The Austin City Council passed a temporary ordinance guaranteeing wages and benefits for police officers on Thursday after contract negotiations for a long term deal broke down with the police union earlier this month.
The Austin Police Association had been in discussions with city leaders about a four-year contract for several months, but the city council ditched that deal after firing former city manager Spencer Cronk on Feb. 15.
Police officials warned that the absence of a long-term contract could exacerbate the department's ongoing vacancy problems and the union walked away from talks for a shorter one-year deal.
Mayor Kirk Watson said Thursday that he is "asking the Association to come back to the negotiating table."
"Nobody, me included, thinks this is a perfect solution, but inaction is not an option. Our community needs to be safe and feel safe," Watson said after the ordinance was passed on Thursday.
The ordinance instructs interim City Manager Jesus Garza to implement a base pay increase for all officers below the rank of assistant chief, a signing bonus for new cadets, and a retention strategy to keep officers employed.
The ordinance also establishes the city's Office of Police Oversight as an "investigator permitted by state law to review allegations of police officer misconduct."
Just days before Cronk was fired, he warned city council in a memo that dropping the four-year contract would damage the department's "recruiting and retention efforts" and that the "council cannot simply pass an ordinance that contradicts state law." APD is already deeply short-staffed, both due to a shortage of officers before the city council voted to gut its budget by about one-third and canceled cadet classes in 2020, and by a large exodus that followed after the defunding.
Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter, who authored the ordinance that passed Thursday, said that the city governments retains "certain powers under state and local law to implement oversight."
Street takeovers throughout downtown Austin on Saturday evening, meanwhile, exposed the police department's problems with understaffing.
"On any given night, we are going out understaffed right now, and I'm talking about minimum staffing levels. I'm not even talking about optimal staffing levels," police chief Joseph Chacon said at a press conference on Tuesday.
"Because of that, I've had to be moving people from specialized units and from investigations back to patrol temporarily on a short term basis to answer 911 calls, and then go back to the regular assignments."
