Vallejo City Council approves police union contract at empty meeting

VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Council approved a new contract with the Vallejo Police Officers Association at a sparsely-attended meeting Thursday, but complained about the process and lack of notice for a consequential vote that capped 19 months of negotiations.

The three-year contract will provide police officers with a 16% raise over the next three years and a one-time bonus. It also lowers the department’s cap on compensatory time and includes a concession to the VPOA regarding medical retirement. 

The council approved it 6-1, with Councilmember Cristina Arriola opposed. Arriola said that Vallejo has good officers who work hard, but that there are “some bad eggs” and she disagreed with “rewarding the whole lot.” She said she did not expect her vote to hold up the contract. 

"I voted no in closed session and I stick with it," Arriola said. "It's not a personal thing, it's a conviction."

The city announced the special council meeting late Wednesday, just after union members ratified the agreement.  When only one person spoke in the public comment period, councilmembers expressed dismay that the notice had been so short, but declined to postpone the vote.

"This is a big deal,” Councilmember Mina Loera-Diaz said. “I was expecting this room to be full of police officers and community. We have four people in the audience."

Loera-Diaz also provided a timeline of recent negotiations, in response to the VPOA making “non-truthful accusations” on social media.

The union published comments on its Twitter and Instagram accounts that accused Loera-Diaz of making a false statement when she said that the council was awaiting a VPOA vote during a meeting last month. Then in an Oct. 31 statement, the VPOA said that negotiations had stalled over its demand that officers who suffer a career-ending injury receive the same retirement benefits as officers with over 10 years of experience.

But Loera-Diaz said a draft contract was sent to VPOA in September, and cited an Oct. 2 Vallejo Times-Herald article where VPOA President Lt. Michael Nichelini was quoted saying, “I have the document and my board and I are going through it.” She said the union returned to the council in October to say that they had forgotten to include medical retirees in the negotiations. 

“It's important for me to have everyone know that the safety and well being of our residents was always a priority,” Loera-Diaz said. “The council negotiated in good faith.”

The final contract includes the VPOA’s demand for higher medical retirement benefits. City Finance Director Rekha Nayar said that the change actually makes good fiscal sense for the city as it no longer has to pay into an account for every officer, and instead only pays if the officer retires from the city.

Councilmembers also expressed hope that the new contract will lead to more recruitment and help from outside agencies. The lack of a contract has been blamed for the city being unable to secure support from outside agencies. The council declared a staffing emergency in July over union objection, in part to solicit support. 

"Once we have a contract we're supposed to get help,” Loera-Diaz said. “Let’s pay attention and see if that happens.”

Staffing has plummeted by more than 20 officers since the last contract expired. The union blamed former police Chief Shawny Williams for the decline, but a recent Vallejo Sun investigation detailed the VPOA’s role in contributing to the staffing crisis as officers interfered with the work of two veteran recruiters hired by Williams.

Under Williams, the VPOA Twitter account frequently posted job opportunities at other agencies. Loera-Diaz said that she hopes not to see that any more.

Mayor Robert McConnell said that he found the contract “distasteful” because it did not have reforms, testing requirements, and consequences for department leadership. He said that he learned of things late in the process that would make him proceed in the negotiations differently, but that the city could not engage in regressive bargaining. But he said he would not vote against or delay the contract approval.

"If we do that this time, I think the consequences are unbearable for the citizens of this city,” he said. “We don't have competitive wages. We also don't have a competitive tax base."

The contract includes an immediate 10.16% raise, followed by 3% in 2024 and 3% in 2025. Officers will also receive a one-time payment of 8% of their salary during the period officers worked without a current contract.

It contains some provisions to address the department’s staffing shortage. It reduces the annual cap on compensatory time, or the paid time off officers are eligible for after working overtime, from 480 to 300 hours. It also temporarily requires officers to give 14 days advance notice for time off requests until the department has more than 100 sworn officers. 

The contract limits which bilingual officers are eligible for a 1% pay bump, awarding it only if they speak a specified language – including Spanish, Tagalog, American Sign Language, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi and Hindi. 

The contract retains a master officer program, which provides either a 5% or 10% pay increase based on longevity and participation with special qualifying specialties. The council rejected a side agreement regarding the program earlier this year, saying they would prefer to address it in the current contract. 

For future negotiations, McConnell implored the state legislature to make labor negotiations public, as they are currently secret under state law. 

“This is the public's business and the public dollars,” he said. “If anybody is more entitled to know how their tax dollars are being spent, it's our citizens who have a right to know that. Yet we have a process where we can't do it.”

But negotiations with the police union aren’t over. According to City Manager Mike Malone, the city is looking to streamline the medical leave process to reduce time off due to injuries, but that will be a separate negotiation and is not included in the current contract.