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HARLINGEN — The city’s contract with the local police union has about doubled its cost over the last five years.
After about two months of collective bargaining negotiations, city officials are entering into a $1.35 million, three-year contract with the Harlingen Police Officers and Law Enforcement Association, boosting pay for 139 officers whom the union represents.
Earlier this week, city commissioners met in closed session before agreeing to approve the contract paying police officers $1.35 million during the period running from October to Sept. 30, 2025.
“I’m happy we were able to reach this agreement,” City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said in an interview. “The city’s happy and the police department’s happy.”
The contract overhauls the police department’s pay scale, boosting salaries for police officers while excluding Police Chief Michael Kester and Assistant Chief Daniel Villarreal.
“We’re very appreciative the city commission agreed to approve the contract,” officer Joe Gonzalez, the association’s president, said in an interview. “It’s a step in the right direction as far as partnering up.”
Negotiations focus on salaries
About two months ago, city officials and union representatives opened negotiations before the association rejected the city’s $1.1 million offer, which included across-the-board 3-percent pay increases for police officers.
”It was time-consuming,” Gabriel Gonzalez said. “The majority of discussions centered around dollar figures for salaries.”
As part of the new $1.35 million contract, police officers’ starting salaries will climb from $40,150 to $42,961, he said.
‘Fixing pay scale’
After commissioners unanimously approved the contract during the June 29 meeting, Mayor Norma Sepulveda told officers in the audience, “It’s about time that you guys get compensated well and are appreciated.”
In a statement released June 30, she described the agreement “fixing the pay scale” as “a significant step forward in ensuring that our officers know how much we value and appreciate their daily sacrifices in keeping our community safe.”
“This agreement represents a collaborative effort to fix the pay scale to ensure that we are competitive in recruiting and retaining officers,” Sepulveda stated. “These steps were long overdue and required careful review and consideration to ensure we don’t overburden our hardworking taxpayers. Public safety is of the utmost importance to the commission, and it is a responsibility that each of us takes seriously. I also want to thank the countless residents who reached out to me personally in support of fair compensation for our officers.”
Department budget
Under the city’s current $54.2 million general fund budget, officials earmarked $17.9 million to fund the police department, with $13.8 million going toward salaries for its employees covered under a Civil Service agreement.
In 2020, the city entered into its current contract with the union running through September.
During its first year, the contract paid the department’s Civil Service employees $10.8 million, Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said in an interview.
At City Hall, officials said they didn’t have information regarding the 2020 contract’s dollar figure readily available.
In 2018, after more than two years of stalled collective bargaining negotiations, city officials and union representations reached an agreement paying officers about $400,000 in compensation for the period running from April 2018 to September 2020.
