AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin City Council has voted in favor of adopting the Austin police contract. Council Member Zo Qadri is the only member who voted against the contract. Now that Council has passed it, the Austin Police Association will take its official vote to ratify it. City Council chambers reach max capacity as hundreds register for public comment As of Thursday morning, roughly 300 people had signed up online to speak in person about the police contract ahead of City Council's vote on the measure. Additionally, about 100 have signed up online to speak remotely. Public comment began around 11:15 a.m. is still underway. Each speaker gets three minutes, running the in-person total, in theory, north of 13 hours, and an additional 5 hours for remote speakers. These are rough estimates as there are occasions where both in-person and remote speakers either wind up not speaking or don't speak for their full 3 minutes. This does not include people who signed up in-person at City Hall, and city staff said, as of Wednesday evening, those figures bring the potential public comment time up to about 26 hours. Council chambers reached capacity Thursday morning. Packed council chambers as the city takes up the police contract.Packed council chambers as the city takes up the police contract. KXAN will be monitoring public comment and the vote. Check back for updates. The contract The City's negotiations team and the Austin Police Association (APA) reached a tentative agreement on the police contract last month. City Council has to vote it through before it can be ratified, as is the case with all sworn labor contracts in Austin. In February 2023, the city and Austin Police Association (APA) reached a tentative agreement, but city council voted it down to wait for the results of a May 2023 vote on a police oversight measure. That measure, the Austin Police Oversight Act, which included the call for the release of once-sealed primarily unsubstantiated misconduct claims against officers, passed. It spent the following months making its way through the court system before a judge made a ruling that prompted the city to begin releasing those files via official public information requests from members of the public. The current tentative agreement further details the terms of the release of those documents. This week, Equity Action, the group that wrote the Austin Police Oversight Act, amended its lawsuit to push for a temporary restraining order that would block Thursday's vote. A judge denied those efforts Wednesday evening. Equity Action said it would re-up the order if council votes the contract through. Many who support the contract say it provides necessary stability for officers and is necessary to retain current sworn staff as the department faces what leaders have called a staffing "crisis." Public comment As of about 3 p.m. Thursday, most of the people who spoke in person spoke in favor of the police contract. According to the official list of speakers, the majority of remaining speakers are signed up as speaking against the contract. So far, those who have spoken against have presented two main arguments: they think it gives APD too much money and wish to see those funds reallocated elsewhere; and they've said they believe it still does not uphold what voters passed in the Austin Police Oversight last year. "I ask the council in front of me today to vote against the APD contract increase and invest in services that actually benefit the people that you guys represent," one critic said during public comment. During previous work sessions, the city's finance department has said it doesn't anticipate this resulting in cuts to other departments at this time. Many supporters of the contract shared stories of their dealings with crime in the city. Others maintained it's imperative to retaining officers and recruiting others as the department struggles with staffing, and cannot always respond as quickly as APD would like. "A timely police response is crucial, however due to APD vacancy rates the late response times have escalated situations putting both ambassadors and the public at greater risk," said a Downtown Austin Alliance ambassador supervisor who spoke during public comment. More context on "g" file and how the city is funding the contract When public comment wrapped up around 7:30 p.m., council began discussing the item. Members got the chance to ask questions about funding as well as the "g" file. The "g" file refers to police personnel records that were once sealed under Texas law regarding law enforcement, named as filed kept confidential also subsection "g." The Austin Police Oversight Act called for the release of these records, which consist of primarily unsubstantiated misconduct complaints against police officers that do not result in discipline. Mayor Kirk Watson clarified in Thursday's meeting with the City Manager's Office that, following an August ruling from a judge, the city is working to release those files through the public to those who submit an official public information request under the Texas Public Information Act. Additionally, the City's budget staff said the money provided for the contract will not pull money away from other contracts.