The El Paso City Council unanimously approved the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the El Paso Municipal Police Officers’ Association (EPMOA).
The agreement period is from September 1, 2023 through August 31, 2027.
“The work we have done with the City’s finances over the last 8 years including creating a fund balance of 91 days, stabilization funds, and pension stabilization funds, has enabled us to invest in our workforce in order to truly compete with peer cities. This agreement will help us retain experienced officers and attract new recruits by paying in first or second place for officer pay in all category levels when compared to peer cities,” said City Manager Tommy Gonzalez. “We have replaced equipment, vehicles, and motorcycles; and we have increased the number of officers with the 2015-16 Hire 300 Plan. We have also increased staffing with more training academies budgeted each year since the passage of the 2015 Strategic Plan. These recommendations that the Council approved today demonstrate how well a strategic plan can work for an organization our size. We are a $2 billion organization with almost 7,000 people and we need big solutions for these big challenges. The strategic plan placed a high priority on getting our finances in order and this transformation has allowed us to focus on community priorities that include police, fire, streets, public transit, and our parks, libraries, and museums. Likewise, the plan has positioned us to invest more in our workforce to ensure we are providing the best services to the public.”
The EPMOA overwhelmingly approved accepting the proposed agreement on March 19. More than 1,000 association members voted in favor of the new agreement while only 10 members voted against it.
The proposed four-year CBA includes across-the-board pay raises and annual cost-of-living increases. The City Management team also recommended an increase in pay for cadets of $10,000. This increase is not a part of the CBA, as cadets are not police officers till they finish training. Some of the salary increases include:
- Police Officers: 13% increase in the entry salary
- Advanced Police Officer/Detective: 13% increase in the entry salary
- Sr. Police Officer/Detective: 15.4% increase
- Sergeant: 17.1% increase
Cadets will get a 13 percent increase when they become police officers and a 2.5 percent increase each year after.
The City’s Police and Fire Departments make up about 60 percent of the City’s overall budget at about $305.7 million for Public Safety in FY 2023.
