FWPOA - Forth Worth Police Officers Association

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Firefighter's Contract
Fort Worth leaders approve 4-year contract with firefighters Posted Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2010 BY MIKE LEE mikelee@star-telegram.com FORT WORTH -- The city signed a four-year contract with its firefighters association Tuesday, only the second labor agreement in the city's history. The contract's estimated cost will add an additional $21.5 million over four years. The city's 900 firefighters, represented by the Fort Worth Fire Fighters Association, will get a combination of longevity raises and other increases that will average 3.3 percent a year. The fire chief will also get to choose more of the department's top management and have more authority to discipline firefighters, particularly those convicted of crimes. Councilman Carter Burdette voted against the contract, saying it would only prolong the problems with the city's employee pension system. The system has been underfunded for years, but the contract prevents the city from modifying it. "I think it handcuffs the City Council in this city from directing its attention to modifying this fund to where we can get this pension back on track," Burdette said. Mayor Mike Moncrief, though, said the city was required by law to negotiate the contract. Voters gave the firefighters the right to bargain with the city during a referendum in 2007. "Neither side got all of what it wanted," he said. The raises are smaller than those included in a similar contract with the police officers association signed last year. Fire Fighters Association President Jim Tate said, "It's just a sign of the times." The contract doesn't include a guarantee of retirement health insurance, which was one of the association's top priorities. The city eliminated that benefit for most new employees in 2009. Instead, the contract includes $1.6 million as seed money for a health insurance trust fund. "By the time we get to the next contract, we'll be able to fulfill that promise," Tate said. "We're not going to sell out the next generation." It's unclear how the city will pay for the raises that the new contract requires. The city was already facing an estimated $35 million funding gap in fiscal 2011, and the contract will add $4.1 million, City Manager Dale Fisseler said. The only way to close the gap is to raise taxes or cut other programs, he said. City departments have been asked to cut 10 percent of their spending next year, and the police and fire d
by: Mike Lee - 2010-04-14 comments Category: No category found Tags: No tags found

FW Budget Gap Keeps Growing
The Fort Worth budget gap keeps growing Posted Friday, Apr. 16, 2010 Fort Worth residents can be excused if they're confused by the mixed money messages emanating from City Hall. The City Council has been chewing over what to do about a tough 2010-11 fiscal year since the first budget session more than five months ago. The gap between what residents want -- at minimum, existing services, programs and personnel -- and the amount of money available to pay the bills is now $45 million and rising. A new four-year contract for firefighters will add about $4 million to expenditures in fiscal 2010-11. To close a $1 million shortfall in sales tax revenues for the Crime Control and Prevention District, city Budget Officer Horatio Porter proposes shifting the costs for 10 police officers to the general fund. And when -- not if -- commercial property evaluations come in $5 million lower than last year ... well, maybe we should stop there. Woe is us, say council members, who have to weather the gales from upset residents who don't care for such possible solutions as reducing the 20 percent homestead exemption to 10 percent or eliminating it, closing neighborhood pools or libraries, or increasing taxes or fees. So how is it, in this bad budget year, that the City Council approved $82,000 for the first phase of a study into the feasibility of having streetcars circulate in downtown, the Cultural District and the hospital district? And what about the council dedicating $32 million in sales taxes collected on airport car rentals to build a new equestrian center/multipurpose building at the Will Rogers Memorial Center? 'Tis true there's money to spend. But 'tis also true that even though it's fixin' to storm in Cowtown, not all buckets of money are equally available for the rainy day. Take the equestrian center money. In 1997, the Legislature passed a bill authored by then-Sen. Kim Brimer that allows local governments to use sales tax revenues from car rentals to finance construction and maintenance on sports arenas, convention centers, museums, zoos, theaters and "inland waterway" projects. The Fort Worth council earmarked its share of the revenues from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport for the city's convention center and the Will Rogers complex. Those funds can't be used for libraries or swimming pools.
by: Star-Telegram - 2010-05-03 comments Category: No category found Tags: No tags found

Tax Increase
Fort Worth council may have no choice but tax increase Posted Friday, Jun. 18, 2010 What's that old saying, "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging"? Fort Worth City Council members should have that permanently affixed to their nameplates at City Hall, because the painful truth is that councils past and present are in large part responsible for putting the city into the financial hole it's in. No, the council couldn't do anything about the recession, which has negatively affected revenue coming in from property and sales taxes. But for too long, the council has been making promises about employee pension and healthcare benefits that are flat out unsustainable. Of the $77 million budget gap that the city is facing for FY 2010-11, $22.6 million is directly tied to retiree benefits. Wonder how Fort Worth residents will feel if the city raises their taxes to pay for benefits that they themselves don't have? Councilman Danny Scarth does. "I have the deepest respect and admiration for city employees and want to do what's right for them," Scarth said at a Thursday budget workshop. "At the same time, I'm elected by constituents, many who may live in much more modest houses, who may make much less than our city employees, who do not have a retirement fund, and yet I'm going to tell someone of very modest means and a very simple lifestyle that we need a little more money from you because we have employees who have a retirement that we need to make up for." That may be just what council representatives have to do if they remain unwilling to make significant changes in the benefit plans. If they were expecting cover for the tough decisions to come from two ad hoc committees that have been studying the retiree benefits, then council members are out of luck. The reports given Thursday from the pension and healthcare ad hoc committees, which included city employees and residents, can be summed up with two words: status quo. While everyone accepts that fairness among classes of employees is an important concept, that hasn't been the reality for Fort Worth. Police and fire are first among equals, and the recently adopted firefighters' contract, which runs through 2013, is dictating the committees' recommendation of no benefit reductions in the near term. According to Assistant City Attorney Laetitia
by: Star Telegram - 2010-06-23 comments Category: No category found Tags: No tags found