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Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the City already lose the decision on the pension tier 2? With this contract, the city simply decided to cease their appeal of that decision. I know from similar dealings of my own that these rulings are virtually never overturned and appeals of them are widely considered “throwing good money after bad” with untold legal fees expended in the process. It sounds to me the City was wise forgo that effort in futility. Especially considering all new hires will in fact go into the new tier that the city was pushing for anyhow.

It also seems the firefighters agreed to some significant concessions. They gave up sick days, personal days, holidays... they took a year of no raises and then two years of a substantially smaller raise than the Laborers and Police got. I saw int notes in a previous article that they made concessions on management rights as well, why no mention of that here? As for the OPEB trust, it seems the firefighters should be commended for establishing a way for them to prepay a portion of their healthcare in retirement. I read recently they also agreed in their last contract to limit that healthcare in retirement to only the former employee and not his/her spouse. These are steps in the right direction for the City and it’s taxpayers.

Also, this editorial sounds nearly verbatim to numerous comments I’ve seen on these pages. It’s no secret that Ethan Hartley has bought Rob Cotes lines hook and sinker (Phantom FBI Investigation, anyone?) but by god, it sounds as if Mr. Howel has made Cote Editor in Chief with all the slant expressed in this editorial.

By and large it sounds like the firefighters are trying to be good partners with the city here and I think most reasonable people would agree. It’s seems the only people poo-pooing this deal are the those who have made a name for themselves criticizing the employees of this city. A “thank you for stepping up” to the firefighters doesn’t fit into their narrative, I suppose.