Sixty-four months ago, members of the firefighters union and city officials met collective bargaining on a new contract.
The sides have yet to resolve their differences.
But now, five years since the original contract expired on June 30, 2003, the city and the union are getting closer to a decision.
Both sides have entered the final stages of arbitration, which will hopefully resolve the battle for the firefighters' contract. This means the city and 183 Newton firefighters will play the waiting game for the final decision.
The most public issue concerning the contract is Mayor David Cohen's enforcement of a sick day policy that requires firefighters to get a doctor's note whenever they call in to use sick leave. The policy has been in the firefighters' contract for years.
Jeremy Solomon, the mayor's spokesman said last week that the policy helped save the city money in overtime pay and that since it's been enforced, sick leave has dropped.
"We feel we've offered multiple, fair contract proposals to the union that they've rejected," Solomon said. "And now we are left to rely on the state arbitration system."
In March 2007, the Newton TAB reported that some of the city's calculations were inaccurate and that the policy hadn't been saving taxpayers as much as had been claimed. The controversial policy saved more than $400,000 for each of the first two years of its enforcement and $211,000 in 2003, according to TAB calculations.
But the mayor had repeatedly been saying the provision generated a savings of more than $500,000 per year.
After the article was published, Cohen said his office had miscalculated, but brushed off the error as nothing more than a "red herring," and said he stood by the policy.
Three months later, the Board of Alderman approved a non-binding resolution asking the mayor to change the policy by a 15-6 vote. Board President Lisle Baker and aldermen Vicky Danberg, Ted Hess-Mahan, Christine Samuelson, Sydra Schnipper and Verne Vance were the only members to vote no.
Last week, fire union president Tom Lopez described the situation as "frustrating and demoralizing."
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would last six years," Lopez said. "We welcome an end to it. The city needs it. Once this contract is settled, I look forward to having some normalcy with our relationship with City Hall."
In April 2007, after four years of negotiation, the Joint Labor Management Committee entered the process after it ruled that neither side was capable of resolving the dispute.
Initially, under the committee's Gary Altman, the city and fire union entered mediation to find a solution. It didn't work, and the two parties moved into arbitration in August with Altman as the chief arbitrator.
On Friday, the final briefs essentially closing arguments were due from the city and union to Altman, who will make the final decision.
