HOUSTON – The Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association IAFF-Local 341 has sued Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston City Council Member Dave Martin, alleging the officials misused public resources to further personal electoral agendas.
Harris County District Court records show that Cris Feldman of the Houston law firm Feldman & Feldman, P.C. filed the 10-page suit on behalf of the union.
In the original petition, the HPFFA explains that it gathered more than 60,000 petition signatures last year to place a proposed charter amendment addressing the issue of pay parity – the Pay Parity Charter Amendment – before the voting public.
The amendment seeks to compensate fire fighters in a manner and amount that is at least equal and comparable by rank and seniority with the compensation provided city police officers.
The amendment was submitted to the city secretary on July 17, 2017, the suit says, but “the effort to place this matter before the voting public has lingered for more than a year, in no small part due to the resistance of the defendants.”
The city council will reportedly vote on placing the amendment on the ballot at is Aug. 8 session.
According to the HPFFA, Turner “has been adversarial and sought to pollute and subvert the citizen driven petition process for amending the Houston City Charter.”
“Simply getting the petition signatures counted and verified by the city secretary required judicial intervention, even though counting petition signatures is a ministerial duty,” the complaint says.
Court papers assert that the mayor campaigned against the amendment during a recent city council meeting. He purportedly continued his criticisms in a subsequent press conference.
Martin, as chairman of the City Council Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, is accused in the suit of including the Houston Police Officers’ Union and Bob Harvey, Greater Houston Partnership President, in discussions about firefighter pay parity at a recent committee meeting. The HPFFA also accuses the city councilman of berating it and the measure.
Claiming the respondents violated the Texas Election Code, the union seeks a temporary restraining order, per the suit.
Harris County 152nd District Court Case No. 2018-50136