SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif- It's been months since the City of San Luis Obispo and the San Luis Obispo Police Officer's Association began their negotiations on employee wages and benefits.
The city has declared an impasse, meaning no deal yet! The SLOPOA is the only remaining group left to settle with the city on a new contract. The city has asked employees to cut 3-point-1 million in employee compensation cuts, or 6-point-8 percent per employee out of the 60 plus men and women as a way to balance the cities budget.
If the police officers association agrees to the cut in their employees pay and cut in benefits for new employees, Human Resources Director Monica Irons says, it would save the city 632-thousand.
But the POA objects to this cut. So now the city has declared they're unable to reach an agreement leaving the POA with three options:
Irons, "the first level is to meet with our municipal employee relations officer that's our city manager Katie Lichtig , if after that meeting there is still unresolved issues then we can move onto mediation where we call in a neutral to help the parties reach agreement."
The third is a fact-finding process, where both parties will outline their concerns to a neutral panel. If an agreement is still not reached after one of these options is tried, city council will have to make the final decision.
