Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster. Photo by Samuel Lippke.
10:30am | The Press-Telegram is reporting further details on the tentative agreement. Click here to view the story.
August 25 5:30am | Last night Mayor Bob Foster announced a tentative agreement with the Police Officers Association (POA) that will “significantly reduce pension costs, enact pension reform, provide future budget relief, and protect police officers from layoffs in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2012 budget.”
The City of Long Beach faces a $20 million budget deficit in the 2012 Fiscal Year and the city is proposing to cut nearly $9.4 million in police costs. According to the Press-Telegram, “the agreement increases current police officers’ pension contributions from 2 percent of their salary to 9 percent – the total allowable employee contribution, most of which the city has been picking up in recent years under past police contracts.”
Police Officers Association President Steve James told the Press-Telegram that he expects this agreement to save the city over $100 million in the next decade.
“This vote demonstrates yet again that our officers are more concerned about the public’s safety than they are about their own personal financial gain. It is an honor to represent such selfless people,” said James.
“This vote affirms that POA is providing real pension reform and recognizes something that I’ve said time and again – sustainable pensions are in everyone’s best interest.” said Mayor Foster. “I applaud the members of the Long Beach POA for taking this important step and recognizing that the fiscal health of our city and high quality level of public safety service that this community deserves go hand in hand.
According to the statement from the City: This is the second time in the past two years that the Police Officers Association has come to an agreement with the City to help address fiscal issues, although they were under no obligation to do so.
The tentative agreement will return to the City Council in closed session on September 6, 2011 and, if approved, would come to the City Council in open session shortly thereafter, according to the release.
August 2, 2011 9:00 pm | Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster and Police Officers’ Association President Steve James released a statement Monday announcing an “agreement in principle” for a new public safety contract. The current contract expires in 2014.
The announcement yesterday is ahead of the planned press conference this morning where Mayor Foster and City Manager Pat West presented the draft FY2012 budget.
According to the joint press release: “We are pleased to announce an agreement in principle for a new contract delivering meaningful long-term savings and significant pension reform to the City that recognizes the existing commitment to LBPOA membership. It is important to recognize that the POA has come to the bargaining table twice in the past two and a half years not because they had to, but because we all share the belief that the fiscal health of the City, and the high-quality level of public safety service this community deserves, go hand in hand.”
More to come…