ur last contract was the PBA’s first binding arbitration decided by the state’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). The union had sought legislation and fought court battles for years to gain the right to make our case before the state panel instead of allowing the city to put on a case before a forum where it had never lost — the city’s Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB).

Now, having seen the city demonstrate just how unwilling it was to participate in any real and meaningful negotiations, we find ourselves going through the PERB process again. Some of our members have asked if PERB is worth the effort?

While we witnessed the shortcomings of the PERB process in the last round, the answer is yes, particularly where the alternatives are the paltry — or zero — offers made by the city at the bargaining table.

PERB currently represents our best chance of getting a contract with a raise and retroactive pay.

If you take a look at the results of the PBA’S last PERB arbitration decision, you will come to the conclusion that we did better than any other uniformed union in the last round. The city calculated the cost of what they called “an unjustified deviation from the pattern” as being about $150 million more than the pattern the city had budgeted for.

But while we did better at PERB during the last session than any other union, we did not receive what we deserve.

As of this writing, we’re headed towards our last sessions of state-sponsored mediation. If the first sessions were any indication of the city’s willingness to find common ground in developing an agreement, then it’s pretty clear that we’re headed for binding arbitration again.

Once again, the PBA will present a case that should stand on its own merits. PERB considers two main issues in deciding its arbitrations: comparability of pay for similar jobs and the city’s ability to pay.

The answer to the first question is a no-brainer. We know we’re among the lowest paid big-city police departments in the nation. Police departments working in the very same metropolitan area make upwards of 30% more. And our work and risks are clearly equal to or greater than those of neighboring jurisdictions.

So that leaves the ability-to-pay factor where our challenge lies — the battle of the economists. Fortunately, over the past ten months, the city’s fiscal indicators have improved notably. Wall Street, a major source of New York City revenue, is on the rebound. And the city’s multi-billion-dollar deficit projected for this fiscal year has turned into a $1.5-billion surplus because of that rebounding economy. Of course, Bloomberg and company continue to project a dismal picture for the city’s future fiscal health because that supports their position that they won’t have the ability to pay a significant raise over what they budgeted based on the meager DC-37 agreement.

We work harder and longer, make more appearances and work in the toughest town with one of the highest costs of living in the nation and, still, most big-city police departments pay more. The arbitrator during the last round gave a clear indication that he believed the NYPD had a very severe and ultimately dangerous recruitment and retention problem. In fact, he used that as justification for giving us a better deal than the rest of the unions got.

We will make these and other arguments to the arbitration panel in the hope that the PERB process will continue to help us close the salary gap with police departments in surrounding communities.