One year after their contract expired, Oakland Police and the City of Oakland continue to negotiate the new contract, and have headed into mediation proceedings in a final push to get the contract done. PBA Local 164 and city officials have been attempting to negotiate a new contract for months.

The main stumbling block is the city’s attempt to include a cap on raises for all police and firefighters in the city. State law applied a 2% cap to such raises through December 2017, but individual negotiations between police unions and city officials can still yield separate agreements, with the state limits applying in the absence of a contract.

If mediation fails, the next step in resolving the contract dispute will be binding arbitration. Arbitration is not desired by either side, however; for the PBA it means a much higher cost as they will have to hire additional lawyers and other services for the more complicated proceedings as well as risk having the Statewide raise cap be applied. For the city, they might find themselves forced to agree to terms they find undesirable.

While both sides have clear motivations to want mediation to work, there remain no guarantees of success. With more than twelve months of ongoing negotiations under their belts, if there was an easy way towards an agreement it most likely would have been found by now. The hope is that an objective mediator will help both sides find some common ground.