Walking a familiar beat

Dave Brooks

The Huntington Beach Police Department plans to alleviate a shortage

of officers by hiring 10 retired cops to work part time. The rehires

would continue to receive their pension benefits -- as much as 90%

of their former salaries -- as well as a new paycheck for their

part-time work. Police Chief Ken Small said the three-year pilot

program is a temporary fix to an understaffed department operating

without 13% of its workforce and an eight-month backlog on

investigations.

City watchdog groups have expressed concern with the long-term

effects of the program, mirroring a debate at the Orange County Board

of Supervisors about reinstating retirees. According to public

financial records, in the 2003-04 fiscal year, the county paid $3.7

million to 211 retirees who came back to work part time.

Supervisor Chris Norby called the system “double-dipping” and said

county employees should either retire or keep working, but not both.

“Either you take a pension or a paycheck,” he said. “They should

choose only one.”

The Huntington Beach system -- known as the 960 program because

state law allows retired employees to work only that many hours a

year -- would have retirees conducting pre-employment background

checks for new recruits, assist in police investigations and conduct

street patrols. Participants would be allowed to work 20 hours a week

for the next three years.

City Administrator Penny Culbreth-Graft said a string of recent

resignations and a yearlong lead time to get new recruits through the

police academy and trained by staff has created an employment gap for

the police department that could push patrols dangerously low.

“All the sudden you have a problem without enough cops on the

streets and you don’t want that,” she said.

Retired officers on the other hand can be back at work without

intensive training and could take over for officers accruing large

amounts of overtime pay.

“It gets people in place quickly at a relatively low price,” she

said.

Police administrators offered the 960 program to some employees at

the jail and communications division, but only recently to sworn

officers, Small said.

“We have some reserve officers who retired, we could start right

away,” he said.

City watchdog Ed Kerins, president of Huntington Beach Tomorrow,

said he supported the idea of hiring back retirees in the short term.

“But not after that temporary period of time is up,” he said. “I’m

concerned about the potential financial impact. When people retire,

they should retire and let new people come in to a lower salary to

take their places,” he said.

Huntington Beach police enjoy one of the most lucrative pension

systems in the city, collecting 3% of their final salary for every

year of service in the department; workers with the municipal

employees union receive 2% for each year.

The city has about $29 million in unfunded future pension costs,

former administrative analyst Clay Martin announced during a

summertime budget hearing. In total, about $46 million, or 31% of the

city’s annual discretional spending, goes to the police department.

Without a strong employment package, Small said, the department

will continue to face staffing shortages. City Council members will

soon be asked to approve a new police contract, negotiated by outside

consultant Renee Mayne of Monterey at a cost of $124,000 to the city.

Police union members recently voted to approve the deal, which

includes a pay raise.

A long-term solution, said Culbreth-Graft, is to find ways to

attract veteran officers from other departments who have proven

themselves and can be brought up to speed on Huntington Beach issues

fairly quickly.

“It’s a lot easier to get them up to full throttle,” she said.