Thursday, December 18, 2025, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
0:04 Good morning, everybody. It's nine o'clock in the morning on December 18th, 2025, and I will call to order this
0:10 special called meeting of the Austin City Council.
0:13 We have a quorum of the City Council present, and we are meeting in the City Council chambers.
0:17 It's located in City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street.
0:22 Uh, members, you're aware that we have three items on the agenda.
0:26 Uh, the way we'll go forward today is we will first have a, uh, presentation by our staff.
0:33 Then we will go to item number one.
0:36 We, we have a few people that have signed up to speak.
0:39 What we'll do is we will call the speakers up by the item.
0:42 Uh, we'll call 'em up the way we, the way we typically do at meetings, uh, each speaker
0:47 will have two minutes.
0:49 And, uh, we will then open it up for, uh, I'll, I'll take a motion and we will
0:53 then open it up for questions.
0:55 And actually, right after the presentation, we'll have questions, but we'll have discussion, uh, after a motion if
1:00 anybody has any discussion.
1:02 So, with that, and unless there's any questions or objections, I will turn it over to our city
1:06 manager. Thank you, Mayor, and good morning, Mayor City Council.
1:10 I'm pleased to bring forward today for your consideration, a four year collective bargaining agreement with the Austin
1:17 firefighter association. After returning, uh, to the negotiation table to resolve the issues raised, uh, in their proposed
1:25 charter amendment, I believe we have arrived at a true and complete agreement for the next four years,
1:32 contained within the city's agrees to maintain the mandatory four person staffing ordinance through mutual agreement with the
1:40 faa, the a fa, in exchange the a fa agrees to no longer pursue its charter petition, as
1:50 has always been our stated goal.
1:51 Uh, this agreement ensures the city continues to deploy resources to serve our residents in the most effective
1:57 manner, avoids excessive overtime to ensure our firefighters have time to rest and provides re a reduced work
2:05 week hours, uh, to improve firefighter work life balance so that they can benefit from the much needed
2:12 rest. With that, I will turn it over to roxy perez, stevens deputy labor relations officer to explain,
2:20 uh, the agreement in more detail.
2:23 Good morning, Mayor and council.
2:25 Thank you, city manager, broad nexts roxy stevens, a deputy labor relations officer.
2:30 I'm excited to be here, uh, because this means that we have been able to get back to
2:35 the table and resolve the outstanding issues that we already had.
2:39 As you recall, we already had a ta with resolved issues.
2:42 We were able to go back to the table with the a fa on the unresolved issues raised
2:46 by the petition for the charter amendment, and we are presenting to you today an agreement between both
2:53 the city and the a fa, um, after negotiations.
2:59 Uh, so after returning to the table, we negotiated this agreement.
3:03 Uh, this is the first fire agreement that we have actually negotiated and brought before the City Council
3:09 without going through another process such as arbitration since 2017.
3:14 So this is a, this, this is a good thing.
3:17 We are forging a new, uh, collaborative effort in working with the a fa to achieve, um, resolution
3:25 to difficult issues so that we can discuss them, discuss the real issues, and come up with reasonable,
3:31 effective and practical solutions.
3:35 So the agreement that, uh, I'm bringing forth today before the Mayor and the council resolves all the
3:41 issues we've, and, and in resolving all the issues we've been able to achieve a lot, um, if
3:46 you look across the state, maybe, uh, maybe they're able to achieve wage increases or maybe they're able
3:52 to achieve a reduced work week in just that, or a new shift schedule.
3:57 And the agreement that we're bringing forth today, we're able to achieve all of those.
4:01 We've been able to fi to achieve increased wages for all our fi our hardworking firefighters reduce work
4:07 week hours to address the health and safety of the firefighters themselves.
4:12 Uh, we've committed to four person staffing levels and solidifying the quality of the services that we're able
4:19 to provide our community.
4:21 Uh, and we also discuss when hard issues come up, how are we gonna deal with them.
4:26 We have formed collaborative processes in order to be able to address those issues in collaboration with the
4:33 a fa and which May at times, um, allow the city to consider, uh, taking apparatus and fire
4:40 stations out of service, but only in critical moments and only in certain, um, circumstances.
4:46 The agreement that I'm bringing forth today, uh, has been approved by the a fa by 72% of
4:52 their membership. They voted in favor, and that's a strong vote.
4:58 Uh, there is a powerpoint presentation included in the public backup documents that I have uploaded for this
5:04 particular agenda item that outlines all the details of the complete tentative agreement.
5:09 If I went through all the de through all the details.
5:12 Um, as you see, the, the agreement itself is about 110 pages.
5:17 It is very, uh, complex and there's a lot of details.
5:20 So I've included that powerpoint presentation that outlines all of those for everyone's reference.
5:25 The Mayor, the council, the public, anybody who wants to look at it.
5:29 Um, so I'm not gonna go through each slide there, but I'm gonna highlight the major key points
5:34 that we've been able to achieve in this agreement.
5:38 This agreement is a four year agreement, uh, being, becoming effective today, in ending in September, 2029.
5:46 It includes an an enhanced hiring process where the chief gets to set the hiring standards and has
5:52 more flexibility to hold continuous hiring processes and be able to focus on certain geographical areas, meaning that,
5:59 uh, we can have multiple tests happening at the same time in different locations rather than just one
6:05 test. It opens it up to a lot more applicants than we have had before.
6:10 Uh, the chief will also be able to utilize modified hiring to hire quickly, uh, and hire already
6:17 certified firefighters, uh, from other jurisdictions.
6:20 It also offers a streamlined promotional process, uh, for the firefighters that are within the rank and file
6:26 to be able to move up within and promote within their ranks.
