Thank you.

Thank you.

So very good.

Today we have a short short agenda.

We wanted to go over some health care.

We hadn't talked about the healthcare enrollment yet.

And the city's initial proposal on that.

And then we had talked about the language coming that was similar to what they put in the Austin.

So if you're ready, who's taking the leave?

And so we just wanted to show you all what the total census is for the different health plans, and then we'll show you where everybody's at.

So as you can see right here, so this is basically the census as of uh the start of January.

So showing you a majority of your members on the fire side are in the C D HP, the consumer driven health care plan.

So in this plan, you get not only a lower rate, you have a higher deductive, obviously, but then you get the uh contribution from the city for the HSA as well.

And so that was one of the things that we used to drive not only our fire union members as well, but also our civilian employees, so majority of our civilian employees are in the C D HP as well.

Um and then if you break down even further, and so we broke out um a few years ago going from that three plan option to the fourth plan option.

So we broke out the employee and children and the employee family to break out the spouse.

Um so you can see about 72 percent overall are either in the employee only or the employee and family plan.

So it's about 98.3% overall on the CHP, and then you see you've got still a few that around 16 that are in the basic plan right now.

And then this is very small, but you all have the handouts, and then we'll get this posted to the backup as well.

Um, but what it shows you is it shows you for current fiscal year 2026, it shows you what those rates are currently.

Um that's currently in the agreement, and then if you follow along for the next uh four fiscal years, it shows you what those rates would be if you apply that 22% increase in each of those following fiscal years.

And so you can see, for example, in that uh basic at the top, currently the 1920 for the employee only.

If you follow along, it increases to 234 dollars, two eighty-six, three forty-nine, and then four twenty-six.

But again, there's only sixteen members over on that basic plan.

So it really probably won't look at the CDHP, is really where you're gonna see a large majority of the impact.

So on the employee only, it would only go from 28.48 cents to at the end of the contract up to 45 dollars and thirty-seven cents.

That's just for the employee only.

And that's again as if we keep that 22 percent increase, which we're open to discussion on that.

And then there is one more item that we wanted to discuss.

And so I I mentioned a little bit about this a couple of meetings ago.

Some of the the limitations or challenges that not only the El Paso is facing, but just across the state, and available funding, right?

So we currently have in place a three and a half percent cap on property taxes without going to the voters, but anything above a three and a half percent increase in property taxes, um that's a cap.

And so uh if you've been following along and I made these comments to you all, the governor and others have continued to make comments about wanting to continue pushing further restrictions on property taxes and other revenue sources on the city.

That obviously creates challenges for us to be able to fund not only our fire department but our police department and just all of our city services in general.

It makes it very very difficult.

So we do have some recommended language to include into the agreement because the challenge is if let's say we come to an agreement, uh let's say we accept your proposal as is.

However, in one given year it pushes us over what that current property tax cap is, obviously we had to find a way to fund that.

And so the only way to be able to fund that would be go to the voters, get the voters to approve that property tax rate associated with that uh particular budget and that tax rate.

So what this language basically says, um, and I'll read it, and so beginning year one of the agreement, which would probably be 2026, hopefully, and for the following years, in the event of any change in state law that modifies the city's budgetary and or revenue authority, and so it's not just been property taxes.

I mean, there's been discussions of looking at franchise fees and some other potential revenue sources that we utilize, so restricting or limiting our ability to collect those revenues.

Um or if the city council adopts a budget requiring a voter-approved tax rate election, and the voters do not approve the proposed tax rate, then basically the city would bring that back to city council, we'd bring back recommendations on the adjustments that we would need to make, and then ultimately it would be up to city council to either accept the recommendations of the city manager or to identify other adjustments to get the budget adopted.

And so basically it's if we're going to adopt or enter into an agreement that pushes us again over that cap, or if we pay something in the next legislative session that ends up costing the city a loss of three, four, five million, whatever the case may be, that obviously has an impact that we weren't preparing for and anticipating, and then that creates additional financial challenges to the city.

