Oceanside Officers Return After Sickout

Oceanside police officers returned to work Thursday after a one-day sickout protesting stalled contract negotiations.

But the job action and subsequent sparring between city officials and leaders of the Police Officers Assn. appear to have widened the rift.

“The membership (of the POA) has given the board of directors the authority to call for a job action, up to and including a strike,” said Sgt. Ron Graf, president of the POA, after attempts to solve a salary dispute collapsed Thursday. “If things continue the way they are now, a real strike may loom in the future.”

Graf denied that the 180-member association, which includes officers, lab technicians and dispatchers, authorized the sickout. Thirty-two members of the POA failed to report to work Wednesday, straining department operations.

The sickout was the second in four weeks. On June 10, about 25 members were absent.

Thursday’s unproductive talks marked the first time both parties had met since June 21. City officials have declined to provide details of the negotiations that began two months ago. However, POA leaders said they are asking for a 7.5% salary increase and that the city has offered 3.5%.

“That just isn’t going to cut it,” Graf said.

He cited recent police contract settlements in Escondido and La Mesa in calling the POA’s demands reasonable. Escondido officers recently accepted a three-year contract with a combined salary and benefits increase of 8% a year; La Mesa officers accepted a one-year contract with a 5.5% increase, according to the cities’ personnel departments.

“I have no authority to go beyond what we offered today,” said Oceanside City Manager Ron Bradley, acknowledging that a stalemate exists.

No new bargaining sessions have been scheduled.

Meanwhile, acting Police Chief Michael Shirley said the department has returned to its normal three-shift schedule. During the job action, graveyard and night-shift officers were asked to work overtime to cover the absent day-shift workers. Although the county Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol were notified, they were not asked for assistance, city officials said.

Shirley said he had not decided whether to discipline the officers who participated in the sickout, but he did order each to submit a note from a doctor corroborating the illness.

“As a department head I am authorized to demand such certification if I believe there are violations of sick leave,” Shirley said. “I believe sick-leave policy should be used for what it was intended.”

Violators could be punished, he said.

“The range in discipline goes from oral instruction, where I can say, ‘Don’t do that again,’ to suspension, to demotion, to dismissal,” Shirley said.