NEWPORT BEACH : Police Union Urges Pay System Changes

Supported by four of the city’s five other employee groups, the Newport Beach Police Employees Assn. is spearheading a drive to persuade city officials to re-evaluate an employee pay system based on a comparison to wages in other cities.

Under the system, pay for all Newport Beach city employees is determined through a formula based on wages of the three highest-paying cities in Orange County.

Officers in the department say they want the policy to remain but want Newport Beach to change the cities used in the comparison because, they contend, the three cities now used in the computation are not paying the top salaries. Consequently, Newport police argue that they are paid less than they should be.

“We do not want the policy changed. We just want the city’s interpretation of the policy changed,” said Sgt. Richard T. Long at a City Council meeting earlier this week.

The council has asked the city staff to study the policy, known as J-1, to see if there is truth to claims from members of the Police Department that they earn up to $1,000 less than officers in other cities.

“We’re committed to a review of the J-1 policy,” Mayor Phil Sansone said. “We’re very proud of our Police Department and all of our employees and certainly don’t want any of you to feel you’re not being treated fairly.”

The police union has been working for about five years to have the policy reviewed but had been unable to win support from city officials, said Officer Tom Tolman, president of the police association.

When the group’s one-year contract was approved in July, police were guaranteed that the pay policy would be discussed sometime during the year. The organization’s recent presentation to the City Council was the first step by the police.

The new contract gave police pay hikes of about 5%.

Tolman said the department’s sworn staff, which totals about 155 officers, would need a pay raise of about 15% to 18% to bring salaries up to par with the county’s three highest-paying cities.

Currently, the department is compared to those in Fullerton, Anaheim and Huntington Beach. The police union wants the pay policy to replace one of those cities with Irvine.

Also at issue are two other parts of the policy that employees say have become unfair over the years. Critics say that pay is compacted into an average and that wages are not distributed fairly over ranks. Also, they argue that pay comparisons are generally made in January and that by the time contracts are approved in July, the wages are outdated.

Four other employees associations--Newport Beach Firefighters Assn., Newport Beach Ocean Lifeguards Assn., Newport Beach Professional and Technical Employees Assn., and Newport Beach City Employees Assn.--agreed that the policy should be reviewed.

The groups suggested that each union find the three cities with the highest pay for their respective category of employees. They added that wages should be compared during the month the new Newport Beach contracts take effect. And they suggested that each group determine the benchmark positions for comparison among various department ranks.

Members of the largest employee group refused to take part in the talks. Officials of the Newport Beach Employees League, which represents about 300 of the city’s mechanics, tree trimmers and other non-clerical workers, said they believe that the current policy is fair.

The policy, first enacted in 1961, was promoted then by the Police Department as a way to recruit members. Since then it has been amended twice.