By Tony Plohetski 

back to top

By Tony Plohetski 
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:24 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011

A year after a vote that left bitter feelings, the Austin City Council is poised to again consider settling a lawsuit for $750,000 with the family of a man fatally shot by a police officer in 2009, the American-Statesman has learned.

City Council Member Sheryl Cole, who is leading a renewed effort to settle with the family of Nathaniel Sanders II, may already have the necessary four votes to end the case, based on inquiries Thursday night.

The June election of Council Member Kathie Tovo bolstered those chances. Tovo, who said during her spring campaign that she favored settling, confirmed that she will co-sponsor a measure from Cole to resolve the suit at the council's meeting Aug. 25.

Tovo defeated an incumbent who had opposed the $750,000 settlement.

Council Members Laura Morrison and Bill Spelman said they also plan to support the effort to resolve the suit — the same stance they held last year, when the council voted 4-3 against settling.

"It's time we look the tough ones in the eye and not be afraid," Cole said Thursday. She said ending the case would "avoid further costly litigation on this controversial lawsuit and promote community reconciliation."

Tovo said settling will "move our community forward on many fronts."

Austin police union officials had vigorously fought against a settlement last year, saying that it would serve as an indication that officer Leonardo Quintana had erred in the shooting. Late Thursday, Sgt. Wayne Vincent, the police union president, maintained the opinion that the case should not be settled.

"Our position is that we think a jury ought to hear it, and the facts should come out," he said.

A resolution would come more than two years after Quintana fatally shot Sanders in a Northeast Austin apartment complex parking lot after the two struggled for a gun that Sanders, who had been asleep in a car, had at his waist.

Quintana also shot and wounded another man, who has a pending lawsuit against the city, but it remained unclear Thursday night whether the city would seek to settle that case, too. An attorney representing Sir Lawrence Smith could not be reached for comment, and several council members would not comment.

The May 2009 shooting ignited an angry response, coming after several other shootings of minority residents that already had inflamed some in the community.

Police Chief Art Acevedo suspended Quintana for 15 days for not activating his patrol car camera, but Acevedo said Quintana had not used excessive force or violated departmental policies concerning his tactics.

An outside consultant who reviewed the department's internal review disagreed, but police officials disputed some of the consultant's key findings.

Months later, Acevedo fired Quintana after a drunken driving arrest, but an arbitrator reinstated him. Quintana was fired again last year amid an allegation of domestic violence and lost that appeal to get his job back.

The Sanders family filed a federal wrongful death suit against Quintana soon after the shooting.

Sanders family lawyers and city attorneys met privately last year and agreed to a highly publicized, tentative $750,000 lawsuit settlement that quickly evoked strong opinions.

Some community and city leaders argued that a trial would provide a full airing of evidence in the case and result in a verdict from impartial jurors. Settlement supporters said a deal was necessary for community healing.

Ultimately, council members rejected the settlement in a July 2010 vote, prompting a backlash from some community leaders who warned that the decision was a setback for city-minority relations.

The Sanders family sued again, claiming in a separate lawsuit that the city had breached a contract with them. That case was dismissed.

The current case is set for trial in November.

In last year's vote, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Members Mike Martinez, Chris Riley and Randi Shade voted against a settlement — although Shade and Riley had suggested resolving the case for $500,000, an amount they deemed more neutral.

On Thursday, Leffingwell said he was unaware that council members would bring a new measure before the council.

"Obviously, if it comes back to council, there is going to be further discussion on it, and I don't want to foreclose on any of my options," he said. "I don't see anything that could potentially cause me to change my position. My position is basically the same."

Martinez said that "it would be inappropriate to comment before seeing a proposal."

Riley said he remains undecided how he will vote.

Tovo defeated Shade in a June runoff, giving the council a new critical swing vote in the Sanders case.

It is the second time Tovo's presence on the council has helped reopen debate on a controversial issue.

Just recently, the council began discussing whether to allow construction to continue on a water treatment plant. Shade was one of four council members who voted to build the facility, but Tovo has said she would have voted against it.

Sanders family attorney Adam Loewy declined to comment Thursday night on the new chances of a settlement.

Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said, "I think it is a definite. I think it is going to be settled, and there isn't any doubt about that."

"It's long overdue," he said.

back to top

By Tony Plohetski | Thursday, August 18, 2011, 10:43 AM

A state police union will begin reimbursing the City of Austin for the salary and benefits of a local officer while he serves as the full-time organization president, according to a new agreement reached this week.

The deal ends a private arrangement through which city taxpayers had continued paying Sgt. Todd Harrison's $143,000 annual compensation as he carried out state union business.

The new deal — signed Wednesday by City Manager Marc Ott and the executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas — was reached after the American-Statesman reported two weeks ago that Harrison was being compensated from a pool of hours the city gives the local union for matters such as attending conferences and disciplinary hearings and lobbying the Legislature.

Officers contribute about five hours in sick time each year to fill the pool.

In exchange for allowing Harrison to use the hours, the state union was giving the Austin Police Association $50,000 a year.

The agreement also differed from earlier contracts between the state union and its elected presidents. In the past, the union had either covered the salaries of its presidents so they could remain on staff at their home departments or put them on the union's payroll.

Ott said he was unaware of Harrison's deal until recently. "Even though this came to light in the way that it did, I think it is as good an ending as anyone could hope for," he said Thursday. "Frankly, I think this agreement is going to serve all parties well. It is cost-neutral now for the city."

The revised contract will let Harrison stay on leave from the department but also says he may be summoned for duty in emergencies or if department officials deem it "necessary and in the best interest of the city."

State union attorney Craig Deets said, "I am just happy the parties were able to resolve it amicably and in a way that would allow (Harrison) to continue to perform his duties as CLEAT president."

Police Chief Art Acevedo had ordered Harrison this month to return to full duty pending a review into his use of the leave hours.

But the union took the matter to court, and a state district judge last week ruled that Harrison could continue working for the union for at least 14 more days. A hearing scheduled for Thursday was canceled after the city and union reached the agreement.

The new agreement is similar to a contract the union had with the City of El Paso when one of its officers served as state union president.

According to the deal, Harrison's union leave will not be considered a break in his city service, and he will continue to earn time toward his seniority.

The union will reimburse the city in monthly installments.

"While on administrative leave, Harrison will be expected to spend his full time engaged in CLEAT business activities," the contract said.

Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the local police union, said he is also pleased that the matter is resolved.

Vincent said he had wanted the city to enter a similar deal after Harrison was elected.

"We asked them to do it in 2009, and it's better late than never," he said.

back to top

By Tony Plohetski

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:51 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011

Officials for a state police union shifted day-to-day duties of their top elected leader to a full-time administrator four years ago before an Austin police officer became president and started working exclusively for the union on city dollars, the American-Statesman has learned.

The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas reimbursed the salary of its first president to his home city after the switch. But the union has made no such reimbursements to Austin, whose taxpayers have continued paying the wages of the current president while he is on leave from the department — an arrangement that has faced renewed scrutiny amid revelations that CLEAT had changed its rules.

Current and former CLEAT officials said they removed many of the operational duties from the president and gave them to a new chief executive in 2007 — partly to prepare the union for the possibility that future presidents might be unable to move to Austin to work full-time for the union.

"The concern was that we would have all of this decision-making going on where the president may be working the night shift and not able to come," former CLEAT President Ron DeLord said. "Everybody agreed: Let's make this shift, and if the president can get release time, there is stuff to do, but if they can't get release time, we can make that work, too."

The American-Statesman reported Sunday that Austin police Sgt. Todd Harrison has continued earning his $143,000 salary and benefits by using a bank of hours the city gives the Austin Police Association for its local union business. Austin officers donate about five hours of sick time each year for the bank.

In exchange, CLEAT has given the local union $50,000, which has been used for membership gatherings and to buy furniture.

Some officers have complained about the arrangement as part of broader friction in the local union, which comes several months before the November presidential election.

How and why union officials decided Harrison should work full time for the organization given the reduced role of the president remains unclear.

