Firefighter Retroactive Raise on Agenda

The City Council will take up some old business on Tuesday night related to rules of order, some appointments and a public hearing at the beginning of the meeting for National Grid's application to move poles and wires at Union and Eagle streets, related to update of lights at that intersection. It also has two taxi license applications on the agenda.

However, we expect another spirited debate over changes in compensation for the firefighters, similar to what happened at the last meeting on the police raises. The North Adams Police Association was given a 2 percent raise each of the two years it has operated without a contract.  The firefighters' agreement appears to be the same.

The mayor said the agreement would clear the way for negotiations for a new contract and put the police on the same level as the other five public unions that had reached agreements with the city two years ago. The cost is $40,000; the council approved a transfer of $90,000 from a reserve account presumably to fund the retroactive raises for police and fire.

The entire agenda and last meeting's minutes can be found here. The compensation and classification plans on the sidebar are the orginals approved for the fiscal 2011 budget. When (and if) the firefighters' compensation changes are approved, we'll post both fire and police updates on the sidebar.