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By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Rohnert Park public safety officers have ramped up their offensive against City Hall’s exploration of outsourcing law enforcement and fire services.
In a sign of the stakes, the city public safety officers union has taken the provocative step of revealing in a flyer mailed to residents what it says are details from ongoing contract talks in order to condemn the proposal.
It also slams the proposal to contract police services to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office by saying it would betray the intent of voters who in 2010 passed a half-percent sales tax meant to preserve city services.
“We were told that that Measure E funds would be used to maintain Rohnert Park’s public safety services,” Dale Utecht, president of the Rohnert Park Public Safety Officers Association, said in the letter.
“Yet this proposal would give those funds to the council to help balance the county’s budget. That’s not right,” Utecht says.
Utecht’s letter claims that the POA, as the union is known, offered $1.6 million in contract concessions to the city, including cuts in pay and pension benefits, which are among the city’s biggest financial burdens.
That offer was rejected, Utecht wrote, and then the city began to investigate the idea of contracting with the Sheriff’s Office and the Rancho Cotate Fire Protection District
Contract negotiations are continuing and it is rare — and generally considered improper — for one side to to publicly discuss the content of such talks.
City Manager Gabe Gonzalez, a member of the city’s negotiating team, said he would not discuss the contract talks or if the union offered the concessions it described, saying he did not want to risk violating labor law.
“The city is not going to negotiate in good faith in the public arena as the POA has obviously done in their flyer,” he said.
Utecht and other POA representatives did not return calls or emails Wednesday for comment.
But City Council members criticized union leaders for publicly campaigning against a proposal that is only under discussion, and, especially, for revealing details from the contract negotiations.
Rohnert Park Mayor Gina Belforte, who won office with POA support in 2008, said the mailing was a maneuver better suited to an election season.
“I’m confused why they’re running a political campaign; it’s a budgetary issue, it’s black and white, it’s numbers,” she said.
“We approved (on Tuesday) a budget with a $2 million deficit and we are asking for help,” Belforte said. “This is not an us-versus-them. This is us trying to work with them through negotiations.”
Councilman Jake Mackenzie, who often has clashed with the public safety officers union, said “I don’t appreciate it. I am extremely unhappy with their taking this approach when we are negotiating in a very serious matter.”
He added: “It’s a classic POA tactic.”
The Sheriff’s Office proposal was solicited by Gonzalez, who said all options to close the deficit had to be examined. Public safety — a single department that provides police and fire services — represents $15.5 million of the city’s $25 million general fund budget.
A cost analysis that the City Council reviewed this month said the city could save up to $2.5 million by going outside for police and fire services. Police services are the largest part of the public safety budget, about $12 million.
The POA, in its flyer, states that the proposal would provide a lower level of service to the city or cost more.
The Sheriff’s Office proposal offers three service levels. The flyer says that the Public Safety Department would provide for $8.5 million the equivalent service outlined in the Sheriff’s most expensive proposal, which would cost $11.3 million.
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The “Apples to Apples” flyer neglects to make the cost comparison of present and future pensions. Probably one reason that RP is considering the “outsourcing” option at all is because of the cost of unfunded liability. In the absence of such a comparison, the $1.6 Million concessions in contract concessions (which amounts to about a 10% cut of the public safety budget) just doesn’t make the argument compelling enough to buy into the flyer’s premise. The bigger picture is whether or not RP needs its “the level” of current services. What seems more obvious is that RP can’t afford them, or at least afford them for much longer.
Besides, assuming that an in-house police force helps keep crime low in RP, as the flyer suggests, is a bit misleading. Crime and criminals don’t always stay within city limits, especially in small cities.
The city council is right to consider other options. Who knows… maybe contracted services with the larger county might actually be better for a small city like RP in the bigger picture.
I think law enforcement lost the support of the people when the ‘public safety unions’ mailed out fliers stating the city ‘would betray the intent of voters who(reluctantly) passed a half cent(emergency bailout) sales tax to preserve city services($100K/year wages and full retirement.)
I second the motion for County Sherriff and volunter fire department.
@ Joseph C.
You’re right about Dispatch. That should be handled County Wide in one location with backup locations at the ready.
BUT…
Beware of outsourcing Law Enforcement to the SO. I assure you from 1st hand experiance that the Sonoma County GOVERNMENT is far too corrupt to allow them that deep into your pockets.
As time goes on & these theives scramble to make up for culture of waste they’ve created in County GOVERNMENT you’re going to see some draconian measures that will tap every resource that doesn’t involve a public vote. (Bend over Sonoma & Windsor, here it comes!)
Once you’ve dismantled your police force & replaced it with the SO you are at the mercy of the Gang of Five!
If local government in little towns like Rhonert Park keep on spending as they have in the past, they will have no police or fire services. That will be unaffordable. They will have a volunteer fire department and a town marshal with vigilantes backing him up.
I don’t see the big issue about the details of the negotiations being made public. It’s the public’s servants discussing how much to pay the public’s employees with the public’s money. So, shouldn’t the public know what’s going on?
Talk about waste. I read recently that there are something like a hundred separate school districts in Sonoma County.
Time to merge them, too. The kids will learn just as well without a hundred different sets of administrators.
Santa Rosa should be next.
