Modesto police union names council picks

Based on questionnaire, police group supports 3 for Modesto leadership

By Leslie Albrecht
lalbrecht@modbee.com

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Yard signs, protests at City Council meetings, letters to the editor. The Modesto Police Officers Association flexed political muscle this spring when the nearly 200-member union battled with the city over budget cuts that threatened officers' jobs.

Now it's campaign season, and the police union is throwing its weight behind three City Council candidates: incumbent Kristin Olsen in north-central Modesto's District 5; Jeff Perine in District 4, which includes the La Loma and airport neighborhoods; and Dave Geer in District 2, which covers downtown and southwest Modesto.

Making public endorsements is relatively new to the rank-and-file union, President Tony Arguelles said. The union didn't endorse candidates in the 2005 council race. But in 2007, when a new executive board took over, the union decided to raise its social and political profile, Arguelles said.

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Word Document: Stanford MPOA questionnaire
Q & A

The following is a sampling of questions the Modesto Police Officers Association asked City Council candidates.

View the complete questionnaire, with District 4 candidate Robert Stanford's answers, on modbee.com. Stanford was the only candidate who accepted an invitation to post the questionnaire.

1  Do you support the contracting out of public safety services currently performed by sworn public safety officers if it can be shown that the city could save money by doing so?

2  What is your position on the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights? What is your position on the establishment of a non-law enforcement civilian oversight-review panel which would have the authority to look at police practices and specific police incidents?

3  Modesto police officers rank among the lowest compensated officers when compared to cities of comparable size. What do you believe the city can do to make our department more competitive at recruiting and retaining good officers?

4  What can Modesto do to raise additional revenues to bring stability to public safety staffing?

Union members now attend more community functions, such as Elks Club and Rotary events. "We're becoming a little bit more involved with our community," Arguelles said. Politically, the union's goal is to "feel like we're involved in the decision-making process in the city."

The union endorsed the candidates who seemed to put a priority on keeping public safety services in line with the city's growth, Arguelles said.

The MPOA interviewed all seven council candidates and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about the union's top concerns. The questions show, not surprisingly, a union looking for an ally in bleak economic times.

Several questions center on pay, pensions and how the city can pump up its revenues. For example: "Would you support a sales tax increase dedicated to public safety?"

The union has no immediate plans to push for such a tax, Arguelles said. But it wanted to take candidates' temperatures on the issue. Olsen said she would consider supporting such a tax, depending on how it was written. She'd like to see guarantees that the money would be spent as voters wished.

Geer agreed, saying he would support a tax if the money were earmarked for public safety. Perine said he wouldn't support a tax now, because he doesn't have enough details about it. But he said he could consider it in the future.

Impact of showdown evident

The union's other questions to candidates show the lasting impact of this year's budget showdown. The MPOA asked candidates what the city should do to hold on to eight officers who were rehired recently with a federal grant. The grant lasts only three years; the city has to cover the officers' salaries after that.

Those same officers were laid off in July, after the city and MPOA weren't able to negotiate wage concessions that could have saved the jobs. The city wanted the union to put off raises for a year to save $820,000. The union wouldn't give up the long-awaited raises without a no-layoff promise from the city.

Much of that debate took place in public, with the MPOA distributing a flier warning residents about possible layoffs and highlighting troublesome crime trends in the city.

Olsen, like all of her council colleagues, sided with the city. That didn't cost her the MPOA endorsement.

"You're not going to agree with anybody in life 100 percent of the time," Olsen said. "I think they looked at their endorsement in a comprehensive way. I think they saw someone who's willing to work cooperatively with them, someone who studies the issues and comes to decisions that are best for the city."

Olsen noted that in the past two budget years, she voted against keeping police positions vacant.