Hopes for a resolution to stalled contract talks between Kirkland and the Police Guild were dashed in a 47-0 vote April 26, according to Detective Don Carroll, Guild president.
The thumbs-down vote on a contract follows almost a year and a half of negotiations and the use of a Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) mediator for the 56-member Police Guild, which has been working without a contract since the beginning of 2004, he said. Not all officers voted on the offer because some were off-site, Carroll added. "That's not unusual."
The contract Kirkland police voted against was one the city proposed last October, Carroll added. "They said no," he said of the Guild's response to the offer at the time.
It called for a 1-percent raise for the first half of 2004, a 1-percent raise in the second half of 2004, a 3-percent raise effective at the beginning of this year, and raise at the beginning of 2006 based on 90 percent of the Consumer Price Index, he said. The inflation-based raise next year would be a minimum of 2.5 percent and a maximum of 5 percent, Carroll said.
Starting salary for a top-step patrol officer in Kirkland is $5,166 a month ($61,992 a year), he said of pay for a work schedule of four, 12-hour days on and four days off.
Also at issue was a contract provision that would make health insurance more expensive for police officers and their dependents, along with a Guild call for the ability to cash out accrued sick leave at retirement, Carroll said.
Police don't have the ability to strike, noted Marilynne Beard, Kirkland's finance firector and the city's lead in contract negotiations with the Guild.
But she said the PERC negotiator felt enough time had passed since the contract offer last October that it might fly with the Guild this time round. The city was less optimistic. "We didn't expect the offer to be accepted," Beard said.
Carroll isn't surprised. "I don't think there has been any meaningful negotiations with the city," he said. Adding to the resistance to the police-contract proposal was the recent passage of a contract with the city's firefighters, a contract that's a sweetheart deal compared with the proposed Police Guild contract, according to Carroll.
Beard declined to discuss details of either contract. "We're reluctant to negotiate contracts in public, in the press," she explained. "We treat each bargaining unit individually."
Still, Beard insisted the city has tried to be fair to police, but it's not always easy. "There's an awful lot of issues we're trying to work through ... in arguably tough financial times for the city," she said. "Everybody knows everybody is struggling with the deficit."
Perhaps, but Carroll said the Police Guild wants to drop the PERC mediator and go through binding arbitration, something he hoped would automatically happen after the no vote in April. He was wrong, according to Beard.
"The rules are very defined in negotiations," she said. "PERC has to certify us for arbitration," Beard said of a step that will take place only after a May 31 meeting among the city, the Guild and the PERC mediator.
Going through binding arbitration is a very formal process, she explained. "The Guild and city would each present their case, and the (arbitrator's) decision is binding on both parties."
That can take quite awhile, and it's an expensive proposition for everyone concerned, Beard said. "It could be a year - or at least six months - before you even get to the hearing stage."
Going through binding arbitration over a labor contract would be a first for Kirkland, said Beard, who added that it might not be necessary. "We're still hoping we can resolve things before we go to arbitration."
A frustrated-sounding Carroll also hopes a labor agreement can be forged sooner rather than later. "I'd like to get this resolved," he grumbled.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or (206)461-1309[[In-content Ad]]
