Santa Ana has put itself in a precarious fiscal position after its City Council – dominated by councilmembers allied with the city’s powerful police union – recently approved massive retroactive pay increases for officers and other staff. The deal will cost the city $27.5 million over 3 ½ years even as it faces at coming $30-million drop in sales-tax revenue.
The result will surely mean higher taxes or severe service cutbacks for city residents. These are the fruits of having that union dominate local politics for so long. Santa Ana struggles with crime and police recruitment, but it’s always a bad idea to spend money one doesn’t have.
Santa Ana has gone down this path before. In 2019, the council approved $25.6-million in police raises before it had identified how it was going to pay for them. That vote dramatically boosted the deficit. The police union was then under the leadership of a controversial president, who filed legal action against the city and sponsored recalls of councilmembers.
Related Articles
PPIC survey shows Californians are displeased with the direction of the Golden State
Democrats’ cynical crime package is backfiring
Trump’s very bad idea on trade, taxes
SCOTUS’ mifepristone ruling has it right. Not everything can or should be sorted by the courts.
Are there too many council meetings?
That president is gone, but nothing seems to have changed. Police chief David Valentin retired last year after taking a not-so-veiled swipe at union influence, as he complained that “compromised politicians, compromised staff and/or beholden individuals, groups and agendas should never impact your integrity, discernment or your genuine commitment to doing the right thing.”
The city in April quietly settled a $600,000 claim by its former city manager, who accused City Hall of pressuring her to help boost the former union president’s pension. She said she was mistreated for “for refusing to comply with the majority’s agenda to give more money and power to the police union,” she told VoiceofOC, which said the city never investigated the allegations.
The new contract even allows the current union president to “work full-time for the union without working in the field,” per the Register. One union-backed councilmember said supporting police doesn’t make one a “bought and paid for pawn” of the union. True enough, but it’s hard to imagine a result that would be any different if that were the case.