Still No Pay Deal Between Houston Firefighters, City

A third round of mediation between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Houston firefighters union ended in an impasse Thursday afternoon, foiling another attempt to resolve the long-running contract dispute and sending a lawsuit over the matter back to a state appellate court.

The mediation session, ordered by Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals and held downtown at the Baker Botts law firm office, ended around 2 p.m. Soon after, conflicting accounts of the negotiations began to emerge.

After leaving the meeting, Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton said city officials “walked” and “absolutely decided they were not going to continue” the session.

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“It was crystal clear to myself and to our team that this mayor was not interested in resolving this,” Lancton said. “This is a game of politics by this mayor trying to get past the election.”

Turner was not immediately available for comment.

However, mediator Daryl Bristow confirmed in an email to attorneys from the city, fire union and Houston Police Officers’ Union that he had declared an impasse.

“We had competing proposals from the parties. Our mediation came to a point where I did not see any reasonable way for me to help bridge the gap between the parties competing suggested resolution paths,” Bristow wrote. “I declared an impasse; neither party declared an impasse; neither party walked (out of) the mediation. The decision to end the mediation was mine and mine alone.”

A spokesperson for Turner, whose office provided the email, said no future mediation sessions had been scheduled. Bristow, a Houston lawyer selected as mediator by both sides earlier this month, could not be reached for comment.

The outcome sends the case back to the 14th Appeals Court, likely putting off action on the long-running contract dispute until after the city elections. Turner is up for re-election Nov. 5, with the potential for a runoff in December.

The case began in November last year, when the Houston Police Officers’ union sued the fire union and city over Proposition B, the voter-approved charter amendment granting firefighters the same pay as police officers of similar rank and seniority. As part of the lawsuit, a state district judge ordered the parties to enter mediation; a mediator declared talks at an impasse in May.

Weeks later, the judge ruled Prop B unconstitutional and void. The fire union appealed the ruling, sending the case to the 14th Court of Appeals, which in June ordered Thursday’s mediation session.

Police union President Joe Gamaldi declined comment Thursday.

Though Turner said before the mediation session he remained “positive and optimistic,” he also said he would come prepared "with what I know the city can afford to pay." Fire union leaders have said the city can afford to grant them pay raises without laying off employees, including firefighters, while Turner has said layoffs would be necessary to give the kind of raises required by Prop B, which was passed by voters last November.

The referendum inflamed already simmering tensions between the firefighters and Turner, who campaigned against Prop B. After the measure passed, both sides tried to strike a deal to phase in the raises over time and avert layoffs, but those negotiations ended without an agreement.

Turner and the firefighters also tried to settle contract talks in a June 2017 mediation session, but the talks stalled and the union sued the city in a separate case.

After the round of negotiations failed earlier this year, Turner — with city council approval — issued layoff notices and demotions to hundreds of firefighters. The city also sent pink slips to more than 100 municipal employees and fire cadets. All of the layoffs and demotions were rescinded after the district judge threw out Prop B.

Turner and the firefighters have further disagreed over how to interpret about $17 million in back pay issued to some firefighters in May, shortly before Prop B was tossed in court. The lump sum payment covered Prop B raises retroactive to Jan. 1, Turner’s office said, though hundreds of firefighters did not receive any increase in pay.

The mayor again said Wednesday he views the back pay as a “credit” in future salary negotiations, contending that with Prop B no longer in effect, the city “cannot give a gift” of public money. Lancton has said the union disagrees with the mayor’s interpretation.

Since 2011, Houston firefighters have received raises of just 3 percent while rejecting raises they said included too many concessions. During the same span, police officers have received raises of more than 30 percent, including a 4 percent raise in the fiscal year that began July 1.

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