Police sue over city's "bad faith" bargaining
| Thursday, Sep 03 2009 05:36 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Sep 03 2009 05:38 PM
The local police union claims the city of Bakersfield behaved illegally by rescinding a final contract offer after negotiations broke down, a lawsuit alleges.
Now, the union's lawyer wants a judge to force reinstatement of that offer.
It's the latest in an ugly, drawn-out battle between the city and its police and fire unions. Both are working without contracts.
Negotiations that had been in play since August 2007 formally collapsed in March when the police union started a formal impasse procedure.
State law says the impasse designation should have kicked the matter to the Bakersfield City Council, according to the suit filed by the Bakersfield Police Officers' Association in Kern County Superior Court.
Impasse also should have locked in the city's so-called "last, best and final" offer made in November, which included an 8 percent raise.
Instead, the city's top negotiator in late May told the union it was withdrawing all previous offers, nixing impasse procedures and demanding a return to the bargaining table.
"It is completely unheard of" to withdraw last offers following impasse, said the union's lawyer, Alison Berry Wilkinson.
Ginny Gennaro, the city of Bakersfield's attorney, was out of the office Thursday. No one else in her office had authority to comment on the matter, a secretary said.
The city has previously denied it broke any negotiating rules or bargained in bad faith.
The police union filed a separate suit in May seeking payment for standby shifts. That suit is still pending.
