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Fight over certification pay: union seeks added fire-certification dollars; city cites $136,000 EMS cost
Summary
Bargainers debated certification pay Oct. 1. The city said an EMS-focused certification package would cost $136,000 (city-side total cost including taxes/benefits); the union asked for additional fire-certification pay (roughly $36,500 gross by the union’s math), sparking detailed reconciliation work and a plan to meet finance staff to align spreadsheets and assumptions.
Certification pay and its fiscal ramifications dominated the Oct. 1 bargaining session. City staff presented a costed proposal that focused on EMS certification pay and said the city-side cost for the EMS portion would be about $136,000 when employer-side taxes and benefits are included. The union said it wanted additional fire-certification pay on top of EMS incentives; when combined with EMS increases the union’s chart produced a larger delta (about $201,775 in the union’s presentation).
City staff emphasized the difference between gross pay increases to employees and total municipal cost including FICA, workers' compensation, pension contributions and other fringes. "Any increase to one dollar increase, it'll cost me X to fund that money," a staff member said while explaining why the city's internal cost calculations exceed the gross amounts shown on the union’s spreadsheet. The city asked for a joint reconciliation with finance to ensure both sides are using the same baseline (current budgeted certification pay) and the same assumptions about benefits.
Negotiators discussed options to reduce the immediate fiscal impact: the city proposed shaving roughly $13,000 from the union’s extra certification ask or redistributing the proposed EMS dollars across different certification categories; the union suggested spreading the extra requested certification pay across more years (a multi-year phasing) so annual cost is lower. Both sides agreed to meet with staff and finance to reconcile the numbers and to prepare clear charts for presentation to the commission.
The union also cited market comparators (Mercedes, McAllen) and argued the department is losing staff to neighboring jurisdictions without competitive certification pay. City staff said they were willing to explore redistributions but stressed fiscal responsibility to taxpayers and the need to present reconciled, auditable numbers to the commission.
No final wage or certification-pay agreement was reached; negotiators scheduled staff-level meetings and agreed to prepare a short extension so bargaining can continue this week before an impasse/extension window expires.