Rohnert Park P.D. put themselves in this situation. They over spend on everything, using our tax dollars for fancy equipment like that police mustang and that F-150 truck K-9 unit. They’re all show and no go!! They never arrest anyone or pull people over, they’re like pretend cops! Cotati makes more arrests than R.P.!! Half the time you never even see Rohnert park police, were are they all hiding at all the time, Rohnert park isn’t that big. I read the pressdemocrat all the time, and RPPD never has more than three arrests in the arrest log every week! The Sheriff will make an example out of them!!
Seriously, we don’t need a public safety department / police in both Cotati and RP as well. Time for both to be merged or eliminated & let the Sheriff’s Office take over patrol. Two departments in one little area is totally stupid and wasteful. Two chiefs, two assistant cheifs, oh, and lets not forget four dispatch centers.
John Hudson is correct. POA suported Leivo and Borba who is good friends with Callahan. Ahonotu and Stafford were SUPPORTED by Codding.
John: You’re right. I was thinking of Codding.
http://www.watchsonomacounty.com/2010/10/notebook/rohnert-park-poa-endorsement-a-done-deal/
Demosthenes is wrong. The RP cops endorsed Borba and Leivo in the last election.
Woah woah woah, John Hudson. Ahonotu and Stafford were SUPPORTED by the POA. Why would it be ‘political pay back’ for them now?
I’m sorry the facts don’t support your narrative.
Of course the RPPSOA is fighting with whatever they can…. they have to understand that only a small fraction of their membership would be hired by and successfully make the transition to the Sheriff’s Office.
That said, the RPPSOA has always been known for it’s rather aggressive posture. And at it’s core, this entire exercise really is about political power as the RPPSOA has, arguably, been running the city for years.
If the cost analysis is true, and the city can save $2.5M the first year and more in subsequent years, then the deal is a no brainer and should get done. But as has been asserted the voters in town should not lose sight of the politics and power struggle that is behind all this.
I can’t imagine what the point of this kind of tactic is. The officers are going to hardball themselves right out of a job. The public seems to be turning on them and resents paying them anything.
Maybe they can get homeless assistance or become consultants. No shortage of money for that baloney in Rohnert Park.
Regardless of the posturing this is going to binding arbitration anyway. The officers need to emphasize their value not their cost. No oe is going to sympathize with this kind of thing or even care.
Who came up with this idea? It’s someone you sould not listen to in future.
Next election look at the canidates that do not collect cash from anyone! Period! They are out there in every election standing on the sidelines. They do not mail out the slick ads or have giant highway signs.
Next election when they knock on your door asking for your vote. Ask them who is behind their funding and what side they are on!
If the Rohnert Park Council thinks the POA committed an unfair labor practice, file a charge again them. Jake “Pothole” Mackenzie as usual, is just grandstanding and blowing hot air.
If Rohnert Park is using the threat to contract with the Sheriff’s office only to force contract consessions, that is pretty stupid. If Rohnert Part is serious and contracting makes financial and politcal sense, then do it and shutup.
Typical political BS in Rohnert Park.
EVERYONE knows that RPDPS is over-paid and their work is terrible. Any agency in Sonoma County will say that RPDPD can’t investigate anything with competence.
Look, fire them and hire the Sheriff’s Dept. Lets get this done already.
Rohnert Park public saftey has had it to soft for to many years. what about all the money they spen on a comand center? they have there head up you know what. the chicken have come home to kick you out! Stop whining an aply for a job with some guard service, but wait they won’t let you shot anyone with a broom stick.
Face it, everyone.
The government is out of control on both ends. Both labor & elected officials could care less about the public. Its all about them.
While I share the skepticism toward “public servants”, I don’t think it is necessary to fire the cops to get out from under the pension burden. Bankruptcy will do the job even better. If we fire the cops it will not alleviate the pension burden for those cops already eating at the public trough nor for those still working. Bankruptcy will enable us to reform those pension benefits just as the pensions of many in the private sector have been reformed.
I did receive the mailer the cops sent out last week. I was amazed that they made no mention of having to engage alternative fire services and what those services might cost. I know that there has been criticism of the fire service provided by the RP cops, but if there really was a problem the fire insurance industry would let us know. The cost of joining Rancho Adobe would probably more than offset anything gained by contracting with the sheriff. My friends and I can’t understand why the RP cops did not mention this in their mailer.
Finally, I would point out that this is really political payback by the city council majority. The RP cops campaigned against the MacKenzie-Belforte-Stafford-Ahanotu regime in the last election. If the cops’ jobs are contracted out to the sheriff, the main political force against McKenzie-Belforte-Stafford & Ahanotu will cease to exist. For their part this is not what is best for the people of RP. This is about getting rid of political opponents.
Out sourcing Public Safety would be a great way to get out from under these insane benefit packages. But it could NEVER be a permanent solution, just a means to an end.
The risk of the inevitable corruption seen in our current GOVERNMENT “sub-contracting” process would be extremely dangerous in the Public Safety field.
It would be far better for our elected scum to just grow a pair & tell the unions to pound sand!
Better yet, OUTLAW PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS COMPLETELY!
The concept of a Union boss who finances the campaign of the person they’re negotiating with is… well, look around you. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS!
It’s bankrupting our entire nation one municipality at a time.