Council OKs Meet-and-Confer Agreement with San Angelo Coalition of Police
By Mike Sheffield / CLEAT Staff Representative
San Angelo Coalition of Police President Korby Kennedy and Officer Rick Tinsley await the results of the local contract ratification vote. The contract was approved by the city council and ratified by the local officers.
The San Angelo City Council on Tuesday June 23rd approved on the consent agenda the negotiated agreement between the City and San Angelo Coalition of Police represented by a CLEAT negotiator at the bargaining table. The agreement had already been approved and ratified on May 27th and 28th. At that time the negotiated agreement was passed by an over whelming margin of San Angelo Police Officers. The vote was 101 for passage of the agreement and 36 against with 1 abstention. This was a 73% approval of the agreement.
With the passage of the meet-and-confer agreement the city has the legal authority to now begin the process of creating a position for a third Assistant Police Chief. The department has two Assistant Police Chief whose duties include overseeing investigative services and uniform services such as traffic and patrol duties. The Police Chief handles support services and administrative duties, which will now go to the third Assistant Police Chief.
An ordinance must be created to add the position and requires that it first pass two readings of the City Council at one of its meetings in the future to become law.
Due to the meet-and-confer agreement, which allows for the creation of a third Assistant Chief, it will cause a lieutenant to be promoted to the new Assistant Police Chief post.
This will then allow for a Sergeant will be promoted to Lieutenant and an Officer will be promoted to Sergeant. The budgetary impact of those three promotions will be about $33,900.
The average pay increase for San Angelo Police Officers over the life of this contract is approximately 20% with the compression of the current 25 year pay scale down to a 13 year pay scale. Most Police Officers in San Angelo will see pay increases up to 30% while Officers with 20 years of service and more will receive the least, 8%, due to their already being at the top end of the current pay scale.
Also approved in this contract was an increase of Education Pay to $300 per month for any Officer with a Bachelors Degree and $400 for any Officer with a Masters Degree. This Education Pay is one of the highest in the state. Officers will now receive bi-lingual pay as well.
A big thank you is due Korby Kennedy, President of SACOP who appointed and was the leader of a unified negotiation team. Others on the team were Brian Bylsma and Lynn Dye of CLEAT and Johnny Rodriguez, Rick Tinsley, Marciano Garza from TMPA. Another thanks to the many other San Angelo Police Officers who attended the bargaining sessions and gave negotiation team members support and feedback enabling the team to successfully complete their task of "getting the most good for the most officers" of the San Angelo Police Department and at the same time benefit the community. The meet-and-confer agreement allows for the hiring of already trained and experienced Police Officers from other jurisdictions without the added expense of entry training, saving the tax payers of San Angelo thousands of dollars and allows the city to put experienced Officers on the street months earlier than would be possible without the current meet-and-confer agreement. A win-win agreement for everybody in San Angelo.
