Council approves meet and confer with firefighters

Throughout the spring and into the summer, the San Marcos Professional Fire Fighters Association and city of San Marcos staff have been in negotiations, working toward a revised meet and confer agreement, regarding key issues that included wages, rates of pay, hours of work and working conditions.

The San Marcos City Council unanimously voted in favor of the negotiated new agreement at their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.

During the negotiations, SMPFFA was represented by San Marcos Fire Department Engineer David Thomas, SMPFFA President Louis Gonzales, San Marcos Fire Department Battalion Chief Aaron Crawford, San Marcos Fire Department Engineer Robert Dallimore and San Marcos Fire Department Engineer Justin Nauert.

The city was represented by San Marcos Director of Human Resources Linda Spacek, San Marcos Assistant City Manager Chase Stapp, San Marcos Director of Finance Jon Locke, and San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes.

According to Reyes, the current meet and confer agreement will expire Sept. 30, and the new meet and confer agreement will be effective from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2026.

“In discussing issues important to both parties, key issues included the ability to attract and maintain firefighters, enhancements to our promotional processes, refining provisions related to the Fire Marshal's office, further defining financial parameters and including provisions for firefighter accountability, for misconduct and wages,” Reyes said.

Reyes said there was one area that is incomplete, which is related to the authority of the arbitrator.

“We have agreed to continue discussions on this issue in the next negotiation,” Reyes said.

Spacek said the area that took the majority of negotiation time was hiring and retention.

“We built in a lot of features to provide flexibility, increased the maximum age from 35 to 40 [and] expanded the applicant pool by adding the option to hire candidates that need some work to get certifications to meet our minimum requirements,” Spacek said.

Spacek said, similar to what was placed in the San Marcos police meet and confer agreement, they added an item related to additional points for applicants with a degree in social work, sociology, psychology, human services or human relations. She said they expanded the probationary period for new firefighters to 365 days after completion of the academy.

Spacek said they worked on discipline and accountability measures. She said they expanded the 180 day rule.

The chief may file a complaint 180 days from the occurrence for a non-criminal violation, 180 days after the chief's discovery of the act for a criminal violation and 300 days from occurrence for sexual harassment.

Spacek said the eligibility for minor suspension substituting paid leave in order to waive arbitration rights was increased from 24 to 48 hours.

Spacek said base wages have been increased across a three year term.

With one year of service base pay increases by 8%, the second year base pay increases by 5% and the third year base pay increases by 4.5%.

Spacek said the impact of the new agreement is $612, 883 for year one base pay increases, $421,116 for year two, and $403,492 for year three which comes out to $1,437,492 over the term of the agreement.