Council members want 'clarity' on police contract
I think they're skipping over the more important question.
Five Council members say they need additional assurance that the proposed contract with the Austin Police Association complies with the voter-approved Austin Police Oversight Act.
In separate posts on the Council message board, Chito Vela, Vanessa Fuentes, Jose Velasquez, Zo Qadri and Ryan Alter all said they want "clarification" from city attorneys about a provision of the contract that appears to keep secret records from past police misconduct investigations.
The APOA prohibits the city from maintaining a "G-File," where it has traditionally kept records from investigations if the police chief determines that no rule was violated. Most law enforcement agencies in Texas do not maintain G-Files, and accountability advocates say the chief should not be able to shield records simply by ruling there wasn't a violation. Investigations often reveal troubling facts about the department that the public should be able to access, they say, and the G-File offers the chief an incentive to not discipline officers if the facts of the investigation prove embarrassing for others in the department, notably the chief herself.
The following two sentences are the ones that have police accountability advocates worried that the city is only eliminating the G-File for future investigations but not past investigations.
For complaints of alleged misconduct which occurred prior to the effective date of this Agreement, the department shall follow (Texas Local Government Code) 143.089.
Effective upon execution of this Agreement and for complaints for alleged misconduct which occurred after that date, the City shall not maintain a confidential police department personnel file under (Texas Local Government Code) 143.089(g), nor shall the Department itself.
The city manager's office and Mayor Kirk Watson insist that that doesn't mean what it appears to mean.
"There is no G-file grandfather language/clause included in the TA," Michele Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the city manager's office, said in a text message to the Statesman.
The problem is that Michael Bullock, president of the police association, said that it does mean what it appears to mean:
Bullock said the contract's language is "pretty straightforward" that there's a grandfather clause, but he added that further court rulings down the road could complicate things.
And yet, the city manager and Mayor Kirk Watson insist that is not the case.
Hence the five Council members' calls for "clarity."
