Houston City Controller Chris Hollins said he will not certify the proposed $1.5 billion settlement and labor contract with the Houston firefighters union that is scheduled to be considered by City Council Wednesday until the Whitmire administration answers dozens of questions about the terms and costs.
Hollins sent Mayor John Whitmire 44 questions about the agreement on Monday, giving the administration a tight deadline to produce answers before Wednesday morning’s council session. The questions seek basic information about the deal’s estimated cost to the city, as well as more intricate details, including specific triggers for firefighter bonuses he says were not included in the draft his office received last week.
The city charter requires the controller to certify the availability of funding for ordinances prior to a council vote committing the city to future financial obligations. After Whitmire responded to Hollins’ letter Tuesday evening declining to answer many of the questions, citing the confidential legal negotiations that produced the settlement, the controller said the deal would not be certified in time for Wednesday morning’s council meeting.
He pointed specifically to the lack of detail about the collective bargaining agreement’s “escalators,” or funding benchmarks that, if met, could trigger pay raises for the union’s members.
“The mayor’s letter was not responsive to 90% of my questions — most importantly one that has the potential to impact the City’s finances by more than $100 million,” Hollins wrote in a text Tuesday evening. “It would be irresponsible and put the City at significant financial risk to move forward without additional clarity.”
Hollins said the lack of detail in the CBA’s draft about the specific benchmarks for the escalators risks future litigation between the city and the firefighters’ union and leaves taxpayer funds to chance.
In response, the mayor’s letter asserted that the controller’s office is not required to certify the collective bargaining agreement itself, aside from the firefighter union’s $6.5 million in legal fees. As such, the mayor wrote, his office would not answer several questions regarding the agreement itself.
Whitmire warned Hollins that a failure to certify the package before Wednesday’s meeting risks millions of dollars from the city’s budget by further dragging out the labor dispute. He said his office spent Tuesday writing its response and would provide more answers to City Council members later in the evening.
“To be clear, by not certifying this agreement and allowing City Council to conduct their legislative duty you are risking fire and EMS operations for all Houstonians, as well as jeopardizing the entire negotiated settlement,” the mayor wrote.
He also said the city had until June 19 to approve the agreement, ending the letter, “My team stands ready to answer any additional questions you may have, and I look forward to being able to vote on this item tomorrow.”
Whitmire, who campaigned for mayor last year on a promise to end the firefighter back-pay dispute, announced the deal in March. Since then, details about the settlement and collective bargaining agreement had been sparse prior to the 123-page CBA being signed and published June 3.
Hollins said his office worked as quickly as possible to review the terms and draft his questions in the week since those details became public.
Frustration over the lack of certification spilled into City Council’s public comment session Tuesday, where Marty Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, accused Hollins of playing politics with the deal.
Lancton claimed Hollins was provided a draft of the agreement months ago and has had the opportunity to review the deal.
“We’ve seen some questions that have been sent out that are a little bit disturbing, things that have nothing to do with the certification of funds,” Lancton said, suggesting politics was at play.
Hollins said Lancton’s comments were not true, and that his office did not receive a draft of the completed agreement until last Monday. An earlier draft of the agreement had circulated earlier, but the city attorney’s office said some provisions still were being worked out before last week.
“We’ve asked relevant questions, and we now await the response,” Hollins said. “I would love to understand which of these questions Marty believes the controller’s office and the people of Houston should not have answered?”
The estimated cost of the deal stands at $1.5 billion, including interest and fees on a bond expected to be used to pay for the back-pay settlement, and the cost of the forward-looking, five-year union contract.
In his letter, Hollins asks Whitmire to confirm the back-pay settlement’s $650 million price tag, the cost of legal bills, as well as the number of firefighters eligible to receive the back-pay. He also seeks additional clarity about the negotiations that delivered the settlement, asking Whitmire how many concessions the city and the firefighters’ union offered prior to the two sides coming to an agreement.
Hollins appears most interested in learning about the triggering conditions for the CBA’s “escalators” — it was the only section of the letter in bold.
The five-year contract specifies 10 percent base salary increases for the first year. Base salaries would continue to rise in the following four years, but the total increase would depend on whether the city is able to add new revenue.
The salary escalator would kick in if the city does add new revenue. In the first year, for example, a 3 percent salary bump would rise to 6 percent if more money comes in. Hollins is seeking clarity about what new revenues would trigger the salary bumps.
Hollins also is seeking clarification from Whitmire about some of the CBA’s non-financial terms , including changes to Civil Service Commission rules that would allow the firefighters’ union to select half of the board’s members and a requirement that any termination achieve a unanimous vote by the board’s members. The change effectively would give the firefighters veto power over major discipline.
Following Lancton’s remarks during the public comment session of City Council on Tuesday, Whitmire thanked the council’s Finance Committee for its work reviewing the deal, arguing the committee process already had answered any outstanding questions the public might have.
A vote on the deal already has been delayed a week after Hollins failed to certify it in time for last Wednesday’s meeting.
Also last week, At-Large Councilmember Sallie Alcorn “tagged” the proposed $6.7 billion city budget for Fiscal Year 2025, automatically delaying the budget vote until Wednesday.
The moves set up a high-stakes council meeting for Whitmire, who is seeking to pass his first budget and get the firefighter deal ratified.
A group of council members have questioned both the deal’s cost – it would drain much of the more than $450 million fund balance left over from the previous administration – and the same non-financial changes Hollins asked Whitmire about .
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