This meeting was a continuation of collective bargaining negotiations between the City of El Paso and the El Paso Firefighters Association Local 51. The main topics included resolving pending items from the July 14 meeting, reviewing the city's economic proposal, and discussing a proposed financial hardship clause (often referred to as the "Austin Clause"). The union rejected the clause and offered alternative language, and both sides exchanged proposals on pay and benefits.
Good afternoon. Thanks for coming out today. Good afternoon. We gotta how you guys doing. Got a short power point. Good afternoon. Uh first we'll go through some of the pending items that we have left over from the meeting on July 14th. So the first item uh that was still tabled was uh discussion regarding the FTO coordinators. So we're changing the language to say three FTO coordinators per shift is our counter proposal. Are we in agreement? Thank you. The next pending item that we had was item number twenty eight. And I believe you all just provided us with a handout. Twenty-six, thank you. And you just provide us with a handout for additional information. So we'll go back and confirm that this they match that the counts that you provided match what we did. We also are recommending adding the language that's highlighted in red or in red font that the credit amount will be equal to, and then we'll review of course the numbers. But we'll also include that language. Yes, ma'am, sounds good. And then the other pending item that we had tabled from our last meeting is um regarding the committees. And so in each of the committees, we're going to ensure that there's similar language regarding recommending best practices. The committee in this case is the medical wellness advisory committee, and the committee would recommend to develop best practices for annual physicals as listed there. And then also an important point was that was asked was to keep minutes of all committee meetings and uh provide an annual report to both the fire chief and the association. In addition, we had changed and already had agreed to the number of committee members, which was nine members. Um and then also that there must be a minimum of five for quorum. Yes, ma'am, just one question. Uh in our previous meeting there was a line that was struck in the your previous proposal. And it's not present in this proposal. So is the can we make the assumption that NFP of 1582 being not adopted but being used as a guiding document will include the ability to discuss uh the selection of medical professionals to guide these programs. So yes, all those all those reference materials can be used for the recommendations that are brought up to the uh through the committee. And so that'll fall into the monthly reports to the chief and the association. That'll include the annual kickback up so we can follow. And basically it's so we're not adopting them, but that's what you're gonna be using for your recommendations, and then how do we fiscally get there is what the committee's task is gonna be. We're in agreement. Yes. And next I'll turn it over to Sasha Andonowski from our Office of Management and Budget. Good afternoon, Sasha Andonowski, Office of Management and Budget. So in the next couple of slides, we will go to uh through uh city proposal. Okay, so our proposal COLA, our proposal is to keep the same uh like the current contract, three percent. Uh embedded fire step increase of five five percent. Uh we are adding proposing to add uh uh step 12 uh which will start uh in 9-1 2029, which is 2030 fiscal year, and then uh uh so for for health care, uh proposal is ten percent. Current current contract code so 22 percent increase in uh health care on the employee site. So current concrete proposal 10 percent. Uh and then we go down to the what we already accepted, uh seek vacation payoff uh to start uh in seek leave to start in April 2028, vacation payoff to start in December 2028. Uh we are proposing to to we are accepting your proposal to increase longevity uh with uh the following dates uh seven and a half dollars in fiscal year 2027 and 2028, increase to ten dollars in fiscal year 2029 and fiscal year 2030 uh for the field training officer. Uh we accepted that one. Uh we are proposing uh start of the this incentive uh on uh uh 9-1 2027, which is fiscal year 2028, and uh all uh certifications for the education uh that we already accepted uh to start uh at the beginning of uh next fiscal year, which is nine uh one twenty twenty-six or fiscal year twenty twenty-seven. This is the same for the special teams uh that we agreed on uh to increase from 75 dollars to 100 dollars. So if you go to the next slide. This is the total cost of the of the city proposal uh for the four years is forty-two point nine million dollars.