Council approves tentative pay agreement with Taylor police union after closed-door bargaining session

The Taylor City Council voted to enter a closed-door session to discuss collective bargaining with the Taylor Police Officers Labor Association and, after reconvening, approved a tentative agreement that the union said would raise pay to competitive levels.

Council members first approved a motion to go into closed-door session to discuss collective bargaining; the roll call produced six affirmative votes, and the council recessed. After the closed session ended and the meeting was called back to order, the council considered Item 6.2, a motion to approve the tentative agreement (TA) with the Taylor Police Officers Labor Association.

Craig McDermott, president of the Taylor Police Officers Labor Association, addressed the council before the vote. “Since COVID, society has changed quite a bit on what it takes to hire and retain police officers. This contract, this TA before you, primarily addresses pay. This would bring our top pay to average amongst our state appointed arbitrator chosen comparable cities and new hires to slightly above average. We believe that this would drastically improve our ability to recruit and retain police officers,” McDermott said, and offered to answer council questions.

Motion to approve the TA was made by Councilman Johnson and supported by Councilwoman Brandana. After no further discussion, the council approved the motion by voice vote; the chair announced, “Yeses have it. Motion carried.” The meeting minutes did not record a roll-call tally for the approval vote.

The council also formally recorded the earlier vote to enter closed session. That motion was made by Councilwoman Witten and supported by Councilman Brandana; during roll call Councilman Daniels, Councilman Johnson, Councilwoman Brandana, Councilwoman Witten, Councilwoman Rose and Mr. Geist indicated “yes,” producing six votes to go into closed session to discuss collective bargaining with the Taylor Police Officers Labor Association.

The agreement’s text and any specific salary schedules, effective dates, or budgetary impacts were not stated on the public record in the council discussion excerpted in the transcript. Council and staff thanked the police officers for attending the meeting; Mayor and councilors offered general appreciation for the department’s service but did not detail how the pay changes will be funded or when they would take effect.

Because the council discussed the TA in closed session and then approved the tentative agreement in open session, the public record in this transcript contains the union’s statement about pay and the council’s approval but does not include the full contract text or implementation timeline.