MARLBOROUGH -- The City Council's Finance Committee last night said the city cannot use reserve money to pay an extra $10,145 for a new firefighters contract, instead telling the fire chief to carve space out of his budget.
Shortly before leaving office in January, then-Mayor William Mauro signed a new contract with the firefighters' union. Mauro then sent a request to the council, asking it to fund the additional $10,415 for the fire budget this year.
But because of $4 million in cost overruns in the city's health insurance fund, officials recently had to raid more than $2 million from its rainy day funds to help make up the difference. As a result, the city has only $41,391 in its rainy day fund to cover emergencies.
"Where the hell do you think the money is going to come from, when we have $41,000 and you're in the hole?" City Council President Arthur Vigeant asked Fire Chief John Kyle.
The fire chief said his department has already struggled with this year's budget, with attrition-driven job losses driving up overtime, and employees retiring and cashing out their unused sick leave time, leaving a $69,000 deficit in that fund alone.
Kyle said he has already had to transfer $10,000 out of other accounts because the $40,000 budgeted this year for vehicle maintenance isn't keeping pace with needed repairs. The work has included everything from simple brake jobs, he said, to costly engine repairs.
"It reflects some major repairs, and the cost of the fleet," Kyle said.
The new firefighters' contract, which dates retroactively to last July 1, would be in effect until June 30, 2006. The agreement's first year contains a 1 percent pay increase that kicks in at the end of the fiscal year in June.
Most of the $10,415 involves larger allowances for clothing, money for employees needing routine safety relicensing, and larger reimbursements for meals eaten while on duty.
"I'll be happy to sit down with (the fire chief)," said City Councilor at large Michael Ossing, the committee's chairman. "I believe I can find that money in the budget."
Pat Fortin, the firefighters union president, said the department's budget probably can make room for the extra costs, but that will take away from other services. He said he knew this would be an issue when the council had to convene a late-December emergency meeting to fix the health-insurance losses.
"I'm aware that the cash dried up in the city on Dec. 29," Fortin said, referring to that meeting. "But we had our contract before that, and it was a good-faith agreement reached with the city."
