By KEITH GRANT
In that complaint, the City outlines a number of examples of what it believes were improper practices by the PBA dating back to the start of negotiations. Particularly bothersome to the City's negotiating team was the cancellation of three bargaining sessions by the PBA, as well as the PBA representatives' supposed failure to arrive at many sessions on time. The complaint quotes from an e-mail union president Sgt. Richard Bart sent to PBA members in October in which he wrote that the cancellations "were in fact done with union motives in mind." The message also stated that the union would not "buckle under intimidation nor threats" and urged members to stay tough and supportive during these trying talks.
The contract between the police and the City expired on July 1, 2000. The City alleges that it offered to exchange proposals with the PBA at the first negotiating session four days later, but the PBA refused. When PBA attorney Keith Lavalee was forced to cancel the second session, scheduled for July 10, attorney Terry O'Neil, representing the City, wrote to Lavalee suggesting the sides mutually exchange proposals by mail prior to the next meeting, planned for July 28. Lavalee allegedly refused and no proposals were exchanged until the late July session.
After another bargaining session was canceled a month later, the City expressed concern to the PBA about the lack of progress in the talks. In a Sept. 6 letter to Lavalee, O'Neil wrote, "The cancellation of two bargaining sessions and the Union's refusal to exchange proposals at our first session, and its subsequent refusal to exchange proposals away from the table has, in my opinion, unduly delayed the progress of negotiations."
O'Neil also suggested that the lack of progress meant an agreement extending the police force's use of steady tours was likely to be in jeopardy. Steady tours, which had been in use since January 1998, meant police officers patrolled the same neighborhoods during the same hours each day, creating a level of familiarity with residents of the respective neighborhoods. Police and civic leaders believed the tours had a significant impact on the success of so-called "community policing," a philosophy some residents feel has made neighborhoods such as North Park safer. PBA members had wanted the use of steady tours to become a permanent part of their new contract.
"That was definitely one of the main issues in the talks," O'Neil told the Herald.
An agreement had extended the tours through Oct. 31, and a second extension was ultimately struck just in time to see the tours continue through Dec. 31. However, when negotiators could not reach a deal by the final bargaining session of 2000, City Manager Bruce Nyman returned the police department to rotating tours, in which officers often patrol different neighborhoods each day. Both Nyman and Police Commissioner Kenneth Cohen have stressed that the community would experience no loss in policing because of the switch, which they said was simply a return to the department's traditional patrol system.
In an Oct. 17 letter to PBA members, Nyman said, "While we understand that a return to the rotating tour schedule might be disruptive for those of you with second jobs, child-care issues, etc., the PBA's conduct during bargaining to date leaves the City with little alternative. I hope this provides a catalyst to get down to business and to engage in substantive discussions so that a fair and equitable settlement can be reached before the end of the year."
O'Neil said that both sides had made significant progress toward a new contract by the final New Year's Eve session, but in the end remained too far apart.
"We met a couple of times that last week," he said. "We just weren't able to get it together. I think both parties made a lot of compromises at the end. We were very disappointed that we couldn't get a deal done."
Several calls to Bart, the union president, and Lavalee, the union attorney, were not returned.
Any deal may be struck until the City's charges of improper negotiating by the PBA are addressed. In the City's statement, it seeks to prohibit the PBA "from proceeding to mediation until it has remedied its illegal conduct, and/or [prohibit] it from petitioning for interest arbitration until it has remedied its illegal conduct." The charge also asks that the PBA be ordered to cease and desist from such tactics and be ordered to negotiate in good faith.
