Another Meet & Confer Arrangement: Tentative Agreement Signed for SAPD Officer Stipend

SAN ANGELO, TX - This afternoon, another Meet and Confer took place between the City of Angelo and the San Angelo Coalition of Police at City Hall in downtown San Angelo.

The main point of discussion: would there be an agreement between both parties on providing a stipend for police officer salaries in San Angelo.

The meeting was opened by Lisa Marley, director of Human Resources and Risk and Director of Civil Service for the City. She laid the ground work for what the City Council had already said during its recent Strategic Planning Meeting.

Marley summarized the council by saying, “There is no money available for the raises.”

The main reasoning for this is because of the potential for five new council members to be elected in May, and, by committing to the raises, it would already place the new council in debt.    

However, Marley maintained, “[The Council members] are very interested in continuing Meet and Confer.” 

The main solution proposed by the Chief Financial Officer for the City, Michael Dane, was to have an equation of calculating the stipend that could cover the missed salary raises between Oct 1, 2016 and April 1, 2017. The current contract from fiscal year 2016-2017 would be amended with the proposal.

The stipend would put into a one-time lump sum payment calculated with the following equation:

Annual Base salary (as of March 7th) multiplied by .5, and multiplied again by either 7.31 percent for police officers, 9.65 percent for sergeants, or 9.68 percent for lieutenants.

This equation would account for promotions that have taken place since the original salary survey taken last year.

After this proposal, a caucus was called for the members of the Police Coalition to discuss the proposal separately from the City representatives. After about 40 minutes of deliberating, the meeting was called back.

The negotiations were accepted; however, before finalizing anything, the Police Coalition will have to take this tentative agreement before the police officers they represent. Voting on the agreement will take place March 14 and 15, from 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., with roughly 150 eligible voting officers.  

Sgt. Doug Thomas, with the San Angelo Coalition of Police, was part of the negotiations and gave his thoughts on the proposal.

“I’m not sure how I feel,” Thomas said. “It’s better that we are moving forward and making progress.”

He said he is appreciative of all who are involved in the effort; however, he is not fully confident in how the voting on the proposal will turn out.

“We are going to take it back to the police officers and let them vote on it,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to go back and really explain the details of the tentative agreement and let [the officers] know where they stand.”

Marley also gave her thoughts on the tentative agreement, and what the next steps are in the process.

“We made strides to get the requirements for the contract,” Marley said. “We are hopeful that the members will vote to approve that.”

She explained the next steps are to provide each officer with the “lump” sum amount they would receive through the agreement.

The second condition of the agreement reads, “Payments shall be made separate from the regular pay no later than April 21, 2017.”

The reasoning is so tax taken out of that paycheck won’t be affected with the stipend amount being sent in separate deposit.

After the voting is finished, the votes will be ratified on March 16 and will be ready to be presented to the City Council at its regularly scheduled meeting on March 21.

Marley believes the tentative agreement will be accepted by the City Council as there was much discussion during the Strategic Planning Meeting to meet the request of Meet and Confer.