El Paso police association to present city council with retention, recruitment agreement

El Paso Police Department unit (credit: KFOX14/CBS4)

KFOX14
by Erika Esquivel
Wed, March 22nd 2023, 3:44 PM CST

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The El Paso Municipal Police Officer's Association will present to city council a bargaining agreement they made with the city.

The city and association reached an agreement on negotiations for the Collective Bargaining Agreement that focuses on retention and recruitment.

The association approved accepting the proposed agreement. More than 1,000 association members voted in favor of the agreement while only ten voted against it.

The agreement will go before the El Paso City Council at Tuesday's city council meeting which starts at 9 a.m.

“Our main goal of the CBA negotiations was to improve recruitment and retention of existing staff and this agreement accomplishes this goal. Public Safety is a priority in our Strategic Plan, approved by the Council in 2015. We have increased the number of officers with the ‘2015-16 Hire 300 Plan.’ We have also replaced equipment, vehicles, and motorcycles, and we have increased staffing with more training academies budgeted each year since the passage of the 2015 Strategic Plan. We are also executing the 2019 Public Safety Bond, another demonstration of our commitment and this community’s commitment to public safety,” said City Manager Tommy Gonzalez.

“We are grateful to the City Manager and his team for sitting down with us to listen and collaborate on how we address the needs and concerns of our brother and sisters in blue and our community’s public safety,” said Sgt. Victor Vela, El Paso Police Officer's Association Vice President.

The proposed four-year agreement includes pay raises across the board and a pay increase of $10,000 for police cadets.

Cadets are not part of the agreement, as they are not formally police officers until they successfully complete the police academy.

Cadets will get a 13 percent increase when they become police officers and a 2.5 percent increase each year after.

The city’s police and fire departments make up about 60 percent of the city's overall budget at about $305.7 million for public safety in the fiscal year 2023.