CM Vela proposes one-year police labor contract extension

As the city of Austin and the Austin Police Association continue to negotiate a new, four-year labor contract, several Council members have endorsed a short-term extension of the current agreement that would allow voters a chance to weigh in. 

District 4 Council Member Chito Vela proposed a resolution directing the city manager to negotiate the one-year stopgap by March 31, when the contract expires, to prevent falling out of contract, which would risk officers’ pay and benefits, and to account for the results of the May election, which will include at least one ballot measure related to oversight. 

“We cannot sacrifice for the sake of expediency the wellbeing of our officers or the accountability measures our community has clearly demanded,” Vela said in a Feb. 3 statement. “The only way to protect all parties is to let the voters be heard and give the negotiations room to succeed.”

Equity Action, a local political action committee focused on police reform, spearheaded an initiative petition last summer, successfully submitting more than 33,000 signatures in support of the Austin Police Oversight Act. If approved, the act would remove the city’s Office of Police Oversight from future labor contracts, grant the office access to any police records it requires and expand its authority to recommend disciplinary action in cases of police misconduct. 

Equity Action’s leadership, including its president, Chris Harris, has called for a short-term contract for months.

“This is the easiest path to making the May vote matter,” he tweeted Friday. 

The Police Assoc. way overstates how many cops would retire, but this is Council trying to give police security about pay & benefits, prevent add’l retirements & protect the will of the voters in an election they called.

This is the easiest path to making the May vote matter.

— Chris Harris (@chrisharris101) February 4, 2023

Voters for Oversight and Police Accountability, a PAC funded almost entirely by the police union, submitted 34,000 signatures in support of a separate petition, also confusingly called the Austin Police Oversight Act, which would weaken civilian oversight of the police department, as KXAN reported. If at least 20,000 signatures are validated, the petition could join Equity Action’s on the May 6 ballot. 

There is precedent for a short-term contract. City Council approved a one-year contract with the Austin-Travis County EMS Association last September,  which included a pay raise in light of high turnover.

Council members Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez and Zo Qadri co-sponsored Vela’s resolution. 

In the meantime, the city continues to push for strengthened oversight provisions in the new contract, including investigatory authority for OPO in cases of alleged police misconduct and an extension of the so-called 180-day rule, which limits the period in which an officer can be investigated and disciplined for misconduct, in certain serious cases. 

“Conceptually we want OPO in the room asking questions, the questions being answered,” outside counsel Rebecca Hayward said during a negotiation meeting Tuesday. “We want OPO to be able to do a preliminary review and investigate (allegations) alongside (the police department’s internal affairs division).”

The police union has signaled openness to removing OPO from the contract, but continues to bristle at the city’s request that OPO also be allowed to recommend disciplinary action to the police chief as part of the investigatory process. 

“That’s too steep of a hill for us to climb, to say, ‘OK, the last person who has a bite of the apple with the chief is going to be this person, (who) – whether it’s true or not – our officers feel that that office is politically influenced,” APA President Thomas Villarreal said at the same meeting. 

The bargaining teams return to the negotiating table Wednesday. 

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