The Salt Lake Police Association will have a final chance to tell union representatives whether they want federal mediators to help solve the current contract negotiation stalemate with the city.
Originally, the deadline for the police union to accept mediation was noon Tuesday, but Mayor Rocky Anderson issued a 48-hour extension to accommodate a Wednesday police association meeting where officers will give union leaders input.
Mediation was suggested as a way to bring the feuding sides back to the bargaining table, but Anderson reiterated Monday that police association President Dave Greer couldn't be part of those negotiations, which have been at an impasse since a volatile March 16 meeting between Greer and Anderson.
After that meeting Anderson began a public relations campaign against Greer that continued Monday as the mayor's office released a voice mail message Greer allegedly left for labor relations manager Frank Fraser.
"You guys can just take the contract and shove it." the voice on the tape says. "You can expect the picket line . . . You can tell (chief administrative officer Rocky) Fluhart and the mayor to drop dead. We got nothing to say. Don't bother calling me."
Also released Monday was text of an e-mail Greer allegedly sent to Anderson threatening "a job action that will embarrass the city on a world-wide level." Anderson previously said Greer warned of a police strike during the 2002 Winter Games.
The e-mail went on to tell Anderson, "Your staff members have lied to you and misinformed you. . . . You should also be prepared to face the consequences of shutting out the very people who helped get you into office."
Anderson said Monday that he initiated the information campaign against Greer so that work-a-day cops wouldn't think the city was acting in bad faith when it halted negotiations.
"I don't think there's a police officer in this city that would subject their employers to this kind of treatment," Anderson said.
Greer has not spoken with the media or the mayor's office since negotiations broke down. Police brass, including captains, lieutenants and Chief Rick Dinse, who are all restricted from joining the union, aren't commenting either, although internal affairs could investigate Greer since city ordinance prohibits city employees from threatening to strike.
Greer and the union have insisted on an 8.1 percent raise a year for the next two years. The city has offered a three-year deal with a 2.5 percent pay increase during the first two years and a 2 percent increase in the final year. Anderson has noted that Salt Lake officers are among the highest paid in the state with yearly incomes averaging almost $5,500 more than other state officers.
If mediation is rejected or doesn't result in an agreement by April 20, Anderson said he will develop his own compensation package and deliver it to the City Council on May 1.
E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com