‘Dro Drama: San Leandro is giving its police officers $20,000 to stay. Now other city labor groups want theirs

Alameda voters will decide this fall whether to give councilmembers a large pay increase.

CITY NEWS

SAN LEANDRO

—A side letter between the San Leandro city administration and its police unions was approved by the City Council on Tuesday with hopes it will slow shockingly high rates of attrition by giving up to $20,000 to each police officer.

—San Leandro’s police chief said on Tuesday that under 60 percent of his police force is non-deployable due to a rash of vacancies and officers on leave. “We’re at a crisis staffing level,” San Leandro City Manager Fran Robustelli added.

—But the side letter with police may have blown up in the city’s face after nearly two dozen police support staff not included in the deal spoke out on Tuesday night, saying they felt unwanted and undervalued by the city after being excluded from the retention and resiliency program.

—Some councilmembers encouraged similar retention packages for other employee labor groups. Councilmember Bryan Azevedo went further; saying city employees should be guaranteed additional money.

—The grandstanding appeared to alarm city officials. San Leandro Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter said she fears the council’s rhetoric will encourage a number of its bargaining groups to reopen negotiations with the city.

—“What we’re going to do is create a whole bunch of negotiations in public,” Cutter told the council. “I just think our council is going down a rabbit hole and it’s one we’re ripping open.”…