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May 30, 2023

Pleasanton council to meet in closed session about police union negotiations

The Pleasanton City Council and city representatives are set to once again be going over the Pleasanton Police Officers Association contract negotiations during a closed-session meeting on Tuesday

The Pleasanton City Council and city representatives are set to once again be going over the Pleasanton Police Officers Association contract negotiations during a closed-session meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

The special session will take place on the 90th day that the police union has gone without a renewed contract -- its last labor agreement with the city ended on May 31.

The PPOA declared the impasse in labor talks on May 24 after the union had rejected the city's offer of a 15% pay increase for officers over the three-year contract.

According to the city's website, the city's offer consisted of a 6% pay increase on June 1, a 5% pay increase in 2024 and a 4% pay increase in 2025 for regular officers. An 18% pay raise over the three-year contract would have been enacted for police sergeants, who are also represented by the union.

The city and union entered into mediation back in July, which ended without any resolution. Now, the city is waiting for the California Public Employment Relations Board to conduct a fact-finding on Sept. 26-27. Fact-finding is when a qualified, impartial third party makes written findings of fact and recommendations for resolution of an impasse.

Vice Mayor Jack Balch had requested a closed session meeting to discuss the PPOA negotiations during the Aug. 15 City Council meeting after roughly 60 people filled the meeting room and demanded that city officials settle on a fair contract with the union.

Councilmember Julie Testa had asked City Manager Gerry Beaudin about the criticism from residents and the PPOA who said that the ball is in the city's court and also asked for a response to people saying the city has been stalling the negotiation efforts.

"We're in the labor negotiations process. There's defined steps in that process," Beaudin said at the Aug. 15 meeting. "It doesn't preclude us from continuing to have conversations outside of the formal process and that is what we're continuing to do."

"We can give you an update of the conversations that we have had more recently," he added regarding the request for the closed-session meeting. "The plan really is to get together the entire group -- both sides of the table -- in the next week or week and a half ... after that discussion I think there's going to be more to talk about in closed session."

He said that having that gathering of both sides of the table was beneficial so that they could have those conversations with the PPOA.

Balch clarified the timeline that both sides of the labor negotiations meeting would meet after the Aug. 15 council meeting and then suggested that the council have a closed session after that conversation but before the next council meeting in September, which led to the meeting scheduled for this week.

Apart from city negotiators being present, a member of Burke, Williams and Sorensen, LLP -- a California law firm that provides municipal and public law services to cities, counties, municipalities, school districts and special districts -- will be at Tuesday's closed-session meeting, according to the agenda.

The council's special meeting is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 29) in Conference Room 3 at the Pleasanton Civic Center complex at 157 Main St.