From The Erie Times-News, January 31

ERIE, PA – The president of Erie's police union questioned the timing of a new firefighters' pact and said he didn't want the agreement to color an arbitrator's decision on a new police contract.

"The only common thread is we wear uniforms and we are public safety employees," Chris Lynch, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7, said before the first arbitration hearing between the city and police Friday.

The Erie Times-News on Friday outlined the details of a new, four-year contract for firefighters that includes annual wage increase, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008, and calls for firefighters to pay toward their health care for the first time.

The city is considering going to court over a third part of the award, reached through binding arbitration, that requires the city to increase firefighter staffing by adding a firefighter to every rig or adding a seventh company starting in January 2010.

Lynch called the timing of the firefighters' award "unusual," and he said he didn't want the cost of the award to negatively affect a new pact for police, whose contract expired at the end of 2008.

Arbitration hearings for firefighters ended in May, followed by an executive session between arbitrators in July.

"The pot of money is only so big, and if you take two-thirds and give it to the firefighters and only one-third to us, we're not too happy," he said. "We want to be judged on the police department merits and not necessarily firefighter merits because we're different entities."

Richard Perhacs, the lawyer handling the arbitration for the city, said the firefighters' award and the state of city finances were discussed during the five-hour session. It's inevitable that one award will affect the other, given that police and firefighters are asking for money from the same pot of city public safety dollars, he said.

Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott and city Finance Director Ron Komorek have said they need more time to figure out how the firefighters' contract and the impending police contract will affect future city budgets.

Together, police and fire costs accounted for almost $36 million, or 60.5 percent of the city's 2009 budget. Those costs included estimated increases in wages that the city expected would come with new police and fire contracts, Sinnott said.

Sinnott said he planned to talk about the financial turnaround the city has experienced during Friday's closed-door session.

"We've come a long way, but we're not fixed," Sinnott said beforehand. "We've laid the foundation and we're heading in the right direction, ... but contracts continue to play a big role in long-term financial stability."

Neither Perhacs nor Lynch would comment on what each side is seeking in the police contract, except to say that wages and benefits are among the issues being debated.

An executive session with the neutral arbitrator and arbitrators for the city and the police is scheduled for March 16.