13 Jan 26th–Feb 1st, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | cONTeNTs | feeDBacK | OPiNiON | NeWs | feaTuRe | NighT+Day | culTuRe | film | cafe | music | what we chose to do,” he said. Clure said he couldn’t speculate on why PLEA broke from that tradition this year. “I can only tell you that the history has been that the other associations only submitted a letter of intent to bargain” — and not the draft contract, he said. He questioned why the police union was facing scrutiny when it simply adopted the same practice as the other unions. “Why do you think [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] and the fire union and all the others weren’t submitting their contracts? Do you think that was transparent?” Clure said. The five unions seeking new contracts with the city are PLEA, AFSCME, International Association of Fire Fighters, Laborers’ International Union of North America, and United Phoenix Fire Fighter’s Association. Flores said the police union warrants a higher level of scrutiny than unions for other public workers. “None of the unions were transparent. But the police union is different from the city unions,” Flores said. “They have the power to kill, harass, arrest people, and they’re protected in doing that.” PLEA did not reply to questions from New Times. Representatives from all unions, including PLEA, were given a chance to present their proposals to the City Council during its December 7 meeting. None chose to speak. “The intent of the city code is for each of the groups to present their MOU at this point in the process, today. However, they have elected not to do so,” Assistant City Manager LoriBays said. The city does not appear to have taken any action to ensure that unions do present those contracts, as the city code appears to require. Clure said that if the city wanted the public to comment on the police union’s draft contract, it could just ask the union to submit its proposal. “That would solve this,” he said. A week later, at the City Council meeting on December 14, the public had a chance to comment on the contracts, but there was nothing to comment on. “It feels extremely awkward opposing a proposal that I didn’t even have access to review,” Phoenix resident Rebecca Denis said at the hearing. After several other people voiced their frustrations at the meeting, Bays explained that the public would be able to comment on the contract in April or May after nego- tiations wrapped up. “We will not have a draft MOU until much later in the process,” she said. Miller reiterated that position in response to questions from New Times about calls for transparency in the process. “The public does have an oppor- tunity to review and comment on the proposed agreement before City Council acts on it,” she said. But activists calling for greater trans- parency in the negotiations said the proposals from all the unions should be made public now. “It’s really hard to believe that [PLEA] didn’t have a proposal ready to go, or at least in the works, by the time of that public meeting,” said Ben Laughlin, a researcher and the policy coordinator for Poder in Action. In the past, the draft proposals allowed the public to speak out earlier in the contract negotiations about aspects that concerned them, Laughlin explained, such as a proposal in 2020 that allowed for disci- plinary records to be purged from officers’ records. “Community members have been able to speak out, because we were able to see the contract and said, very clearly, ‘That’s not okay with us,’” Laughlin said. The last contract, which was approved in 2021, raised wages for officers but also added some new accountability measures, including preventing serious disciplinary records from being wiped away. Phoenix police officers have seen even more wage increases than the ones called for in the contract. | NEWS | Cloak from p 10 The solution is “counseling and psycho- logical care,” not acceptance, he said. Kavanagh denied that parents may be likely to kick their child out of the house if they identify as transgender. He called that “a very cynical view of the American family.” Democrats outside the hearing also crit- icized Kavanagh’s bill. “This type of despicable hate has no place in our community,” Maricopa County Democratic Party Chair Nancy Schriber said in a statement after the hearing. “Our legislators should be focused on delivering real solutions to the issues our public schools and students face, like equitable funding, mental health support, and providing resources to ensure that our public schools are places that every Arizona child can grow and succeed.” Arizona Democratic Party Chair Raquel Terán said that children in the state are once again caught in the crosshairs of GOP lawmakers’ divisive political strategy. “These Republican politicians are creating more discrimination and violence against transgender and non-binary chil- dren,” she said. “Our leaders should have zero tolerance for this kind of hate. Instead, they are inciting it.” Hate from p 9
