By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City and police officers association negotiators have failed to reach an agreement on a new contract, but talks are ongoing.
City representatives and representatives of the Del Rio Police Officers Association met for a third collective bargaining session on Sept. 19.
Among those representing the city were Rebecca Hayward and Clarissa Rodriguez of the city’s contracted law firm of Denton Navarro Rodriguez Bernal Santee & Zech, as well as Assistant City Manager Manuel Chavez, City Attorney Ana Markowski Smith and City Human Resources Director Mario Garcia.
Representing the police officers association were Steve Ayala of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, DRPD Sgt. Jesus Galindo, DRPOA president, DRPD Senior Officer Marco Zambrano and DRPD Cpl. Estevan Hernandez.
Hayward opened the Sept. 19 meeting by saying she had met with Ayala earlier and summarized their conversation.
Hayward said, “We – flat-out, straight, directly – have no counter-proposal for you today in terms of money. We just do not. There are ducks in a row, some dominoes we have to line up, to see if those fall before we can even give you a counter-proposal, and I know that’s disappointing.
“I can’t in good faith give you a number right now, and neither can (city management). We just can’t in good faith give you a number right now, not knowing whether it will get approved or if we can fund it. That would just be bad faith, and I’m not going to do that. I would rather just upset you in this way by it taking longer before I put anything on the table,” she added.
Hayward told the DRPOA negotiators the city council would consider an ordinance at its Sept. 24 (Tuesday) meeting to pass an ordinance “to make sure that the terms of the (existing) contract stay in place so nobody loses money when the contract ends on Oct. 1.”
Ayala responded he wanted a chance to caucus with his team “to discuss maybe some creative ways of funding” the pay raise requested by DRPOA during the collective bargaining session on Sept. 19.
“We’re not ignorant to what’s happening in regards to the city and their finances and so on, but before that, can we pick a date for the next meeting?” Ayala said.
Hayward said she would be in a better position to name a date after Sept. 24, when the council met to consider the contract extension ordinance.
The two teams then met privately.
When the two groups returned to the bargaining table about 40 minutes later, Hayward said, “We’re going to get with the council on the 24th, and we’re going to talk to them about a lot of things, including what you all have talked about today, other ways to fund this to make sure we accomplish the goals of retention and recruitment and keeping good officers here with the city of Del Rio and attracting other good officers to come on board.”
Hayward also expressed her appreciation for the officers’ time and patience.
Ayala said he wanted to make sure the notices for future meetings are posted in a timely fashion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
