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A proposed settlement between Mayor John Whitmire and the city’s firefighters union could result in major changes to the Houston Fire Department beyond the deal’s $1.5 billion cost.
Under the terms of the deal released Monday, the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association would be allowed to pick half of the civil service commissioners who often serve as the final word on discipline. The deal also would boost incentive pay for paramedics, prohibit random drug testing and set up a new labor-management committee designed to address health issues.
Many of the changes were included in a draft version of the agreement that has been circulating in political circles for weeks, but City Council members received formal confirmation when the Whitmire administration shared the final version less than 48 hours before a vote set for Wednesday.
The final version of the five-year contract drops a controversial provision requiring the mayor to pick the fire chief from within department ranks, but City Council members at a Tuesday hearing said they still had concerns about the agreement’s details and cost.
The deal carries high stakes for Whitmire, who ran for mayor last year promising to end the firefighter back-pay dispute. Union President Marty Lancton on Tuesday called it a crucial first step for rebuilding the department’s depleted ranks.
“It’s time to put this behind us, and it’s time to show the value of what our men and women provide the citizens every day, and it’s time to move forward so that we can recruit and retain qualified firefighters and paramedics,” he said.
Different discipline
Ever since Whitmire announced the deal with the firefighter union in March, details of the proposed pact have dribbled out of City Hall. The estimated cost stands at $1.5 billion, including interest and fees on a bond, and the cost of the forward-looking, five-year union contract.
While City Council members have known the deal’s price tag for weeks, the non-financial terms of the union contract have been less clear. The city declined to release drafts of the agreement.
The 123-page collective bargaining agreement was signed and released to council members Monday. Lancton said it hews closely to a previous contract that expired in 2017.
There are some significant changes, however, one of the most prominent being to civil service rules.
The city’s existing Civil Service Commission includes three members and three alternates who step in when regular members are absent. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, the union and mayor will each pick half of the commission’s members.
The agreement also states that “All terminations and demotions must achieve a unanimous vote by the commissioners present if placed before the civil service commission.”
That provision effectively gives the union nominees veto power over major discipline, according to a plaintiff’s attorney who has represented firefighters suing the city in the past.
“To me it’s just bizarre. They’re just basically putting their thumb on the scale,” said lawyer Joe Ahmad. “It would be hard to imagine many situations where they would allow discipline and terminations to go forward.”
Ahmad represented a female firefighter who sued the city over severe sexual harassment from her colleagues at one of the city’s fire stations more than a decade ago, eventually resulting in a $275,000 settlement. He predicted the civil service rule change could lead to more settlements.
“Ultimately, it’s the city that gets held responsible for failure to discipline for things like harassment and discrimination,” he said. “It’s going to lead to bad behavior, because it’s a feeling of immunity.”
Lancton said critiques of the civil service changes are overblown. As it stands now, firefighters typically appeal terminations through a separate arbitration process rather than the commission, he said. Giving union appointees half of the commission seats is designed to correct an “anti-labor” bias under former Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration, he said.
“It’s meant for labor to have a voice, and ensuring that you don’t have a stacked deck of anti-labor people,” he said.
The fire union contract could set a precedent for the Houston Police Officers’ Union negotiations set to begin next year. HPOU President Doug Griffith said the inclusion of fire union appointees likely would force the city to split its combined civil service commission, which currently hears matters from both departments.
Griffith said the unanimity requirement struck him as “kind of crazy … All it takes is one person to go in there every time and say ‘nope, nope.’”
Another part of the contract designed to give labor more of a voice is a new joint committee of union and department leaders. Its duties include addressing health and wellness. Lancton said he hopes it will focus on issues that disproportionately affect firefighters, such as cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The contract also prohibits random drug testing, which Lancton said was a waste of firefighters’ time. The department still can order firefighters to submit to drug testing for a wide range of reasons, he said.
‘You have to be competitive’
Other changes include increases to incentive pay for special assignments, such as paramedics. The incentives would cost the city an extra $13 million per year, Finance Director Melissa Dubowski said Tuesday.
“You have to be competitive,” Lancton said. “Focusing on the incentive pay for the paramedics, focusing on the incentive pays for the certifications is critically important.”
One controversial provision from the proposed contract has been dropped in recent days. Previously, the agreement required the mayor to select as the fire chief someone who had served at HFD for 15 years.
Current Chief Samuel Peña would not have been eligible as a longtime El Paso firefighter, but the city said the rule would only apply to chiefs going forward.
In recent weeks, however, Whitmire said he did not like the idea of having his hands tied. Lancton, who long has tussled with Peña, said the union agreed to drop the provision because it trusted Whitmire to make the right decision.
Questions of cost
Council members are set to consider the union contract Wednesday at the same time as the back-pay agreement and the $6.7 billion annual budget that funds the settlement. Any single council member could delay all those votes by a week.
At a budget hearing Tuesday, several council members said they still had questions about the union contract, including an “escalator” clause for firefighter salaries.
The five-year contract specifies 10 percent base salary increases for the first year. Base salaries would continue to rise in the following four years, but the total increase would depend on whether the city is able to add new revenue.
Whitmire’s administration has floated the idea of creating a public safety exception to the city’s property tax revenue cap or a garbage collection fee, but he has yet to offer a specific proposal.
The salary escalator would kick in only if the city does add new revenue. In the first year, for instance, a 3 percent salary bump would rise to six percent if more money comes in.
District E Fred Flickinger asked what types of new revenue would trigger the escalator. City Attorney Arturo Michel said that would be determined in the future by the city and the union. That troubled District J Councilmember Edward Pollard.
“Then that means we have to vote on something where we don’t know what the final terms are until after the fact,” Pollard said.
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