The MILLION DOLLLAR GIFT TO VALLEJO POLICE

12/14/10

By Robert (AKA Ebenezer) Schussel, Ph.D 

The purpose of this article is to look at the size the raise Vallejo Police would have received if VPOA ( Vallejo Police Officers Association) had not been allowed to help cherry pick the seven most expensive of the fourteen cities (in the Vallejo salary survey completed by Andrew Belknap of Management Partners.)

BACKGROUND

When Vallejo City Council (Mayor Davis, Council Members, Bartee, Hannigan, Sunga and Wilson) approved a new contract with members of VPOA the contract included a raise based on seven of fourteen possible comparison cities.

Sandra Salerno (City Negotiator) explained that the seven cities chosen were similar to Vallejo in that they had high crime rates and workloads. To pick the seven cities several different sets of criteria were used. The city's salary survey consultant, Andrew Belknap had previously argued against "cherry picking" while giving testimony in bankruptcy court. Unfortunately, subsequent examination indicates that the seven comparison cities used in wage determinations for VPOA were clearly chosen on a subjective basis and are an excellent example of how city negotiators allowed VPOA negotiators to “cherry pick” the highest wage cities either through complete incompetence or a lack of diligence or both.

By cherry picking the cities VPOA members recently received a 6.29% raise

1) Salary information was obtained from the websites of the 14 cities in the original Vallejo salary survey. The wages do not include overtime or incentives etc..

2 ) The City of Vallejo is still trying to find the criteria used to select the 7 cities used in calculating the raise for Vallejo Police. In response to my Public Records Act request I received the following note:

Mr. Sakai [labor attorney representing Vallejo who participated in the negotiations] does not recall any criteria that was used in paring the list to 7.

KEY FINDING

The chart below shows that VPOA members would have received a 1.87% raise if the original 14 City Survey had been used. By cherry picking the cities VPOA ended up receiving a 6.29% raise. The 6.29% raise is 3.4 times larger than what the 14 city survey would have provided.

VPOAs 6.29% pay raise makes them the fourth highest in the 14 city Vallejo Salary Survey. When base wages from other high crime cities in California were compared to Vallejo, Vallejo was ranked second highest

Use of the 14 city Vallejo salary survey would have saved about $1,000,000 and would have let Vallejo hire 5 more police officers

COMMENTS

In comparison to VPOA, IBEW should be commended for their $3.6 million in givebacks as part of the recent negotiation process. In fact it looks like IBEWs current givebacks (as well as earlier ones) have helped fund the raises and rich benefits that the Public Safety Unions have received over the years. It needs to be noted that current VPOA members did not give any real economic concessions of note.

There are many who share responsibility for the large raise VPOA members received and the financial hardship it has created for Vallejo.

As I stated in a prior article Mat Mustard's (President of VPOA) statement that "we only want an average wage" is highly disingenuous. VPOA got the City to include most of the high wage cities in the final Vallejo city salary survey used to calculate VPOA members raise. Hayward (a high wage city 40 miles from Vallejo) was added to the seven city salary survey (because of its "high crime rate").

Finally the VPOA contract specifically says that VPOA wages cannot be decreased based on the City survey.

VPOA members will say they should be compared to other high crime cities. Even those in law enforcement have cautioned against the use of crime rates /workloads to determine wages. Crime rates are subject to many factors beyond the control of police, such as the economy. Crime rates can fluctuate a great deal from year to year and are also influenced by whether citizens are willing to report a crime and the quality of a police department's record keeping. If crime rates go down will VPOA take a pay cut?

The best type of salary survey is one that includes the surrounding cites and uses straight-forward criteria--similar to what was used for Vallejo's 14 city salary survey. The14 cities in the survey compete with one another for employees and thus are a better measure of local wages. In fact the City Negotiator (Sandra Salerno) went against the advice of Andrew Belknap (salary consultant who did the 14 City Survey who testified in bankruptcy court against cherry picking cities.)