So feel free to take this language.

We know that you know the comments that you made, you all are looking to put the city in that type of position, but it is something that we're facing that's and this property tax cap has been in place since 2019, so it's nothing new.

However, as you've seen our budget continues to increase and increase, and we've been getting closer and closer to that property tax cap in the last few years.

So it is something that we've had a lot of discussions with the council about, particularly because it's again not only that property tax cap, but it's what would we do if we lose additional revenue from some of these other sources?

And that's I believe that's all we had.

So if I if I may, can we go back to that one slide?

I'm sorry.

I do want to highlight the last sentence that it's important that the city will provide 30 days' notice, of course, to the association before anything is brought to the city council.

And I want to do a con uh clarification.

Last week when we were presented in our last meeting and we were talking about the uh health trust board, you know, that we agree we're gonna meet discuss and look at the feasibility of changing over that.

I added this, it wasn't tied to that, but I would like us to set up this temporary labor management committee, and it's to look at the feasibility of moving that direction.

It's not we're gonna meet it by the end of the it's just a conversation, and so we want to get it started, and that gives you time the city time we can all look and see if it's gonna be a benefit to the department.

With that, I'll pass it over to you.

All right, good afternoon, everybody.

Jay Nicholson, President of Paso Association of Firefighters.

Uh before we get into this, uh couple of questions.

I know that we had spoken multiple times before that there was a proposal that was coming forward from city legal.

Do we did that already drop or are we still waiting on that?

That was a language.

That was this, yeah.

Okay.

We're making sure it matched what would other cities have put in and what other locals had agreed to.

So that's that's all it is.

We just clean that up, and that is what you have.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Uh next question on the on the proposals.

Uh again, we had heard that there were several proposals coming forward from fire administration.

Do we have those yet?

Do we know where we're going with those?

We have those.

A lot of it's like little language cleanup on stuff that HR's already doing, so we'll make those tweaks.

We went ahead and sent it to legal to make sure it's gonna jive and everything's gonna line up with our current practices.

So we'll get that to you.

Gotcha.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, then digging into this, and this was again apologies.

I got this over to you late, uh, so we don't have this on the screens, but uh we had a counter proposal for uh wages.

Uh we were looking to lower our ask to five percent per year across the board, keep the step, and then to not do away with um step two, and to keep those steps at the battalion chief and DC level.

Uh moving from there uh bilingual pay.

We haven't heard anything on that one in a bit.

I know that you guys were looking into it.

Do we have any more information?

That one, the city's gonna reject our proposal at this time.

We don't have anything for any part of the city, and so HR is continuously reviewing and seeing how we could add that in.

But until we get the whole plan for the entire organization, we're gonna reject it at this time.

Copy uh moving on specialty teams.

We're going to counter there and ask for 100 uh per team per team assignment and uh keep the stacking at a max of two, and then go with the city's no cap on the team sizes.

And then just to clarify, we'll go down this list line by line.

I'm gonna have uh Captain Burns read through those for us just to clarify where we are.

Uh Jay already discussed item one, that was us coming down from 7.5 a year to five uh including the step.

Item two, we agreed to withdraw the request uh for the increase of PAP to ten percent.

So we agree with the city on that.

Um item three, the FTO pay, which was linked to the mentor pay.

Um we wanted to verify that that was gonna be instead of separate, it was gonna be one or the other for whoever it applies for.

Um so that way, if that was the case, that way we could make sure if we were gonna agree upon that or not.

So that's the way the initial language came back that we're we sent over for review, and so yes, it's it's this dementia pay is I believe a three-month program, and then the other one's the full year for for the FTO program, but it's you're getting one or the other, you're not gonna serve two, even though the fire officer might be a fire paramedic as well.

We're gonna keep that separate.

And with that, um the local fifty-one is uh agreeing to that, so we accept that proposal.

Um, I guess we're gonna put on pause until you guys finish looking at the the rest of the department for the bilingual, or you guys are this time it's it's being rejected.

