SAPOA News

With an impressive 84% approval rating, members of the San Antonio Police Officers Association overwhelming approved the proposed contract. After all of the votes were counted Wednesday night, May 19th ,1301 members voted in favor of adopting the contract with 244 members voting against. Slightly more than 600 members did not cast a ballot in the election.

Approval of the contract by rank-in-file allowed it to be taken back to the City Council on Thursday, May 20th for ratification. The Council unanimously voted in favor of ratifying the contract and put it into affect by city ordinance. During comments before voting, Council members thanked the Association along with city staff for all of the hard work that went into the agreement. Assistant City Manager, Eric Walsh recapped the major deal points for Council.

Association President, Michael Helle was also asked to comment on the contract. He took the opportunity to showcase the Association’s efforts to work towards addressing the needs of his membership while still accounting for the needs of the community. Helle commended the Council for their work behind the scenes in making the contract a reality.

Following the vote by Council there was an acknowledgement on behalf of the City and the Association that there is still much work to be done in regards to the major parts of the contract like the implementation of the D-shift and Uniformed Evidence Detective Investigator (UEDI) programs.

According to Helle, the Association is already working on getting the D-shift online. Patrolman Tom Tirey, a member of the negotiating team and one of the members who sat on the D-shift program subcommittee, was selected by Helle to work along side command staff personnel to get the program implemented. Tirey came to the department after a twenty-six year career in the Air Force where he retired as a Senior Master Sergeant. Tirey said his goal is to insure that the D-Shift is implemented in a fair manner that protects the contractual rights of the officers and also addresses department’s need to serve the public.

Vice President Dean Fischer commented this demonstrates the Association’s philosophy of taking the lead during the negotiation process combining the community’s needs with the long term goals of the Association to improve the working conditions and opportunities for its members.

The first program to be implemented under the new contract will be the D-Shift. A tentative start date has been slated for the end of July. Officers should expect to see a schedule of briefings regarding the D-Shift in the coming month. The briefings will cover the implementation process in more detail thus allowing officers the ability to make an informed decision before signing up for the shift.

The ratification of this contract brings to a close over two years of work on the part of the Association and its negotiating team. The five year deal marks a mile stone for the Helle/Fischer administration and both men have vowed to continue working hard to enforce this contract and work for the members of this Association.