Title
Adopt a Resolution Approving and Authorizing the City Manager to Enter into Memorandum of Understanding Side Letter Agreements with the San Leandro Police Officers’ Association (SLPOA), San Leandro Police Management Association (SLPMA) and San Leandro City Employees Association (SLCEA) to Facilitate a Staffing Retention and Resiliency Program
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a resolution authorizing the City Manager to exceute Side Letters of Agreement to the existing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) between the City of San Leandro and the San Leandro Police Officers’ Association (SLPOA), San Leandro Police Management Association (SLPMA), and San Leandro City Employees Association (SLCEA), which would provide retention and resiliency incentive payments for active current employees as a means of addressing significant vacancy and retention issues.
BACKGROUND
The San Leandro Police Department (SLPD) is currently facing significant staffing retention issues that are deserving of immediate attention. The City presently has 22 sworn vacancies, 3 sworn personnel positions in field/academy training, and 12 sworn personnel who are on leave for various reasons such as worker’s compensation and other approved leaves of absence. For context, these figures equate to an active deployable sworn staff of less than approximately 60%.
Further compounding these challenges, the emergency dispatch center is presently operating with minimum critical staffing levels. Many SLPD 24-hour personnel are working extended emergency shift schedules and subject to mandatory overtime. As a result, the present situation is creating a tremendous strain on Police staffing and their families, and negatively impacting employee morale. While the City continues to work diligently to attract new talent and recruit new police officers and public safety dispatchers, it is also incumbent upon the City to pay equal attention to current departmental staff who have loyally served the community through some of the most challenging times in San Leandro’s history.
Furthermore, it is also worth noting that it is extremely costly to recruit and train new police department staff. Indeed, on average, the typical cost to recruit and train a new police officer is approximately $88,000. As a result, finding ways to retain existing seasoned and experienced staff provides a financial benefit to the City as well.
To address this issue, the City Manager, Assistant City Manager and Police Chief hosted a roundtable forum with a cross-section of sworn personnel in May, 2022. The City Manager and Police Chief subsequently met individually with all sworn employees from the department during the month of June. These listening sessions provided an opportunity for Police staff to share their candid thoughts about working for the City, and to offer their ideas about how to make things better.
Some of the potential solutions that were identified by Police staff during the meetings included:
• A desire for department staff to be recognized for their contributions and sacrifices for the San Leandro community. Such support was desired both through monetary compensation as well as via public recognition from City leaders. Recognition could be conveyed via various channels, including through social media, online forums, and public meetings; and
• Expanded tuition reimbursement opportunities; and
• Replacement of police vehicles that have exceeded their intended lifespan.
To help achieve these outcomes, the staff developed two proposed approaches that are recommended for City Council discussion and authorization:
1) A comprehensive social media campaign with videos of City Council Members and members of SLPD, Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD), and Human Services staff to highlight the work being done to keep the community and public safe. Related initiatives are now under development, including public service messages.
2) A Resiliency and Retention program to offer one-time incentive payments to select staff using salary savings from the SLPD’s existing adopted FY 2022-2023 operating budget, which would not require any additional appropriations.
Analysis
If adopted by the City Council, the attached Resolution would authorize the City Manager to execute Side Letters of Agreement with relevant labor bargaining groups representing all sworn SLPD staff including police officers and managers, as well as public safety dispatchers. It is presently envisioned that those side letters would facilitate one-time payments of funds to such police department personnel to incentivize their retention and resiliency as San Leandro employees. Funding for this series of one-time payments would be derived exclusively from the salary savings being generated by existing departmental vacancies. As a result, additional appropriations would not be required. Furthermore, these payments would be explicitly one-time in nature, and would not be eligible to be counted towards employees’ CalPERS pension calculations. Employees would also retain the option to have the funds distributed directly into their personal IRS Section 457b accounts, if so desired.
Overview of Proposed Payments:
Only active current employees at the time of the incentive payments are eligible to receive the payments according to the following proposed schedule:
• First payment - $10,000 to be paid within 30 days of City Council authorization.
• Second payment - $7,500 to be paid no later than six (6) months following the first payment.
• Third payment - $2,500 to be paid no later than six (6) months following the second payment.
The program is also envisioned to include stringent eligibility criteria. Examples of conditions that would be built into the program include minimum service-time requirements based on hire date, along with a prohibition on funds being distributed to personnel who have been subject to suspension from duty in the past two years.
Term
The program would automatically sunset subsequent to the issuance of the third and final payment to all eligible employees.
Fiscal Impacts
The proposed Retention and Resiliency program would reallocate up to a maximum of $20,000 per eligible Police Department employee. Since the reallocated funds would be exclusively derived from salary savings from the previously adopted FY 2022-2023 budget, no additional appropriations would be required. Based upon an assumed approximately 81 employees who could be potentially eligible for payments, the maximum total cost of the program would not exceed $1.165M. However, it is highly likely that the program would ultimately cost less than this not-to-exceed threshold. The final actual costs could be calculated following a thorough analysis of each employee’s service hours and compliance with other eligibility criteria.
ATTACHMENT
• Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to enter into Side Letters of Agreement with the San Leandro Police Officers’ Association (SLPOA), San Leandro Police Management Association (SLPMA) and San Leandro City Employees Association (SLCEA)
PREPARED BY: Eric Engelbart, Deputy City Manager, City Manager’s Office