City continues difficult contract negotiations with Menifee PD

By Doug Spoon, Editor

City management and representatives of the Menifee Police Department are scheduled to meet again this week in contract negotiations that have continued for nearly two years and have at times been contentious, some say.

City Manager Armando Villa is representing city management in the negotiations with three bargaining units: the Menifee Police Officers Association (MPOA), Menifee Police Employees Association (MPEA) and Menifee Police Management Association (MPMA). Villa says the sides are growing closer to an agreement, but some say otherwise.

Menifee 24/7 has received an anonymous letter, an anonymous phone call and emails from individuals claiming to be officers in the Menifee PD. They criticize the length and alleged lack of production of negotiations, claim that salary increases offered are not sufficient, and say that many officers are considering leaving the department.

“I wouldn’t say that a claim that we’re making no progress is a true statement,” Villa said. “We started with a list of 20 items and we’re down to one or two. I wouldn’t say we’re not close. With every group, it’s coming down to one or two things. Those happen to be salary.”

A letter of “loss of confidence” in the negotiating process was sent to Villa and the Menifee City Council this summer, signed by Lt. Corey Cox (President of MPMA) and Officer Anthony Clay (President of MPOA). The letter criticized what they said was an offer of a 2.5 percent cost of living increase, adding that all other city staff were budgeted for a 4 percent increase.

“Our COLA increases for the years 2022 and 2023 were far outpaced by inflation of 8.6 percent and 7.3 percent as well as substantial medical rate hikes,” the letter stated.

Cox and Clay respectfully declined comment when contacted by Menifee 24/7.

Villa said that management’s latest offer is 4 percent per year for the next three years, which he believes is the most the city can afford.

“We have to be fiscally responsible,” Villa said. “They keep bringing up other jurisdictions, but we have to consider our situation here.

“We’re very competitive in our salaries. Cities like Murrieta have the ability to make more money because they’re older and they have more of a commercial base. We’re a relatively young city. We have $100 million infrastructure to build. Everybody who came here knew what the working conditions were going to be.”

The “loss of confidence” letter states that beginning in 2021, the PD bargaining units requested a classification and compensation (C&C) study to see where they stood against other local cities. The authors of the letter claim that the city agreed to have such a study completed by June of 2023, but the study wasn’t presented to the City Council until June of 2024. By that time, they say, many of the figures for other cities had changed.

According to that C&C document, the compensation for Menifee PD lieutenants ranked eighth out of 13 local cities studied. Menifee PD sergeants also ranked eighth. Menifee PD officers ranked fourth. Other cities’ next salary increase ranged from 2.5 percent to 4 percent (such as Murrieta). At the time the study was conducted, Menifee’s next salary increase was (and still is) listed as “unknown.”

Villa said that the C&C study showed that 95 percent of Menifee’s employees were being paid above market value. Apparently, PD reps do not agree.

“You made sure to take care of your own contract, securing your annual raises far above what you wanna give your cops,” an anonymous letter to Villa stated. “But yet we’re in a budget issue? There’s money coming in, and you know it. What about the extra battery money?”

That reference is to the Nova Power Bank, a 680-megawatt battery storage facility being built in north Menifee. According to city statements, it will link renewable energy with electric utilities when additional power is needed. Its 1,200 batteries to be stored there in a 43-acre facility will store enough electricity to power 680,000 homes for up to four hours when needed.

Villa said the facility is about 90 percent complete, but that the City of Menifee has been receiving payments from the project all year. He estimates that the City will have received about $20 million in revenue by the end of the year.

“That’s one-time revenue,” Villa said. “I believe what we are offering is commensurate with our ability to generate ongoing revenue.”

Villa is hopeful that this week’s negotiating session will bring the sides closer to an agreement. The other side? They’re only talking to the press anonymously. Only time will tell.