Austin Police Association planning next move after council rejects contract

The Austin Police Association is trying to figure out their next move after the city council unanimously rejected - a re-write of the "meet and confer" agreement with the city last night.

The contract sets standards for things, including: officer pay, discipline and transparency.

The special-called meeting was at one point filled to capacity Wednesday night. More than 200 people signed up to speak urging council to reject or approve it -- testimony lasted for nearly 9 hours. Just before midnight, council unanimously decided to reject the contract and invite the union to go back to the negotiating table.

Council had major issues with the contract especially with the fiscal part that would have given the highest paid officers in Texas a raise.

"On the fiscal issues alone we could have said this contract shouldn't be there. I know that many of you have quoted a 9.5% raise as what's in the contract, well actually they get stepped pay on top of that and I don't want to get into the nitty gritty but that means in some years they're getting 10%, 12% 7%, not every year but that adds up to be a really huge amount of money," said District 10 City Council Member Alison Alter.

The union sent a statement this afternoon saying they're meeting with the board and membership over the next several days so they can make a decision on the next step.

If they don't go back to the negotiating table the department will go back to operating under "Civil service law" which would bring changes to hiring and promoting practices.