"I would have to go back in my notes and think back," said John Burpo, CLEAT's executive director since 2009. "I don't know that there was a decision at any one point. It just kind of evolved into a full-time position."

Harrison said in an email that "the executive director manages the staff. The president leads the organization."

He also emphasized that even since the rule change, CLEAT — an organization with about 18,000 members and a staff of about 30 — has had a full-time president.

But El Paso police officer Chris McGill, who took office in 2007, worked out a deal in which CLEAT agreed to pay the city back for his full-time wages and benefits. During his three-year term, McGill performed "ceremonial duties" as president but also helped local unions develop labor contracts and attended local union meetings, DeLord said.

"There isn't always just ceremonial stuff to do," he said.

According to the union's constitution, the president is responsible for, among other tasks, convening board meetings at least once a year and presiding over those meetings. He may also have other unspecified powers that "are usual to his office."

Until Dec. 31, 2006, the president also served as the union's principal executive and had to "employ and discharge administrative, technical and other employees."

But the rule change transferred some of that power.

The constitution says that the new administrator would serve as the "principal executive officer of CLEAT" and that the union's board would further set his duties and responsibilities.

"The chief executive officer shall serve at the pleasure of the executive board and may be discharged pursuant to a contract of employment," the constitution says.

Larry Watts, a former CLEAT chief of staff who worked for the City of Austin as its labor officer after his union retirement, said the union officials at the time also wanted to make sure the organization was "in the best possible position for continued growth and sustainability."

"The duties of the day-to-day operations shifted from the president to the executive director," Watts said. "The thought being that an executive director who was hired by the executive board gave more stability to the organization than a president elected by the membership in terms of running the day-to-day operations of the organization."

The change in the constitution came amid DeLord's retirement as CLEAT president after about 30 years.

During most of that time, he ran the daily operations of the union and was on the CLEAT payroll. He had resigned from his job with the Mesquite Police Department after his first year as president.

Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald, who has opposed Harrison's use of the union leave, declined to comment on CLEAT's rule changes.

Last week, city officials ordered Harrison to stop working for CLEAT full-time and to return to regular police duty. CLEAT has since taken the city to court, arguing that losing Harrison's full-time work would harm the union.

A judge ruled Monday that Harrison could continue working exclusively for the union for at least another 14 days. Another hearing is set for next week in state district court.

back to top

The Austin American-Statesman article Sunday on the Austin police union is a prime example of how public employees have become the prime target of anyone with an ax to grind.

Public employees who once were known for performing needed government services are now merely acknowledged as a taxpayer expense.

Though we are incorrectly given all the blame for breaking the budget with salaries and pensions, there is little attention paid to the fact we perform a service, and for that, we earn a salary and benefits. This is how the person who teaches your children or repairs your water lines becomes the demon of the decade over time.

Sunday's article implies that taxpayers fund leave time that is used by our union leaders. This is not true. Our members contribute their earned sick leave to fund the leave that the city grants to us. The sick leave surrendered back to the city has a dollar value attached to it, and therefore funds our association leave.

What do we do with that leave? We perform a variety of services not only to our members, but our community as well. The reporter's assumption that we used money donated by the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas to have parties and buy barbecue grills is insulting to everyone in our association. I can't recall the last "party" we have thrown.

Indeed, our recent events have included a dedication ceremony for victims and heroes of the University of Texas Tower tragedy. We assisted in the state memorial to our fallen officers in May, and, yes, we sometimes use our barbecue grill to cook for police officers working long hours at a major event downtown.

We recently escorted the family of Ralph Ablanedo — an Austin officer shot to death in 1978 — to Huntsville to witness his killer's execution so that it could have closure.

We helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Central Texas college scholarships at the Star of Texas Rodeo and used some of our resources to help raise money for an East Austin youth sports program that was in dire need of funds.

We administer and raise money for our own charity that assists many organizations in our community. The reporter who writes that we are having parties on taxpayer expense has been invited to all of these positive functions, yet did not find them newsworthy.

Our officers are grateful to the City of Austin for the fact we are paid a professional wage and benefits package in return for the professional job our men and women perform on the street every day and night.

