Police contract, new public safety HQ up for council vote Thursday

AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Thursday, the Austin City Council is set to vote on two major public safety items: the police contract and a proposal to acquire a set of buildings to build a new space that will house police, fire and EMS headquarters.

You have until Wednesday at noon to sign up to speak on these items at Thursday’s council meeting.

Police contract

The Austin Police Department (APD) has been without a contract since March 2023.

A sworn staff contract has several elements similar to any ordinary contract – like PTO and pay – but it has to get signed off on by city council, and the police contract in particular also includes elements of police oversight and recruitment efforts. Like other contracts, it provides stability to police officers and can be a tool to increase retention.

In February 2023, the city and Austin Police Association (APA) reached a tentative agreement, but city council voted it down to wait for the results of a May 2023 vote on a police oversight measure.

That measure, which included the call for the release of once-sealed primarily unsubstantiated misconduct claims against officers, passed. It spent the following months making its way through the court system before a judge made a ruling that prompted the city to begin releasing those files via official public information requests from members of the public.

The current tentative agreement further details the terms of the release of those documents.

Oversight used to be the primary focus of Chas Moore and the Austin Justice Coalition when it came to the contract, as the group strongly supported the Austin Police Oversight Act – the aforementioned ordinance voters passed in May 2023. Now that those previously sealed files are allowed to be released, Moore said his main hesitation regarding the tentative contract is the total amount of money involved.

“In order for us to ensure that we have the appropriate resources to make sure other departments and city services can still be adequate, I think we have to go back and get the numbers right,” Moore said.

The city explains the pay scale portion of the contract as follows:

The agreement represents a 28% increase for Austin Police officers over five years with a total value of $217.8 million. Base pay will increase by 8% in Year One, 6% in Year Two, 5% in Years Three and Four, and 4% in the last year of the agreement. Other pay aspects to assist with operational efficiencies will be increased Field Training Officer pay, a stipend for officers working the night shift, and stipends for patrol officers. 

City of Austin

This money, as does all funding for sworn labor contracts, comes from the city’s General Fund. General Fund money comes from things like state funds, property tax and sales tax, the city said.

“Nobody’s saying don’t pay the police any money at all,” Moore said. “I just think that we have to be smart about the money we pay them now because we have to think about tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) officially supports the contract and worries what will happen if it does not get pushed through.

“We have seen attrition bleed officers out of the department at unprecedented rates. That has left many sectors well understaffed,” said Bill Brice, the DAA’s senior vice president of investor relations.

He said the downtown sector specifically operates at about a 70% staffing rate, and other sectors have even fewer officers.

“Over the last several years, we’ve seen a decrease in public safety, but also in the perceptions of safety downtown. So our downtown employees, residents and especially our visitors have come to wonder what happened to the Austin that they know and love that they always felt safe in,” he said.

Proposal for new public safety headquarters

City leaders are working to acquire a building off of South Mopac Expressway and Barton Skyway to house headquarters for Austin’s police, fire and EMS departments.

There are two driving forces behind this, according to city leaders: the existing buildings are “suboptimal” and each departments headquarters are in separate buildings across town.

City Mayor Kirk Watson said the purchase price for the property is about $108 million, and the city estimates it would spend an additional $13 million to renovate the existing buildings and tailor them to the needs of public safety personnel. That $13 million includes $3 in initial renovations and $9 million in design services. City staff would come back to the full council with a total renovation costs once that design work is complete.

During last week’s public safety committee meeting, community members expressed concerns related to the environment, building access and security.

“The only way in and out is MoPac, it’s the worst possible access, and you’re going to load up not one but all three of our first responders and public safety people?” said Bill Bunch with the Save Our Springs Alliance. He also worries about how construction and additional traffic may impact Barton Creek and Barton Springs.

Kimberly Olivares, Austin’s deputy CFO, called this an “incredible” price point. She said her office has done several cost analyses, and this is far cheaper than the cost of renovating the current buildings, leasing a new space or building a brand new facility. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said this price point is less than half the cost of what it would take to build a new one.