A visiting district judge sided Monday with the police and firefighter unions in their separate court battles with the city over a clause in their labor contracts.

The city had sued the two unions, asking a judge to rule that the so-called “evergreen clause” violates the Texas Constitution and public policy. In both cases, attorneys for the city argued that the contracts create a debt and tie the hands of future elected officials who are charged with handling the city’s finances.

But Judge Martha Tanner notified the city and unions Monday that she is denying the city’s motions for summary judgment. The city plans to appeal the rulings to the Fourth Court of Appeals. It’s possible that these cases could eventually work their way to the Texas Supreme Court.

City Manager Sheryl Sculley wrote in a letter Monday that “the city’s legal team has always felt that our chances get better the higher we go in the court system, given the strength of our position and the significance of the constitutional issue at stake.”

Mike Helle, president of the San Antonio Police Officers Association, released a statement calling the ruling “total vindication” for cops and their families and accusing Sculley of trying “to bully us with lawsuits and legal threats.”

“It’s clear now the lawsuit must be dropped for both sides to get back to negotiating in good faith,” it said.

Chris Steele, president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, said his team would meet today to decide how to proceed. One question that needs to be answered is whether the union will begin negotiating a new labor contract with the city as the city continues to pursue its lawsuit.

“I’m just sad that they’re wasting the taxpayer dollars to get out of a contract they signed,” he said. “What’s the lesson to our children — if you don’t like something, go to court to get it changed?”

The fire union has refused to begin negotiations for a new contract. The agreements between the city and both unions expired on Sept. 30, 2014, but could remain in effect until 2024 if they don’t ink new deals.

The police union began negotiating for a new collective-bargaining agreement in the spring of 2014 and were close to a deal a few months ago. But negotiations fell apart over the evergreen clause, which keeps the contracts intact for up to a decade.

The unions are expected to push City Council hard to withdraw the city’s lawsuits and will likely unveil a robust public-awareness campaign. Sculley predicted as much in her letter, noting, “We anticipate they will demand that the city drop the lawsuits, knowing full well that they would not have done the same.”

She also addressed a talking point of union officials, who routinely say the city has spent some $2 million on the litigation, a claim Helle repeated in his statement Monday.

“This is simply false. To date, the city has spent less than $200,000 on the lawsuits,” Sculley’s letter said. “The police and fire contracts cost taxpayers $550 million annually — more than half a billion dollars — so the litigation is a relatively minor expense in our efforts to ensure that the city’s public safety contracts are affordable to taxpayers.”

Steele said the fire union would “love” to begin negotiating a new contract, but not under the continued threat of a lawsuit.

“We would love to go to the table, but it’s hard to do that when the city doesn’t want to negotiate. They want to dictate,” he said.

jbaugh@express-news.net