Cayuga Community College and its faculty association are now two-thirds of the way to completing a new contract for faculty members.

The college board of trustees voted unanimously Wednesday to ratify a tentative contract for faculty derived last month following an impasse. The faculty association voted April 4 to ratify the contract, and now the matter will proceed to the county Legislature in May for approval.

"I thank the members of the faculty for being patient, four years without a contract," Trustee John Camardo said. "I hope we can make a policy of this board that trustees are involved in negotiations in the future, and second, I also hope we can make a policy that this doesn't happen again, that four years pass without a contract."

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.

A relations board report released to parties in December outlined causes of the impasse -- from salary to fringe benefits -- and proposed several recommendations.

A major cause of friction between the college and the association was employee contributions to health insurance premiums. Faculty members were contributing 15 percent in the final year of the contract, spanning from 1997 to 2004, and have continued contributing that amount since the contract's expiration date.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.