By Maxine Bernstein
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland’s City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a four-year contract with the police union that Mayor Ted Wheeler described as “not perfect” but a step in the right direction that is intended to help police recruit and retain officers and improve accountability.
The contract includes retention bonuses, wage bumps for completing required crisis intervention training and earning higher education degrees, plus annual cost of living adjustments.
It also includes a new guide governing police discipline and allows for the expansion of the Portland Street Response program with input from public safety leaders on how and when a mental health worker and fire paramedic will respond to mental health crisis calls.
The contract, to run from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2025, is estimated to cost the city $56.4 million through 2025.
The Portland Police Association, which represents 881 officers, detectives, forensic criminalists and sergeants, ratified the new pact last week.
What’s missing is a policy on the use of body-worn cameras, equipment that the U.S. Department of Justice has demanded the city require its officers wear.
Wheeler said city negotiators must still hammer out an agreement with the union on the body cameras to get officers equipped as soon as possible. The city has been discussing the use of the cameras for police for at least six years.
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty thanked the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets in 2020 to demand a “more fair, a more accountable Police Bureau.”
“This is a process,” she said. “This is not the end result.”
Commissioner Mingus Mapps said the contract will help the city retain officers and recruit a new generation of officers, while holding officers accountable when they do wrong under the new discipline guide. He also urged the city and union to return to the negotiating table to resolve lingering differences on a body camera policy.
Under the contract, union members will receive a 1.6% cost-of-living adjustment retroactive to July 1, 2021, a 5% cost-of-living adjustment this July, as well as ongoing cost-of-living adjustments anticipated to be between 1% and 5% the next two years.
In addition, all members will receive a crisis intervention training premium of 2%, plus retention bonuses of $5,000 after the contract is ratified and another $2,000 retention bonus in 2024. Non-sworn public safety specialists will receive a one-time $3,000 retention bonus.
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Further wage premiums of 2% to 3% will be granted to officers who have obtained a bachelor’s degree and up to 5% for those with a master’s degree or doctorate. In addition, officers will get 2% in premium pay for intermediate police certificate training and 4% for an advanced police certificate from the state’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, effective July 1, 2024.
Further, the contract allows for officers who retire to be rehired for one year, with a one-year renewal option solely at the police chief’s discretion. Those rehired also would get a $5,000 recruitment bonus.
It allows for the unrestricted geographical expansion of the Portland Street Response program in the city, but says the city won’t reduce any Portland police positions — whether filled or unfilled — as a result of the expansion.
A new discipline guide, or so-called “corrective action” guide, includes education-based remedies for policy violations and suspensions or termination based on categories of offenses.
Steven Schuback, hired by the city as lead negotiator, said the city unsuccessfully sought limits on overtime pay, more control over officers’ secondary job assignments and opening of all contract talks to the public.
Negotiations continue on a body-worn camera policy, but the matter could go to arbitration if the sides are unable to reach an agreement, he said.
Many community members at a council hearing last week complained that the contract fell short of other desired changes. Some pointed out that the city failed to eliminate a clause that says any reprimand of an officer should be done in a way “least likely to embarrass” that officer in public. Others complained that the contract doesn’t address police overtime costs, restrict officers’ secondary jobs or require drug testing for officers after they use force.
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