DECATUR - The city will not appeal a federal arbitrator's decision that awarded increased benefits to the firefighters union and will result in an additional cost to the city of $500,000 over the next four years, Mayor Michael Carrigan said.

Carrigan said he has discussed plans to implement the changes with interim City Manager John A. Smith, but that it won't be easy to come up with the extra money.

"There's no perfect answer," Carrigan said. "We'll just have to look for ways to find the money."

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 505 and the city reached an impasse in negotiations and had been in arbitration since July 2007. Federal arbitrator Marvin Hill Jr. released his labor agreement last Friday, awarding the union its positions on salary, health insurance and a higher pay scale for department lieutenants.

Carrigan said the city has plans for dealing with higher contract costs in collective bargaining, but that still may not be enough to cover the additional amount.

"There's always money placed in a contingency fund for collective bargaining contracts," Carrigan said. "The city anticipates a certain cost when those contracts are inflated; however in this case, as I understand it, this extra money exceeds the contingency dollars."

Smith said city staff is trying to figure out how to implement the new contracts.

"I think what Mayor Carrigan and I agreed is that it is a considerable amount of money, and it will have an effect on the budget, but beyond that, we haven't had enough time to say 'It's going to do this or it's going to do that,' " Smith said.

The union did not succeed on two of the five points, one that would raise longevity pay and one which would grant a larger stipend for firefighters who also serve as emergency medical technicians.

Hill ruled in favor of the city on the EMT issue, citing the city's decreased demand for EMT calls. The city's offer still increases the stipend, but not as much as the union proposed.

Hill ruled the longevity pay issue in the city's favor because of its argument that increasing firefighter longevity pay would put the fire department on a higher scale than the police department, which currently has the same scale.

"The union's proposal, as written, would unjustifiably break internal comparability," Hill said.

Carrigan said the city will work quickly to implement the arbitrator's decision.

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