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Published on 01/27/1997 All articles from this issue

Los Altos police in seventh month without contract

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Because of what he called an "outstanding impasse" in labor negotiations, attorney Alan Davis planned to talk to the city council last night about police officers working seven months without a contract.

"Under state law, they (the council members) are the entity to resolve an impasse," he said in an interview before the council meeting.

Los Altos City attorney Bob Booth disagreed. "Council does not ever get involved in labor negotiations," he said, "not in the 15 years I've been here, and I hope they don't ever."

The issues creating the logjam preventing a contract are retiree medical insurance and a grievance procedure, Davis said. He is a labor lawyer with a San Francisco law firm, Davis, Reno and Courtney.

Currently, police officers have no medical incurance when they retire.

"They must go out into the marketplace and buy their own," Davis said.

Police officers would like to be part of the Public Employee Reitrement System medical coverage.

They aren't asking the city to pick up the expense, he said, "only a small portion." But they want the "opportunity to be in PERS, which is portable."

Health insurance available to retired police now cannot be taken out of this area.

Mountain View does not offer this benefit, Davis said, but Palo Alto does.

The eight benchmark cities, with populations of 25,000 to 40,000 that are used to measure benefits for Los Altos officers, all offer it: Gilroy, Los Gatos, Campbell, Menlo Park, Belmont, Burlingame, Foster City and San Carlos, a police spokesman said.

Layne Long, assistant city manager for Los Altos and the council's designated labor negotiator, said that labor law prevents him from going into detail about the negotiations.

He said the city sent a proposal to Davis, the police officer's negotiator, Jan. 15.

Long said that anyone "has a right to go to council in a public meeting and talk to council." But going around the city's negotiating team, "is a violation of the labor law."

"We're still negotiating. We will keep negotiating until we have a contract," he said.

The contract that expired June 30 had been a two-year contract.

Booth said that "we 'd like to reach a settlement with this group."