The Daily News
By B. SCOTT McLENDON The Daily News
August 21, 2023

GALVESTON - City council Thursday will consider a four-year schedule of pay raises for police officers as the island works to stay competitive with other area departments.

Galveston police and city administrators finalized a collective bargaining agreement Aug. 16 that will provide market wage increases to officers from Oct. 1 through September 2027. The council is set to vote on the raises as the island’s public safety budget consumes 79 percent of Galveston’s general fund.

The agreement will provide a market wage increase in the first and third years, with a 2 percent increase in years two and four, according to the agreement. Galveston police officers’ starting pay is about $61,000, up from about $53,000 in 2020, according to the city. Officers with more than 10 years can make about $85,000, up from about $75,000 in 2020. Those raises are reflective of the city’s most recent collective bargaining agreement.

Negotiations between the city and the police association began at the end of June. Officials struck an agreement on market wages and much-needed improvements to the contract, according to the city.

Specifically, the parties agreed Galveston should pay as well as any city in the county, attract candidates to fill the vacancies in the police department and that League City and Texas City police department wages should be included in the market, according to the city.

Galveston officials agreed to include a mechanism that triggers local officers’ raises if League City raises pay for its officers, according to the agreement.

“As the parties were about to reach an agreement on this market comparison, the parties learned of a proposed 4 percent increase in police department wages in League City,” according to the city. “Because the purpose of a market increase is to keep in line with the market, the parties agreed the wage increase in the first year of the agreement would be contingent on the League City wages in January 2024, specifically to include that 4 percent increase in the market survey, if approved.”

Effective Jan. 1, 2024, all ranks will receive a market wage increase that's contingent on an increase in the League City wages by that date, according to the agreement. In January 2025, the police department will receive a 2 percent increase. In Oct. 2025, market conditions could lead to another wage increase, according to the agreement.

And in year four, the police department will receive a 2 percent increase, effective Oct. 1, 2026.