Police union endorses Lingle
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
In a significant coup for Republican Linda Lingle, the statewide police union broke with tradition to endorse her for governor yesterday.
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Lingle pledged to help the union boost police salaries to bring them up to par with those in comparable Mainland cities.
Linda Lingle called SHOPO a "special union," and said the endorsement is important to her campaign.
The union has been seeking pay "parity" for years, but police pay here still lags about 30 percent behind West Coast cities, said Tenari Ma'afala, president of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.
The backing of SHOPO is considered a particularly plum endorsement. While the police union has only about 2,200 members, many politicians believe police and teachers are held in such high regard that endorsements from those professions tend to sway other voters.
Ma'afala said the endorsement marked the first time that he knows of that the union has endorsed a Republican for governor. In 1998 SHOPO endorsed Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano for re-election.
Yesterday SHOPO also endorsed retired state judge James "Duke" Aiona for lieutenant governor. Aiona is also a Republican.
Also yesterday, the Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers endorsed Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in the gubernatorial race. Hirono is a Democrat. The union represents workers at Queen's, St. Francis and Kapi'olani hospitals, Honolulu municipal bus employees and other workers.
Lingle called SHOPO a "special union," and said the endorsement is important to her campaign.
"We depend on these people every day to lay their lives on the line and the families of the members of this particular union sacrifice an awful lot every day as well, so to have them come out like this makes me feel very proud to get this endorsement and very grateful," Lingle said.
The counties are responsible for paying almost all of the police officers in Hawai'i, but Lingle noted the governor controls four of the eight votes for the state and counties during contract negotiations with SHOPO.
A majority vote of those employer representatives is necessary to agree to any contract proposal, which means the governor has considerable clout over the outcome of the bargaining. For example, if the union makes a pay proposal, the governor would need the support of only one of the three county negotiators to agree to the deal.
Lingle said she is concerned that Hawai'i is losing officers who leave for better-paying jobs on the Mainland, especially since it costs an average of $100,000 to train a Honolulu officer.
"I can tell you if I was the governor I'd be meeting the mayors and with the police chiefs, and I've spoken with at least two of them on the subject already, about what is the state going to do as a whole to reverse this trend of us training officers and then the Mainland reaping the benefits of all of our money that was spent in training," she said.
Ma'afala said an average of two to six officers a year leave Hawai'i to seek better-paying police positions on the Mainland.
Starting pay for police officers in Hawai'i is $33,000 to $35,000, Ma'afala said. The current SHOPO contract expires June 30, 2003.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