Okay and more so we're it's an ongoing thing, it's not gonna make it through this negotiation.

Understood.

Uh number five is linked to item number three, so that was separate and distinct for uh FTO pay and mentor pay, not compounding.

Um the five percent pay for comms.

So uh we were understanding that there was some confusion on whether this was gonna be five percent while they were there, or is this gonna be an eight for twenty-four?

So we were looking a little bit more clarification on that item.

So we currently have the eight for twenty-four, and we s we currently have for people assigned to forty hours five percent.

And so what we're gonna do here in listening to the real reasons why you asked for it is if it's less than eight hours, then we will pay that five percent that we're working out of class or the five percent.

So if you're doing an eight for twenty-four, you're just gonna get your hours and then go home for the rest of the shift.

But uh anything less than that would be covered at what you asked for.

All right.

Thank you for the clarification.

Yeah, we'll be uh uh accepting that counter proposal.

Um the item seven education pay, we are gonna withdraw that request.

Item eight, longevity pay, uh we accept your your acceptance of that.

Item nine, TCFP, you all accepted it.

We're good with that, we'll move on.

Item ten, the uh Firestar and CCU incentives.

What we had on there had a little bit more language and items that we were looking for, you guys offered or you were looking into a five percent for critical care paramedics, if we could just maybe get some expansion on what it is that you guys are gonna offer for that.

I'll get you the additional language, but from a simple point of view, a critical care paramedic, they're either on a critical career unit or not flying it, right?

So we're that's that's the incentive there.

It's not double stacked, it's just if you're a critical care paramedic, you'd get that while working on those units.

Okay.

Um some of the items we had on there were an increased incentive pay monthly for those individuals since they were, you know, they have other training, um, additional certification requirements.

So where did we fall with that?

And then was there a uh while being on the bird or on the CCU, there was a 15 and a 10% increase for that.

Is there any that's the that's to our counter was the five percent, and that was it for that.

Okay.

Okay.

Um for item eleven uh specialty team pay.

Um I think Jay already mentioned we uh wanted to counter your proposal um and increase the incentive pay monthly to one hundred dollars, allowing for two teams max and keeping no cap on the amount of personnel per shift.

That's our counter.

Very good.

So we'll take we'll take that back, we'll take a look at it.

Just a reminder up front, as we've talked about the entire time, is as we are approving any of these changes in incentives and stuff.

When does it take affecting the contract is to be determined?

So it just depends on our closing time and what we're looking like with the budget.

We still haven't finalized this year's budget, so we're still going through a lot of processes.

So those dates might change.

It might have to come in year if if we were to agree to it, might have to carry come in year one or two or three.

But we will get that back to you before we and the last item for uh wages and and incentives would be the walk pay uh local 51 is going to go ahead and withdraw that request.

Very good.

And I believe there was a couple of other items that I had left open.

Let me double check.

What was the first page?

Just the first page is what you covered regarding the bilingual.

So we're rejecting it because the city is looking at it as a process of the bilingual pay.

So I'm gonna walk around and provide.

We don't feel that that team should be working for a committee type.

I mean, we should have a, you know, so that's being rejected at this time.

And then the last one was on insurance, and that was basically me, just what I clarified in that one slide that it's not contingent with that.

We're asking you asked us for one committee to meet on health care.

I'm asking you for a committee to meet on.

So I that's just separating that.

That's the only clarification I had from last time.

But I think that puts a that puts it down for you think we said we were still pending or further looking, that that gives complete answers.

Uh last item that did it, it didn't make it onto here, but we had discussed it uh aside from this, and that was the counter of the insurance at 10 percent.

We we will take that back and we'll come back.

I mean uh you you see the difficulties we're having.

I've seen I'm I'm sure you've seen some of the budget meetings.

We just had one this week.

Uh it's a short meeting, but you know, we're still having we're still in those difficult positions, so on that five percent we we we we have to take that back and take a look and see what we can do.

And what we'll look at the insurance in addition to that as well.

