Consensus reached on terms for new three-year Meet & Confer Agreement

After more than eight months of discussions, City Manager A.C. Gonzalez and the Police and Fire Meet & Confer Coalition Team have reached consensus on terms for a new three-year Meet & Confer Agreement.

The proposed three-year agreement addresses many of the uniformed compensation issues the Police and Fire Departments have been struggling with for the past several years. It increases starting pay each year to make the City’s starting pay more in line with the overall market. The agreement also increases pay for our newer officers by more than 27 percent over the three years. These newer officers are most vulnerable to recruiting efforts by other agencies and our goal with this large pay increase is to keep them in Dallas. The agreement provides for a lateral program that will allow the Police Department to recruit from other agencies and pay these officers for their experience. Finally, the agreement includes moderate pay increases for the most tenured officers.

“The agreement that we’ve reached is a great step forward,” Gonzalez said. “The pay adjustments that first responders have agreed to will help us compensate our uniform employees at the same level as many of our peer cities and it will help us recruit top talent. I am grateful to the Police and Fire Associations’ Meet & Confer negotiating team for their thoughtful efforts, creative thinking, and hard work that led to this agreement. We spent countless hours working through the issues and this agreement would not have happened without their efforts and patience.”

The agreement will be presented to their membership for a vote. If approved by the membership, it will be presented to the Dallas City Council for consideration of final approval.