Salary

Houston firefighters, mayor disagree on next steps after pay parity is approved

Mayor Sylvester Turner said the ballot initiative’s passage would force him to downsize the department, cause response times to rise and endanger public safety

November 09, 2018 02:52 PM

By Jasper Scherer
Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON — Houston City Council on Wednesday approved Mayor Sylvester Turner’s move to delay voting to hire a law firm to represent the city in possible litigation over Proposition B, the ballot item passed by voters to grant Houston firefighters pay parity with police.

City Council had been set to consider a contract with Norton Rose Fulbright for $1.3 million. The contract would set aside $250,000 for the firm to handle litigation over real estate purchases in connection with infrastructure projects, with the rest set aside for a court fight over the parity measure approved Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Turner said he will look to Fire Chief Samuel Peña to restructure the fire department to absorb the measure’s additional cost, which both Turner and City Controller Chris Brown say will total more than $100 million in its first full year.

Turner said Wednesday he does not know “how we’re going to pay for it,” but he made clear initial layoffs would come from the fire department. For months, Turner has warned that the city would need to make cuts if voters approved Proposition B. It passed with 59 percent of the vote.

The measure would tie firefighters’ pay to that of police of corresponding rank and seniority. City Council, which is not meeting Thanksgiving week, agreed to bring the item up at its Nov. 28 meeting.

“I don’t know the answers,” Turner said. “I don’t know how we’re going to balance the books when we have been given an added bill of $100 million each year.”

He added: “The tough decisions start now. They start right now.”

The mayor said the fire department “restructuring” would include a reduction from four shifts to three, as well as other methods of reducing costs.

Shortly before Turner’s announcement, District G Councilman Greg Travis noted the poor optics of bringing on legal help the morning after the election.

“Right now, it looks like we’re giving the middle finger to the voters,” he said.

Members of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association have questioned why the city did not propogate what president Marty Lancton has called a “phony, manufactured budget crisis” when raising police pay by more than 30 percent since 2011.

City officials have said the police raises triggered no budget crisis because they were implemented incrementally.

The union also has questioned the accuracy of the city’s cost estimate, but has not offered a figure of its own.

Even without the cost of the parity measure, city finance officials expect to face a general fund budget deficit of at least $92 million in the fiscal year that begins next July.

Some council members were sympathetic to the city’s challenge. District B Councilman Jerry Davis said people may have voted with “emotion” without understanding Prop B’s impact on the city budget.

District E Councilman Dave Martin said the fire department should continue to operate with its enacted $500 million budget. If firefighters have to endure layoffs, cuts in EMS services and consolidating stations, “so be it,” Martin said.

Lancton on Wednesday said Houston firefighters were waiting to hear from Turner about the way forward.

“We will commit and have committed to working with the city, have committed to working with anybody who wants to sit down, today, tomorrow, the next day, and we remain here committed to doing that,” he said.

He reiterated previous calls for an end to “divisive politics on the back of public safety.”

“We’re asking our elected officials to work together and move forward and focus on the brave men and women of the Houston firefighters and the citizens they serve.”

Asked how he hoped for things to proceed, he referred to past comments from City Controller Chris Brown.

“The best way is through a collective bargaining contract, which is what we’ve been saying for a year and a half,” he said, but did not provide specifics as to the union’s view on how the city should implement Prop B.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Turner said collective bargaining could supersede a city charter amendment, but only if the process is arrived at through a legal challenge.

Other public safety leaders still were absorbing the impact of the vote.

Houston’s outspoken Police Chief, Art Acevedo, abruptly canceled a media briefing and did not respond to requests for comment over the ramifications of the vote.

Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi declined to comment on the proposition’s passage. He instead referred to a statement the union released Tuesday, which speculated that voters were “misled by fraudulent messages and posts, or at least confused by the convoluted ballot language — which the firefighters’ union wrote.”

According to the statement, the union would be looking into fighting the case in court.

Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña was not immediately available for comment.