All right.

Then lastly, the only other thing that I have is we're still pending some information on the health care trust stuff.

I know that we're gonna committee that and it's gonna be some time invested into it.

So no huge push there, but sooner we can get it the better, obviously.

You want it separate or you want to wait till we have the entire package.

No, I would rather have the whole thing so we can just get to work.

So that's that's the delay, and it's gonna take some time.

You know, that they're working on it.

Uh we just talked to Mary a couple days ago, and she has portions of it, but we don't have the complete package yet, so that's gonna take some time.

Uh, another item that we had issue with is the uh flight paramedics.

They're not covered when they're on the bird, so that rider we've discussed it numerous times and still not getting any information back on that in which direction we're gonna go with it.

I talked to HR and I talked to the department as well as legal this week, and what I've asked them to go back is to look at that contract.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Then lastly, uh discipline review board.

I know you and I had discussed it.

If we could get some information, just your thoughts, where you're where you're headed with it, what your what the goal is with it, so we can kind of re-game it and figure out where we're going, what we're doing.

So with the change in my job description over the last few years, I've overtaken police department as well, and so they have a discipline review board, and it really brings that continuity to your to your discipline case.

Doesn't leave it up to civil service, which we know changes a lot.

And so it's made by members of the department and in members of the community.

The good thing about the members of the community is they go through your training.

You know, they're not gonna be firefighters, but they'll be like kind of like the media academy training, they'll have to go through that, they'll see what it's like to fight live fires, they'll mix they'll do ride-alongs both on the medical side and the fire side.

They get to understand your shifts and your work structure.

So now you're not banking on the civil service commission.

Now you have people who've been trained in.

And they they you know, like with the police department, it was initially designed to like a two-year rotation.

We're not there yet, but that's what we're pushing for next to get in that part of the evolution.

But it gets fresh eyes on it, but it keeps the continuity because they know exactly the job you're doing.

That's the intention behind that.

I feel it would be helpful to the membership to the department, to the organization to bring that that focus to that level.

Gotcha.

And your uh research on that, have you found any other fire department that's a good idea?

I haven't looked at it.

I have not looked at it, but I will have them do some research for me.

All right.

Sounds good.

Uh unless you guys have anything else that you need to add, I think that's all we got.

Next meeting date.

Good afternoon.

Just quick couple questions I had.

Um the budget proposal, the city one.

Just to clarify, only City of Austin is doing that correct.

They said there were several locals that committed to that as far as we're tracking it was only the city of Austin that agreed to you.

If you're yeah, as far as I know, it it's only Austin.

I don't know if there's others that have done that or not, but from what we've heard on our side, I believe it's the only the city of Austin that's done it.

Um then Which faced with all of the uncertainty, it is in the city's best interest that we have something in place or at least some type of agreement that puts some protection in place for the city.

Okay.

Uh the comms one got squared away, so uh question on that one.

Uh the critical care medicine, I know you said that if they're either working as critical care medics or on the bird, but let's just say they they're assigned to another rig.

Would they not get that uh percentage?

It's while they're assigned to those units.

Okay.

All right.

And then the last one would be the discipline review board.

Does uh does it have a appeal process like civil service does?

Does PDs have an appeal process?

So like if we have uh a wrongful termination or something like that, we can go to civil service for an appeal process through it does okay.

Let me verify it.

Okay, thank you.

Then I believe that's it.

Next meeting date.

Ninth time off.

Uh no, that one doesn't work.

We'll be out of town for union business.

Uh July 9th and 10th.

8th a.m.

Um about Wednesday with the meeting?

The eighth.

Not next week is a follow-up.

Looks good.

Very good.

We'll get those calendar invites out.

Uh I hope to get the language back from from legal before the next meeting.

So as soon as I get it, I'm gonna send it to you so you guys can have eyes on it.

And this way next week we can just get right back to it.

And you have any counters to it, hopefully we can get it that time or in two weeks.

Thank you all.

Sounds good.

Thank you all.

Shh