HARLINGEN — After more than three months of talks, city and school officials are still negotiating a new administrative fee the district will pay to help run a program in which the Harlingen Police Department assigns officers to provide security on campuses.
At City Hall, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez stated officials are trying to determine the annual fee’s amount.
“We are finalizing the administrative fee,” he stated Monday. “The school district asked for clarification on certain line items. We are finalizing the dollar amounts.”
Proposals rejected
Despite the new fee, the contract providing police security remains the same as last year’s agreement, Mayor Norma Sepulveda said.
“Basically, everything stayed the same in the contract for this year,” she said.
As part of the agreement, the police department has been assigning four full-time officers and five off-duty officers to help the district provide security.
During negotiations, city officials rejected school leaders’ request to assign the five off-duty officers to work full-time, Sepulveda said, adding the police department couldn’t take more officers off city patrols.
City officials also rejected the district’s request to allow the police department’s officers to work off-duty in exchange for over-time pay, district spokeswoman Brianna Vela Garcia said.
At City Hall, Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said officials were concerned the department’s officers would become over-burdened working off-duty hours.
Boosting security
Meanwhile, district officials have entered into agreements with Cameron County and the cities of Primera and Combes to provide officers to work security, Vela Garcia said.
“I know they’ve taken numerous steps,” Sepulveda said. “They’ve got other agencies helping them out where HPD wasn’t able to fill the numbers of officers they need.”
Now, those agencies are assigning 12 to 17 off-duty sheriff’s deputies, deputy constables and police officers a day to work school security, Vela Garcia said.
As part of those agreements, the district can request off-duty officers and deputies “on an as-needed basis,” said Danny Castillo, a former Harlingen police chief and city commissioner serving as the district’s director of emergency management and school safety.
This year, the district also hired more security personnel, boosting their numbers to 42, Vela Garcia said.
At district offices, officials also began operating a “surveillance room,” monitoring hundreds of surveillance cameras across 31 campuses, she said.
Background
For nearly 20 years, city and school officials have been signing off on the annual security agreement.
This year, negotiations have dragged on months following residents’ call for heightened security in the wake of the May 24 shootings in which a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in a Uvalde grade school.
In late July, city commissioners proposed a new agreement, with Police Chief Michael Kester requesting the district “take steps” to start a police department, adding the city would help the district.
“I still feel the same about the needs,” Sepulveda said Monday.
During contract negotiations, district officials rejected the proposal.
