Negotiations begin for new city, police ‘meet and confer’ agreement

The city of San Marcos will meet tomorrow with the San Marcos Police Officers’ Association for the first day of discussions on the renewed negotiations on the “meet and confer” agreement that was repealed in February.

A meet and confer agreement outlines the wages and working conditions of the San Marcos Police Department. It includes items like how long the stature of limitations is for an officer to be disciplined as well as the power given tot he chief of police to discipline versus a neutral arbitrator. It also covers the many day-to-day interworking of the department such as hiring and promotion standards.

The city council repealed the agreement in a 4-3 vote on February 7 following a petition organized by Mano Amiga, a group that advocates for criminal justice reform in Hays County, and community activists. The petition, once signed by enough San Marcos citizens, forced the city council to either repeal the agreement or send it to voters to be decided by an election.

The petition was started to repeal the agreement along with a call for the implementation of the Hartman Reforms. The reforms are named after former San Marcos Police Department Sergeant Ryan Hartman, who caused a vehicle collision in 2020 that killed Jennifer Miller. In addition to calling for an end to the 180-day statute of limitations for investigating wrongdoing by officers, the reforms also call for an end of delaying interviews for misconduct, officers are allowed more than 48 hours to before giving an official statement; public transparency for personnel files; an end to third-party arbitration; and end vacation forfeiture as a substitute to suspension.

The city and the police officer’s association have until June 7 to come to an agreement.

The meeting is open to the public, but active participation in the discussions or presentations is prohibited. The meeting will be held at the City Hall Conference Room at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 23. Before the meeting Mano Amiga and the Caldwell/Hays Examiner will hold a press conference at 10:15 a.m. to outline the Hartman Reforms. A press release stated that the press conference will profile “three recent cases of police misconduct in which the offending officer was issued a suspension but, in fact, never actually took a disciplinary break from employment.”