AGREEMENT REACHED ON LAPD PACT.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

The City Council reached a tentative contract agreement with the Police Protective League on Friday, giving police officers 18 percent in raises over the next four years and dropping demands that the contract require the union to take over the cost of defending officers accused of misconduct.

``We've got a deal. It's a good deal,'' said police union President Bill Harkness, the hard-liner who took over the union this week in a revolt that ousted more-moderate president Cliff Ruff.

Commented Councilman Joel Wachs: ``We've given them an excellent deal and something that they really deserve.''

But at least two other council members said the city was too generous.

``They sold out,'' said Councilman Nate Holden, referring to the city negotiators and their offer to the police union.

``The union was offering more than we accepted,'' Holden said later, in reference to a proposed reduction in sick days that does not appear in the tentative contract. ``I don't understand it.''

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg angrily walked out of the closed council meeting before the vote to approve the contract.

``She believes we gave away too much,'' said one council member, on condition of anonymity. ``I don't look at it that way.''

The union board met Friday and voted unanimously to ratify the contract, deciding to submit it to the union membership Thursday and Friday of next week for a vote.

Harkness said that the talks appeared headed for breakdown Friday morning when he met with the mayor and six council members and demanded that the city drop concessions sought from the union. Paramount among those concessions - in the eyes of league negotiators - was the city demand that the union take over the cost of defending officers accused of misconduct.

The union president said the agreement is ``a particularly major victory for us (in that) there will be no givebacks.

``This is pending the approval of our members, which I believe will be a majority, if not 100 percent. This will allow us to get back to business.''

The council believed a week ago that it had a tentative agreement but Harkness said the board was adamant about not being forced to take over the cost of defending against misconduct cases.

``I made a rather distinct demand on the City Council that we are not going to give up the defense reps. We want them taken off the contract right now,'' Harkness said.

``It was a win for us in a sense that I think the City Council realized that the Police Department is the most important entity in this city and is very important to them politically, because without public safety in the city and a good Police Department their political careers I believe would suffer.''

The $126 million contract package provides police officers with 5 percent raises in each of the first three years and a 3 percent raise in the fourth year, officials said.

Officials said they hope the contract will address the Los Angeles Police Department's attrition problem, making Los Angeles police salaries more competitive with those paid in other cities.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, who have a starting salary of $40,344 per year, are not expected to get a pay raise this year. The current LAPD starting salary of $35,538 for recruits with only a high school education will go up to $37,314 after the first year of the contract, all the way up to $41,934 in the fourth year.

The pact, which still has to be ratified by a vote of the police officers, was hailed by supporters on the council as a necessary step to show the beleaguered police officers that they have the backing of City Hall.

``This is really an important step in giving the rank-and-file police officers the support they deserve for the job they do,'' said Wachs.

Council President John Ferraro also hailed the proposal.

``After long and tough negotiations, we believe we made a good deal, one we can all live with. We need to show our support for our police officers, who risk their lives to protect the people of our city.''

Councilman Richard Alatorre bristled when he heard about Holden's comment characterizing the deal as a sellout.

``I don't think we sold out,'' he said. ``We've got a better contract.''

But Holden said the contract approved late Friday by the council caved in on city demands that Ruff and other union leaders tentatively had agreed to previously. Before Friday, the union had offered to surrender three sick days a year if the city gave officers 5 percent raises each year in a three-year contract.

The contract approved Friday by the council does not require officers to give up any sick days.

One council member supportive of the pact claimed the lower, 3 percent raise in the fourth year provides the city with savings about equal to what it would have gotten by taking back sick days.

In addition, union officials had been negotiating to have the contract spell out a process for the union to take over the $2 million annual cost of providing defense representatives for officers accused of misconduct.

Under a compromise proposal that city officials thought they had agreement on earlier in the week, the contract required the two sides to negotiate a way of transferring the defense representatives to the union, with a July 1, 1997, deadline, after which the change would be put on the ballot as a charter amendment and the union would agree not to oppose it.

However, the agreement reached Friday completely removes the defense representative issue from the contract, sources said. Instead, both sides have agreed separately to enter talks for reforming the entire disciplinary system, including a discussion of who should provide defense representatives.

One council member argued during the closed session that the compromise does not require the union to do anything, so the defense representatives could remain a city cost indefinitely.

But other council members said they are committed to resolving the issue, even if it means going to the voters and fighting a campaign of opposition by the union.

``This is going to happen,'' said one council member, on condition of anonymity.

The tentative pact comes a few days after the union board ousted Ruff as president and installed Harkness, an officer whose nickname is ``In Your Face,'' and who was one of the 44 ``problem'' officers singled out by the Christopher Commission in 1991 as having amassed a large number of complaints about excessive force and improper tactics. With two weeks left before the contract expires, the union board had been planning protest actions if an agreement were not reached by July 1.

In addition to putting up billboards critical of council members, the union was considering plans to hold a job fair where recruiters from other law enforcement agencies could come to Los Angeles to entice LAPD officers to go elsewhere.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who is up for re-election in April and had the union's support three years ago, emerged from the first closed session of the day saying he believed there would be an agreement.

``I was very hopeful and I'm always very hopeful,'' Riordan said. ``I think we have an excellent offer out and I'm hopeful that we'll reach a conclusion.''

If Los Angeles' 9,000 police officers ratify the contract, the spotlight will then shift to other employee unions that are expected to ask for, but not get, the same deal that the police received.