6:32 The, uh, contract that we're presenting today allows a chief to utilize non-sworn employees in certain sections of
6:38 the department, including recruiting public information and air shop.
6:42 And it continues to allow, uh, the use of civilian engineers and fire prevention.
6:49 A big component of this, which is very transformative, is something that we have negotiated called the Austin
6:55 schedule, beginning the third year of the contract.
6:57 And the reason that it's in the third year of the contract is because the firefighters, uh, or
7:02 the a fa membership has collaborated with us to understand that it, it's gonna take some work to
7:07 get to be able to implement that, uh, schedule that there's two distinct items in the Austin schedule.
7:15 One is the actual shift schedule itself, which, which goes from a 24 48, uh, and transforms into a
7:22 1 3, 2, 3, meaning there's a three days in between each shift.
7:26 So a firefighter will have time to rest and spend time with their family.
7:30 Uh, and that would be one day on, three days off, two days on, three days off, and
7:34 continuous such as that in addition to the new shift schedule.
7:39 Oh, and before I move on to that, there will be a, uh, an alternative shift schedule of
7:43 the 24 48 that would be, uh, available for people with hardships, such as taking care of children or
7:49 family members or other hardships.
7:51 And that would be on an as request basis and as approved by the fire chief.
7:58 Uh, in addition to the new shift schedule, there's also gonna be reduced work week hours, um, throughout
8:04 the course of this contract, the reduced work week will go from an average of 52, uh, down
8:10 to 49.8 there, uh, in year three of the contract.
8:15 There is a, a point in the contract in March of 2026, uh, where the firefighters have agreed
8:21 as a cost sharing measure to give back the two kelly days that they, they were awarded in
8:26 the last contract award in order to be able to use those savings to fund additional ftes to
8:32 implement the reduced work work week schedule.
8:37 Uh, when, when they do implement the 49.8 hour work schedule in the 30 year of the contract,
8:43 that actually, uh, increases the hourly wage by 6.43%, meaning they're gonna be making more hourly, but making
8:51 the same annual rate.
8:53 And then the raises that we did negotiate go on top of that, the 54 oh part of
9:01 the cost sharing, uh, pro that the a fa has agreed to participate in is to add 54
9:08 additional ftes into the authorized strength of firefighters in order to be able to implement the reduced work
9:15 schedule. That would be, uh, the city would increase authorized strength in year one by 22 firefighters and
9:21 year two by 32 firefighters that way.
9:23 In the third year of the contract, we have hired, uh, or we are, we have increased, uh,
9:29 authorized strength up to 54 additional firefighters.
9:38 Part of the cost sharing.
9:39 Also, the firefighters have also agreed to give up the sick leave buyback program, and that savings was
9:44 also attributed to the, um, sharing in the cost of, of hiring those additional firefighters.
9:52 Now for wage increases, we're also able to, uh, adjust the pay scale in year one.
9:59 We had noticed in our compensation study and in discussions with the a fa, that the entry level
10:04 firefighter steps were the ones that, uh, were a little lagging behind and needed a little bit more,
10:10 um, a little bit more attention.
10:14 So what we did was we took the pay scale and we adjusted it accordingly throughout the, uh,
10:19 different steps in the ranks.
10:21 So there is a graduated, uh, increase, uh, as the steps go forward, the entry level step of
10:29 zero or the, which is the step in which firefighters who are coming in from probation and what
10:34 attracts firefighters to apply to the city of Austin is being raised by 6.21%.
10:41 The step one, which is one year experience is increased by 5.5 per 5.55%.
10:48 And the step two, which is two years experience, is increased by 5.06%.
10:53 All other, uh, firefighters will experience a nine, a 3.96% increase in the first year, and the battalion
11:00 chiefs and division chiefs will, will get a 3% increase.
11:04 One of the things we also did was we, um, made all rank rank differentials, meaning the differences
11:10 between the ranks, uh, and we made 'em a stable 8% for years two, three, and four of
11:17 the contract. We were also able to achieve increases.
11:19 Year two would be an across the board increase of 3%, year three would be 3.5%, and year
11:26 four would be 4%.
11:29 The projected cost of the agreement over the four years is $63 million with a year, one cost of
11:35 $5,913,706. The contract also includes guardrail provisions regarding funding and the availability of funding.
11:46 Now, the outstanding issues that we added to the tentative agreement here in the last, um, month that
11:52 we, uh, took to negotiate the contract or the outstanding issues of, with the issues being raised by
11:59 the petition for the charter amendment are the foreperson staffing.
12:06 The reason that gave rise was because the a fa had filed a petition to seek to have
12:11 the four-person staffing solidified in the charter amendment by including it in the contract.
12:17 The a fa has agreed not to pursue or support directly or indirectly any charter amendment and or
12:22 law that addresses, um, the four-person staffing ordinance, the fire department staffing levels, minimum staffing for apparatuses or,
12:31 um, apparatuses in service and out of service or fire stations in service or out of service in
12:37 return, the city has agreed in the contract that it will not amend, revised, or rescind the four-person
12:43 staffing ordinance requiring four-person staffing.
12:47 Uh, there is also an additional provision, uh, that if any outside party or any law or charter
12:54 amendment is enacted during the term of the agreement that the City Council May vote to expire the
13:01 contract if it impacts the ability to fund or, or manage or op or administer the contract.
13:07 And then the contract would be required to be renegotiated
13:15 with foreperson staffing. It mirrors the ordinance, it references the ordinance, but there were some clarifications and misunderstanding,
13:22 uh, rather clarifications and under mutual understandings that we had to include in the contract.