How the cops got such a sweet contract

So city management has a handshake agreement with the police union on a five-year contract. If ratified by the union's membership and City Council, cops will see their base pay increase by 28% over the next five years.

Throughout contract negotiations, the police union had pretty explicitly demanded record pay increases in exchange for accepting increased civilian oversight and transparency. Most notably, the city was demanding the elimination of the G-File, which keeps secret certain police records related to misconduct investigations, in accordance with the Austin Police Oversight Act approved last year by voters.

The police union had argued that the APOA's elimination of the G-File was not enforceable unless negotiated in a contract. However, a judge this month ruled that that was not the case, and said the G-File was no longer legal.

In theory, the court ruling should have eliminated a significant amount of the union's leverage. But in reality, the terms of the deal had largely already been agreed upon and the city negotiators have shown little interest in using their increased leverage to reduce the cost of the contract. Even more baffling is that the proposed contract says that existing G-File records will remain secret, in apparent violation of the APOA and the court decision!