Date: July 22, 2025 Time: 3:00 PM Location: City Hall Council Chambers, 101 N. College Street, Killeen, Texas
A special meeting of the Killeen City Council was held to recognize the Killeen Professional Firefighters Association (IAFF Local 2505) as the exclusive bargaining agent for firefighters and to hold a public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 Annual Budget. The council also discussed a reduction to the council travel budget, possible tax rate increases, and updates on a community grocery store initiative.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for coming out to a special city council meeting this afternoon. Let the record show that all council members are present. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? Councilmember Avarest. Mayor, I'm moving to approve the agenda as presented. Thank you, Councilmember Solomon. Second. All in favor, yes, all appolis no. Okay, raise your hand, please. Motion carries six to zero. Citizen comments. Melissa Brown, you have three minutes. Is uh Ms. Gonzalez invisible or in the back or on Zoom? Just wondering. Got a six-to-zero vote that can't all be present. Okay. Uh in regard to the um meet and confer for the IAFF. I think that this makes nothing but sense. There is nobody else who knows the needs of the individuals within that profession besides those individuals. No one up here on the dias got the experience or the background to know what's best for the safety and the health and the welfare of not just our city as far as fire and emergency response, but also the health and safety of those firefighters and EMTs. Um our police department has had meet and confer for three or four years now. So I think it only makes sense to extend this out to the um fire department also. Thank you, Queen. RS twenty-five one two two. Consider a memorandum resolution recognizing the clean professional firefighters association. As the exclusive bargaining agent for clean firefighters and authorizing the city to meet and confer. Thank you. All right, this is the meet and confer item for the firefighters association. Give you a little bit of background on this. Chapter 142 of the of the Texas Local Government Code allows firefighters association to file a petition with the governing body requesting that the association be recognized as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for all. And I'm sorry, there's a typo firefighters in the city uh and adopting a meeting meet and confer. The petition must be signed by a majority of all firefighters. The city and the firefighters association can negotiate wages, hours of employment, and other terms of employment. There's no requirement to meet and confer on any particular issue or to reach an agreement, and the agreement must be in writing and approved by the council and a majority of the firefighters. So on July 3rd of this year, the city received a petition from the Clean Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF 2505 requesting recog recognition and to begin the meet and confer process. This does not include the chief or the uh or the the chief, the assistant chief appointed by the chief. The required majority for this petition to be heard is uh 133. There were 155 signatures submitted, 145 of which were verified, and that means that the petition is valid. So the statutory term alternatives at this point are to grant recognition of the firefighters association and determined that the city may meet and confer, or you can order an election of the city's voters to determine whether the city city may meet and confer or order a certification election of the firefighters to determine whether the associate the association represents the majority of the city's firefighters. Um we have staff has no reason um to recommend the the second and third option, and so the recommendation is that city council grant recognition of the Kleen Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF 2505 as the sole and exclusive bargaining unit for all firefighters employed by the city of Killeen and authorize the city to meet and confer with with that group without conducting an election of the voters or certification of the firefighters. I do want to let you know that Captain Jansen is here from the Firefighters Association if you have any questions of him, and I'm certainly here for any questions you may have about the process. Yes, ma'am, thank you. Um the Colleen uh professional firefighter association have been working on this for a long time. I know council is aware of that, and we also know that our police department also have this in place. So uh I think it's a great idea. But since we have you here, sir, if anybody would like to speak, please feel free. Captain Jensen, sir, the floor is your oh, would you like to speak? Oh no. Oh no, sir.