DEL.ICIO.USPolice union grievances go back a long way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Much has been made about Atlanta police union head Sgt. Scott Kreher saying he’d like to hit Mayor Shirley Franklin with a baseball bat.
Kreher was speaking at a City Council meeting detailing grievances about the city’s treatment of five severely disabled officers and has said his frustration got the best of him. He apologized but was suspended.
RICK MCKAY/STF
Police Sgt. Scott Kreheri is sparring with Mayor Shirley Franklin (above) over the city’s treatment of severely disabled officers.
Franklin, who called the comments “reprehensible,” is now trying to make it a federal case, asking state and U.S. prosecutors to investigate the matter.
But aside from the pro-wrestling style hyperbole, the exchange between the two was nothing new. They have been sniping at each other for some time now, just as their respective predecessors have done over the years.
In 2004, not long after he took over as president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 623, Kreher erected billboards around Atlanta: “Welcome to Atlanta: Protected by some of the lowest-paid police officers in the country.”
In January, Franklin said in a speech she wanted to move toward a long unreachable goal of 2,000 officers before she left office this year. Kreher cackled at the idea: “Can the mayor be any more full of hot air on that one?”
An angry Franklin fired back with a public letter wondering if Kreher was not on board with such a “laudable” goal.
Kreher, who has increased the size of the police local by several hundred members to 1,100, is just the latest in a line of vocal union reps who have tweaked city officials for 25 years now. The recurring scenes of recrimination can seem like something out of the movie “Groundhog Day.”
In 1998, the union wrote to Gov. Zell Miller asking him to wrest control of Atlanta from then-Mayor Bill Campbell because of his “complete inability to administer the affairs of the city.”
Ten years before that, the union threatened to picket the 1988 Democratic Convention here and pass out fliers reading: “Warning!!! Democratic Convention Delegate. You Are Now in the City of Atlanta Where the Police Are Undermanned, Underequipped, Underpaid.”
The union rep at the time said the membership was “desperate” and “frustrated.”
The IBPO, which for years feuded with and ultimately vanquished the rival Police Benevolent Association in a battle for members, has also had to fight to win over officers in a state where unions are historically weak.
Atlanta police have no collective bargaining rights that ensure negotiations with employers. Instead, they have an arrangement called “meet and confer,” which amounts to lobbying for pay raises and benefits. Officers jokingly call it “collective begging.”
Among the benefits of members’ $10-a-week union dues are the national union’s research for issues and legal representation when there are grievances.
“The union, under Kreher, has methodically and persistently addressed the City Council, followed the rules, spoke at public forums, attended and worked with the Finance Committee,” said former Deputy Chief Lou Arcangeli, who until recently sat on the police pension board. “Certainly the union has used their credibility and role as research provider to the council to help defend the police in Atlanta from many ill-informed proposals and have effectively shaped public policy.”
To make up for their lack of bargaining power, union leaders try to appear strong to attract and retain members. They often loudly and publicly find fault with city administrators and their superiors, often drawing their ire. Taking such stances can stall or derail a career.
Kreher, who has a master’s degree in criminal justice, used to be on the department’s fugitive squad. But after accusing Chief Richard Pennington of instituting a quota system for arrests, he found himself transferred to supervising a midnight-shift patrol unit.
Kreher declined to be interviewed. Franklin did not respond to a request for a comment.
Kreher’s predecessor, retired Sgt. Marc Lawson, was outspoken during the Campbell administration and met a similar fate.
“Marc Lawson was a homicide sergeant; it’s where the cream of the crop go,” said Chip Warren, a former Atlanta officer who was the local’s first president when it was founded in 1985. “But he ended up on zone morning watch and rode his career out in uniform. You have to be willing to take a hit.”
Said IBPO National President David Holway: “In the South, I’ve never seen any of our leaders promoted to chief.”
Holway was in Atlanta last week to fire back at Franklin, saying she is using the flap over the baseball bat comment to draw attention away from the city’s treatment of the disabled officers.
Warren said some issues come and go, but pay and staffing have long spurred contention between the union and city.
“In 1985, our biggest issues had to do with promotions,” Warren said. “There was a lot of racial tension in the department then. Those who were promoted then were in the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police] or the Afro-American Patrolman’s League.”
The union worked with then-Mayor Andrew Young to create a departmental promotions system that ended frequent lawsuits, Warren said.
Warren said Young worked with the union in the late 1980s to improve pay and benefits. Still, things weren’t always cozy.
In 1988, 200 sign-carrying union officers marched on City Hall chanting, “Money talks, low pay walks.”
Young’s chief administrative officer fired off a letter to union leaders calling the march “irresponsible and insensitive.”
Her name was Shirley Franklin.
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