Deputy City Manager Erik Walsh and police union President Mike Helle are scheduled to meet Monday night for the first time, at least publicly, since contract negotiations broke down in September. It’s unorthodox for such conversations to take place outside the formal negotiation process in full view of the public, but organizers hope to reopen the lines of communication between the two sides and with citizens.
The neighborhood forum, organized by the Highland Hills Neighborhood Association, will be moderated by former Bexar Commissioner Tommy Adkisson at Highland Hills Elementary School, 734 Glamis Ave., at 7 p.m.
Adkisson, a local attorney who serves as vice president of the neighborhood association and ran an unsuccessful bid for mayor earlier this year, said the neighborhood forum is intended to offer an environment where both sides can exchange information and “maybe see a little light at the end of the tunnel.”
He hopes the community setting will inspire a more open conversation.
“(When these conversations) are pulled away from the formal process, people are known for acting in a different matter,” Adkission said. “This is the real world here tonight.”
Tone of the talks have oscillated between hot and cold for more than 18 months. The two sides finally seemed close to an agreement more than a month ago, but the progress made on wage increases and health care plans was ultimately overshadowed by the City’s lawsuit over the 10-year evergreen clause. The clause keeps the current contract terms in place, without wage increases, until 2024 or until a new contract can be reached, a provision that the City hopes a judge will find unconstitutional because it impedes timely and effective contract negotiations. Helle has said the police union will not come back to the table until the lawsuit is dropped.
“Negotiations may resume should the City decide to remove the lawsuit and return to good-faith bargaining,” Helle stated in a letter to City Council and the mayor, adding that the union is willing to wait out the lawsuit. “We look forward to finding out that answer in court.”
Soon after receiving Helle’s letter, Mayor Ivy Taylor said the City will formally pursue its lawsuit, dropping it only if a new contract is signed.
Adkisson said he wanted to host the conversation with Helle and Walsh, integral members of each negotiating team, in a setting that allows easy access for members of the public. Negotiation meetings are often protracted affairs that take place during work hours in downtown locations wit little-to-no free parking.
“We need to put the jelly on the bottom shelf,” he said. “(Citizens) have a right to be better informed.”
While he knows the forum will likely not act as a “magic wand” that unites the sides over a new contract, “it’s healthy for the participants (City and police union representatives) in the process to understand that it’s more than just them involved … it’s a community issue.”
*Top image: The City of San Antonio negotiation team (left) sits across from the SAPOA negotiation team (right) during a meeting in September. Photo by Scott Ball.
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Read all the stories on the City and police union negotiations in the Rivard report archive.
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Why don’t we get Barnum and Bailey or the Wringling Brothers to moderate these debates? Sell some popcorn, hot dogs, etc. Maybe we could raise enough money so the union could fund their campaign donations and lawyer fees.