Mano Amiga collects signatures to repeal SMPD civil service status

In 2020, Jennifer Miller died when former San Marcos Police Department Sgt. Ryan Hartman, who was off duty, struck Watts’ vehicle after running a stop sign going 16 mph over the speed limit with an open container of Dos Equis beer in his Ford F-250, according to Lockhart Police Department records. LPD recommended a charge of criminally negligent homicide after a months-long investigation into the incident. A grand jury handed him a no-bill, which means they declined to indict him on the charges.

Protests attempting to have the San Marcos Police Department discipline Hartman eventually led to the creation of Mano Amiga Safety — a specific purpose action committee — with the intent to repeal the meet and confer agreement for law enforcement between the city and the San Marcos Police Officers Association. The organization began collecting signatures to do just that in 2022. The San Marcos City Council approved the petition to repeal the meet and confer instead of sending it to a public vote. Mano Amiga Safety was requesting five changes, dubbed the "Hartman Reforms," to be included in the new contract. This led to months of renegotiation of the meet and confer agreement. Some of the requested reforms were partially addressed, but none were fully incorporated. The council approved the new contract in 2023.

Now Mano Amiga Safe Communities — a specific purpose action committee created to repeal the civil service status of SMPD — has once again submitted a petition with 700 signatures to start a similar process.

Civil service status refers to a state law outlining assistance, benefits and working conditions for police officers.

The petition, once verified by the city clerk, will go to council to either approve the removal of civil service status or send it to a vote for the public to decide.

If either the council or the public were to approve of the removal of civil service status, SMPD would be subject to Texas employment laws without the protections afforded by the status.

Former San Marcos Police Chief Howard Williams, who led the department from 2003 to 2014, is now a Texas State School of Criminal Justice and Criminology Lecturer. He explained what civil service status is and that it has both positive and negative implications for the public and the police depending on the circumstance.

“There are rules by law about who you can hire and when you can fire and how you promote people and all that kind of stuff. It basically means things have to be done by merit as opposed to political favoritism,” Williams said. He explained that the removal of civil service status would mean that “the police department falls back to the laws of the state of Texas as far as being an employ-at-will state; in other words, they wouldn't need a reason to fire you. They could just fire you. They could hire anybody they wanted. There wouldn't be any particular requirements as far as background checks and things like that.”

Williams said the other side of the coin is, with civil service status, it is harder to discipline and terminate officers.

Eric Martinez, Mano Amiga Safe Communities executive director, pointed out the reasons Mano Amiga is trying to repeal civil service status for the police.

“Civil service for law enforcement has been used as a mechanism to prevent disciplinary action against law enforcement officers who break the law,” Martinez said. “Most people are most familiar with Sergeant Ryan Hartman, Pam Watts and Jennifer Miller. On body cam footage, Ryan Hartman — who was a former sergeant here in the San Marcos Police Department — said that he caused the death of somebody by him not paying attention. He was charged with recommended charges of criminally negligent homicide by the local Lockhart Police Department. But ultimately, he was not held accountable. He just got a traffic ticket, and was able to get that off his record as well.”

Martinez said that, at the time, San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said, during a vigil for Jennifer Miller, that he could not hold Hartman accountable due to his civil service status.

Williams said the meet and confer agreement, which is a contract between the city of San Marcos and the San Marcos Police Officers Association that negotiates work conditions such as wage, discipline and promotions, to name a few, is a part of the civil service law.

“If you don't like some of the civil service provisions, you're welcome to negotiate between labor and management, in other words between the officers and the city, to negotiate to change terms. And you do it by contract, and you're permitted to do that under civil service,” Williams said, adding that without the meet and confer agreement, employment conditions would fall back on standard civil service provisions. “It's not required, it's just permissive to be able to do that, but that is one of the things that civil service allows in Texas.”

Mano Amiga was calling for an introduction of the five “Hartman Reforms” into the meet and confer agreement that was being renegotiated in 2023: • An end to the 180-day rule, which would repeal the statute of limitations on investigating wrongdoing by police officers. • An end to delayed interviews. Officers currently receive 48 hours to prepare answers, review videotape, photograph and other materials in advance of giving an official statement. •Public transparency for personnel files. • An end to third party arbitration, which would place the duty in the hands of the Civil Service Commission. According to Austintexas.gov, the Civil Service Commission administers processes regarding the initial selection, advancement and conditions of employment in accordance with Chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code, Civil Service Commission Rules, and agreements with employee associations. • End vacation forfeiture in lieu of suspension, which would no longer allow officers to preserve seniority and promotion advantages when they are disciplined for misconduct.

The Hartman Reforms were not incorporated into the contract, but a few of them were addressed to some degree in the renegotiations that occurred in 2023. Several key aspects of the negotiated agreement from last year include doubling the amount of time to investigate and administer discipline, which means that there is now 360 days to investigate a police officer's wrongdoing before the statute of limitations goes into effect.

“This is a progressive change not seen in many cities,” Reyes said on May 2, 2023. She said the city was also able “to negotiate limiting the role of an arbitrator in substituting his or her judgment for that of the chief’s in certain circumstances,” as well as allowing for letters of reprimand to be considered during the promotional process.

For Mano Amiga, these changes do not go far enough.

“If an incident occurred more than 360 days ago, then an officer can't be held accountable by a supervising officer for that official wrongdoing, whether that be criminal or that be official violation of policy,” Martinez said. “We want police accountability. We want police transparency [so] that when law enforcement officers break the law, they will be held accountable by the city council [and] they will be held accountable by the police chief.”

According to the city of San Marcos, the next step would be for the San Marcos City Clerk Elizabeth Trevino to ratify the signatures, which she has 45 days to do.

“Council will decide to repeal the agreement or allow the voters to decide,” the city of San Marcos stated. “If there is council consensus to take this to the voters, this will be on the ballot for the November 5th election.”

Learn more about civil service law at this link statutes.capitol.texas.gov/ Docs/LG/htm/LG.143. htm