01-17-1972 - Laserfiche WebLink

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COMPENSATION REQUESTS - (Continued) were called away from lunch and were unable to complete it; that during that same time, men in the Street Division and Water Division were pulled away from their lunch period also. In regard to Fire Department hours, he stated that at the time the City went on a 3-platoon shift, he warned that it would be necessary to increase the staff to go to a 56-hour work week but that it would take from 3 - 5 years to accomplish this; that when Mr. Silver says the man comes back and works his vacation shift he is not being factual; that if he were working a 5g-hour week, he would be working 122 shifts; that the Santa Ana Fire Department works 130 shifts and eight of those are the "t~back" shifts to make it a 60-hour week; that the City went from 62.7 to a 60-hour week; that to get to 56 hours, 8 shifts would have to be~61iminated; that his actual number of work shifts, including the fact that he is not charged for vacation, sick leave, etc., is about 113.7, not 130 or 122. He stated that in regard to patrolmen, during the period of time that his base pay has increased approximately 67%, the cost of Living increment for the Los Angeles area has been 32.5%; that Santa Ana was the first city to completely uniform and outfit both Police and Fire Department personnel at city expense; that it was the first city to create an incentive program based upon the principle of rotation. He stated that it is not true that restrictions established by the Federal government do not include fringe benefits; that costs of reduced hours, retirement pay, termination pay, etc., are included in the over-all permissive amount of money that can be paid. RECESS At 11:05 P.M., a recess was declared. The meeting reconvened at 11:15 P. ~M. with all Councilmen present. COMPENSATION REQUESTS - (Continued) Rodolfo Montejano requested that the Council set up a Commission to study the situation. Steven H. Silver stated that no matter how you look at it, there are ~eight pay backs that the men have to work and that is what the Council is asked to eliminate. Edward Allen, the Chief of Police, stated that although he came to the meeting only to listen, he would like to speak; that he is satisfied the City Manager and the City Council have been as generous as they can in the area of pay raises--perhaps not generous enough to suit the Police Chief or any policeman. He stated that he wanted to assure all policemen that no reprisal will be made against them because they went outside of their own group for the presentation; but that he cannot let criticism of the Police Department go by unnoticed; that the 40% clearance rate of Part I Crimes is 100% better than the national rate; that in 1955 the crime clearance rate for Santa Ana was between 20 and 25%; that it has risen as high as 50%, but has constantly been 40% or better in the past decade; that in that matter, Mr. Montejano was very misleading. He stated that when he came to Santa Ana, the detective bureau was a civil service rating; that most of the progressive and successful police administrators in the country do not believe that the title of detective should be civil service; that experienced men are needed on the street, and it is the policy of the department to send a police officer back on the street with experience in traffic, vice squad, and other police work, and therefore, ultimately, he should be paid more than just a specialist in the detective bureau because he is a detective plus much more. CITY COUNCIL -35- January l7, 1972