{"id":2649,"date":"2025-10-14T00:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/2649\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T00:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:23:09","slug":"judge-denies-san-jose-police-pay-raises-in-arbitration-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/2649\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Denies San Jose Police Pay Raises in Arbitration Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired Judge John A. Flaherty denied pay increases for police officers in his arbitration ruling between the city of San Jose and the Police Officers Association<\/a>, refusing to restore wages that were cut by 10 percent in 2011.<\/p>\n

This arbitration ruling<\/a> is the first conducted under the city charter as amended by 2010\u2019s voter-approved Measure V, which established that if two sides of a bargaining dispute cannot reach an agreement, a retired superior court judge would be appointed to decide the case. <\/p>\n

The POA gave media interviews at its headquarters Thursday, and union president Jim Unland argued that the city is well on its way to financial recovery and has $92 million in general fund reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has nothing to do with not being able to pay (salaries),\u201d Unland told San Jose Inside. \u201cIt\u2019s a philosophy that everyone took a 10-percent cut, so everyone gets a 2 percent raise.<\/p>\n

\u201c(City Manager Debra Figone) used the word \u2018equity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Flaherty was selected to chair the board based on mutual agreement from the city and the POA. Unland and Deputy City Manager Alex Gurza also sat on the board. Flaherty, with Gurza concurring and Unland dissenting, adopted the city\u2019s proposal for each of the eight issues addressed in the arbitration process.<\/p>\n

With regard to wages, the most significant of the eight issues, Flaherty acknowledged \u201cthere is a compelling need to increase wages within a reasonable time period.\u201d He added that the two sides would have to reach an agreement outside of arbitration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is undoubtedly a number that will begin to restore wages to their prior level and allow the City to do so in a fiscally responsible manner, the parties have not been able to agree on that number.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arbitration decision was reached July 1, yet was kept confidential for 10 days to allow continued negotiations between the city and the POA. However, the POA apparently ignored the city\u2019s requests to participate in negotiations, according to a July 11 letter signed by Jennifer Schembri<\/a>, the city\u2019s deputy director of employee relations. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all agree that we need to start to increase pay for our police officers,\u201d Figone said in a statement<\/a> Thursday. \u201cOur challenge is to find a solution that is sustainable for the long term and does not impair other vital city services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent arbitration decision is the latest in a series of conflicts between the city and the POA. Pension negotiations between the city and the police union in April almost went to arbitration, before a last minute deal reduced police officers\u2019 pensions. Yet the legal fight over pension reform through Measure B<\/a> remains ongoing. Unland said parties are expected back in court July 22.<\/p>\n

Such conflicts over pay increases and pension plans have led to an exodus of police officers<\/a>. As a result, Unland has been the target of criticism for what some in and around City Hall have seen as encouraging that exodus\u2014a notion the POA president disputes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if encouragement is the right word,\u201d Unland said. \u201cI put the facts out. If anyone thinks grown adults\u2014cops\u2014are making life decisions because Jim Unland told them so, that ain\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese new guys in the academy, absolutely they understand what tier-two pension means. That\u2019s my job to make sure they understand this stuff. Absolutely they\u2019re going to look elsewhere; they\u2019d be foolish not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy responsibility, in my mind, in the way I run [the POA], is for the individuals, not the association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unland says that the department is losing roughly 100 officers a year, and gaining only about 80 new recruits. (See a list below this article for numbers tracking department staffing.) If the trend continues, he said, the department will not survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real possibility that there is no SJPD in five years, and there\u2019s no POA in five years,\u201d Unland said. \u201cBusinesses fail all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not offering a full restoration of wages cut in recent years, city officials have said they are committed to continuing negotiations. Unland argues that the 9-percent offer recently presented by the city is more like a 2-percent bump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charter clearly encourages public safety contracts to be settled through negotiations, rather than by arbitration, and that continues to be our goal,\u201d Gurza said. \u201cTo this end, we continue to offer pay increases and hope we can reach a settlement with the POA soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Jose Police Department staffing (Provided by the Police Officers Association)
Authorized \u2014 1109
Actual \u2014 1063
Sworn-Solo \u2014 975
FTO \u2014 43
Academy \u2014 45
Disabilities\/Family Leave \u2014 45
Modified \u2014 29
Military\/Other \u2014 14
Health Sworn-Solo \u2014 887\t\t<\/p>\n

Working Patrol \u2014 Approx. 392
Historically Patrol \u2014 Approx. 600
Weekly O.T. Cars \u2014 32<\/p>\n

Past 2 Years \u2014 70 Resignations Per Year
Historically \u2014 4 Resignations Per Year<\/p>\n

2011
Resignations \u2014 70
2012
Resignations \u2014 70
Retirement \u2014 34<\/p>\n

2013YTD
Resignations \u2014 35 + 3 Pending
Retirement \u2014 19 + 10 Pending<\/p>\n

Eligible Retirements
2013 \u2014 30
2014 \u2014 27
2015 \u2014 65
2016 \u2014 37
2017 \u2014 50<\/p>\n

Homicides
Since 1998 the total has always been in the 20\u2019s with the exception of 2007 (33) and 2008 (31).
2010 \u2014 20
2011 \u2014 40
2012 \u2014 46
2013 YTD \u2014 26<\/p>\n

Josh Koehn contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired Judge John A. Flaherty denied pay increases for police officers in his arbitration ruling between the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3490,2312,3491,236,3492,88,90,89,198],"class_list":{"0":"post-2649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-chuck-reed","9":"tag-measure-b","10":"tag-pension-reform","11":"tag-police","12":"tag-police-officers-association","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-headlines","15":"tag-san-jose-news","16":"tag-santa-clara-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}