Freeport officers press council on pay; petition for civil service to go to voters, legal says November is earliest date

Officers and supporters told the Freeport City Council on Feb. 18 that some Freeport Police Department employees did not receive a citywide cost-of-living adjustment that other city staff received, and asked the council to act on pay and on a petition to let voters decide whether to adopt municipal civil service rules.

At a public-comment period, Jared Miller, a Freeport resident and officer with the Freeport Police Department, described officers’ work and said rank-and-file personnel and dispatchers “did not receive their cost of living adjustments either.” He said colleagues fear retaliation for speaking publicly and called on the council to “bring awareness to this injustice.”

The petition to put adoption of municipal civil service before voters was filed in February. Hans Martacek, a retired Houston police officer who said he represents the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, asked the council to allow the…