Mesquite city officials say public safety was one of the top priorities in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, but members of the local police union remain at odds with the city council and city manager.
The 2025-26 budget approved late last month includes funding for additional officers and firefighters “to maintain staffing needs for the future growth of the community,” according to a news release from the city. It also gives all city employees, including police and fire, a 5% raise.
"We are in a very competitive job market," said Mesquite city manager Cliff Keheley. “We've got anywhere from engineers to accountants to police officers and firefighters --and the pay for those positions continues to go up.”
But Mesquite Police Association president Bruce Sales said the city is “putting a Band-Aid” on a longstanding problem. "Just to become market competitive we were looking at between an 8 to 10 percent raise ... in 2025 and now we're talking about 2026,” Sales said.
Police officers from the MPA showed up to council meetings for months asking for a pay increase in order to retain officers and to be able to be compete with other cities in North Texas. Sales said they asked to get on the council agenda and haven’t been able to do so.
He said even with the raise, officers in Mesquite will still make less than those in comparable cities like Plano and Arlington.
Under the pay parity policy in Mesquite’s charter, police make the same amount as fire fighters. Sales said the policy is holding officers back from receiving competitive pay for the job they do.
“They refuse to talk about [it], and it's really disheartening for our employees because our employees' morale are at an all-time low,” he said. “They feel completely left behind, they feel completely unsupported."
A spokesperson for the Mesquite Police Department told KERA News in a statement it’s not involved in the pay discussions. “This is a budgetary issue that is ongoing between Mesquite City Management and the Mesquite Police Association,” the statement said.
The new budget adds three police officers and two firefighters. Keheley said the officer positions would add patrols in the Southern sector where the city is growing, and the firefighter positions are part of a long-term plan to add firefighters over time.
“We feel that the 5 percent is a good number for us, especially for our police department, " Keheley said. “We don't want to fall behind. If we go too low, other departments will outpace us, and then we start running into problems with hiring and attracting people for those jobs.”
The budget calls for a tax rate increase of about 3-cents to pay for the additional public safety staffing, as well as funding for roadway maintenance and city operations. Mesquite voters will have the opportunity to vote for or against the proposed tax increase in the Nov. 4 election.
If voters approve the proposed rate, the owner of a home with the median taxable value of $238,640 would pay about $145.17 per year – an increase of $6.78 per month compared to the “no new revenue” rate, according to a city news release.
Sales said he and the MPA plan to campaign against the proposed tax increase.
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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