Anyone who has attended a city-run meeting in Irvine has heard elected officials, especially City Councilman and Orange County Great Park Corporation chairman Larry Agran, boast about overseeing “America's safest city.”
Likewise, anyone who complains about the shady, back-room, ethically challenged way the city of Irvine is run, or the plastic, uninspiring, Stepfordesque way the city of Irvine is, often gets showered with “At least we're America's safest city” or “At least we're not Santa Ana” or “Get off of my goddamn lawn, hippie!”
One group that has apparently heard the “America's safest city” line over and over are the men and women of the Irvine Police Association, which represents
190 of the department's 203 employees. And, frankly, it's beginning to piss them off.
]
“America's safest city is also the country's biggest anomaly, as the
men and women in blue who protect and gave Irvine its national
distinction are now caught in the crosshairs of an indifferent and
ungrateful City Council,” states a media statement issued Friday afternoon with the headline
“America's Safest City Showing No Gratitude to Its Police.” It is
signed by association president Shane Barrows and counselor Robert M. Wexler.
The
pair accuses the council members of “playing political games” with
their contract. Among the offenses they cite is “mulling over yanking
an existing holiday.”
But as Sean Emery reported in the Orange County Register,
union leaders are most upset that city leaders are threatening layoffs
if the cops don't forgo raises. Wage freezes imposed on other city
workers have reportedly saved nearly $2 million.
Negotiations
began in mid-February and the police association's last contract
expired on June 30. Barrows and his crew–who represent employees in
the fifth highest paid force in the county–want an extension they
estimate would cost the city
$720,000. With talks at an impasse, a mediator was brought in last week.
Now,
it would be one thing if the city was like so many others in
California, suffering the ravages of decimated budgets amid the
national financial meltdown and the state government implosion. But the
thing second on to “America's safest city” you hear from city leaders
and their robotic supporters is that shrewd fiscal planning has left
the city with a $100 million budget surplus (and a Great Park property
you'd swear was made of gold, to hear them tell it).
“We are the
ones on the front lines who have played one of the largest parts in
having made Irvine the safest city in America for the past five
consecutive years–not just by doing our job, but by also striving for
excellence,” says Barrows in the release. “When the taxpayers demanded
'pay for performance,' we are the ones who delivered proven, excellent
results.”
He said it “boggles the mind” why the five-member City
Council “would want to compromise Irvine's national reputation by
holding up our contract.”
Barrows then singles out three council members–Mayor Sukhee Kang, Beth Krom and Agran–for “not practicing what they preach.”
“We
were told police would remain the No. 1 priority,” Barrows writes, “but
instead they went off to build their bridges to nowhere by spending
money on shuttles with no ridership and other questionable projects.”
These
are dangerous times, Barrows warns, as crime is rising and the state is
about to cut felons loose from prison due to budget constraints.
“Now
is not the time to handcuff police with the petty politics that we
always must stomach in Irvine,” Barrows says, “but to assist them every
way possible. Unlike almost every city in the county, state and nation,
Irvine does not have a revenue problem. The City Council's conduct is
inexcusable and is putting the public in harm's way, and officer morale
is dropping.”
Residents will get to gauge how much it has dropped
should police association members carry through with a threat to
descend on the next City Council meeting at City Hall. No matter how
heated it may get, at least everyone can rest assured they are in
America's safest city.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
Comments are closed.