Two years ago, police union president Mike Helle helped Capt. Joseph Salvaggio get his job back. Now, Salvaggio is trying to take Helle’s union job away.

The two police officers are facing off this week in a union election. City leaders are watching the collision closely, wary it could reverberate in a wider conflict between the city and the union over health care benefits for officers.

If Helle is usurped, the union’s conflict with the city could degenerate further. That’s Helle’s concern, at least.

The city fired Salvaggio in 2010. For more than three years, he fought to win his job back. An arbitrator, a district court judge and an appeals court all ruled in Salvaggio’s favor, yet the city stubbornly dragged the case to the Texas Supreme Court, conceding only when that court declined to hear it.

All water under the bridge, Salvaggio said.

“It was found that I did nothing wrong,” he told me. “All that stuff is behind us, and I have come back and have been working great with the city and the (police) chief’s office.”

At the same time, Salvaggio said, “I was truly done pretty damn wrong.”

In 2010, Salvaggio was a lieutenant with nearly 23 years on the force. During an exam required for promotion to the rank of captain, he scribbled words on a sticky note and got up to use the restroom. A proctor saw the note and told him he couldn’t leave the room with it; he handed it to her before leaving.

Salvaggio said he was just jotting down concepts to review later. He had written: “meritorious conduct, harrass/discrim, not conf mandatory coun or non vol eval, RTD who final, sched a vac.”

At the time, Helle defended Salvaggio.

“We feel strongly that Lt. Salvaggio didn’t do anything wrong,” the union president said then.

In retrospect, Helle has a different thought.

“Ethically or morally, who in their right mind would write something on a yellow sticky note during an exam?” Helle said.

In any case, a union president with such an adversarial history with the city would only distract from the issue at hand, Helle added.

“His background will be something the city manager (Sheryl Sculley) will try to attack,” he said. “It’s almost like O.J. Simpson. You can’t escape from that … It gives them an opportunity to change the discussion.”

Yet, this is hardly a “discussion.” Contract negotiations have broken down. The city has sued the union, which is attacking Sculley personally in ads as “an overpaid city employee.”

As union president, Salvaggio would be a “cooler head,” he said.

“I think we need to come to a middle ground, find out what the true numbers are so we can start negotiating with facts,” Salvaggio said. “I’m going to stick to the facts. It’s not going to be negative ads. It’s going to be getting out on the ground, having conversations with the citizens.

“I don’t see it as a battle,” he added.

Yet, in campaign material, Salvaggio wrote, “We will create a comprehensive Strategic Plan that includes the Firefighters Association … This road map will provide the framework on future battles with City Hall.”

When I pointed that out, Salvaggio said, “Hopefully, we can address it through good, positive dialogue based in fact. But if it ends up in court, that’s a battle … I hope in my heart that the fighting stops.”

Salvaggio is running to get the police union “organized and prepared for the years to come,” he added.

But is the vindicated police captain also running to get right at the throat of his tormenters?

“That’s the $100 million question,” Helle said. “Does he have an axe to grind? I don’t know.”

Whatever the reason, Salvaggio has to cut down Helle first. And Salvaggio doesn’t consider that a betrayal.

“It wasn’t Mike that got me my job back,” he said. “It was CLEAT (Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas).”

Hogwash, Helle said; he negotiated with Sculley to reinstate Salvaggio while the city was appealing the case.

“To say I had no part in this is just ignorance,” Helle said. “I refer to (Salvaggio’s candidacy) as irony. It’s just Police Association irony.”

bchasnoff@express-news.net