UPDATE: After a lengthy meeting on Tuesday, members of the Ferguson City Council voted on several changes they wanted to make to the agreement before sending it back to the Justice Department. It was unclear as of Tuesday evening how DOJ officials would respond to the changes; if DOJ declines to allow the city to reopen negotiations, Ferguson will face an expensive lawsuit from the federal government.

FERGUSON, Mo. -- Eighteen months after an officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, members of the city council will make a decision on Tuesday night that will determine the future of policing and life in this suburb of St. Louis.

Will this majority-black city of 21,000 enter into an agreement with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division that will overhaul the system of profit-driven practices that the city has relied upon to pay for a police department found to be deeply affected by racial bias? Or will Ferguson get into a lengthy and costly legal battle with the federal government to avoid implementing reforms that the city will likely lose?

Members of the Ferguson City Council -- which is now more diverse than it has ever been in the city's history -- will make the decision at what will likely be a contentious meeting. The key issue is money. The lengthy 131-page draft consent decree between Ferguson and the Justice Department would impose a variety of measures to ensure that the constitutional rights of citizens are not violated. Many of the changes -- like killing a Manner of Walking municipal code, which Ferguson police officers have used almost exclusively against black residents -- wouldnt cost the city anything.

But the agreement, Ferguson officials say, comes with a hefty price tag. They gave a huge range for the cost of implementing it -- from $2.1 million to $3.7 million in the first year, then roughly $1.8 million to $3 million going forward. (Its important to note here that another city of a similar size implemented reforms at a fraction of the expected costs.)