HOUSTON — The head of Houston’s firefighters union and Mayor John Whitmire were celebrating a tentative agreement Friday that they say resolves all pay issues dating back to 2017.
Former Mayor Sylvester Turner had long insisted the city couldn’t afford voter-approved pay raises for firefighters, while union leaders complained they were losing staff and recruits to better-paying departments.
Three days after being sworn in as mayor in January, Mayor John Whitmire ordered the city to end all legal action against the firefighters and start negotiations.
Since then, KHOU 11 News has learned that both sides have been talking and meeting daily until reaching a deal just after 8 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.
“This is just a historic day for Houston firefighters,” Marty Lancton, President of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, told us. “Everybody in that room understood what needed to be done, and everybody worked. There was no one-sided conversations.”
Lancton said the agreement will positively impact staffing and morale.
“This shows that we can finally move forward,” he said. “We can rebuild a fire department that is world-class. We can retain and recruit firefighters.”
Lancton told us the deal is a win-win, with give and take on both sides, but he is limited on what he can say beyond that.
“We are still operating under the confidentiality of the courts and getting the settlement done,” he said. “So, all sides are now making sure that we are getting that in form to present to the courts to move forward.”
KHOU 11 News also spoke with Mayor John Whitmire on Friday.
“I am so pleased that the two parties, my team and the firefighters’ union, sat down and over a two-month period worked out differences that had existed for eight years,” Whitmire said.
The mayor was asked about the cost of the deal and how the city will pay for it.
“The city will afford it by … there’ll be settlement bonds sold,” Whitmire said. “It’s gonna be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and quite frankly, I don’t want to put a final price tag on it right now. We’re checking all the numbers, but we will share that with Houstonians and we will allow the Houstonians to respond.”
Mayor Whitmire told us that his team will reveal more details after the final touches on the deal are complete. He will then ask City Council members to support the agreement.