Golden to Mayor: Time for police negotiations long overdue.

State Senator Martin J. Golden today urged Mayor DeBlasio “to return to the bargaining table without delay” as the city’s police officers begin their second year without a contract.

Golden, a former New York City Police officer, made his remarks just days after police officers marked the first anniversary of working without a contract by demonstrating on the steps of City Hall. DeBlasio was attending the Netroots Conference in New Orleans, the most recent of the Mayor’s out-of-town trips.

“Instead of delivering out-of-town speeches or setting up political action committees for 2020, the Mayor should be focusing on a new contract for New York’s police officers today,” Golden said. “The men and women who serve this city every day deserve nothing less than a mayor and city administration that will take this up immediately.”

“By resorting to binding arbitration,” Golden observed, “the Mayor is abdicating his responsibility for negotiating in good faith with the PBA. We need a Mayor who will pay attention to the here and now, and not his political prospects in 2020 and beyond.”