LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A proposed short-term contract between the City of Louisville and the River City Fraternal Order Police received no vote on Tuesday, after councilmembers debated the topic for two hours.
There were unprecedented police reforms agreed on in the $12 million settlement with Breonna Taylor's family and the city. Several councilmembers pointed to that Tuesday afternoon as criticism of the proposed FOP contract, also questioning why they aren't included.
"Tone deaf as it is. Because it appears that the reforms that were promised," Councilwoman Paula McCraney, (D-7), said. "Reforms were not done."
"We do need to move aggressively towards the reforms but that does not mean that there isn't significant risk to the population, to the homicide rate, the violent crime rate, by continuing to have these recruitment and retention problems," Councilman Anthony Piagentini, (R-19), said.
The contract does include steps towards reforms, including the addition of housing credits for officers choosing to live in certain low income parts of the city. That was agreed upon in the settlement, but others of the wide-sweeping policy reforms aren't in the contract.
"What you're hearing and what I am seeing is a community united asking for transparency and they're asking for change," Councilwoman Keisha Dorsey, (D-3), said.
Dorsey said the contract should be stopped, unless it can go through a public hearing process where the community can weigh in.
LMPD Interim Chief Yvette Gentry told council she understands the timing of the contract "seems off" but she said she supports it.
"I think that's what people are crying out for. How do we make sure that situations like this are not normal here, that we don't have these issues come up?" Gentry said. "We don't want to slow down one reform waiting on the other, so it's a constant progress."
River City FOP president Ryan Nichols said he's open to reforms, during Tuesday's Metro Council Labor and Economic Development committee meeting. Nichols said reforms would need to be discussed specifically, before he could say whether or not he supports them individually.
"We feel that reforms can't end up harming public safety or harming the officers that are charged with protecting Louisville citizens," Nichols said.
It has been more than two years since the city and the FOP were able to agree on a contract. The last contract expired in 2018.
Metro Council members praised the contract for including pay raises for officers and benefit increases. It’s something they believe will help Louisville Metro Police recruit and retain good officers.
Several members of Metro Council raised concerns the city and FOP would be "stuck" with the short-term contract if an agreement can’t be made on a long-term one.
Officials said the plan is to get back to the table to begin negotiating the long-term contract in January and have it finalized by June 30, 2021 – that’s when the short-term contract is expected to expire.
Many council members also questioned why the reforms need to wait until January to be discussed in the contract.
“As a Black woman and a Black legislator, I’m tired of being told to wait. Wait until the next session, waiting until the next contract. If we have the opportunity now, why wouldn’t we take it?” District 3 Councilwoman Keisha Dorsey said.
The city said it wants to see the results of the top-to-bottom review of LMPD, as well as advocate for changes to state law when the legislature convenes next year, before being able to make all of the reforms.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.