BY GRETCHEN WENNER, Californian staff writer
gwenner@bakersfield.com | Monday, Feb 01 2010 06:27 PM

Deadlocked negotiations between the city of Bakersfield and its police union will move forward with a future city council hearing, a judge ruled last week.

But bitterness between cops and the city isn't likely to be resolved soon: Lawyers for each side can't even agree who won in court.

"The court found in the union's favor," said Alison Berry Wilkinson, who represented the Bakersfield Police Officers Association in the suit it filed against the city in September.

"I think the union was asking for a lot more," said Ginny Gennaro, Bakersfield's city attorney. "I'm generally pleased with the decision from the court."

Last Friday, Kern County Superior Court Judge Linda S. Etienne granted the union's request that the city council hear the labor dispute. Etienne's ruling said the union had proved the two sides had indeed reached "impasse," meaning negotiations had formally collapsed. Bakersfield's municipal code calls for a city council hearing in such cases.

Gennaro said she won't recommend that the city council appeal the ruling. But she and Berry Wilkinson are miles apart on what action the council can take when it does hear the matter.

Berry Wilkinson said at the future hearing, the council must choose from final offers made by the police union or the city before negotiations collapsed.

A worst-case scenario would be the council doing nothing "or imposing something else -- they can't do that," she said. "That would mean more delays and lawsuits."

"I think they're wrong," Gennaro said. The court ruling says nothing about final offers, she said, adding that the council can unilaterally impose its own contract terms at the future hearing.

Another bone of contention is a budget reduction of about $8 million the council made at its Jan. 27 meeting. The money had been set aside for possible raises and back pay for police and firefighters. But the city's ever-grimmer budget scenario prompted shifting the funds to make up for a drop in sales tax revenue and future increases to the city's retirement fund.

"We call it retaliation," Berry Wilkinson said of the fiscal maneuver, especially since it took place after a Jan. 21 court hearing that made it clear the city council would likely have to decide the labor dispute.

City Manager Alan Tandy said in an e-mail the council's mid-year budget adjustment "recognized what BPOA was told when the financial crisis forced us to withdraw all offers" -- that the state's grab of city funds and a decline in multiple revenue sources had changed the city's financial condition -- and money "once available for negotiations was no longer there."

Gennaro said the council will likely be briefed in closed session on the court decision at its next meeting Feb. 17. She did not know when the court-ordered hearing will take place, but said it will be open to the public.

Bakersfield police have been working without a contract since June 30, 2007. City firefighters have also been working without a contract since theirs expired on March 31, 2008.