Houston approves bond deal to cover $650 million fire department arrears

The Houston City Council on Wednesday approved a historic bond deal, estimated to worth more than $1 billion to taxpayers, to distribute $650 million in back pay to firefighters over the next 25 to 30 years.

The 14-3 vote came after a fiery, hour-long discussion in which a divided council debated whether Houston voters should have a more direct say in approving a proposal which would affect them for decades to come. Chief Financial Officer Melissa Dubowski and Controller Chris Hollins estimated that the total cost of the bond, including interest, could reach between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion, although the final amount would not be clear until after the fixing the price of the bond.

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Council members Edward Pollard, Tiffany Thomas and Mary Nan Huffman voted no on the proposal. Pollard and Thomas tried to push for an amendment to put the bond issue on the November ballot, but Mayor John Whitmire ruled them out of order.

City Attorney Arturo Michel explained that the amendments would violate Texas’ open meetings law because they propose a different measure than what was originally on the agenda. The bigger problem, he said, is that the firefighters union may not agree to delay the process for several months, which could lead to a new trial in the fall and leave Houstonians without an agreement to vote .

“I promise you, if we do it again, it will cost more. It will be years before the problem is resolved. It’s going to impact the operations of the fire department,” Whitmire said during Wednesday’s city council meeting.

Pollard, for his part, insisted that “everything can be negotiated,” noting that members were still receiving notifications of last-minute changes to the fire service agreement as late as Tuesday evening.

“Three months of waiting until the election – with early voting starting in October – is not unreasonable for $650 million over 30 years,” Pollard said. “It’s (Houstonians’) money. Let them express themselves. »

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Thomas said her constituents have sent her emails and approached her at grocery stores about the agreement with the fire department, asking her to continue investigating its financial implications for the city on their behalf.

“You campaigned on ‘send me to City Hall because the city’s finances are in shambles,’” Thomas told the mayor and other members. “And now that we’re here, we’re willing to give up our ability to investigate and question the city’s finances for the next 30 years.”

Firefighters union President Marty Lancton said after the vote that he was not surprised by the endorsement.

“Mayor Whitmire has been very clear. He has been the most open and transparent mayor – open to criticism where the last administration clearly was not,” Lancton said. “We encourage dialogue. We encourage people to ask questions. Facts matter, truth matters and we have done that.”

Approving the bond issue is only the first step toward finalizing the fire department’s agreement. The council is also set to vote on the settlement agreement itself, which includes $650 million in back pay and a labor agreement giving firefighters pay increases of at least 24% over the next five years .

The agenda item that includes the two agreements appeared twice on the council’s agenda, last week and this week. However, members were unable to vote because Comptroller Chris Hollins, Houston’s independently elected watchdog, had not certified that the funds were available. Accreditation of the controller is a necessary step before council can approve any financial commitment from the City.

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An unofficial copy of the employment agreement has been circulating at city hall for weeks. But Whitmire’s team didn’t release an official plan until last week, prompting complaints from Hollins and several City Council members about the rushed timeline for the vote.

On Monday, Hollins sent Whitmire a 10-page survey containing 44 questions about the deal, covering topics ranging from base salary increases and drug testing requirements to disciplinary procedures and bargaining concessions.

Whitmire responded Tuesday evening, answering only five of the monitor’s questions, saying the rest were irrelevant to certification of the agenda item.

“To be clear, by not certifying this agreement and allowing the City Council to carry out its legislative duty, you are risking fire and emergency operations for all Houstonians, as well as jeopardizing the entire negotiated settlement,” Whitmire wrote in a letter to Hollins.

Hollins told the Chronicle he does not intend to certify the proposal until he gets clear answers to his questions. Then, he said, it will be up to the city council to decide whether to move forward with the proposal.

“The mayor’s letter didn’t answer 90 percent of my questions,” Hollins said. “I would not be doing my job as Houston’s taxpayer watchdog if I allowed this important project – which will ultimately cost the city more than $1 billion – to move forward without answering critical questions that are relevant to the financial viability of the city and the safety of Houstonians.

Some council members have criticized what they see as a lack of transparency in the city’s negotiations with the firefighters’ union. Pollard, for example, said he repeatedly tried to investigate the Whitmire administration’s exit offer about the amount of arrears, the underlying calculations and how the two sides ultimately settled. agreement on 650 million dollars.

“If it was your money in your own savings account, you would ask more questions,” Pollard told other city council members. “But since it’s taxpayer money and it’s not coming directly from your Wells Fargo or Chase account, you don’t ask questions.”

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Whitmire revealed Wednesday, after repeated inquiries from Pollard, that the city started with about $400 million but made multiple offers, as is typical in such negotiations. He also cited a hearing deadline next Thursday, after which the city will have to request a new trial, at least temporarily.

“Each of us participated in negotiations. You start low, they start high. And we did a heck of a job closing it out,” Whitmire said. “It’s expensive because – remember how we got here – it was always going to be expensive.”