Mayor Shuts Down New Police Chief’s Request for Higher Pay

Ironically, the council voted to limit access to public comments due to people like Chesnutt and Bariou, who take up valuable time, at this meeting. Each person is limited to three minutes. Mayor Brenda Gunter strictly enforces this rule, even for the new police chief. Public comments are typically not on the council agenda, meaning the council cannot engage with the speaker. Chief Griffith used his time to warn of canceled crime investigations and a potential rise in petty crimes if his budget demands were not met.

Assistant Chief Craig Thomason, in charge of detectives and Crime Scene Investigation, warned that the department couldn’t continue investigating cold cases due to manpower issues caused by low pay. Thomason, previously a patrol lieutenant making around $115,000 a year, now earns about $140,000 following his promotion. Campaign records show Thomason donated $1,000 to Griffith’s campaign, which appears to have been a good investment.

Assistant Chief Adam Scott, who also received a promotion and pay raise, mentioned that the department is 30 officers short of its approved strength of 180. He detailed the volume of calls the patrol division handles but was cut off by the mayor after three minutes.

Griffith, who received the biggest raise, lamented that the Abilene Police Department pays its officers $25,000 more on average. He claimed to have trimmed the police department’s budget to its limits in his three weeks on the job and requested more recruiting funds. He noted that the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office is fully staffed, attributing this to their ability to cultivate additional patrol officers from the jailers who work at the detention center. He didn't admit that the sheriff did this with a lower pay scale.

Griffith’s comments marked the first signs of trouble within the police department, yet he hadn't previously mentioned these issues to city hall officials. His plan couldn’t be fully explained within the three-minute limit of public comments.

Watch the sequence as Mayor Brenda Gunter shuts down the new San Angelo police leadership:

Later, during the budget session, Mayor Gunter used the situation to highlight the financial constraints facing the city, noting that sales tax revenue for FY 2024 is flat, rising only 1.66% year-over-year through July, with July’s revenue actually decreasing nearly 5% compared to July 2023.

Historically, the council has been conservative in estimating sales tax revenue, which was 24% over projections in FY 2022 and 9% over in FY 2023. City Manager Daniel Valenzuela had cautioned against relying too heavily on sales tax revenue for the public safety budget. Ideally, property taxes should cover public safety expenses, with other operations funded by enterprise funds and sales tax.

For FY 2025, 60% of the city’s budget is allocated to fire and police, with $9.2 million of the projected $24,091,000 in sales tax revenue going towards these services. Mayor Gunter noted that while Abilene, a city of 40,000 more people, has similar property tax revenue, their sales tax revenue is 39% higher, enabling them to pay their officers more.

For FY 2025, the city has about $2 million for pay raises without exceeding the 3.5% revenue increase limit set by state law. A 3% raise for all city employees would cost $1.766 million, while a 4.5% raise would cost $2.613 million.

Police pay raises should be negotiated in Meet & Confer meetings, not during public comments. Years ago, then-Chief Tim Vasquez successfully used an agenda item to secure a 10% raise for his officers during a similar staffing crisis. It should be stressed that Vasquez accomplished this by placing the issue on the city council's agenda while Meet & Confer was in session, not during public comments when Meet & Confer was in recess, having successfully already received a $1.7 million pay increase package for police in January 2024.