Council votes to split union for police sergeants, officers

Sergeants and officers in the Maricopa Police Department will no longer be represented by a single labor association after the City Council voted to create separate unions for the two ranks at Tuesday’s meeting.

The issue came before the council after seven of the department’s 10 sergeants petitioned the city asking that sergeants be removed from representation by the City of Maricopa Police Association (COMPA) due to potential conflicts of interest between officers and supervisors.

Ed Alameda, one of the sergeants requesting the change, told the council, which heard impassioned comments on both sides for more than an hour during the meeting, that a joint sergeants-officers union creates problems when a supervisor and officer engaged in a departmental dispute are both members of the same organization.

“How is an association going to mitigate a fair compromise when a supervisor is in direct conflict with an officer in same association?” he said. “That’s happened more than once.”

Union president Sgt. Aki Stant, backed by a large turnout of supporters, said that wasn’t an issue since departmental rank wasn’t recognized with the organization and all members were represented equally. He added a vote by union members to create separate sergeants’ and officers’ associations had failed and the issue should be addressed internally with the organization without direction from the city and barring sergeants from COMPA would take any the benefits of the three sergeants who didn’t sign the petition and wanted to remain within the union.

Martin Bihn, attorney for the union, said no police employee was required to join the association and he said the petition, which asked that COMPA to only serve officers and that no one above the rank of officer be allowed to represent the union, appeared to be an attempt to oust Stant from his role as union president.

“Aki Stant has been very vocal and if you put this into effect, Sgt. Stant loses his position and he’s out the bargaining unit,” Bihn said. “That looks to us as to what’s at issue here.”

Several of the sergeants asking to be excluding from COMPA stated that despite choosing to not be active members of the union, all the sergeants were still represented by the association and could not discuss issues with police and city leaders because of the terms in its memorandum of understanding with the city.

“Any decision they make affects me, I have no choice in the manner,” said Sgt. James Hudspeth. “Even though we don’t pay dues, we’re stuck under the umbrella (of the union).”

In other matters, the council approved the tentative budget, which sets the overall spending limit of the general fund next fiscal year at $33.4 million, which includes about $3 million in contingency funding taken from the city’s “rainy-day” reserves. The final vote on the budget is set for Monday, June 29.

The council also tabled a vote on the redevelopment plan due to a request from the Ak-Chin Indian Community. Tribal representatives said due to a miscommunication between the community and city, they had not had a chance to review and comment on the final plan, which creates guidelines to revitalize 3 square miles of Maricopa’s old downtown area.