SAN ANGELO, TX -- San Angelo City Council members Tuesday voted six to one to let the current agreement with San Angelo Police lapse, but kept the meet and confer for now.
The Council met in closed session for over an hour before taking public comment on the contract. The staff presentation showed that San Angelo Coalition Of Police representatives walked away from negotiations on September 11 after declaring an impasse in negotiations.
SACOP wanted the step plan reinstated which staff said would cost the city $622,090 in the fiscal year 2017-2018 budget. The City had offered a one percent raise and five additional officers.
SACOP spokesman Officer Matt Baldwin said, “Thank you for the raise we got back in April. We are not greedy, we’re not selfish, we never asked for a raise.” Baldwin explained. “Our number one goal was to reinstate the step program. We’re trying to retain officers.”
Shortly after the council voted to let the agreement lapse, council members voted unanimously to adopt the budget for fiscal 2017-2018 and voted to keep the tax rate the same.
The tax rate is .776 cents per $100 in property value and will raise $1,540,425 or 4.29 percent more than the current budget.
The council also denied an ordinance that would have banned alcohol sales within 300 feet of a church.
The city council was still meeting at noon. We will update this story as new information becomes available.
UPDATED 4:30 p.m.
San Angelo City Council members voted to continue the lease of the Sante Fe Depot to the San Angelo Railway Museum on a month by month basis for six months.
In other business, city council members rejected a bid for $740,000 to Onyx General Contractors, LLC of Midland to construct a new concession building at the Texas Bank Sports Complex.
Council also recognized Mira Velez for loaning the City an artifact from the 9/11 World Trade Center in New York for the 9/11 memorial after learning the piece of steel in the San Angelo memorial was stolen. Velez is the daughter of Rose Velez, who was a first responder during 9/11.
And the council proclaimed the week of September 17 - 23 as "Constitution Week," and approved a proclamation declaring "Angelo State University is 10,000 strong."
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Comments
So the concession stand is more important than living up to a contract that the city agreed to several years ago? A really good FU to the officers and makes the rest of the city contracts suspect.
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PermalinkI can only hope that this is the straw that broke the camels back for our police officers. It was presented all throughout these negotiations that retention of officers is most important, which it is.... Now that the morons for the city let this die, there will be no future pay or benefits for the existing officers, just a dead end job. I would support any officer at this point that started moving elsewhere for better jobs. I'd stand on the steps of city hall and laugh if 30 or 40 officers left and an uncontrollable crime wave swept over the town.... That would allow these council members to suit up themselves to fight the evil that those they ran off were already doing and thinking the city was going to have their backs and take care of them this whole time.....
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PermalinkThink you might want to go back and check your notes. Onyx did not get the contract. The motion that was passed was for the staff to work up a new bid proposal for only restroom facilities and bring that, along with full detailed information, back to the council and then get a new bid. $740,000 was seen as a bit to high for a concession stand with restrooms. Mayor Gunter was particularly outspoken against it.
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PermalinkOn order to maintain a highly qualified and experienced police force, we must fund the step program. I know a lot of folks may flip-out about the idea about raising the sales tax in order to cover the need, but hear me out...
Instead of increasing the taxes on property owners only, I think ALL citizens should pony-up in order to meet the needs. Some of the cost for police services should be the responsibility of every citizen. This will require a Bond election. I actually think it may pass.
How much of an increase in a sales tax would be needed? Surely it can't be very much. Maybe one of City accountants can figure that out, present it to City Council and then the public debate can begin.
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PermalinkNice sentiment, but the sales tax rate is capped at 8.25% by the State of Texas. You cannot raise sales taxes to pay for police raises. But you CAN sell more stuff here by getting the economy hummin' .
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PermalinkRE: SACitizen, I think the 1/2 sales tax is what you are referring to. Doing a raise based on a bond is never a good idea. However, there is much that needs to be done and I think that they are focusing on the wrong priorities. I'm all for being conservative, but I think we need to work on our infrastructure and not replacing a concession stand. I understand that they are trying to raise some revenue because it brings in tournaments, but I also believe that the concession stand can be done by raising money privately through the groups that uses it, or at least pay for part of it. We NEED new waterlines, we NEED a processing plant, we NEED to maintain law and order. We WANT a new concession stand, we WANT to renovate buildings. There is a difference.
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PermalinkT R & SACitizen and others looking for money to pay for raises, etc.. There is a lot of confusion about how sales tax can be used in Texas. As Joe Hyde pointed out, the total rate for sales tax is capped at 8.25% Of that 6.25% goes to the state, .5% goes to the county, 1.0% automatically goes to the city, and there is an optional 4B Sales Tax for economic development that the citizens voted for in the late 90's (and re-approved and made permanent a few years ago) that can only be used for some very specific purposes. The 1/2 cent sales tax can't be used for salaries or general expenses. It can be used for water source development and the city is doing that. It can be used for sports facilities, which is why it probably will pay for the concession stand. It paid for the rest of the sports complex. It's supposed to be targeted as an economic stimulus fund. It can't be used to pay general debts of the city by state law.
There is an option for up to 1/4 cent to be used for street maintenance, That would have to go to a vote of the citizens and be reapproved every 4 years, but it can't pay for salaries or public safety facilities, equipment etc.. The numbers that city staff showed council on the cost of adding back the step increases amount to about a 2 cent increase in property tax. State law really only leaves the city a couple options. Cut spending somewhere in the general budget or raise property taxes. We are already one of the highest taxed cities in Texas (number 2 last time I checked) so not sure that a tax hike is a good idea. And it's hard to find places to cut where the money could be used to pay our police. 1/2 cent sales tax projects may not be all that needed but the 1/2 cent money can't be used to pay police. What other areas can we cut?
Texas Taxes are a confusing mess. The long term solution for San Angelo is to grow a strong and healthy enough business and economic tax base to really handle the basic government responsibilities right, and delay the frills. Until then this is what we have.
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PermalinkThanks Jim, that was the point I was trying to make about the bond, but didn't quite state it well enough. The rest of my rant was making better choices on what we decide to use the little money we have on the needs vs the wants.
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PermalinkThanks to all for the tax info and such. As it is said, "The more you know"...
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