AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin City Council members are slated to take up a new contract Thursday with the Austin Police Association - despite an activist group seeking a court order to block it.
Equity Action, the group behind the voter-approved Austin Police Oversight Act, had asked for a temporary restraining order from a Travis County district court that would have blocked consideration of the contract during Thursday's meeting. However, that motion was denied, clearing the way for Thursday's vote to proceed as scheduled.
The group has an ongoing lawsuit against the city over its efforts to fully implement the APOA; that suit was filed last December, after voters approved the APOA last May.
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In its petition, Equity Action said that certain language in the tentative contract agreed upon by the Austin Police Association and the city "is inconsistent with [the APOA] in multiple respects."
“We had to file this suit in the first place because the City of Austin simply did not follow the voter mandate. It did not end the g-file. It did not set up the oversight system effectively. This is more of the same. As a result, we amended our petition and we will stay on track protecting what the voters passed and nothing less," said Kathy Mitchell, a senior advisor to Equity Action, in a press release.
In August, a Travis County judge issued a ruling that the City of Austin acted "unlawfully" by continuing to maintain the so-called "G file" records after the APOA went into effect.
Interim city attorney Deborah Thomas, in a memo to City Council members earlier this month, certified that she considers the agreement to be "consistent with and fulfills each provision" of the APOA.