Contract negotiations continue for Volunteer Fire Department District 2
KURTEN, Texas (KBTX) – Board members and firefighters are still working on a new agreement for Brazos County Emergency Services District No. 2.
No agreement was met when the groups held a special session Monday night to negotiate the current contract being proposed. The Department heavily relies on volunteers to cover areas around Kurten, Edge and Wixon Valley.
Currently, a month-to-month agreement is in place, and leaders emphasize that this negotiation does not impact emergency services.
The groups met Monday night for almost two hours going through a proposed contract line by line. Requests from Volunteers included changing a new proposed position from “Operations Liasian” to “Department Liasian” arguing that the position is mostly administrative. They also took issue with a line in the contract saying this position would be second in command and appointed by the fire chief.
There continue to be disagreements based on how volunteers are reimbursed. The Board said the IRS currently sees payments as stipends and not reimbursements. Volunteers argued that their tax expert said differently and it’s the way they’ve done it for years.
Some changes were made to the proposed contract, but ultimately volunteers decided they would need an attorney to look over the changes and hope for another special meeting to be called before October 1.
