Police union leader moves on

Dave Brooks

Russell Reinhart left his six-year post as president of Huntington

Beach’s police union earlier this month, taking a promotion to a

management position represented by a different union. With his

departure, the 18-year veteran policeman leaves behind a union legacy

that will be felt for years to come, critics and friends say.

Combining political endorsements with aggressive negotiating

tactics, Reinhart crafted one of the most lucrative, and some say

expensive, public pension programs for the city’s police officers.

The 40-year-old Aliso Viejo resident also shepherded the

Huntington Beach Police Officers Assn. through one of its toughest

labor disputes and several pricey lawsuits against the city. Along

the way, he earned the respect of many of his fellow city employees

and the ire of some elected officials who didn’t approve of his

tactics.

“He has a kind of quiet leadership skill,” Police Chief Ken Small

said of the former detective recently promoted to staff sergeant. “He

doesn’t draw a lot of attention to himself, but he has the full

respect of his peers.”

Reinhart was sworn in as a police officer in 1987, just three years after a Santa Ana store where he worked was robbed twice in one

week, an event he later said inspired him to be a policeman.

After 11 years on the force he was appointed to the union’s board

of directors, coming on as labor relations were so tense that

officers were camping out in front of City Hall to protest working

conditions.

A protracted labor battle followed in the fall of 2000, and after

eight months without an agreement, city officials and the police

union finally reached a deal in May 2001. Besides an 11% pay raise in the first year, Reinhart cemented a new pension program for retiring

officers that allowed them to retire at the age of 50 on 3% of their

final salary multiplied by every year on the force. Under that

agreement, officers who had served for 30 years would receive a

lifetime pension equal to 90% of the last salary they collected.

That deal is one that earned Reinhart criticism.

The pension program is eating away at taxpayer dollars, said

Councilman Dave Sullivan, a critic of Reinhart and the pension system

he designed.

“The public cannot afford something like this,” he said during a

speech to the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce. “It’s putting us

on the road to bankruptcy.”

According to a recent report from the California Public Employee

Retirement System, the city spent nearly $2.3 million on retirement

benefits in 2003 and is projected to spend nearly $11.1 million by

2006.

Part of Reinhart’s success was tied to his use of political

donations to City Council candidates. Five of the seven City Council

members now on the dais received donations from the police unions

during the elections. After holding several interviews, police

officers would set up political action committees for the candidates

they chose to endorse and spend thousands of dollars on election

mailers. To avoid campaign finance limits, the mailers had to be

drafted and mailed independently of the candidate. During the 2004

election, the Huntington Beach Police Officers Assn. raised more than

$32,000 to spend on political advertisements.

The soft money donations allowed Reinhart to develop strong

relationships with some council members, offsetting his feuds with

other elected officials like Sullivan, who once challenged Reinhart

to an IQ contest at a February 2004 council meeting after the union

boss called him “ignorant.”

Reinhart also had a penchant for battles with the media, declining

comments on dozens of news stories including this article.

After a series ran reporting that former police officer and acting

City Councilman Gil Coerper had negotiated a $121,000 settlement agreement with the city for unspecified injuries, Reinhart sent an

angry letter to City Administrator Penny Culbreth-Graft urging her to

cut off communication with the Independent.

“If the Globe or National Enquirer asked for a quote, we would

tell them no comment,” he wrote. “We should put the Independent on

the same level.”

He even tangled with the city’s attorneys, taking the city to

court over healthcare deductions and workers’ compensation benefit

disputes. The city is still locked in a 3-year-old lawsuit it

initiated against the police association to push the group to clean

up an old gun range set to be converted into a park.

City Attorney Jennifer McGrath said that even during the toughest

disagreements with Reinhart, he remained “forthright, honest and

trustworthy.”

“He’s a bright advocate for his organization and relatively easy

to communicate with,” she said.

Reinhart finished out his term by recently securing a new labor

agreement that included pay increases and improved benefits for

police officers. He was also a vocal advocate for increasing staffing

levels after the department went through several rounds of cuts in

2003.

Association Vice President Corwin Bales said detective Kreg Muller

will take over Reinhart’s seat.

He added that Reinhart was well liked among his fellow police

officers.

“It’s good for him to move on, but he was a definite asset for the

force,” Bales said. “He’s going to be missed.”

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

966-4609 or by e-mail at [email protected].