Cayuga Community College and its faculty association are one step closer to a new contract for faculty members.

The faculty association voted Friday to ratify a tentative contract for faculty members derived last month following an impasse. The college board of trustees will vote next on April 16, and if approved, the matter will proceed to the county Legislature in May.

“We are very encouraged,” Deborah L. Moeckel, interim vice president of academic and student affairs, said in an e-mail. “Cayuga has an excellent faculty, and we are all hoping for a positive result to the contract approval process.”

College faculty have been operating without a contract since 2004 and internal efforts to negotiate a new contract had ended at an impasse. To break the stalemate, both parties turned to the state Public Employment Relations Board to have an impartial arbitrator mediate a solution that might lead to a contractual agreement.

Following the release of a PERB fact finder report, both sides sat down at the negotiating table to go through the various recommendations PERB offered to break the stalemate. That negotiation led to a tentative contract.