The San Marcos City Council voted 4-3 to repeal the Meet and Confer agreement with the San Marcos Police Officers’ Association giving the two organizations until June 7 to try and come to a new agreement.
The Meet and Confer agreement outlines wages and working conditions of the San Marcos Police Department. This includes things like how long the statute of limitations is for an officer to be disciplined as well as the power given to the chief of police to discipline versus a neutral arbitrator. It also covers many day-to-day interworking of the department such as hiring and promotion standards.
“Meet and confer was adopted in 2006 but our first agreement was effective Oct. 1 2009,” Linda Spacek, director of Human Resources and Civil Service for the city of San Marcos, said. “Our most recent agreement was adopted this last year. As we work through these agreements, there are a lot of things we talk about that affect hiring, promotions, discipline, every aspect of how the police department works. It is kind of layered. The first year you do some things, and then both sides come together and say, ‘Hey, there are some things we can do to enhance those.’ Every year builds on itself, and we have built some really neat things over the years that are serving our community very well.”
