Impasse over

The city of Chico and the Chico Police Officers Association, with the help of a third-party arbitrator, came to a tentative agreement on a new contract last Thursday (Jan. 27).

CPOA was the seventh of eight employee bargaining units to come to terms with the city, which had asked for a 5 percent salary cut from each unit. Unable to reach an agreement by Dec. 31, the city laid off six officers at the beginning of January.

City Manager Dave Burkland said details of the contract will be made public when it is presented to the City Council for final approval in a few weeks. “We were clear on what we … needed in order to provide the savings so that we could maintain as many officers as we could,” he said.

The officers who were laid off were hired back immediately following the agreement.

Two trades and crafts workers have been laid off after their small unit refused to negotiate with the city.