Letter won't keep me quiet, Bregman says.

Byline: Dennis Domrzalski TRIBUNE REPORTER

A letter from other city councilors asked Sam Bregman not to bring up the police raise because they said it would be confused with the open-space ballot.

City Councilor Sam Bregman says an attempt by two city councilors to keep him from bringing up the proposed 14 percent police pay raise at tonight's council meeting smacks of "political arrogance" and "bureaucratic elitism."

Bregman received a letter late Friday from Councilors Angela Robbins and Vince Griego urging him not to bring up police salary tonight and asking him to "remain silent" about police pay until city residents have voted on a proposal to raise the city's sales tax by a quarter-cent for two years to buy 9,600 acres of open space.

Robbins and Griego said in the letter that they feared that voters would be confused by the two issues and therefore would reject the open-space tax increase.

"Voters are sensitive to the issue of money," the letter said. "We have a 1/4 cent ballot on which voters are currently voting. Voters do not generally distinguish between 1/4 cent, general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, etc. They believe all the taxes they pay go into one pot straight from their …