NEWPORT BEACH : Police to Split Into 2 Bargaining Groups

Police Department employees voted this week to split into two bargaining groups, with commanding officers negotiating contracts separately from civilians and patrol officers.

Current members of the Newport Beach Police Employees Assn., which represents all 240 of the department’s personnel except the police chief, voted 94 to 79 to break into two groups, a memo posted at the department Wednesday morning said. The new employee group, representing the department’s 24 sergeants, seven lieutenants and four captains, will be the sixth bargaining unit in the city’s 750-member work force.

The current association will remain intact until this year’s negotiations are complete, and the two groups will bargain separately for a 1993-94 contract.

“There are some inherent conflicts, obviously, when you have management and you have police officers in the same association,” said Sgt. Steve Van Horn, vice president of the current employee group. “There’s just no way to get around that. It’s built in when you have one association.”

Van Horn said the two groups’ interests are separated by the fact that sergeants, lieutenants and captains make assignments and discipline officers, and by issues of age and seniority. He said patrol officers might find it easier to plan and execute a job action if they had an association of their own without managers watching over them.

The police association, which formed about two decades ago, has been considering a split for several years, but the current proposal came up about two weeks ago. The sergeants voted overwhelmingly to align themselves with the other ranking officers, and then all association members cast ballots over a five-day period that ended Tuesday.

Newport Beach was unique among Orange County cities in having one bargaining unit for all Police Department employees.

Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and San Clemente all have distinct groups for their patrol officers and higher-ranking officers. Civilians in some of those departments are represented by separate employee groups. In Irvine, where all sworn officers except the chief are part of the Police Assn., civilians are in a separate bargaining unit.

The vote to split the Newport Beach Police Employees Assn., which will be discussed at an association board meeting today at 2 p.m., comes amid heated negotiations with the city. Police Department employees have been working without a contract since June. Association members overwhelmingly rejected the city’s latest offer last month.

Negotiators are at an impasse regarding salaries, since the two sides disagree over the interpretation of a city policy that says employees will be paid salaries that rank in the top three among Orange County cities.

The latest talks have bypassed wages and focused on scheduling.

Personnel Director Duane Munson, the city’s chief negotiator, said there is no flexibility on economic issues, but that the city is hoping to reach an agreement through other perks.

Detective Tom Tolman, president of the employees’ association, said that his negotiators are considering various options such as three 12-hour days or four 10-hour days per week rather than the current nine-hour days, but that he is not sure whether such proposals would persuade employees to accept current salary offers.