(a) It is critical to the health, the safety, and economic vitality of the City and County of San Francisco, that the City be able to recruit new Police Officers, and retain veteran Police Officers. Recent experience has demonstrated that the City's Police Department has had difficulty recruiting qualified Police Officers, and, more significantly, has had difficulty retaining the services of veteran Police Officers.
(b) There is a highly competitive labor market for the services of Police Officers. Additionally, due to the historical hiring patterns in this Department, hundreds of Police Officers will become eligible for normal service retirement in the next three to five years. The City Police Department is already three hundred officers below the Charter mandated staffing level.
(c) In order to address this recruitment and this retention problem, through this measure the voters establish a voluntary Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) which would be offered to members of the Police Department in order to create an incentive for the retention of experienced Police Officers, and as well, to attract new Officers.
(d) Specifically, as well, the voters intend that this Charter provision, if adopted, shall be "cost neutral" to the City; that is, it shall not impose new costs upon the City as a consequence of the participation by Police Officers in the DROP.
(e) Finally, in order that the cost impact of the DROP may be assessed, this measure additionally provides that at the end of the third year after the implementation of the Program, the Board of Supervisors, pursuant to data provided by the Police Department along with an analysis by the Controller of the City and County and the consulting actuary of the Retirement Board, shall determine whether the Program has been cost-neutral, and whether in light of its achievement of the goals of the measure, it should be continued for an additional three year term, and thereafter, subject to similar evaluations.
(Added by Proposition B, Approved 2/5/2008)