A San Antonio Park Police officer overlooks set up for Fiesta Fiesta, the grand kick off event for Fiesta, at Travis Park in San Antonio, on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News
The unions representing local parks and airport police officers still have a chance at snagging millions of dollars in a lawsuit against the city of San Antonio.
The unions filed suit in 2019 in an effort to win pay equity and collective bargaining rights that San Antonio Police Department officers have. They’re demanding $25 million in damages.
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The city of San Antonio has argued the unions don’t have the right to seek damages.
But Civil District Court Judge Nadine Melissa Nieto, who’s overseeing the case, is expected to soon let the unions’ lawsuit move forward with the demand.
The two police forces are under the command of the San Antonio police chief, but the suit argues the city has treated them as lesser members of the department.
The city of San Antonio has tried, and failed, three times to have the case thrown out, claiming it had governmental immunity that protected it from the lawsuit.
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The Fourth Court of Appeals ruled in 2021 that the airport and parks officers had grounds to file a lawsuit. The Texas Supreme Court in 2022 declined to take up the case when the city contested the appellate court’s decision.
After a failed settlement attempt in 2025, the unions filed an amended petition calling for $25 million in damages, and they continue to argue that officers deserve pay more in line with SAPD officers and bargaining rights.
Attorneys representing the city have argued the unions don’t have the right to seek $25 million damages under the code they are suing under — Chapter 174 of the Texas Local Government Code.
Chapter 174, which San Antonio voters approved in 1974, gives SAPD officers the right to collectively bargain with the city on compensation and other benefits.
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The code only allows groups to argue for the right to bargain, not to collect damages, attorneys for the city have argued in court filings and a June hearing before Nieto.
Ricky Poole, a San Antonio attorney representing the unions, argued at the hearing that the unions have the right to ask for the funds under Chapter 174, though he also said the unions’ damages should be hammered out in a trial at a later date.
Poole noted that when the Fourth Court of Appeals took up the matter, it ruled the unions could continue their lawsuit and “are entitled to collectively bargain with the city and can receive both current and future benefits of the collective bargaining agreements” between the city and the San Antonio Police Officers Association.
The airport and parks police unions are open to being added to SAPOA’s employment contract or being granted their own collective bargaining power, according to their lawsuit.
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This month, Nieto said in a “judge’s note” to the both parties that she denied the city’s request to prohibit the unions from seeking $25 million in damages, though her decision is not final yet. She still has to sign an order, and it’s unclear when she’ll do so.
The city has asked the judge to reconsider.
Poole had asked the judge allow a trial to begin on Feb. 1. That date could get pushed back if the city appeals the judge’s decision.
The lawsuit names the city of San Antonio and City Manager Erik Walsh, but Nieto said Walsh wouldn’t personally be on the hook for any damages.
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Years-long fight
Park police used to be under the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, and airport police were under the San Antonio International Airport. The two police units have reported to the San Antonio police chief since 2009, and the budgets for the airport and park police have been included in the budget since 2015.
Pay rates for park and airport police are lower than those in the San Antonio Police Department. Parks and airport police have a pay range of $58,400 to $79,500 while SAPD officers earn $62,900 to $85,700 after graduating from the department’s training academy, a city spokesman said last year when the park and airport unions amended their petition.
Though airport and parks police can issue citations and make arrests like SAPD officers, their day-to-day duties are usually limited to roving the airport and parks rather than responding to emergency calls from around the city. SAPD also has an internal order requiring parks police officers to call for backup when faced with a potential felony crime.
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Parks and airport officers are certified by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the state agency responsible for licensing and training police.
The city has argued that parks and airport officers do not undergo training that’s as comprehensive or rigorous as SAPD officers.
The airport and parks police unions aren’t part of SAPOA’s collective bargaining agreement. Instead, they have negotiated with the city under a nonbinding meet-and-confer system, which Poole has said gives officers less power at the bargaining table.
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Airport and parks police have been without a contract since Oct. 1, 2019, when their last agreement expired and negotiations for a new contract stalled.