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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Texas appeals court reverses block on Houston firefighters’ pay parity plan

Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals found that a lower court erred in ruling Houston’s Proposition B, a city charter amendment tying firefighters’ salaries to those of police officers, is illegal.

(CN) — In a split decision, a panel of Texas appellate judges on Thursday reinstated a 2018 Houston law that requires Texas’ most populous city to pay its firefighters the same as its police officers.

The decision reverses a lower court’s judgment that the pay parity rule was preempted by a state law, the Fire and Police Employee Relations Act, or FPERA.

FPERA is an opt-in portion of Texas’ Local Government Code — cities of sufficient size may choose to abide its requirements, but don't have to. The policy, which aims to ensure that municipal firefighters and police are paid similarly to their private-sector counterparts, was adopted by Houston in 2003.

A majority of Houston voters ratified Proposition B in the November 2018 election, bumping firefighters’ pay to match police officers of analogous rank, a cost the city struggled to cover the following fiscal year: 220 firefighters were told they’d lose their jobs, sparking police officers’ fears that they’d be next, though the Houston City Council reversed the layoff decision in June 2019.

In May 2019, Harris County Judge Tanya Garrison declared the proposition unlawful in part because it was, in her view, preempted by FPERA, which states it “preempts all contrary local ordinances … or rules” adopted by the municipalities that adopt that chapter of Texas law.

But Justices Meagan Hassan and Charles Spain of Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that FPERA “does not evidence the legislature’s intent to preempt the pay-parity amendment with unmistakable clarity.” They further wrote that the proposition “aligns” with FPERA’s purposes, such as maintaining first responders’ morale and making available "reasonable alternatives to strikes by firefighters and police officers.”

Justice Ken Wise was the three-judge appellate panel’s dissenting member. His concise concluding paragraph summarizes his disagreement with his colleagues on the preemption matter.

“Because the pay-parity amendment ties firefighters’ compensation to a standard that is not based on prevailing private sector compensation, under the uncontroverted evidence in this case, the amendment is contrary to FPERA,” Wise wrote.

Houston City Attorney Arturo Michel voiced his displeasure with the appellate court’s finding in a statement.

“The city of Houston respectfully disagrees with today’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals decision,” Michel wrote. “The net effect of what the firefighter’s union is seeking would be financially devastating to the city. The city will seek review of the decision through either reconsideration by the entire Fourteenth Court of Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court, or both.”

The reversal comes as good news for Houston firefighters, who last month were granted an 18% pay raise over the next three years by Houston City Council: “We win again!” reads a tweet from their union.

“Houston firefighters, our families, and voters thank the appellate court for its careful and thorough review,” wrote Patrick Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, in a press release. “Houston voters approved pay parity fore firefighters and now the courts have upheld that vote. Prop. B is the law, and it is time to sit down and get this issue resolved.”

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Categories / Appeals, Employment, Government, Regional

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