City Council members balked at a new contract with the El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association that will add nearly $12 million to police salaries in the next four years before approving it on a 5-2 vote Tuesday.

The agreement will push salaries for uniformed officers in the 1,100-member force from about $81.6 million to $93.4 million over the term of the contract, which runs a year longer than usual.

City Reps, Steve Ortega and Beto O’Rourke voted against the contract but not because of the annual raises that start at $1.8 million for the fiscal year starting Sept. 1 and peak at $3.9 million in three years.

They were troubled over the council’s lack of involvement in policy decisions made in the negotiations, including concessions by the city’s negotiating team that will restrict the use of polygraph examinations in internal investigations and impose a new 48-hour waiting period before an officer involved in a shooting can be questioned or be asked to participate in a “walk-through” retracing the events that led to a shooting.

While Police Chief Greg Allen and the head of the police union, Bobby Holguin, supported those changes, former Chief Richard Wiles and the police union's former attorney, Bill Ellis, appeared before City Council to oppose them.

Wiles, who retired as chief late last year and later announced he would run for sheriff, said he reinstituted the use of the polygraph, which the department had abandoned as an investigative tool 20 years before.

“I felt I had an obligation to the public to use every tool available to me to get to the truth of the matter,” Wiles said. “I still support it, but I understand there’s some people who don’t and if they choose not to use it, I think that’s fine.

“But I just want it to be clear to the public, because I think you owe them that, that this contract is going to eliminate the polygraph.”

That is because officers under investigation can refuse a polygraph exam by an Internal Affairs officer and insist on an independent examiner.

Then, Wiles said, if the officer exercises his new right under the contract to refuse to sign a waiver relieving the outside examiner of liability, the examiner will refuse to administer the examination.

Chris Borunda, a former assistant city attorney whom the city hired to assist in the negotiations, said an officer who refuses the polygraph leaves himself open to harsh disciplinary measures by the police chief.

She said the polygraph is still a questionable and subjective tool, the results of which are not admissible in courts.

“The United States Supreme Court says that polygraph examinations, even a polygraph expert, can only surmise, can only offer opinions,” she said. “There is no scientific, there is no factual basis for anything that is given as part of a polygraph examination.”

City Rep. Eddie Holguin noted that the state of New Mexico is now allowing polygraph results in its courts.

The new contract also moves the time at which an officer can be asked to take a polygraph exam to the very end of the investigation and then only after all other leads have been exhausted.

Ellis, who said the contract “coddles” police officers, noted that the agreement allows the union to suggest investigative leads that the department would then have to pursue, thus injecting the union into investigations aimed at its members.

That, Ellis said, will bog down investigations and push the department against new deadlines for imposing internal discipline measures or taking steps to criminally prosecute an officer.

Wiles also wondered why the city and management would support giving an officer involved in a shooting 48 hours to gather his thoughts before questioning him about the events.

“When CAP (Crimes Against Persons) handles a homicide, they don’t allow witnesses to go home and rest,” he said. “They’ve just witnessed a murder, their relative killed? They don’t get to go home and rest.

“They’re taken down to the CAP office, and they sit there for hours until CAP gets statements.”

He and Ellis also questioned why the city agreed not to permit the video recording of a post-shooting “walk through” with an officer.

Borunda said the problem with questioning officers immediately after a shooting that may be traumatic is that they often remember additional and conflicting details when they have had a chance to rest.

“So it’s to the city’s interest, it’s to the officer’s interest, it’s to everyone’s interest to ensure that the statement you get is the best statement that can be given, that it’s useful,” she said.

Allen said, “When you use deadly force against someone, it is not a casual event. … That is an impactful thing that a lot of times makes people quit this job. I’ve seen it several times in my career.

“Chief Wiles believed in it. Philosophically, we are opposed on this, and I respect him deeply. But some of the things we have been talking about today are to guarantee both the rights of the officer and to make sure that we protect the city.”

City Rep. Rachel Quintana asked Allen and the union’s Bobby Holguin if they are comfortable with the proposed contract.

“I feel comfortable with the contract, yes I do,” Allen said. “The polygraph laid dormant for 20 years, and the big question is why. If it’s such a valid tool, why?

“And, yes, the public does deserve the best that it can get from this department and the integrity of the officers that serve this city, but that has never been an issue. Never.”

Holguin said, “Don’t get comfortable mixed up with happy, OK? I’m not happy with it all, but I am comfortable with it.”

The new contract does authorize random drug testing of 30 percent of the police force a year versus the previous contract that allowed drug tests only when there was cause for suspicion.

The new contract also significantly reduces the cost of the generous health benefits plan for police officer by requiring them to pay a share of their medical expenses.

In response to Ortega’s questions about why the council was not involved in the negotiating process and policy directions, City Manager Joyce Wilson said negotiations have traditionally been conducted by the city’s top management and a negotiating team.

Then, once the contract is ratified by the union members, it is brought to the council to be approved or rejected.

That, she said, is how she handled the previous negotiations with the police and firefighter unions and how negotiations have always been conducted in El Paso, going back to the time before she was hired when the mayor was the city’s chief executive officer.

To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605.