Mayor John Whitmire
Houston City Council approved the $1.5 billion settlement and labor contract with the city firefighters union on Wednesday, a deal that now forces Mayor John Whitmire to quickly find new sources of revenue to help pay for it.
The unanimous vote achieved a core promise of Whitmire’s campaign last year, and ends a nearly eight-year dispute between the union and the city under previous Mayor Sylvester Turner.
“This was a long time coming,” Whitmire said. “It was always going to be a big number and I think we handled it as responsibly as you could expect.”
The firefighters’ new contract will remain in effect until fiscal 2029. Rank-and-file firefighters will see a total pay increase of 36 percent by the end of that period.
The new contract and the back-pay settlement are valued around $650 million, but interest and debt service is expected to drive the total cost to about $1.5 billion, city officials said.
“It’s a good deal for taxpayers, it’s obviously a good deal for the firefighters and the families that have gone without for so, so long,” said Marty Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association. “We have ensured that we structured this in a way that was fiscally responsible.”
Tuesday’s approval came after Controller Chris Hollins certified the deal Monday evening, ending weeks of uncertainty about whether he would give his City Charter-mandated blessing to the agreement. The controller is required to certify funding is available for ordinances prior to a council vote committing the city to future financial obligations.
The five-year contract includes 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.
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After days of public back-and-forth, Hollins said he sat for a confidential briefing offered by the mayor’s staff in recent days before certifying the deal Monday evening.
“Just as my insistence on completing due diligence should not have been interpreted as opposition to the deal, my certification today should not be interpreted as a vote of confidence,” Hollins wrote.
In a news conference following the meeting, Whitmire said Houstonians should expect a rollout of revenue proposals around the beginning of next year’s legislative session in January. A former longtime state senator, Whitmire has said he expects state assistance to address the city’s budget shortfall but declined to provide further specifics.
“Going forward there will be a challenge to not only pay the firefighters’ settlement but the other incurred expenses,” Whitmire said.
He also said no proposal would be brought to the council before an audit of city departments intended to root out wasteful spending was completed.
See here for the previous update. Not a whole lot to add, there’s nothing really new in this news other than the certification itself. I suppose this all could have been done sooner, but it’s done now. As for the expectation that we can get state assistance to help the city out, I have no idea what the Mayor has in mind. As per usual, he has no details to provide, and I doubt we’ll get anything until there’s an actual bill working its way through the process. If indeed that happens. Let’s just say I have a lot less faith in this Legislature’s willingness to do something other than spit on Houston than the Mayor does. He’s welcome to prove me wrong. The Chron has more.
Let us see how much the state and county help us with our debt problem, which has just gotten bigger.
As to what the Republican, Julian Ramirez, at-large council member, said, Not quite true. Whitmire did not even get 50% of the vote the first go-round. Whitmire did better because of all the MAGA support in the run-off election. Ramirez also won, in my opinion, because he is MAGA.
“I know you ran on settling this lawsuit, and you were elected overwhelmingly, so I think voters want to settle this lawsuit as well,” Ramirez told the mayor. “The risks of going to court and continuing to kick the can down the road are just too great.”
We have just kicked the debt down the road and anxiously await how the MAGAs will resolve it.
Maybe the city can have a fire sale to pay for this. It is time to pare down the budget, and pay for the essentials.
By the way, the 11th Street restructuring has, according to a study, reduced accidents on 11th Street significantly. So hopefully the new mayor won’t spend money to undo those improvements.
“We have just kicked the debt down the road and anxiously await how the MAGAs will resolve it.”
LMAO…. MAGAs and solutions are like oil and water.
Perfect. Can’t wait for this bill to come in.