Mayoral candidate Leticia Van de Putte this week scored the coveted endorsement of the San Antonio Police Officers Association, in part by assuring union leaders that she opposes a lawsuit filed by the city against the police and fire unions.

Yet, about a month ago, at an exclusive “civic breakfast” held every Wednesday morning at The Barn Door, Van de Putte told a back room filled with the city’s business leaders just the opposite: that she supports the lawsuit, according to two people present, Buddy Morris and Michael Beldon.

Morris and Beldon both support Mike Villarreal for mayor.

Beldon is Villarreal’s treasurer. Morris is paid by the city to serve as a health care expert in ongoing contract negotiations with the police union. Last year, the city sued the unions, asking a state district judge to decide whether a 10-year “evergreen clause” that would keep their contracts intact violates the Texas Constitution.

Police union boss Mike Helle was pleased when Van de Putte told him she opposed the city’s lawsuit.

“She said, 'We don’t sue family,’” Helle told me.

Yet, facing the city’s business elites, the former state senator had a different take, according to Morris and Beldon.

“She stood there before us and told us she supported the lawsuit, and now she is saying the exact opposite,” Morris said. “That is a 100-percent contradiction of what she told us to our face, the civic breakfast group.”

Van de Putte disputes that.

“I said, 'There is no yes or no,’” she told me. “The question was, as mayor, would I stick with that evergreen lawsuit no matter what happens, yes or no? And I said, it is what it is, and it’s part of the negotiations now. … It really is not a yes or no.”

At first, Van de Putte gave a similarly squishy answer at the civic breakfast, Morris said.

“When asked directly, 'Do you support the lawsuit?’ she tried to skate around it,” Morris said. “That’s when I had to walk her through what the lawsuit was about, why we needed it. … And I said, 'So you agree the lawsuit has to be in place in order for us to make a deal?’And she said, 'Yes.’”

Beldon recalled the same conversation.

“I was there,” he said, “and she danced around it, but when the question was finally: Leticia, yes or no? — she said, yes, that’s the leverage the city has.”

It’s hard to argue anything different. The evergreen clause ensures that police and firefighters enjoy the same rich health benefits for the next 10 years. While it stays in force, the unions have no reason to allow any reductions.

Mayor Ivy Taylor is clear about that: “I think having that clause in place makes it very difficult to negotiate and can be seen as obligating future councils to financial circumstances that they might not be able to live up to,” said Taylor, who is running for mayor in May.

Villarreal is also straightforward.

“I think the end goal is signing a new contract that’s financially sustainable that brings stability to our police officers and firefighters but doesn’t represent a 10-year obligation,” he said. “The lawsuit represented an honest question that the city wanted answered.”

He added, “I think the police union wants to be able to have an evergreen clause, and they have a candidate who has promised to back them up.”

If Van de Putte wants to be that candidate, that’s her claim. But on this issue, it’s impossible to back up both the unions and the business community.

That much was obvious when I asked her how she’d approach the lawsuit if she were elected mayor.

“With regard to the lawsuit, my style of leadership is that you do everything you can to solve the issue ahead of time and not go to the courthouse,” Van de Putte said. “All of those issues and the tenets of the negotiation are currently being discussed. I am not going to be, as a candidate, negotiating something through the press.”

Imagining that the city had avoided this mess somehow is comforting but also pointless. In the vacuum of leadership in which we now find ourselves, campaign promises are needed much less than clarity on where each candidate stands.

bchasnoff@express-news.net