La Marque officials and representatives of the La Marque Police Officers Association met May 28 to begin negotiations on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement that would raise base pay and change several pay-plan features, a union negotiator said.

The association’s lead negotiator, John Kerr of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, told city officials the department’s base pay sits below the regional market median and recommended a market adjustment timed to a projected Oct. 1, 2025, 3% across-the-board increase many neighboring cities expect to grant. "We've fallen behind a little bit about the police market," Kerr said.

The discussion matters because pay and benefit design affect recruitment and retention, union negotiators and city staff said. City Manager J.B. Pritchett and Chief Randall Lerigot were present for the city; both said they want to resolve remaining language and budget questions before finalizing terms.

Kerr summarized the union’s market survey findings, saying patrol officers and corporals were roughly 6% below the market median and sergeants and lieutenants about 7.9% below. He recommended a market-adjustment in the contract’s first year to narrow that gap and suggested keeping a three-year contract structure to spread costs.

Negotiators discussed several specific pay and benefit changes:
- Market adjustment: The association proposed a first-year market adjustment timed with a regional October cost-of-living movement and requested the council consider structural changes to the pay plan so La Marque’s midpoint and top-out remain competitive.
- Top-out/step structure: The union proposed lowering the years-to-top-out for some ranks (from the current 15 years toward a 10–12 year range used by many peer agencies) so employees reach top pay earlier; that change is intended to reduce the pay cut lateral hires face on entry.
- Certification and assignment pay: The association asked to raise certification pay levels and to standardize assignment pay, proposing $300 monthly for special-response and investigator assignments and to add K-9 and hostage-negotiator duties to that assignment-pay category.
- Cost-of-living across contract years: The union proposed an annual 3% cost-of-living adjustment for years two and three of a new three-year agreement.
- Longevity and uniform allowances: The union asked for an increase in the uniform/equipment allowance from the current $85 per month to $125 per month and suggested adjusting longevity payments (the transcript records the current local rate as $6 per month and competitors paying a higher per-year multiplier; the exact figures for peer cities were not all provided in the records the negotiator collected).
- Promotional pay language: The parties discussed a current contract provision that requires a promotion to include at least a 5% pay increase; negotiators noted that changes to step structure and added steps could require revising that clause to prevent unintentional pay parity or drops at promotion.

Scheduling and shift-notice language drew detailed discussion. The contract currently distinguishes permanent shift changes (seven days’ notice) from department-wide schedule changes (longer notice), and city and union representatives said the language’s implementation has been a source of grievance risk. Chief Randall Lerigot described operational examples where supervisors and specialized staff (for example, accreditation or accreditation managers who maintain a fixed day schedule) must attend early-evening meetings and faced overtime or scheduling challenges. "We gotta have something for those people like that," Lerigot said, citing the dilemma of bringing an 8 a.m.–4 p.m. employee to a 5:30 a.m. meeting without creating overtime exposure.

Union and city negotiators indicated conceptual agreement that short-term adjustments for meetings should not always trigger overtime if the parties agree on a mechanism that protects employees’ home schedules and limits repeated schedule changes. The parties agreed to draft specific language and return with proposed wording at the next meeting.

Recruiting and laterals: Kerr and Chief Lerigot said the proposed step and top-out changes are intended to ease the entry pay penalty for lateral hires; they described instances where lateral candidates faced base-pay gaps of roughly $10 an hour compared with their previous agencies, making recruitment more difficult.

Documentation and data gaps: Kerr said the market survey requested pay and budget information from peer cities and that a few jurisdictions did not fully respond to open-record requests; where municipal budgets show an item for certification or longevity pay but no reply was received, those peer figures were not included in the negotiator’s certified spreadsheet.

Next steps and scheduling: The group confirmed a June 11 meeting and discussed a July 2 meeting at 10 a.m. to continue bargaining and to present any proposed contract-language drafts. The city manager and union asked that all substantive items be on the table at the July meeting so the parties can concentrate on resolution rather than repeatedly adding new topics.

No formal contract was adopted at the session. The meeting concluded after the city manager made closing remarks and the group adjourned.

Quotes from the meeting appear verbatim and were attributed only to meeting participants recorded in the transcript: John Kerr, lead negotiator for the La Marque Police Association; Chief Randall Lerigot, La Marque police chief; J.B. Pritchett, La Marque city manager.

The parties agreed to exchange proposed contract language and return to the table at the scheduled follow-up meetings.