By Jeff Shields
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — The four-year contract that arbitrators awarded to the firefighters union last month ignored Philadelphia’s financial plight and imposed more than $167 million in costs the city can’t afford, attorneys argued in an appeal the city filed Friday.
As Mayor Nutter promised when a three-member arbitration panel issued the award Oct. 15, the city challenged almost every facet of the contract, which calls for 3 percent raises over each of the next three years and no furloughs.
“The firefighters award would impose upon taxpayers exorbitant costs . . . with no fiscal tools to manage them,” Nutter said through a spokesman.
The union, representing more than 2,100 firefighters, chided Nutter for the appeal.
“This is just a slap in everybody’s face,” said Bill Gault, president of Local 22 of the International Association of Firefighters. “It’s a fair contract; we’ll live with it and so should the city. It’s a shame that Mayor Nutter should waste the taxpayers’ money on this.”
The city argues in its petition that the panel, consisting of a city-chosen arbitrator, a union arbitrator, and a neutral arbitrator, failed to follow the 1991 law that created the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) or to show deference to the city’s five-year plan and its ability to pay. The city is required by the law to submit a five-year plan for approval by the PICA board.
In his five-year budgetary forecast, Nutter planned for $25 million in annual savings from new labor contracts. The firefighters contract was supposed to save nearly $2.4 million annually, including no raises, but instead costs more than $31 million annually, attorneys Shannon D. Farmer and Katharine A. Crawford argued, for a net loss of $167 million.
“The award violates the PICA Act by not according substantial weight to the city’s financial condition and approved five-year plan and imposing unwarranted costs in excess of what the city can afford,” Farmer and Crawford wrote.
They argued that the award provided an unfounded, optimistic view of the economy and counted revenue from delinquent taxes that the city would never collect. Potential savings achieved in the contract awarded to the Fraternal Order of Police last year, including incentives to lower health-care costs and the authority to require up to 30 days of unpaid leave per employee, were not part of the firefighters award to offset its costs, according to the city.
The city also objects to other aspects of the arbitration award, including provisions that require the city to retain positions known as “chiefs aides” and changes to the testing process for battalion chiefs and deputy chiefs.
Nutter has been battling with the firefighters union since late in his first year in office, when the collapse of the economy led to cuts, including the permanent closing of seven engine companies and two ladder companies.
In response to a City Council budget in June that left him with too little revenue, Nutter instituted “rolling brownouts,” in which specific companies would close for one shift at a time on an alternating basis.
The union has complained that the cutbacks have increased response times and put public safety at risk.
Nutter, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, and Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers have asked PICA to finance an independent, comprehensive study of the city’s firefighting needs. Nutter and Gault support such a study, which the board is expected to vote on next week.
The appeal was filed in Commonwealth Court, the starting point for what could be a lengthy appeals process. If the courts agree with the Nutter administration, the arbitration panel would have to reconsider its award.
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