Houston City Council set to discuss $1 billion deal for firefighters in backlogs, raises after moving article last week

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The City Council on Tuesday is expected to discuss the logistics of backpaying and reaching a deal for the Houston Fire Department worth more than $1 billion.

There was years of back and forth over firefighter pay to get to this point.

A deal was reached last March — and now city council members must discuss the cost and how the city will pay for it.

SEE ALSO: City of Houston moves forward with $650M deal with firefighters union

The deal includes about $650 million in back pay for Houston firefighters who worked for years without a contract with the city, as well as 34 percent raises over the next five years.

City Comptroller Chris Hollins said the city doesn’t have a lot of cash on hand, so it will have to post a bond to pay for it.

The discussion was supposed to be on the city council agenda last week. Council members had to organize the items, which meant they would delay their vote for at least a week.

But before he could do that, Hollins, who is responsible for certifying all financial items submitted to the board, said he couldn’t do it.

He said he had just received the collective bargaining agreement and back pay agreement less than two days ago, and had not had time to dig into the details of what it would mean financially for the city.

“It’s going to cost us between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion just to fund this bond over the next 25 or 30 years, and that’s something we take seriously, because, you know, my children will continue to pay for this when they are adult taxpayers,” Hollins said.

“He has responsibilities, and if he wants to continue to study it, to look at it, to talk to the stakeholders, to talk to my staff, I certainly welcome that,” Mayor John Whitmire said.

The city council will resume the discussion on Tuesday. The new fiscal year starts July 1, so they are working on a deadline to sort out the budget.

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