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As Contract Talks Begin, City Tells Police Association
the Employer Chooses Who Disciplines Cops

On January 13, Steve Schuback, the lawyer contracted by the City of Portland to lead negotiations on the collective bargaining contract with the Portland Police Association (PPA), came out of the gate strongly advocating management's right to decide who will investigate misconduct and impose discipline. The current contract limits the scope of investigations by suggesting police have to question accused officers and stating civilians cannot look into deadly force incidents. The PPA was, needless to say, not thrilled, and took time at all five publicly-held bargaining sessions to challenge the creation of the new oversight board approved into the City Charter in November (PPR #82). Community monitoring of the sessions is difficult because one of every two meetings is held privately. Organizers racked up over 60 organizational signatures on a letter originally circulated in December demanding changes for more accountability.

Now-resigned PPA President Brian Hunzeker took to a podium like a politician at the first session to express the "union"'s desire to hire more officers and work on transformative change on their own terms. Since the ground rules for observers dictate that nobody is supposed to record the sessions, being held over Zoom, it's not clear why Hunzeker made such a dramatic gesture. We speculate it was to play to the rank-and-file who may have been watching, as well as civilian supporters of re-funding the police. The City said over 600 people attended that first session.

There were no crowd estimates on the sessions held on January 27, February 10, March 10 or April 7; it's likely the crowd size dropped dramatically as each day's bargaining lasts for five hours (plus lunch) with dozens of minutes set aside for each party to "caucus." While they can be tedious to attend, these important tidbits came out of the sessions:

--The PPA expressed a desire to enshrine the current 180 day timeline for misconduct investigations into the contract, adding that the cases would have to be dropped if the investigation takes longer. The deadline comes from the US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement, which requires the City to find ways to speed up future investigations if the 6-month clock expires, but does not suggest they throw out the allegations after that.

--The Association craftily proposed new language to the section about reviewing policies (Directives) which entitles them to review final drafts. This means they will always be commenting after the public has seen the proposed changed Directives. As of PPR deadline, the City agreed to this change.

--The PPA is also trying to make it so officers being investigated for their role investigating or supervising a deadly force incident won't be held up for promotion while the review continues. The City wisely responded they don't want to promote someone, then find out later they committed misconduct and then have to demote them. Furthermore, as PCW noted in a follow up to the City, failing to promote someone is not, as the PPA asserted, a form of discipline.

The Association also laid out arguments it clearly wants to make to try overturning the new oversight system, including that the ballot measure title should have told voters the City has to bargain items which are currently limited/prohibited by the contract. Since that obligation is in the first paragraph of the Charter Amendment, it seems that is an empty argument-- not to mention that the City did in fact raise issues about oversight and their obligation to negotiate at these bargaining sessions.

Although he resigned from the Bureau in January, former PPA President Daryl Turner was sitting in the back of the "union" headquarters at the March meeting, occasionally interjecting in his role as a consultant. When Hunzeker resigned due to something related to false accusations against Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a hit-and-run (see Political Hit Jobs article in this issue), the PPA named Turner as their "Executive Director."

The organizations following the negotiation process come from civil rights, social justice, environmental, religious and labor groups as well as (surprisingly) Neighborhood Associations. Citizen Review Committee Chair Candace Avalos (as a community member) and Rev. Cecil Prescod penned an op-ed in the February 10 Portland Tribune calling for more oversight to be enabled through the contract (it had also been posted online days earlier).

For more information see portlandcopwatch.org/ppa_contract_campaign2019.html.

May, 2021
Also in PPR #83

Portland Copwatch
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.

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