LAPD union sues city saying officers haven't been paid raises
LAPD Headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, CA. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES - The union representing thousands of Los Angeles Police Department officers is suing the city for breach of contract, saying that officers haven't received more than three months' worth of approved raises.
The Los Angeles Police Protective filed the lawsuit on Nov. 9, naming City Controller Kenneth Mejia and City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo as defendants. It alleges that the two offices blame each other for the fact that officers have not yet received the money they're owed.
In August, the LA City Council approved a 6% wage increase, retroactive to July 16, 2023, as well as other increases. After the LAPPL reached out to Mejia and Szabo's offices, the two responded, saying that the increased payments haven't gone through because of "the complexity of the contract terms and the citywide payroll system transition."
In an Oct. 3 letter to the LAPPL, Mejia and Szabo said that the wage increases mean the city has to reprogram its payroll system, which is "immensely more complex to administer than a simple across-the-board base wage increase," and that the delay is further caused by the fact that the city's also transitioning to a new payroll system.
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In that letter, both Mejia and Szabo said that they believed officers could start seeing their raises by late October, but that never happened, and the LAPPL said their offices haven't responded to subsequent reminders.
"The Controller is dragging his feet on paying our members, and it's either incompetence, a lemon of a new payroll system he is in charge of, or disdain for police officers," LAPPL Vice President Jerretta Sandoz said in a statement.
According to the LA City Controller's office, The City has "neither failed nor refused to implement" the necessary changes to the payroll system, and that the updates have been a top priority and the department is "diligently calculating the individual back pay for each of our ~8,800 sworn officers."
The City's Director of Communications Diana Chang also added that there is often a lag time before workers receive back pay, because the city is making a transition from an old payroll system to a new one.
"We'd rather be deliberate, than fast and wrong," said Szabo.