For the first time since the November election, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday sat down with the head of the firefighters union and said he is willing to negotiate a plan to phase in raises mandated by the voter-approved charter amendment that requires the city to pay firefighters the same as police of equal rank and seniority.
Seated across a wide conference room table from Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton, Turner said, "We are not the federal government. We cannot engage in deficit spending. Our books must balance at the end of the fiscal year. And so, if you all are willing to work with me, as the mayor of the city of Houston, to spread the cost of Proposition B out over an extended period of time, then I am more than willing to sit down and work with you ... to work out the details."
The offer to negotiate a way to implement the raises over time rather than being forced to implement the full raises — which Turner has said would cost the city an additional $100 million a year — was a sharp turnaround for the mayor.