A ten­ta­tive agree­ment between Denver’s police union and the city could be sent back to the bar­gain­ing table after sev­er­al City Coun­cil mem­bers said Wednes­day they did not sup­port it.

The two-year con­tract would make about $5 mil­lion in cuts in 2021 by elim­i­nat­ing extra pay for offi­cers work­ing hol­i­days and decreas­ing city con­tri­bu­tions to a retiree health fund. But in 2022 those cuts would be restored and all union offi­cers would receive a 2.7% raise, which would cost tax­pay­ers an addi­tion­al $4.4 mil­lion a year.

The council’s Safe­ty, Hous­ing and Home­less Com­mit­tee on Wednes­day vot­ed to move the con­tract to the full 13-mem­ber coun­cil for a vote, but at least five coun­cil mem­bers said they did not sup­port the agree­ment. They cit­ed con­cerns that it would be unfair to promise rais­es to police while the rest of city employ­ees take fur­lough days and that they were not includ­ed at the begin­ning of the bar­gain­ing process, though city char­ter gives them a seat at the table.

“I have a prob­lem assur­ing a raise when we have no assur­ances for the rest of our work­force,” Coun­cil­man Paul Kash­mann said.

The contract’s debut before coun­cil comes amid a pan­dem­ic-induced city bud­get cri­sis and in the wake of protests where thou­sands called for tax­pay­er dol­lars to be real­lo­cat­ed from the police depart­ment to fund oth­er services.

Each of the nine peo­ple who spoke dur­ing pub­lic com­ment opposed the con­tract. The process should have been pub­lic, some said, while oth­ers said police should not get rais­es while the rest of city employ­ees are being asked to take fur­loughs and pay cuts.

“They get a 3% salary increase while every­one else sac­ri­fices,” said Xóchitl Gaytán, a com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er. That mon­ey could instead be used for oth­er needs in the city, she said.

The Den­ver Police Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sents about 1,450 mem­bers of the department’s rank and file, accord­ing to its web­site. Under the cur­rent con­tract, a police recruit made a salary of $58,633 and more expe­ri­enced offi­cers make up to $94,630. An offi­cer who achieves the rank of tech­ni­cian, detec­tive or high­er makes more than $100,000, accord­ing to the department’s web­site.

The union’s lead­er­ship sent a let­ter to May­or Michael Han­cock on Aug. 21 com­mit­ting that they would rene­go­ti­ate the terms for 2022 if the city is still in finan­cial trou­ble. Han­cock pre­vi­ous­ly said he sup­port­ed the agreement.

“The PPA would like you to know that it is com­mit­ted to the cit­i­zens of this great City and if the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion were not to rebound, all that needs to be done is for the City to ask to reopen this con­tract — as has been done more than once in the past — and we will part­ner to make sure we always do our part to make this City strong again,” the union wrote in the letter.

Unlike oth­er cities, offi­cers’ dis­ci­pline, polic­ing poli­cies and over­sight are not part of the bar­gain­ing process in Den­ver and city lead­er­ship can change those things with­out agree­ment from the union.

The con­tract also does not pre­vent lay­offs in the depart­ment, an avenue that Coun­cil­woman Can­di Cde­Ba­ca float­ed dur­ing the meet­ing if more cuts are needed.

“Per­haps lay­offs are the way to defund the police to meet the will of the peo­ple,” she said.

If the coun­cil votes against the con­tract, the city and the union will resume nego­ti­a­tions, said Rob Nes­por, the city’s chief nego­tia­tor. If they can­not come to anoth­er agree­ment that is dif­fer­ent than the first one, the nego­ti­a­tions will go to arbi­tra­tion. That means that an inde­pen­dent third par­ty would look at the most recent posi­tions of each side and choose what he or she thinks is fair.

That could be risky for the city because the arbi­tra­tor could choose a pro­pos­al by the union that costs more than the cur­rent ten­ta­tive agree­ment, Nes­por said.

“It’s some­thing that we des­per­ate­ly need to solve for the bud­get gap next year,” Nes­por said of the $5 mil­lion cuts.

The nego­ti­a­tions will also set the stage for lat­er bar­gain­ing with the unions that rep­re­sent the city’s fire­fight­ers and sher­iff deputies, Nes­por said. Oth­er city employ­ees are pro­hib­it­ed by char­ter from col­lec­tive bargaining.

“I am con­cerned about the mes­sage that this sends to the employ­ees of this city,” Coun­cil­woman Aman­da Sawyer said. “I am con­cerned that this sends the mes­sage that every­one should union­ize because that’s the only way to get a good deal in times like this.”

Three sit­ting coun­cil mem­bers have received cam­paign dona­tions from the Den­ver Police Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion, city records show. Deb­bie Orte­ga received $1,000 in 2019, Christo­pher Hern­don received $1,000 in 2019 and Kevin Fly­nn received a com­bined $1,300 in 2015 and 2016.