City police lose vote on binding arbitration

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

Undeterred by a sobering 30-point defeat, the Fraternal Order of Police pledges to continue its campaign to gain the right of binding arbitration in contract negotiations with Fort Collins.

"Yeah, we're going to try again," said FOP president Scott Goff. "I don't see fixing the issue any other way."

In the Sept. 12 special election, the "Professional Police Initiative" failed by a 35-to-65 percent margin with 11,898 no votes and 6,395 yes votes. Turnout was nearly 28 percent of eligible voters.

The measure would have enabled police to call for binding arbitration after reaching an impasse with the city. An arbitrator would then be appointed to review the issues and make a determination binding on both parties.

Goff said he was completely surprised by the outcome in a Sept. 12 special election, noting that the level of support fell far below the nearly 10,000 petition signatures needed to place the initiative on the ballot.

"I don't understand it at all," he said. "Apparently we had more opposition than we thought."

Goff said he believes a $1,940 opposition campaign by the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce was largely responsible for the failure. While effective, he called the phone-calling campaign a scare tactic employing the "blatant lie" that the initiative would increase taxes.

In contrast, the FOP reported spending some $65,715 in its campaign. Goff estimated that figure would increase by $5,000 or $6,000 when the final disclosure statement is filed. The bulk of contributions came from the Northern Colorado FOP Lodge 3, along with the national and state FOP organizations. Most of the FOP's campaign spending went toward phone-calling and consultant's fees.

The low-key campaign focused on turning out the most likely supporters "was exactly the kind of campaign we were advised to run," Goff said. But next time, things will be different.

"We'll just have to make a lot of noise and show (the public) that the negative issues in the police department are affecting their service," said Goff.