E-Mail This Article to a Friend FleetCenter blues As if July’s DNC didn’t have enough problems, the feud between Boston’s police union and the mayor shows no sign of ending in time BY ADAM REILLY

THE FEUD BETWEEN the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA) and City Hall may soon be as much about partisan politics as about municipal finances and contract demands. The last time a Bay State Democrat ran for president, the BPPA — a third of whose members live outside Boston — intervened on the Republican Party’s behalf, throwing its endorsement to George H.W. Bush and cementing Mike Dukakis’s reputation as a soft-on-crime Massachusetts liberal.

The patrolmen’s association hasn’t endorsed a candidate this year. But its president, Tom Nee, is promising an aggressive picket line if the patrolmen don’t have a contract when the Democratic National Convention opens on July 26. If that happens, and some delegates refuse to cross the line, the convention could become an acrimonious debacle instead of a stirring demonstration of Democratic unity. And if images of disgruntled Boston cops get major TV play come July — making the Democrats squirm and stealing attention from Mayor Tom Menino, Senator Ted Kennedy, and presumptive nominee John Kerry — Bush über-adviser Karl Rove will surely be a happy man.

CHANGE TOM NEE’S background, and his ominous statements about the Democratic National Convention would probably earn him a close look from the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, Nee called the convention a "train wreck waiting to happen." This spring, he switched metaphors, warning that the convention could become a "perfect storm."

Nee, however, grew up in South Boston — and his overheated rhetoric is an integral part of the bitter, protracted dispute between the BPPA and the Menino administration. As negotiations between the city and its unions have inched forward, Nee has become the bane of Menino’s existence — organizing protests at the mayor’s public appearances, threatening to block pre-convention construction at the FleetCenter, and promising to confront delegates with the aforementioned picket line if the patrolmen still lack a contract come July 26.

Given the hard-line stance of Nee and the BPPA, it’s easy to dismiss the union as intransigent and out of touch. Last May, when Menino suggested settling the contract dispute in arbitration, the union refused. Nee did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this story — no surprise, since a recent union newsletter called the Phoenix a "disgusting filth-rag and purveyor of porno for perverts." But the union’s expectations are clear. The union is seeking base-salary increases of approximately 18 percent over four years, which would increase average annual earnings by around $9000. The BPPA claims this increase would provide earning parity with Boston’s firefighters, who received a generous new contract in 2001, and cites the $491 million held in the city’s "fund balance" earlier this year as proof that City Hall can afford to meet its demands. The union also wants relaxation of the city’s residency requirement for patrolmen, who can live outside Boston only if they joined the force before 1994. In a recent interview with WB56-TV political analyst Jon Keller, Nee didn’t specify what modification the BPPA is seeking, but he did attribute residency requirements to a "labor-camp mentality." Finally, the union has called on Menino to become directly involved in negotiations. (Dennis DiMarzio, the city’s chief operating officer, has been the city’s point man in talks with the BPPA.)

There are some substantial problems with these demands. To begin with, Boston’s fiscal condition has worsened considerably in recent years. Local-aid allocations from the state decreased by $83 million between the 2002 and 2004 fiscal years, and a recent report by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau indicates that the city’s workforce — which peaked at more than 17,500 full-time employees in 2002 — has dropped to about 16,000 today. The $491 million figure is also questionable. After pre-existing commitments are factored in — including funding for the Quinn Bill, which offers pay increases for officers who augment their educations — the city’s "free cash" stands at $61 million, $40 million of which has already been earmarked for items in this year’s and next year’s budget. Boston police first began seeking educational perks during Kevin White’s administration, and coveted them enough to take "zeroes," or level pay, in the last two years of their current contract in exchange for finally receiving Quinn benefits from Menino in 1998. The benefits took effect in 2000; in 2002, the Quinn Bill provided raises of approximately $13,200, $10,500, and $5200 to officers earning master’s, bachelor’s, and associate’s degrees, respectively, in law-enforcement-related subjects. Ignore these benefits — as Nee usually does when comparing patrolmen’s and firefighters’ salaries — and a 20-year police officer now makes about $57,700 in base, holiday, and night differential pay, compared with about $64,000 for a 20-year firefighter receiving similar compensation. Factor in Quinn Bill raises, though, and the same police officer can make approximately $64,700 or $67,400, respectively, after earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree. (Both police and firefighters have additional provisions for increasing their earning power; with detail and overtime pay included, patrolmen earned an average of about $78,000 in 2002.)

As for the mayor’s lack of personal involvement to date, Sam Tyler, the Municipal Research Bureau’s president, insists Menino has taken the correct approach. "The administration has capable people to represent it in negotiations, and the mayor should only get involved if it’s at the last moment, to put it over the top and finalize the deal," Tyler says. "To think that the mayor is going to sit through all the negotiations is unrealistic."

But if Nee and the patrolmen’s union seem willfully oblivious to financial realities, Menino also bears some responsibility for the current impasse. In 2002, the mayor gave himself a 20 percent raise, upping his salary from $125,000 to $150,000. Personally, Menino’s move was astute: city retirement benefits are linked to pre-retirement salary, and Menino’s last raise reportedly assures him a lifetime pension of at least $107,000. But with contract negotiations looming on the horizon, his decision wasn’t diplomatically savvy. (The mayor had previously increased his salary from $100,000 to $110,000, in 1994, and from $110,000 to $125,000, in 1998.)

Even worse, Menino set a disastrous precedent with the 2001 firefighters’ contract, which was signed soon after the September 11 attacks and shortly before that year’s mayoral election. For months, the firefighters had subjected Menino to intense and sometimes disturbing public pressure. Things got especially ugly at the mayor’s 2001 State of the City speech, where Menino was harassed as he entered John Hancock Hall, and his wife, Angela, allegedly was spat on. The result? A large, pricey expansion of sick-leave benefits and raises of 21.5 percent over a four-year period. The firefighters’ victory offered a clear lesson to the city’s other unions: the further you push Menino, the more he’ll reward you in the end.

"If you look at it just in terms of social behavior, a group acts loud like this and they’re rewarded for it," one city-union leader says of the aggressive approach embraced by the firefighters and patrolmen. "The mayor, in the end, will give them what they need. Whose fault is it, really? It’s the administration’s fault, because they’re rewarding the behavior they’re getting."