My Experience With San Rafael – Part II

By Richard Douglas, Captain (Retired) with editing help from Gene Pennington, Captain (Retired).

So now that I have informed you that I had been selected to be the negotiator for the Police Officer's Association, I should tell you a little about the politics of the PD. We had a mayor and 4 or 5 council members. One of these members was a retired contractor who worked hard all his life. His name was Fred Jensen. He was the most tight fisted person on the council. He did not like to spend his own money and likewise, did not like spending the taxpayer's.

One day, while I was still a beat cop, I received a call to go to a home on 5th Ave., just beyond H Street.  Low and behold it was a home next door to where Fred Jensen lived. I talked with the complainant and he told me he saw Fred Jensen walk out of his house with a rifle in his hands and shoot out the windows of his car, which was legally parked, in the street, in front of Fred's home. The complainant stated that he has had numerous arguments with Fred, over parking in the street in front of Fred's home. Fred wanted to save the space for his friends.

I went to Fred's home and contacted him. I asked him if he had a rifle and he said he did not. I told him his neighbor told me he saw you carrying one outside. He said that it was not a rifle, it was a BB gun. I said that must be a powerful BB gun to shoot holes in a car's windows. He said it was a pump and he could pump up a very powerful shot. I asked him if he still had it and he said he did, that it was there in the closet. I asked if I might look at it and he said sure and opened the door. He took it out and gave it to me. I then told him I was going to confiscate it as evidence of a crime. I then took it back to the PD, placed it in evidence and wrote my report, asking for a warrant to be issued. One was issued and Fred surrendered himself, was tried and convicted. He then had to make restitution to his neighbor and pay a fine. Fred didn't like me too much after that.

About 1966-67, the council appointed a new city manager, by the name of Bill Bielser. Bill was a likeable guy but if you ever got on his bad side, he was tough. During one budget session, I was negotiating with Bill for better pay, working conditions and benefits and he would not budge on a pay increase so we pushed for a better retirement package. The one we had was the State's plan of 1/2 pay at age 55. We also were able to collect Social Security at age 65. The California Highway Patrol had a much better plan which we envied.

When Bill Bielser balked at more money we turned our direction to retirement. Bill finally agreed to give us the CHP plan but we had to give up the Social Security Plan. (The City had to pay $45.00 a month for each of their employees into the Social Security plan. (The employee matched the contribution.) [Editor’s Note: I don’t know if we actually agreed to the CHP plan but we ended up belonging to the Marin County Employees' Retirement Association which was created when the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 was passed. Those of you involved in contract negotiations can post the correct information in a comment to this article.] Every member of the city had to vote to drop Social Security, there had to be a majority of employees voting to drop and we had to wait one year before it would take effect. We encouraged the rest of the city employees to vote with us because it meant a better retirement plan for the miscellaneous employee. The vote was taken; we achieved a majority of employees so now it was time to take the plan to the City Council. Don't forget. They (City Council) have the purse strings. We were all there that night, listening to the city manager present our case to the council. He said we had met and conferred and we were all in agreement that the better retirement packages were in order. That's when Fred went into action. He called the police department every name he could think up and eventually convinced two other council persons to reject the plan along with him.

One of our officer's father was a council member. The next day we had an informational picket line outside saying the council was unfair. The press had a field day with "Son pickets Father". I think it was a year or so later when we got a better retirement package.

Department inspection in back parking lot of San Rafael PD taken around 1976.  Shown is graveyard shift.  Pictured above from left to right, 1st row are Sgt. Dick Douglas, Cpl. Gene Pennington, Officers Art Myers and Woody Hoke, back row, Officers Tony Hoke and Mike Miller, back to the camera is Capt. Hank Ingwersen and to his right, Chief Larry Kelly.

End of Part II