The inability of the City and Mr Sakai (labor attorney representing Vallejo during VPOA negotiations) not to have ready access to the criteria used to select the 7 cites is mind boggling. It illustrates a consistent pattern over the years about negotiations: Negotiating staff and consultants are more than willing to spend the taxpayers money without any accountability to the public.

Former City Manager Joe Tanner, in my opinion, made a bad decision in supporting an agreement with VPOA that included a raise. What is unknown is what negotiation instructions City Manager Tanner gave Sandra Salerno (City Negotiator). From his support of the final VPOA agreement I can only assume the City Manager was willing to go along with what Ms Salerno had negotiated (even if it was a bad deal). It has been hypothesized that he had wanted to drive a wedge between IAFF (fire fighters union) and VPOA.

The City Council majority who voted for the raise (Mayor Davis, Council Members ,Bartee, Hannigan, Sunga and Wilson) never asked what the raise would cost or how could Vallejo afford it in the middle of Bankruptcy. They were the ultimate decision makers and failed to protect the taxpayers of Vallejo.

There will be several more articles forthcoming in January. The first article will examine the wages of VPOA members since they received their raise.

Addendum—12/15/10-- City of Vallejo answers Dr. Schussel

Reply from Pamela Poconis City of Vallejo Human Resources consultant regarding methodology used (or not) to determine seven comparison cities used in wage computation. Text from email dated December 14, 2010:

#1 I have found that absolutely no Human Resource Department records exist regarding the criteria used to pare the list of cities from 14 to 7.

#2 - In my audit, I have found that absolutely no Human Resource Department records exist regarding the choosing of the Survey Cities nor regarding criteria used by Ms. Salerno to pare the list of cities from 14 to 7.

Comments

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Retired_IBEW   |December.16.2010 JohnK, I am suspect of the whole process of developing and approving this contract. CAMP and exempt always have a number of "me too's" based on what VPOA gets. What better way for Salerno to take care of her CAMP & exempt buddies than to make sure that VPOA got the sweetest deal possible?

BJ Conrad   |December.15.2010 Thanks for VIB and thanks for this report. It is certainly a report to be remembered at the next election.

John K   |December.14.2010 Why did they come up with such a bad contract? Perhaps the Council Members were ignorant and the negotiators failed to share their expertise in these matters. Perhaps they simply made stupid mistakes. Perhaps it was complete incompetence or a lack of diligence or both. I think the Council Members gave instructions to the City Manager/negotiators during the "closed sessions." The negotiating bar was set in CLOSED sessions. Were Davis, Bartee, Sunga, Hannigan, and Wilson the dominant voices during those closed sessions? I suspect that Tanner and other negotiators followed the instructions they received during the closed sessions, and naturally they would recommend the contract they negotiated from those instructions. And when it came up for the Council vote, the Council Members who dictated those instructions would vote in support of the contract, even though we were shown by our Finance Director that the contract would result in a $10 million deficit. Gomes and Schivley were right. Wilson, Hannigan, Davis, Sunga, and Bartee were wrong. Thank You, Robert Schussel, for another excellent report.

Mariner's Landing   |December.14.2010 Thanks Robert and VIB for continuing to watch dog this deplorable situation in Vallejo. The reason why they have gotten away with it for so long is because the average Vallejo citizen simply gets worn down over time.

Anonymous   |December.14.2010 "Mr. Sakai [labor attorney representing Vallejo who participated in the negotiations] does not recall any criteria that was used in paring the list to 7" Salerno is gone but Sakai isn't!!!!

Anonymous   |December.14.2010 At least two council members asked (you know, the "haters" Gomes and Schivley) and refused to vote on this god awful contract. Not that their lone two "no" votes did any good. "The chart below shows that VPOA members would have received a 1.87% raise if the original 14 City Survey had been used. By cherry picking the cities VPOA ended up receiving a 6.29% raise." That's just plain disgusting. Where are the repercussions? Who will be held accountable for this theft?

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