Mayor plans to block scheduled 2008 raises

PHARR — Last weekend’s vote to repeal collective bargaining rights for the city’s police and firefighter unions may also cancel future pay increases approved in both groups’ current contracts, Mayor Leo “Polo” Palacios said.

The mayor hopes to block raises scheduled for fiscal year 2008 but said the city’s peace officers are still likely to see some sort of bump in their paychecks

“We believe that the vote makes them null-and-void,” he said. “We’re going to give them annual increases, but the city manager will get to decide how much.

“It may be more, or it may be less,” he said.

Pharr residents voted May 12 to halt future contract negotiations between the unions and city representatives. But the measure appearing on city ballots made no mention of previous contracts, which include provisions for a $1,000 annual raise for Pharr’s police patrolmen and a $1,500 increase for firefighters starting in October. Combined, the raises are expected to cost the city nearly $200,000 over the next year.

Firefighter union President Matthew Garcia argues the vote to repeal collective bargaining rights should have no effect on contracts already approved by the City Commission.

“Our contract doesn’t expire until October 2008,” he said. “And since it was approved before this vote, it should remain in place.”

BACK TO COURT

This latest wrinkle in the collective bargaining debate has raised more questions about the May 12 ballot proposition, which has already been challenged in court.

Attorneys representing the unions challenged the legality of the ballot measure in March and said they plan to pursue that lawsuit even though the election has already occurred.

They cite a vaguely worded law that prohibits “like petition(s)” for or against collective bargaining within a year of a similar measure appearing on the ballot.

The city’s firefighters have bargained their contracts since 2002. Pharr voters approved collective bargaining for the city’s police officers during their elections last year.

Arguing that the law bars two collective bargaining measures from appearing on back-to-back ballots, union attorneys believe Pharr voters should not have been allowed to approve collective bargaining last year and then repeal it this month.

City attorneys, on the other hand, say the phrase applies to identical propositions. So the city’s push to approve negotiations one year and then repeal them the next was perfectly legal, Palacios said.

Despite hearing from both sides on March 22, state District Court Judge Noe Gonzalez has not ruled on their case.

Whether or not the mayor has the legal basis to block this year’s pay raises, his statements have increased tensions in an already strained relationship, Garcia said.

“We all know this mayor,” he said. “His life is politics. That’s what he lives and breathes”

But Palacios, content with his victory last weekend, says he looks forward to moving beyond this dispute.

“I want to show these people that it’s nothing against them,” he said, referring to the unions’ members. “I love them to death, but we need to take fiscal responsibility.”

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Jeremy Roebuck covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.