LOS ANGELES — San Bernardino, Calif., the slowpoke of municipal bankruptcies, has experienced another setback with a breakdown in the tentative agreement between the city and police union.
"The city chose at the last minute to turn its back on what would have been an historic agreement," San Bernardino Police Officers Association President Steve Turner said in a statement Wednesday.
The city and SBPOA announced in August that they had reached a tentative long-term agreement.
The police union, like the city's other creditors, has been involved in confidential mediations since late November that are subject to a gag order from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive, the judge handling the mediation.
The City Council and the union separately approved the terms of the contract, but Turner said in an emailed response that the agreement was always tentative and was never signed.
Turner called the breakdown in negotiations a result of the city interpreting the agreement in a way that was unacceptable. He said the city and police union will continue negotiations.
City Manager Allen Parker said because of the gag order from the bankruptcy mediator, he could not respond with specifics.
"I can state that we are still in negotiations with the Police Officers Association and are continuing to meet in good faith in order to resolve any outstanding issues," Parker said.
The city reached an agreement with the California Public Employees' Retirement System in June.
San Bernardino backed away from efforts to impair CalPERS after missing a years' worth of payments totaling $13 million to the pension fund. San Bernardino still hasn't crafted the plan of adjustment needed to exit bankruptcy and is still in negotiations with its firefighters union and bondholders.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Jury announced in an oral ruling on Sept. 11 that the city would be allowed to break its contract with the firefighters union.
The city has been in bankruptcy since July 2012, but has yet to present the plan of adjustment needed to exit bankruptcy.
