San Antonio District 7 City Councilman Cris Medina is starting to get fed up with the money being poured into negotiations with the city’s police officers and fire fighters.
News 4 San Antonio reports:
District 7 City Councilman Cris Medina says he’s urging city administration to get back into negotiations with the San Antonio Police Officer’s Association.
“If this negotiation team cannot do that, then we need to seriously consider replacing them and finding folks that can,” said Medina. Medina is referring to the two outside attorneys hired by the city to negotiate. Medina tells News 4 the city is paying the two attorneys almost $1,000 an hour to work out a deal and the bill keeps getting bigger.
“Since the talks have started, the city’s issued a check of about $67,000. We don’t have the numbers yet for June. We anticipate that that’s going to be a pretty significant number.”
The big issue in these negotiations is healthcare. In February, police officers and fire fighters showed up to city council chambers to fight for their medical plans. Because of the risks first responders face every day, the city pays all of their monthly health insurance premiums along with their spouses and children. The current agreement expires in September.
The city says because of these medical plans, the public safety budget is growing faster than the general revenue, and some city leaders say we as taxpayers can’t afford the rising costs of those medical plans.
Read more here.
