Houston City Council on Wednesday formally reversed the 220 firefighter layoffs and hundreds of demotions it approved earlier this year, making official Mayor Sylvester Turner’s pledge not to lay off or demote any firefighters in the aftermath of a judge’s ruling that Proposition B is unconstitutional.

Before a state district judge threw out Prop B, the voter-approved charter amendment granted firefighters the same pay as police of corresponding rank and seniority. Turner warned that Prop B would require layoffs to offset the cost of the raises, a point hotly disputed by the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association. City council voted in April to send firefighters 60-day layoff notices, which the panel unanimously rescinded Wednesday.

The council also voted to reverse more than 400 demotions within the Houston Fire Department. The layoff notices had gone to the lowest-ranking firefighters, initially requiring the city to fill in those positions from the top down through demotions.

“This puts everything back the way it existed prior to that vote,” Turner said.

The city also had sent layoff notices to 47 municipal employees, but Turner already had rescinded those unilaterally because those layoffs did not require council approval.

Councilman Dwight Boykins asked Turner if the layoff reversal would impact Fire Chief Sam Peña’s proposed department restructuring, which would move HFD from a four-shift to three-shift model — a move the union opposes. Turner confirmed that Wednesday’s vote has no bearing on the proposed shift change.

Councilwoman Brenda Stardig also asked Turner if the city plans to recoup back pay granted to firefighters before Prop B was ruled unconstitutional. Some department employees received raises the week before the judge’s ruling.

Turner said his administration is “addressing how to deal with that issue,” but in the meantime he sees the raises as a “credit on future negotiations.” The mayor said last month that he did not intend to “claw back” funds from any firefighter.

“We’re being very sensitive, but the city cannot give a gift,” Turner said, noting he could take the raises out of firefighters’ paychecks but has not done so.

The mayor elaborated on his point after the council meeting, telling reporters the city would deduct the May raises from any packages granted to firefighters who leave or retire from the city.

“People say that I am being vindictive and all of that,” Turner said. “And, yet, you cannot gift taxpayer dollars ... to anyone. I don't care how much you may love them, you cannot gift taxpayers' dollars.”

The Texas Constitution prohibits gifts of public money to private individuals.

Stardig expressed concern about Turner’s broader point, saying she has heard some firefighters already have spent their raises.

Fire union President Marty Lancton criticized Turner for suggesting the city may attempt to recover some of the funds.

"The Mayor is once again blurring the lines between what is required by the law under collective bargaining and his political campaign, where anything goes,” Lancton said in a statement. “If any of this was legitimate, he would put it in writing and follow the law."

Councilman Michael Kubosh, an opponent of Turner during the Prop B dispute, suggested the city simply should vote to give firefighters raises, an idea previously floated by Councilman Dave Martin.

Turner shot down the idea, telling Kubosh that it would not be “the regular course of business” to award raises outside collective bargaining negotiations.

Days after the ruling, fire union officials asked Turner to enter arbitration to settle the contract dispute. Turner declined the union’s request, making clear he only would work out a new collective bargaining contract without going through arbitration.

At the time, Lancton said Turner had yet to contact the union about renewing negotiations, questioning whether Turner was willing to negotiate what firefighters would consider a fair raise. The union still has yet to hear from the Turner, Lancton said, while the mayor said he would like to take up collective bargaining talks and give firefighters a raise “that the city can afford.”

Lancton noted that the city and union remain at a collective bargaining impasse, over which the union filed a lawsuit in 2017 accusing the city of negotiating in bad faith. The city has an ongoing appeal in that suit; the union has said the city’s appeal amounts to an attempt to rule collective bargaining unconstitutional, which Turner has denied.

The same court considering that case — Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals — has taken up the fire union’s appeal of the Prop B ruling.

In any case, Lancton said, the ongoing impasse can be resolved only by a judge or jury, arbitration, or if the city offers the union a settlement.

Turner said he does not intend to go to arbitration because, he contended, doing so would put the city at risk of seeing its general obligation bonds downgraded by credit rating agencies, a situation Turner compared to one in San Antonio.

In that case, the city’s rating was downgraded over passage of a charter amendment that allows firefighters to force binding arbitration in contract negotiations.

jasper.scherer@chron.com