MCALLEN - An item on McAllen's ballot has police and fire unions at odds with some city officials.
Proposition 2 calls for binding arbitration. When city officials and unions can't agree on a contract, that means an arbitrator would come in and decide for them. The way things are right now, city officials and unions go to court if they can't agree on a contract.
We went to both sides to find out how binding arbitration would affect the people. City Commissioner Scott Crane says it would take away due process. Conflicts would no longer go through the court system. He says another Texas city has tried arbitration, and he says it failed. Crane says an, "Arbitrator came in and awarded 9% pay raises for 3 years busting their city budget, so we're frightened about it and hope it doesn't pass, but we're up against a well financed union."
A representative from that union says arbitration won't cause McAllen to go bust. Mike Zellers with the South Texas Organization of Police says, "When we crafted this charter amendment, we narrowed scope of what an arbitrator could look at and one of the things they have to consider is revenues available to the city and the impact on taxpayers. We wouldn't raise the taxes in the community."
Zellers also says going to court, the way the city and unions do now, already costs taxpayers a lot of money.
Binding arbitration is part of Proposition 2 on the ballot. Proposition 1, also on the ballot, would leave things as they are now.
