VIDEO: The latest round in the long running Prop B pay battle between Houston firefighters and city hall has a $4,000 price tag for dozens of former firefighters.
Months ago, in the midst of a mid-summer city council meeting, Mayor Sylvester Turner warned this day would come and now it's here. Retiring and resigning firefighters paying a big price to leave the department.
The City of Houston is clawing back back pay paid to firefighters after a judge declared Prop B the law.
Since then, an appeals court judge declared Prop B unconstitutional and the city wants that back pay back.
"We're being sensitive, but we cannot give a $17 million gift," Mayor Turner told Houston council members on June 12, 2019. That day, Turner said there was no current plan to claw the money back, but those who left the city would have to. In the last several weeks, the city started deducting the money from retiring and resigning firefighters' final checks. Firefighters say they had no warning.