Another twist in the mayors long and checkered history on police reform.
Another twist in the mayor's long and checkered history on police reform. Danny Hellman

Get ready for another delay on police reform from Seattle mayor Ed Murray.

After the city said it would submit legislation to a federal judge in order to fix its weak and outdated accountability system—the system the public relies on to hold cops accountable—by Labor Day, the mayor's office now says it's going to miss its own deadline.

"We are working on a letter today... to tell the court that we're not going to be filing [a proposed package] any time soon," said Ian Warner, legal counsel to the mayor.

The proposal the city was supposed to send to the judge by Labor Day is a new, strengthened civilian oversight system. The legislation would allow more civilians to be involved in handling citizen complaints about police conduct and create a powerful new Inspector General position.

For community leaders who requested a Department of Justice intervention to curb police abuses five years ago, it's the most important piece of police reform to date.

But on this particular law, the mayor has delayed again and again over the past two years, making public promises to introduce legislation by certain dates, signaling action and urgency to voters, then ignoring those deadlines three times.

Now, the mayor's office hopes to submit the legislation by September 30, nearly a month after it was due, according to Warner.

On August 15, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes repeatedly told Judge James Robart in federal court the city would submit legislation to the court by Monday—Labor Day.

Warner said the intention was "to send a message that we're moving this package as quickly and aggressively we can"—what the judge and public wanted to hear.

Holmes also said the mayor's office would "complete" its own "executive package" by August 19, then seek to reconcile it with an already-public proposal to establish a robust oversight system. The existing proposal comes from the Community Police Commission (CPC), an all-volunteer 15-member body set up to represent Seattle's diverse communities in reforms.

Since taking office, the mayor's office has not shared publicly any version of its own proposal for reforming the oversight system. Seeking to bring to light the mayor's vision for the system, The Stranger filed a public records request for the executive package described by Holmes.

Coincidentally, mayoral legal counsel Warner is the supervisor of the the public records officer in the mayor's office responsible for making the disclosure. In an interview, Warner said it's "inaccurate to say there is or has been a final package."

Today, after referring me to Warner, the public records officer said to expect disclosure or an update on the status of the request by the end of October.

The mayor's office has been holding hours-long meetings on weekends with the CPC—including some of the minority leaders and civil rights attorneys who have long complained about the delayed or inadequate reforms—in order to reach agreement on the law, Warner said.

"Time is of the essence," the CPC said in a statement last month, before the judge opened the path, pending a review by the court, for the city to move forward with the ordinance. "We are now looking at a long-drawn-out process that has no realistic chance of producing legislative results until 2017, at the earliest."

During the summer of 2015, fed up with stalling by the mayor, the commissioners tried to go it alone, taking their proposals directly to the Seattle City Council. At that time, Council Member Bruce Harrell said there were "flat-out differences of opinion" about the oversight system between the mayor's office and the commission.

Now, Warner is confident the CPC will continue working behind the scenes with mayor's office. "Everyone is going to be supportive of what you're calling a delay," he told me. "We are working very well together."

The CPC and City Attorney's office did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE: In a letter sent today to Judge Robart, City Attorney Pete Holmes says, "My representation to the Court was based on a good faith belief that the process... could be completed by the end of this week. I am sorry that the City has not been able to meet that anticipated deadline." He doesn't explain why.

Don't piss off the judge, Pete.

This post has been updated. The CPC submitted its ordinance to the City Council in 2015, not 2014.