(This story was updated to add new information.)
Austin police officers could receive a 28% raise over the next five years after the city and police union shook hands Monday on a tentative contract after months of bargaining.
The contract is expected to cost $217.8 million throughout the life of the contract, according to a press release sent by the city.
The contract, which still needs the approval of the Austin City Council and association members, would keep Austin police officers among the highest-paid compared with the other eight largest cities in Texas, according to a wage study conducted by the city.
Getting a contract has been touted by some city officials as the best way to improve morale, recruitment and retention in the Austin Police Department, which has struggled with all three in the past few years. The department has about 350 vacancies.
The city and the Austin Police Association have been without a full-time contract for nearly a year and a half.
Lowell Denton, lead negotiator for the city, said the six-month bargaining process has been "frustrating and fascinating and rewarding" and expressed hope that this will be a "new era" for the Police Department.
The tentative agreement comes at a time with a lot of turnover among city leadership, starting with the hiring of City Manager T.C. Broadnax , who has brought on Lisa Davis to be the chief of police and Dallas Police Chief Eddie García to be an assistant city manager overseeing the public safety departments.
Broadnax previously said reaching a long-term contract with the union was one of his top priorities when he started in April. Mayor Kirk Watson also said at the start of the year that he was ready to reach a long-term contract.
Watson said in a statement that this tentative deal is a "new chapter" for public safety in Austin and that the city has been stuck in a "contentious stalemate" for too long about policing. For the first time in five years, the Police Department is on track to end the year with more officers than it started with, he said.
"This agreement ensures strong community oversight," Watson said in the statement. "It also assures officers the long-term protections and assurances needed to address our staffing challenges and help them afford to live in the city they serve."
The deal would give most sworn officers an 8% raise in year one, a 6% increase in year two, a 5% raise in years three and four, and then a 4% increase in year five. Additionally, all officers would receive a one-time $2,000 bonus at the start of the contract.
For the first time, seasoned patrol officers would receive a patrol stipend that's set to increase over time as they stay on patrol. The union tried to get this added in 2018, but it was taken out of the deal.
This is the largest pay increase package in the city's meet-and-confer history since the late 1990s, although most previous contracts lasted four years instead of five. Regardless, the year one pay increase of 8% is the largest single-year pay raise in the city's labor negotiation history.
Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said he hopes that if approved, this contract will create an environment to help the city compete on a national level in trying to recruit more officers.
“No contract is perfect, but I think overall, this is a better spot than where we've been,” Bullock said. “Hopefully we're really going to be able to turn the tide on retaining and recruiting new people.”
Getting to this stage has not been an easy fight in light of the voter-approved Austin Police Oversight Act, also known as Proposition A. Some of the terms of the oversight act required negotiations between the city and the association.
A big point of contention became the release of confidential police personnel files known as "G-files," which, among other things, hold misconduct allegations and discipline investigations that did not result in any action taken. Voters elected to get rid of the file when they approved the oversight act.
Activists have said releasing this information could help increase transparency in the department, while the union has held steadfast that it could harm officers.
At one time during bargaining, both sides had agreed to language with a grandfather clause that said any G-file material held before the signing of the contract would not be released to the public.
However, a recent court ruling threw that agreement up in the air, leading the city to get rid of the clause and the union to walk away from the table. The city later agreed to go back to its original language, meaning there would be a grandfather clause.
Kathy Mitchell, who works for the advocacy organization that got the act on the ballot, said she believes the grandfather clause is a violation of the oversight act. Mitchell, senior adviser for Equity Action, said she's also concerned about how the city will pay for the contract in light of budget deficit concerns over the next five years.
"This is a huge step backwards for democracy at an enormous cost," Mitchell said.
City negotiators regularly said at the table that they believe the contract complies with the oversight act, based on conversations with the city attorney.
It's not entirely clear all of what was agreed to on Monday because, unlike in previous years, the city did not release or show draft versions of the contract to the public on the association's request to comply with state law.
However, the city said it would release a draft after the two sides had reached a deal, but it's uncertain when that will happen.
City negotiators on Monday said they intend to get all the language finalized by Thursday as they hope to have it on the City Council's agenda for Oct. 10.
Generally, members of the Austin Police Association would vote on a contract before the City Council, but that won't be the case this time.
Cleo Petricek, co-founder of the Save Austin Now political action committee, said she hopes the council will unanimously pass the contract.
"City Council members owe it to the city to go move swiftly on this, because we've waited long enough and we can't go through another month of uncertainty," Petricek said. "We deserve to have police officers feel supported, to boost morale, and this is a step in the right direction."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin police officers may soon get largest pay raise in decades if council, union OK deal
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