Meet and Confer

I was recently the lone vote against an item that came to the City Council.

In 2009 the Texas legislature passed HB 2307 requiring cities to engage in a process called “meet and confer” with police and firefighters or allow the citizens to vote on whether to engage in this process.  “Meet and confer” requires that the city designate a team of representatives to meet with a team designated by police officers and firefighters to discuss issues such as salaries and working conditions.  It has been referred to as “collective bargaining light.”

Although “meet and confer” does not require the parties to reach an agreement, the process has resulted in substantial budget increases for the cities engaging in the process.  Austin, which engages in this process, has the highest police pay in Texas – 20% above the state average.  Fort Worth established meet and confer discussion in September, 2008.  The police team requested a 30% raise over three years.   The city agreed to a 12.7% raise. 

Dallas has a tradition of city management meeting with leaders from the police and fire unions, hearing concerns and working together to resolve issues.  It is in the interest of all of us to support and work together with those who do so much for us.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for these great men and women but do not believe that “meet and confer’ is in the best interest of Dallas.

Under this legislation, cities have three options:

• Grant recognition to a meet and confer team put forth by police officers and firefighters
  
  
• Defer granting recognition of the meet and confer team and order an election of the voters regarding whether the municipality may meet and confer
  
  
• Order a Certification Election to determine whether the team put forth by the police and firefighters truly represents these two groups

Please note that the legislature did not offer the city council the option to reject “meet and confer.”  Only the voters can reject it. 

Since that is the only way to defeat this, I believed that a change of this magnitude should go to the voters and voted against the motion to grant recognition.  If the citizens had wanted it, they could have approved it in November.