FOR THE RECORD

Police departments across the nation have been spending advertising dollars to lure city cops, touting higher salaries, better weather and less-stressful job conditions.

Last week, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association decided to give them a free assist, further poisoning relations between the union and the Bloomberg administration.

PBA President Pat Lynch announced April 22 that he was offering free ad space on the union's Web site and in its in-house magazine to police departments offering better pay than the NYPD, where Police Officers currently start at $25,100 and go to $59,588 after five years' service.

"If the City of New York won't pay our members a fair and reasonable salary for the dangerous job that we do, then we will have to help our members find jobs in cities that will appreciate their work and pay them fairly," Mr. Lynch said in a statement. "Our members are sick and tired of the rhetoric that praises us for our work, credits us for making the city economically viable and then tells us that the richest city in America can't afford to pay its police as much as cities with smaller tax bases and lower property values."

It was hardly surprising that Mayor Bloomberg delivered a scathing response during a press conference later that day. Referring to the results of a 2005 wage arbitration that sharply reduced starting salary and the overall pay scale in order to grant two 5-percent raises to incumbents, he said of the PBA's unorthodox recruitment effort, "I think it is a disgrace. Keep in mind the low salaries that our police officers get for the first six months, and really for the first five years, are because the PBA wanted that so that they could move more monies to the more-senior people in the agency. And then to go out and to hurt the city that they supposedly love? I don't think that that represents the view of 99.999 percent of the police officers who dedicate their lives every day to protecting this city. I think that is an insult to them."

Mr. Lynch fired back, "Bloomberg's comments just continue to demonstrate how out of touch with reality, and with the city's own police officers, he really is ... the real tragedy is that if New York City were paying a competitive top pay, there would be no problem attracting recruits and keeping veteran officers on the job."

The blow-up between the parties occurs at a time when they are awaiting a new arbitration ruling that is expected to significantly increase starting pay, based on two city offers made before talks broke down in mid-2006. The upgrade, which is expected to bring the entry salary to at least $35,000, under the city's proposals would have come, however, at the expense of other fringe benefits, which would be reduced or delayed for new officers.

The Bloomberg administration was insisting, however, that the PBA accept the same raises of 3 and 3.15 percent that it granted to other uniformed unions over a 26-month period. Mr. Lynch rebuffed that proposal, arguing that a significant increase in maximum salary was at least as important as a sizable boost in starting pay.

Several departments outside New York have done just fine recruiting in the city without the PBA's help. The Seattle Police Department, which spent $7,500 on recruitment ads here during the past two months, including a huge billboard along the old West Side Highway, attracted 169 candidates to take its written exam, according to a department spokesperson.

Starting pay there is $47,334 and the salary rises to $67,045 after six years' experience. The Seattle P.D. has promised to provide New York-based candidates $5,000 in moving expenses should they take the jobs in the Pacific Northwest. The agency is looking to hire 180 officers over the next two years.

A recruiter for the San Jose, Ca. Police Department said that 45 of the candidates who took its test would be lateral transfers from local police departments and assumed the majority of them were NYPD officers. San Jose pays new officers $70,000, and its maximum pay is $108,000.

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The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health will hold its 29th awards celebration April 29, honoring State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith and AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council President Gary LaBarbera.

It will also present Local 372 of District Council 37 with its "Local Union Award" for fighting for air conditioning for school cafeteria employees. Public Employee Federation rep Paul Stein will receive the committee's Karen Silkwood Award. The United Church of Christ's National Disaster Ministries and El Centro del Hospitalidad will also be honored.