Police, city meet and confer talks advance with limited progress

At this stage in the meet and confer negotiation process, both parties, the SMPOA and the city, are taking hard lines with respect to what they want to appear in a final agreement.

In light of the recent media attention involving the police department, the meeting Friday showed just how far apart each is from finding agreement on specific issues, including salaries and how to revise language referencing concepts of misconduct and reprimand.

Attempts on Friday for the parties to define insubordination led to the calling of a closed to the public caucus. There was even discussion of removing the term altogether from the agreement document.