By Bruce Eggler
Times-Picayune
Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
NEW ORLEANS — The long-running dispute over New Orleans firefighters’ pay apparently will run for weeks and probably months longer after a Civil District Court judge told the city Wednesday to recalculate the way it figured some firefighters’ pay in their latest checks.
The firefighters were supposed to have received a 10 percent across-the-board raise two weeks ago plus raises to make up for years of longevity increases ordered by the state but long ignored by the city.
Instead, some firefighters reported they received pay cuts, and many others said they got raises far smaller than they had expected. The city said that was because it had stripped away credit for earlier city longevity raises that it said should no longer apply when the state raises were implemented.
Judge Kern Reese, who had ordered the city in early November to implement the overdue longevity raises “immediately,” held a daylong hearing Friday to review the raises that about 30 randomly selected firefighters actually received.
The 10 percent raise, ordered by the City Council and city Civil Service Commission last fall over Mayor Ray Nagin’s opposition, is not part of the case before Reese.
Reese ruled Wednesday that the city’s method of figuring some firefighters’ pay was “insufficient and, therefore, inequitable” and it should rework the figures. But he denied a request by the firefighters union to hold the city in contempt, saying the city had made a “good faith” effort to comply with his earlier order. He said the union’s method of calculating the raises could lead to overpayments.
Reese found “the calculations employed by both sides to be deficient in some instances, but accurate in others. By making the good faith effort to implement the longevity increase as ordered, the defendants have avoided a finding of contempt, but have still not properly executed the orders of this court.”
Both sides said they were happy with Reese’s decision.
Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield said she was pleased Reese found the city was not in contempt and had correctly calculated pay rates according to city civil service rules.
Nick Felton, president of Fire Fighters Association Local 632, said the “critical aspect” of Reese’s ruling “captures the essence of our position” and ensures that firefighters will get more money than the city said they should.
Reese gave the city until Feb. 26 to recalculate the firefighters’ pay and submit the results to the court. After the union has a chance to respond, he will make a ruling March 2, he said.
Chief Deputy City Attorney Joseph DiRosa said the key issue is whether firefighters or any other city employees can qualify for simultaneous longevity raises under both the state law and the city’s civil service rules. The city says they cannot.
DiRosa said Reese ruled that they could until 2002, based on his interpretation of a 1999 ruling in the case by Civil District Judge Robert Katz that was later upheld on appeal.
DiRosa said the city will do the recalculations the judge requested, though it doesn’t agree that firefighters should benefit from the compounding of both civil service and state-ordered longevity raises. He said the city is likely to appeal that issue to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, meaning the pay dispute could drag on for many more months.
Meanwhile, rhetoric over the issue shows no signs of cooling down.
Reese said the acrimony between the two sides, which included angry exchanges and outbursts by lawyers during last week’s hearing, is “disconcerting.”
Felton has accused Nagin of waging a “vendetta” against firefighters, a claim a Nagin spokeswoman has denied.
During an appearance before the council last week, Felton said the administration was trying to deny firefighters pay for earned promotions and calculating everyone’s pay on the basis of a rookie firefighter’s base pay, not the base pay for a captain or other upper grade. DiRosa angrily challenged Felton to present evidence of that to the Civil Service Commission. He said Wednesday that Felton has not offered any such evidence.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.