AUBURN - The city officially has new contracts with its two fire department unions.

The Auburn City Council voted 4-0 Thursday to approve collective bargaining agreements with Auburn Professional Fire Fighters Local 1446 and the assistant chiefs' union, Local 4021.

Both contracts include 3 percent, annual pay increases, but they also address overtime and health insurance costs.

City Manager Mark Palesh said the contracts, which have already been ratified by the unions, showed compromise on both sides.

He also said the pay increase for the firefighters amounts to about 2.6 percent after you take into account that they did not receive a raise last year.

Because the city missed a deadline to force negotiations, the previous agreement renewed for one more year without a raise.

“(It is) a demonstration of the unions and the city working together, and the unions recognizing the financial stress that the state is in,” Palesh said. “They came to the table prepared to keep those issues in mind.”

Language in both contracts attempts to curtail overtime costs that city officials say have resulted from the last bargaining agreements. That includes changes to the staffing minimum that mandates 15 firefighters be working on any given shift.

That minimum was changed to 14 firefighters, though 15 people will be scheduled for each shift. But the contract now allows for the fire chief, assistant chief or fire investigator to count toward the staffing requirement when one firefighter is absent.

The contract with Local 4021 also includes changes related to overtime. In the past, one assistant chief had to be on duty and if there was an absence or opening, another assistant chief would have to cover. The new agreement allows for a platoon captain or the fire chief to fill in.

Auburn Fire Chief Mike Hammon said Thursday that those changes are expected to result in “substantial savings” in overtime costs while maintaining safety standards.

“It was all tied together,” Hammon said.

Both contracts also include increases in contributions to health insurance. Members of both unions will see a 5 percent increase in their contributions with a cap of 15 percent. New hires will contribute 20 percent the first year, and then 15 percent each of the following years.

The firefighters will see another 5 percent increase in the fourth year of the contract.

Mayor Michael Quill was absent from the meeting, resulting in four votes instead of five.

In other news:

* The city has more extra money than originally expected for various sidewalk projects. The council approved 4-0 two requests for change orders for the Community Development Block Grant sidewalk program.

The change orders are the result of projects being completed for less than the amount of money granted to the city through the federal program.

One order is for $50,000, and will be used for extra work for walkways and access ramps in the area of Logan Street Tuxill Square and Janet Street. The second is for $47,000, and will go toward sidewalks and ramps around Genesee Street Elementary School.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.