SAN ANTONIO — The city of San Antonio and the San Antonio Professional Firefighter's Association (SAPFA) have been negotiating a multi-million dollar contract for nearly three months. The current contract expires in December.
"We're having a recruiting issues because we're not paying competitively," said Joe Jones, union president. "It's not rocket science, it's logic. Wages, far and away are our number one concern. We're being under compensated and overworked."
The union's goal is to decrease the pay gap between firefighters and other first responders across San Antonio which the union argues has only grown larger since the last time SAPFA was at the negotiating table.
"We're 20% behind SAPD," Jones said. "We're 20% behind Bexar County deputies. We're 20% behind in inflation. You know, there's a pretty common number there."
The city responded that last year, the average take-home pay for San Antonio firefighters was $108,500, in comparison to a San Antonio police officer who made $109,100 last year. Both of those numbers, include overtime.
As of May 3, the latest proposal from the city gives four percent raises annually for the next five years. For the 2025 fiscal year, firefighters would receive an additional $2400, allocated to base pay from existing allowances, and receive a 1.8 percent raise from overtime adjustments.
The union's current proposal keeps the four percent annual raises, and keeps the $2400 the city proposed, but also adds fixed amounts for the next three years, something the union calls "equity pay."
The starting salary for a new firefighter in San Antonio is $57,586. If the city's proposal were to be accepted as-is, that same salary in 2025 would be $63,383, as comparison to the union's proposal which would pay $67,680.
"One of our goals and you saw it on one of the slides that was presented [at city council Thursday] is to continue to ensure that our firefighters are competitively paid, both from a take home perspective and a total compensation," said Erik Walsh, city manager for San Antonio
By 2027, the difference in salary for a new firefighter, would be $11,573.
"From an employer standpoint, I want to make sure that we're taking care of all employees," Walsh said. " I also can't fix the last decade. I mean, it's not possible. And so I think I think we need to be sensitive to it and I think that's part of the conversations."
In comparison to other major Texas cities, current pay for new firefighters is lower than both Dallas and Austin. Starting salary in Dallas is $70,314 for a new firefighter, while in Austin, new firefighters make $59,678.
On Thursday, after a brief presentation by Deputy City Manager, Maria Villagomez about current proposals, San Antonio City Council ushered into an executive session to discuss ongoing negotiations.
This is the same meeting five city councilmembers requested last week, which was denied. That denial became a "tipping point" for the same councilmembers to question the suitability of City Attorney, Andy Segovia.
"Based on my conversation with the council and my confidence was that we needed to have an executive session," Walsh said. "And it really goes back to yesterday's conversation with the council."
Councilmember for district 10, Marc Whyte, was one of the five councilmembers, who repeatedly asked for an executive session at the council B session on May 8, which was denied. Following the two and a half hour closed-door executive session Thursday, Whyte called the conversations inside "great."
"I've said publicly many times before, we have the best fire department in the country they need to paid like that, so that's my interest," he said. "You know, from the city consideration, we have to balance our budget and make sure that our finances are in order, and I believe we can do that and pay our firefighters what they deserve to be paid."
The city has explained they're headed towards mediation. SAPFA has until May 28 to make a decision, or to ask for an extension.