The Brownwood Municipal Police Associations announced Tuesday morning that members have voted to defer their contract as guaranteed in the Meet and Confer contract, as have Brownwood Professional Firefighters Association members, due to the economic downturn that not only the nation, but also the city of Brownwood faces. 

“If this helps us with balancing the budget while being able to meet the level of service to the community without cuts…then members voted to do that,” stated Lt. Mitch Slaymaker, President of the BMPA.

Brownwood Police and Firefighters alike have been in a contract with the city to increase their levels of pay over a three year period to help the department retain officers and firefighters by making their salaries more competitive with other cities which have similar populations.  This is year three of the deal.

 In the past it was very typical for new trainees (in both agencies) to stay only a couple of years after receiving training and then move on to larger cities where they were able to make a substantially larger income. 

“We are trying to get to a median income of the other agencies our size,” stated Slaymaker of the agreement.  Slaymaker also noted the large expense the city incurs in training new officers that is lost when they are not retained.

Recently, Brownwood Professional Firefighters Association approached the city with an offer to defer their annual contractual raise of 6%. 

“The 30 guys that voted to do this had to go deep inside (themselves) to do this,” stated Lt. Shannon Stone of the Brownwood Fire Department.  “We couldn’t look ourselves in the mirror if we knew it would take someone else’s job.”

Shannon stated that local firefighters were looking forward to the increases because they have been so underpaid in the past as compared to other cities with similar populations. 

“We are grateful for what we’ve received so far from the city,” stated Shannon regarding the previous two years of increases.

Shannon further explained that the firefighters are members of the community and are out in the community enough to know that people are hurting, losing jobs and financially strapped with problems of cutbacks in hours and have added expenses now such as increases in insurance premiums and costs of living. 

“If we forced the city’s hand, they would have to raise taxes and we didn’t want to add to the burden,” said Shannon.  He also stated that it was a gesture of good faith, that it is hoped in the future that the city manager and council will remember what they have done.

“We’re trying to give the citizens what they deserve…the best,” stated Shannon.  “We’re doing our part to see that they don’t have a lapse in any fire/police service or other city service.”

According to the BMPA, City Management assures that this is a temporary setback.  The Members of the BMPA look forward to working alongside them towards the common goal of fulfilling the current contract along with renewed negotiations as soon as fiscally possible. 

City Manager Bobby Rountree has stated that the city will look again in 6 months to see if an increase of 1-6% would be manageable.  If financial conditions have not changed, Rountree said the matter would be considered again in a year.