We give back some of that benefits package to have a union that advocates for those officers and finds time and resources to serve the community as well. It is a shame to see that activity purposely slanted to make it look detrimental to the taxpayer.

Vincent is president of the Austin Police Association.

back to top

By Tony Plohetski

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 6:13 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011

Published: 6:08 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011

When an Austin police sergeant became the state union president last year, the local police union turned that into a money-making venture for itself at the taxpayers' expense.

Each January, the City of Austin gives the police union a bank of 7,000 paid hours officers can draw upon to conduct local union business on the city dollar without burning vacation time or calling in sick.

But the Austin Police Association for the past 18 months has handed much of that time to the state union — enough to cover the salary of its new president — in exchange for cash, and used the money to host membership parties and buy barbecue grills and office furniture, the American-Statesman has found.

The result of the trade is that city taxpayers not only have picked up the yearly $143,000 full-time wages and benefits for Sgt. Todd Harrison while he works as the top official for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas; they also have paid as the local union cashes in on Harrison's service.

Late last week, after being questioned about the arrangement by the American-Statesman, police officials said they have ordered Harrison to stop working for CLEAT full time and to return to duty starting today, pending a high-level review.

"This is certainly not what the time was intended to do," said Michael McDonald, an assistant city manager who supervises the city's public safety agencies. He said that Police Chief Art Acevedo told him about the arrangement in recent days.

The local union's top leader defended the deal. But the issue has fractured the organization, with some members questioning the use of the leave pool by Harrison and the ethics of the deal between the unions. Two officers have filed grievances with the Austin union.

The city has awarded the local union the leave hours in each of the past three years as part of a broader negotiated agreement that also addresses pay and benefits. The hours are intended for Austin union representatives to meet with city and police officials, lobby the Legislature or attend conferences.

Police typically would not be paid for such time off, but by using the bank of publicly funded hours, they can still earn their usual pay while away for union duties.

In the past, CLEAT had either put the incoming president on its payroll or reimbursed his home city for his salary and benefits to keep the officer on the books of his local department. But when Harrison became president, the local union instead gave him up to 2,080 of the hours to cover him for a year.

Then, CLEAT agreed give the Austin police union $50,000 a year in exchange. The union has collected about $75,000 so far.

Acevedo approved Harrison's use of the local union leave time. He said last week that he also knew about the deal between the two unions and took it to city lawyers for their review. The attorneys told him that the groups could make such arrangements with each other, and Acevedo said that matter is out of his purview.

"In my eyes, and in the eyes of the department, the (Austin police union president) saw a value in him being on leave, and made the request that he be allowed, and we approved it," Acevedo said.

Acevedo added that having an Austin officer serve as state union president benefits local police, such as when Harrison meets with the Legislature about new laws that increase officer safety.

"Everything that he can do to improve the professionalism of officers throughout the state has a direct or indirect impact on our officers," he said.

Austin Police Association president Sgt. Wayne Vincent, who draws about 2,080 hours a year from the same bank of time to cover his full-time leave from the department while working for the local union, said Harrison's use of the donated time is within the rules. The contract between the city and the police union says only that the hours must be used to benefit local officers.

Like Acevedo, Vincent said that even though Harrison may crisscross the state meeting with his 18,000 state union members, his overall efforts end up helping Austin police. For example, Vincent said, Harrison successfully urged the state to pass a new law this year that says police officers, firefighters and paramedics can get an expedited review from the state when cities deny their medical claims — an important issue for Austin police.

Vincent contended that the union's collection of $50,000 for the hours is a fair trade for giving up nearly a third of the total annual leave time it gets from the city for Harrison's salary.

"Part of the thought process from the board was, 'That is a lot of leave from our resources,'" Vincent said. "I have to have a way to show the membership that the (leave hours) are being used for their benefit."

Harrison said the $50,000 amounts to a "donation from (CLEAT) to the APA."

"I represent the entire state, and I guess this is a way for us to give back to the APA to allow us to use the time," Harrison said. "If I am working even in the Rio Grande Valley or in West Texas, by helping members of the (state) association, it does help members here in Austin."

