On Thursday, March 7, 2013, at the same time Chief Garcia’s ENS went out on the Phoenix Police Department Website, PLEA was briefed by Executive Chief Yahner on upcoming budget reductions.
- Take home cars will be eliminated for everyone who lives two miles or greater outside of the City. You will be allowed to park your vehicle at the City limits.
- Workout time for all employees (other than SAU) will be eliminated. Chief Garcia claims this will add 20 positions back to Patrol; however, NOT ONE of these employees works in Patrol. Also, the City is claiming millions of dollars in efficiencies by eliminating workout time; however, NOT one actual dollar will be saved.
- A pilot program in the Estrella Mountain with a mixture of 5/8 shifts and 4/10 shifts (Dallas model). Again, there is no evidence this will save a single penny. In fact, using the same City math as the workout time, this schedule is far more inefficient as the employees on 5/8’s have at minimum, an extra hour and a half per week of unavailable time (extra code 7, briefing, 40, loading, unloading). This adds up to a net loss of several employees in Estrella Mountain. Also, we just had a rebid one month ago and not one employee was made aware of Chief Garcia’s plans. This is extremely unfair to the employees of 300 Precinct.
PLEA and PPSLA immediately met with City Manager David Cavazos and Assistant City Manager Ed Zuercher. They appeared to understand the concerns raised and the general lack of collaboration exhibited by Chief Garcia. PLEA and PPSLA have another meeting on Friday with David Cavazos to hopefully come up with some alternatives to this ill-advised pilot program. In fact, it has been reported that Chief Garcia told the 300 supervisors at their recent retreat that there would be no re-bid in the near future and that they would not be moving to 5/8’s. PLEA understands that all members, particularly those in 300, have many concerns and questions and we will keep you updated as to what is going on.