City and local fire union attorneys sparred Thursday in state District Court over whether City Manager Sheryl Sculley, Mayor Ivy Taylor and other officials should be deposed.

Outside the courtroom, Chris Steele, president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, invoked the name of a legendary rock star to make his point that depositions should be taken quickly.

The union is seeking to depose several high-ranking officials for its pending countersuit against the city, filed in response to a lawsuit by the city that asked the courts to find the collective bargaining agreements with the fire and police unions in violation of the Texas Constitution. The fire union alleged in its countersuit that the city’s lawsuit constitutes bad-faith negotiating.

After the hearing, Steele argued that as time passes, deposing pertinent officials becomes more difficult. As he is apt to do, Steele combined typical and unconventional examples, referencing both former Mayor Julián Castro and recently deceased Prince, to explain why the courts should allow the union to depose local officials.

“There was a time when we had a mayor named Castro, and nobody even knew, and all of a sudden, he’s in D.C. Politics at the national level is heating up, there’s rumors everywhere, so we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Steele said. “Then, there’s Prince, my favorite guy. He just died all of a sudden. So we don’t know what’s going to happen here.”

After chiding attorneys on both sides for not informing her of the time they would need from the outset, District Judge Antonia “Toni” Arteaga encouraged the city and the union to consider mediation. Ultimately, she said, she would need time to read and pray before making her decision.

Last week, the 4th Court of Appeals ordered the city and the San Antonio Police Officers Association to nonbinding mediation, at the city’s request.

But there’s a key difference with the fire union: Its officials have never begun negotiations, whereas the city and the SAPOA had nearly reached a deal when talks broke down and the city filed its lawsuits.

Dan Pozza, the lead attorney for the city, argued that the union had filed its countersuit a year before the city ultimately sought a resolution to its case, and had time actually been the issue, the union would have done depositions with Sculley, Taylor, Deputy City Manager Erik Walsh and others.

Ricky Poole, the union’s attorney, and Steele both said the union had hoped the city would drop its lawsuit, making their countersuit a moot point. The judge asked Steele whether he had attempted to solve the problems at hand by working directly with the mayor, leaving the lawyers out of it. Steele responded that the issue is complicated, but that he and others are working directly with Taylor.

Afterward, Steele accused Sculley of preventing a resolution.

“We have been reaching for some common ground, and let’s try to resolve this, and so I think that the judge is correct: that that’s the proper way to do it,” he said. “But Sheryl Sculley will not allow it to happen. And that’s why we’ve been asking the mayor, Ivy Taylor, to put her down in the corner and make it happen.”

Jeff Coyle, the city’s chief spokesman, said Thursday that the city is still prepared to push its case to the Texas Supreme Court.

“We are more than willing to be deposed and talk about the facts surrounding the unsustainable and unaffordable fire union contract. But people should understand that the fire union’s action is a publicity stunt; the case is in the appeals court, which will ultimately decide whether or not it is constitutional to have a union contract continue for 10 years after it expires,” he said. “The union knows this well and that their chances of winning in the courts diminish the higher we go. We are prepared to go to the Texas Supreme Court to change this excessive union contract.”

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