Police Group Rejects Another Redondo Offer : 6% Raise Too Little Because of Dangers, Officers Argue After Colleague Is Shot in Line of Duty

Citing the shooting of fellow officer Leonard Knott as an example of the dangers inherent in police work, the president of the Redondo Beach Police Officers Assn. told the City Council on Tuesday that the group had rejected the city’s latest proposal in ongoing efforts to reach a contract agreement.

Paul Wrightsman said the city has offered police officers the same salary increases as maintenance workers and other city employees. Such comparisons are off-base, he said, because of the greater risks from police work.

Other city employees “do not face the dangers we face from day to day, from hour to hour, or even from call to call,” Wrightsman said.

Backed by at least two dozen off-duty officers who joined him in the audience in the Council Chambers, Wrightsman said many had just returned from donating blood for Knott, who was injured Tuesday in a shoot-out about a block from City Hall. Knott was in serious condition Wednesday at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

“We are praying hourly for his recovery,” Wrightsman told the council.

Second Shooting This Year

Tuesday’s shooting was the second this year involving a Redondo Beach officer. On Aug. 31, Officer Michael Clifton was grazed during an exchange of gunfire after he and another officer approached a suspect apparently trying to break into a car on the Esplanade.

Redondo Beach police say that, despite their high level of service, they are among the lowest paid in the South Bay.

The average Redondo Beach police officer’s salary is about $3,100 a month, Wrightsman told the council. On average, according to the association, police salaries are 22% higher in Hawthorne, 11% higher in El Segundo and 6% higher in Manhattan Beach.

Negotiations with the city began when the police contract expired June 30.

About 30 police officers and their families set up tents Monday morning and camped out on the front lawn of City Hall in a two-day demonstration protesting the stalled contract talks. The camp was dismantled Tuesday night.

Wrightsman said police officers and the city were at odds over issues that include pay rates, emergency family sick leave and other benefits. The city has been offering police a 6% increase, and the association is seeking a 7% annual raise, according to Wrightsman.

The 85-member association unanimously rejected the city’s most recent formal offer last week, Wrightsman said. Tuesday’s informal proposal was not submitted to a vote, he said.

City Manager Tim Casey has declined to comment on details of the ongoing negotiations. He said in an interview that the city has reached agreements with the Fire Department and a group of clerical and other employees, whose contracts also expired June 30. Those groups signed two-year contracts with pay increases of 6% each year, he said.

Under the expired police contract, in addition to regular sick leave, officers received up to six additional sick days for emergencies, including a death or birth in the family or surgery or other serious illness of a family member, according to both sides.

Elimination or Liberalization

The police association says the city is attempting to eliminate that benefit.

Casey said the city’s proposal includes broadening the definition of emergency sick days and consolidating four different sick-leave plans into one program.

Wrightsman told the council Tuesday that the city’s proposal was unacceptable.

“We have nothing more to say, and you can have this proposal back,” Wrightsman told the council, tossing a sheaf of papers onto the speaker’s podium and leaving the Council Chambers, followed by the officers in the audience. The papers were the city’s proposal, which had been hand-delivered to the association Tuesday.

In an interview Wednesday, Casey said he was “not completely sure that the proposal was read seriously by the association. . . . We did attempt to make movement toward two considerations that were keeping us apart. (We were) attempting to meet them halfway on a couple of issues.”

Casey said city and police negotiators met again Wednesday. The city was expecting a written response to its Tuesday proposal by the end of the week, he said.