Herald that officers have been overpaid for as long as four years, and the overpayments add up to about $300,000. “Absolutely not,” Theofan responded, calling such claims “complete misinformation.”

When explaining why they voted not to retain counsel, Fagen and Torres said that it was needless because both Theofan and Klein are qualified attorneys who have handled past contract negotiations, and the city is too quick to spend taxpayer money instead of looking for cheaper alternatives.

“Corey has negotiated contracts with housing, with other issues and other departments, and why he believes he’s not qualified to negotiate with the police department is questionable,” said Torres, who worked with both Theofan and Klein when he sat on the city zoning board from 2003 to 2005.

Fagen said that the law firm would receive the full $24,000 whether or not it settled the contract in a month or by December. He pointed out that the contract is dated Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010, but that the mediation process will start next month.

“With the level of prior experience of Mr. Theofan and Mr. Klein negotiating union contracts,” Fagen said, “I’m at a loss as to why we need to pay for outside counsel, unless they truly do lack these skills. But I would question why they participated in these previous union negotiations.”

Theofan replied that while he or Klein could possibly negotiate the contract, he wasn’t going to take any chances “playing around with the city’s finances” and wanted expertise. “And negotiating contracts and doing contract arbitration are two separate things,” Theofan added.

“For instance, if you and I were businessmen and we had a contractual disagreement, it’s the difference between us sitting down and trying to resolve it and now suing each other and having a trial.”

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.