Mount Rainier council retains bargaining agreement with police

Critics of arrangement say it is too costly for city

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

An arrangement to provide collective bargaining for the salaries of Mount Rainier’s police officers will remain in place, the city council decided at a meeting Jan. 2.

The council voted 3-1 to rescind a proposed ordinance to abolish the Collective Bargaining Unit, saying community feedback led to the reversal.

The council sought to abolish the CBU back in December, saying that it was too expensive for the city, and without a CBU, Mount Rainier could now be open to working with other municipalities’ police departments that do not have CBUs in place.

Mayor Malinda Miles, who originally supported the ordinance, voted to rescind it.

‘‘The mayor and council have come such a long way in building and developing community support, and garnering residents’ respect over the past several years, and ... this collective bargaining issue had the potential of destroying that support, and dividing the city into two camps,” she said.

The city has negotiated with unions for 15 years. In December, the city’s Fraternal Order of Police President A.J. Ortiz said that one of the incentives for his officers to stay with the department was the collective bargaining agreement with the city.

Each year, contracts negotiated by the city and the Mount Rainier Fraternal Order of Police’s Collective Bargaining Unit cost about $13,000 in attorney fees, staff time and a Law Enforcement Officers’ Pension System study, Miles said. The bargaining unit also pays its own attorney during negotiations. There are 11 officers in the police union.

Councilman Pedro Briones was the lone supporter of the ordinance. He could not be reached for comment.

Mount Rainier Residents in Support of Collective Bargaining was formed in mid-December to oppose the council’s attempt to abolish the CBU. Group spokesman Jimmy Tarlau said at the time that opposition was based on workers’ rights to negotiate their contract through a CBU.

‘‘I’m glad the council listened to the residents of Mount Rainier,” he said after the January vote. ‘‘Now we can go back to working on issues that will move our [city] forward.”

Councilwoman Carol Gandee, who was absent from the meeting while collecting signatures against the ordinance, has not supported the ordinance since it was first read publicly in December.

But officers and many residents said police should have the opportunity to negotiate their contracts through a CBU.

‘‘This is not just a win for the [police] union or all those who supported the opposition to this ordinance, but a win for our city,” Gandee said in an e-mail.

The City Council also voted Jan. 2 to appoint a negotiations team to include City Manager Jeannelle Wallace, Tarlau, Miles, legal consultant Sue Silber and Police Chief Michael Scott. The group plans to meet by Friday, Miles said.

E-mail Sarah Nemeth at [email protected].