Following two-and-a-half years of radio silence, the Seattle Police Officers Guild suddenly announced today that it has reached a tentative agreement to renew its four-year labor contract with the city. The union also announced that it will drop a contentious lawsuit blocking the city's police reform plan.

The labor union's 1,200 police officer members have been operating without a contract since the last one expired in December 2010. This new contract covers 2011 through, uh, 2014. "Specific details of the contract will be released after ratification, but the contract does include a Cost of Living pay raise and an agreement on DOJ related reforms," states a SPOG press release, which also explains that the membership will be voting on the contract over the next two weeks.

It's a living mystery what held up talks for 2.5 years (although we can assume that lawyer disputes, labor disputes, and public records disputes all played a role) because contract negotiations are closed to the public—and everyone involved is sworn to secrecy—but here are a few clues as to what recently jump-started negotiations in earnest:

• SPOG's recent lawsuit to block the city's police reform plan, which argued that the reform plan violated the union's collective bargaining rights.
• The city's even more recent public campaign to stop paying SPOG president Rich O'Neill's annual $125,000 salary.

The press release SPOG issued today notes that, "The City and SPOG have agreed to reopen the contract when reforms that involve a mandatory subject of bargaining arise." In light of this welcome news, SPOG also announced that it's dropping its lawsuit against the city.

McGinn's office wouldn't directly answer questions regarding whether taxpayers will continue to front O'Neill's $125,000 salary, which leads me to believe that we will be: "My priorities during this work were to ensure that a new contract would support public safety in Seattle, recognize city budget realities and support our work to fully implement the reforms enshrined in our settlement agreement with the Department of Justice," McGinn says in his press statement. "I am pleased that our tentative agreement has achieved all three of these basic priorities.”

Still, if it took sacrificing the smaller issue of O'Neill's salary to get SPOG to drop its lawsuit and climb aboard the reform train (CHOO CHOO, MOTHERFUCKERS!), I suppose that's a small enough (albeit bitter) pill to swallow. For now.