By Natalie Edwards
Special to the Daily Press

DOWNTOWN In the main hall under the skylights at the Santa Monica Police Department, a large mixture of police officers, department staff, and family members met last week to honor the departure of Officer Marcus Mitchell.

Mitchell, tall and imbued with a preternatural calmness, wasn’t leaving the department. A reservist since he left active duty in the military in 2002, Mitchell was shiipping out to serve his second tour of duty in Iraq. Mitchell is one of six officers in the SMPD and one of 12 city employees who are members of the United States military reserves.

Though the SMPD would be bereft of an officer, the mood was celebratory because the speakers — Lt. Ray Cooper, Capt. Wendell Shirley, and Deputy Chief Phil Sanchez — focused on the remarkable dual commitment of an officer who divides his time in service both at home and abroad.

There was also a second, unspoken reason for the festive atmosphere of the gathering. Mitchell’s departure is the first since City Hall, in a nationally unprecedented act, passed a resolution that extends paid leave, benefiting Mitchell and city employees who are reservists like him.

Mitchell, who Lt. Alex Padilla called a “hard worker and a very down to Earth good person,” will no longer risk working without pay to serve both his city and his country.

Before the change was approved in January by the City Council, police officers who served in the United States military reserves found themselves in a bind. As the number of available troops became strained, the U.S. government relied more heavily on reserve forces and required of them additional training. Many officers found the 15 days of paid leave mandated by an Executive Order of the President of the United States on Sept.. 14, 2001 was outdated and no longer covered extended training obligations.

The traditional requirements of just two weeks per year and one weekend per month became to SMPD Officer Mike Solis a relic of “the good old days.”

Officers worked nonetheless.

“Out of commitment to the department and to the military,” officers like Mitchell and others were at risk of sacrificing sick days off and the needed rest of vacation time with family, said President of Police Officers’ Union Jay Trisler.

Several were running up hundreds of hours of training in addition to the 174 covered by the city. The numbers were staggering, ranging from 382 to 540 hours, such that scheduling became, if not an impossibility, then certainly daunting.

“Officers will work to adjust their schedules, but after a point, nothing can be done,” Solis said.

Officers couldn’t wrap their schedules around their dual commitments.

This was especially problematic when it came to those officers who held higher positions in the military and required longer, more advanced training. One, SMPD Officer Andres Rios, was going without pay with a family of five. The sacrifice was strictly a result of training, not active duty. Rios, a Navy SEAL, was required to do extra training due to his specialization.

Officer Doug Woodhams, a major in the reserves, also felt the pressure. After undergoing 395 hours of training, Woodhams had exhausted his allotted compensation only halfway into the fiscal year. Time meant for vacation was slowly withering away.

Supplying the city with adequate documentation to convince the council to make a change took two years and two rounds of different council members. Precipitating the passage of the resolution, Trisler and others were able to gather enough documentation to prove that the cases of struggling officer reservists were not aberrations, but instead an indication of a long term issue.

Despite the wait, City Hall was receptive and both sides found a compromise. While City Hall would permit retroactive compensation, it would only extend as far back as July 1, 2007. Still, for those officers with several years of reserve duty, the resolution allotted up to 320 hours of military pay and, with the budget already established, did so with no additional outlays of funds.

Woodhams, who just returned from a tour of duty, is one officer who will reap the benefit of the resolution.

“I think it is absolutely wonderful,” he said. “To know that the city and the department support military personnel is comforting. I know I have the support and backing of my employer. Before, I felt like I had to begrudge my military obligations away from my employer and it made for a less enjoyable work experience. It was a struggle between two opposing forces. This sets a strong example that I’d like to see elsewhere as well. The Marines under me don’t have that kind of support.”

Woodhams sent copies of the resolutions to the reservists serving under him. He’s hoping it will spur them to push for the same kind of treatment.

“This was about taking care of employees,” Trisler said, “not the war.”

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