This has Unlimited Access. Please support our commitment to public service journalism. Subscribe now.
A question that has floated around a lot for the last year is whether the City of Houston’s employees are joining a union.
The records of these conversations are protected under closed session section 610.021 subsection (9) preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a public governmental body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups. This is why the public has not received any information or minutes from these meetings when these discussions have happened.
However, many have seen and asked questions on if the City of Houston is being sued by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). While paperwork has been filed, nothing has been formally served to the City of Houston.
When I was first elected last year in April, the electric department had already started and voted to unionize. The first introduction that I had with the formalities of this process was when the previous city administrator and the previous union attorney the city had hired to handle this, and another case, brought forth a Memorandum of Understanding for the City to agree upon or not. When it was presented to the council, it was the first time that the council had seen this document, was not involved in negotiating what was in it, but was expected to agree to it that night. Before the city would proceed, we asked to see what the pay rate was going to be asked because on the City of Houston’s behalf and the taxpayers, we needed to understand how much the potential union employees were going to ask for before we could agree to anything. That was the last we had heard from the union issues until the council relieved the then attorney of their duties which started us on the look for a new attorney to handle the negotiations and the legalities that come with unionization.
The City of Houston was then able to secure the services of Ivan Schraeder, who has a long history of dealing with municipal sector unions and could jump in and work on the city’s behalf. From when we hired him until now, we have spent $17,009.19 on special counsel fees. There were conversations that the City of Houston had to put down a $10,000.00 retainer fee for Mr. Schraeder’s service and that is not correct. Everything that has been billed is working hours for the City of Houston.
Currently we are waiting for a meeting in Jefferson City with the State Board of Mediation to “help” decide what exactly the bargaining units will be with the rest of the city employees who signed interest cards for information from the union. We are having to do this because the question of whether the superintendents of each department can join the union is in question and neither side agrees on groupings. Rumors also circulated that the council was subpoenaed to attend this meeting, and that is not true. The department superintendents, besides the police chief and the electric superintendent, were subpoenaed to show even though in our attorney’s interpretation, the State Board of Mediation does not have the authority to do so, which you will see the City of Houston has filed a petition on that standing.
While this is an ongoing situation the City of Houston is having to deal with, we are continuing to move forward with city business for our employees. We are currently working on two pay scales, one for the police department, and one for all the other employees so we can get consistency across the board. The city is also looking into the long-term viability of family insurance to see if there is an option to lock in insurance for more than one-year periods, and working on our policies and employee handbooks so that everyone understands how the city operates.
The City of Houston’s stance is that while we do not want the employees to unionize, we understand it is their right to do so. The City of Houston is working on moving forward and understands many frustrations that have grown for several years, nervousness over job security and insurance and the need for stability and consistency, we also must watch out for the people of Houston and make sure that we are serving them the best that we can, that is our elected duty.
Transparency is key and something I said and ran on and will continue to try and do. But with many government situations, like buying land and union negotiations, the conversations cannot happen publicly until the allowed time. The City of Houston will continue to update on what we can update you on as this continues and will continue to work forward for what is best for the people of the City of Houston.
VIKI NARANCICH,
MAYOR,
CITY OF HOUSTON