Brownwood City Council approved the Meet and Confer agreement between the City of Brownwood and the Brownwood Municipal Police Association (BMPA) at their regular meeting this week.

The agreement is for a term of one year, from October 11, 2016 through September 30, 2017.  Changes to the current agreement include changes to the promotion process including the following:

• Written Exam – One must pass the written test with at least a 70% in order to proceed in the promotion process.
• Longevity – Points will only be added after passing the written test.
• Education and Certification – Points will be awarded based off of levels of education or certification attained.  This will no longer be a part of the interview portion.
• Firearms Proficiency – Points will be awarded for proficiency with their duty weapon and practice time will be made available for cadidates.
• Promotional Board – clarification that the Chief of Police and the Civil Service Director may either be on the board or appoint one member of the board.  Any member of the BMP serving on the board may be “equal to” or higher rank of the candidate.
• Oral Interview – The lowest interview score for each candidate will be dropped.  Members of the Promotional Board will not know the candidate’s scores prior to the interview.
• Scoring System – Revised to include changes in written exam passing level, longevity points, education and certification points, firearms proficiency points and oral interview points.  Stated method for breaking a tie in scores.

Other changes related to increases in Base Salary pay as follows.

• Police Officers 0.92%; Corporals 0.61%; Lieutenants 5.41%
• CID Assignment Pay – $75/month for those assigned to CID for one month or more.

A change was also made to the Residency Requirement, to reflect the City of Brownwood’s Personnel Rules and Regulations (within 30 miles of the Brownwood city limits).

In other matters on Tuesday’s agenda:

*Council approved designation of two Special Purpose Funds to spend surplus funds from equipment sales and to complete the airport office remodeling project.

*Council approved an ordinance on first/final reading amending the salary, longevity pay, and certification pay for all civil service – firefighters and police officers.

*Council approved a rental contract with Howard Payne University for use of the Coliseum for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 volleyball/basketball seasons.  The 2016/2017 season rental will remain the same, at $33,850 with an increase of $1,015.50, which equals $34,865.50 for the 2017/2018 contract.  Both seasons will be based on a flat renal fee.

*Council authorized the city manager to execute Supplemental Agreement No. 1 to U-14314 of the Standard Utility Agreement with TxDOT on Austin Avenue Project between Norwood Street and Brooks Street.  This agreement provides a $46,112.70 reimbursement to the City of Brownwood from TxDOT for the design of the waste water plans by the City of Brownwood Engineering staff and inspection of the installation of the waste water system within the project.