The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

City counters cops' arbitration initiative with its own measure

Miller unexpectedly changes her vote in special Saturday meeting

By Justin Berton

For the first time in the history of Sunnyvale, a councilmember cast a vote from another continent on Saturday morning, but the novelty of long-distance democracy was upstaged by a surprising vote from inside council chambers.

Councilmembers voted 5-2 in favor of putting a measure on November's ballot that would give residents the final say in labor disputes between the City Council and the Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers Association.

Mayor Jim Roberts called the special meeting after a 3-3 deadlock at the July 28 meeting resulted in a "no action" on the issue. The seventh member of the council, Vice Mayor Manuel Valerio, was vacationing in Funchal, Portugal, and could not attend the Tuesday meeting.

Councilmembers--including Valerio via speakerphone--met on Saturday to beat an Aug. 7 deadline to file election papers with the County Registrar of Voters. Normally the item would have been continued to the next meeting.

"To leave it hanging in a 3-3 tie and not have the full council there on an important issue is a disservice to the citizens," Roberts said. "It's a bad way to make public policy."

As the three-hour Saturday morning meeting wore on, many of the public speakers addressed Valerio personally, hoping to capture the vice mayor's swing vote.

But Councilmember Julia Miller unexpectedly came down on the side of the city's measure before Valerio had a chance to cast his vote.

By Saturday, Miller said at least 20 of her constituents called her to support the city's measure, causing her to change her mind--and her vote. "I've been lobbied by both sides. My phone has not stopped ringing," Miller said.

At the July 28 meeting, before Miller originally voted against the measure, she described the impasse and the resulting animosity between the two sides as "appalling, vile and disgusting."

"Both sides are being held hostage here and nobody likes being a hostage," she added.

The city and the officers have been unable to agree on a contract for a year and a half. The officers asked the city for an independent arbitrator to settle labor disputes. The council refused, saying the power to make budgetary decisions would then be stripped from elected officials.

With no other options, the officers put the decision to the voters by collecting enough signatures to place a measure on the November ballot

More than 150 employees and family members of the Sunnyvale's Public Safety Department attended the July 28 meeting. At the meeting, several union leaders from the Bay Area argued the city should let the officers' measure stand alone.

Both camps have offered their own semantics for the city's accompanying measure: Officers call it "a competing measure," and city officials are calling it "a companion measure."

The officers often claimed Roberts and city staffers were attempting to "cloud the issue and confuse the voters" because of the multiple scenarios that can play out from the two measures.

Roberts, who adamantly opposes the officers' quest to seek binding arbitration, said the city's measure will allow residents--not an outside arbitrator--the final say in financial decisions that will impact their community.

Fitzgerald and other union representatives argued that the council was acting in bad faith to put up a measure that will dilute the officer's cause.

If voters pass both measures, then the arbitrator's decision can be upheld or overruled by Sunnyvale residents in a special election.

The initiatives would limit the number of special elections to one per year. The side that calls for the election will pay all costs, which could range around $40,000.

The cost of the three-hour phone call to include Valerio in the meeting is still unknown.

In January, an amendment to the Ralph M. Brown Act, California's open meeting law, allowed for council meetings to take place by use of teleconferencing.

Public notice of the meeting was given in Sunnyvale and in Portugal in accordance with the Brown Act. Valerio said no members of the public attended the meeting in Funchal, which took place inside his hotel room.

Councilmemer Stan Kawczynski and Fred Fowler voted against the city's measure, while Jack Walker, Pat Vorreiter, Valerio, Miller and Roberts voted yes.

Now, the two sides will begin the campaign process, which both sides promise to be hard-fought.

"We will all be glad when the coming three months are behind us," Councilmember Vorreiter said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 5, 1998.
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