Evolving policies

Cities across Texas often give local police unions a certain number of hours so members can conduct union business and not lose any pay, generally as part of labor contracts similar to Austin's. The pool of hours also allows members to attend officer disciplinary hearings and meet with politicians without giving up compensation.

Former CLEAT president Ron DeLord said the creation of union time — Austin calls it "association business leave" — grew from a law he successfully lobbied the state to adopt in the mid-1980s, when he and a former president of a Houston police union were at the Capitol during a Legislative session.

The president complained that he was burning through his vacation hours to attend the session, so DeLord scribbled wording for a possible law on a napkin and slid it to a legislator. The subsequent law permitted police union leaders to take leave from their departments during the 140-day legislative session every two years if unions paid cities back for the officer's time.

Today, experts on police labor relations in Texas said unions have expanded that practice to create full-time union presidents. The hour banks from which they draw are generally filled using donations of officers' vacation time. Some cities also kick in additional hours.

In earlier contracts with Austin's police union, officers donated about five hours each of sick time every year to create the leave pool. Under the current agreement, negotiated in 2008, officers agreed to earn a half-day less in sick time in exchange for the city donating 7,000 hours at the beginning of each year. Hours unused one year can roll into the next.

The contract allows the APA's Vincent to oversee how, when and by whom the hours are used — although Acevedo must approve his requests.

Union officials say that because the bank of hours replaced donated police time, the hours still belong to the union and so officers can use the hours as they choose.

Yet the contract states that "hours in the pool shall never have any cash or surrender value."

Vincent said the provision is meant to prevent the union from returning the hours to the city for money.

And, while the agreement does not specifically address whether the hours can be used by a statewide union president, it notes that "any association business leave time pool shall be created for the purpose of association business."

The arrangement calling for CLEAT to pay the Austin Police Association for the hours is unique.

DeLord, who served as CLEAT's first president, took an unpaid leave of absence from the Mesquite Police Department when he was elected in 1977. He resigned from the department the next year, and for the next three decades that he served as president, the state union paid his salary and benefits.

In 2007, after El Paso police officer Chris McGill took office, the arrangement changed slightly. During his three-year term, CLEAT officials reimbursed the city for McGill's salary and benefits.

Conflicting accounts

City and Austin Police Association officials provide conflicting accounts of how much they knew about Harrison's arrangement and the deal between the local and state unions.

Vincent said that soon before Harrison took office, McDonald, the assistant city manager, told him Austin would not allow CLEAT to reimburse the city for Harrison's salary.

Vincent said McDonald then asked him about the possibility of Harrison using union leave.

Vincent added that he sought the opinion of the union board and that members agreed to the current deal.

Vincent said that the $50,000 payment from CLEAT "is an arbitrary number" and stressed that the money has been used to "directly benefit our members." The union has hosted more than a dozen parties and barbecues in the past 18 months with the money, and purchased grills, furniture and other items "that remain in our inventory," Vincent said.

McDonald disputes Vincent's account.

He said he talked to Vincent after Harrison took office and told him that he did not want another officer on full-time union leave and objected to CLEAT paying Harrison's annual salary.

McDonald said he and Vincent then discussed the possibilities that Vincent could assign Harrison to local union responsibilities from time to time that would benefit Austin officers during which he could use the leave hours.

Harrison "traveling around the state on leave full-time, I never had that level of discussion," McDonald said.

Last week, McDonald ordered Acevedo to create a system by Aug. 12 in which officers who use the time must provide a more detailed accounting of how they used it. In addition, the department must soon begin giving a monthly accounting to the city's labor office that McDonald will review.

In particular, McDonald said, he will monitor whether officers are traveling out of Austin.

"From now on, there will be tighter control in terms of how that time is used," he said.

tplohetski@statesman.com;

445-3605

About this story: Tony Plohetski, a reporter on the Statesman's investigative team, has focused on police labor negotiations as part of his public safety coverage in the past decade. His previous stories have revealed how union contracts with the city made Austin officers the highest-paid in the state and, more recently, how officers have been allowed to cash in thousands of hours of unused sick time upon retirement, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.