- Some city leaders say their current offer to increase pay for select fire staff is fair.
- Mayor John Dailey rejected Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor's offer to help with fire contract negotiations.
- Watch the video to hear why some say an agreement needs to be reached.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
After a county commissioner's proposal, the future of fire negotiations caused disagreement in City Hall.
"We're going to continue to hug the firefighters, but when inflation rises, when their pay continues to decline in comparison to inflation, nothing gets done," said neighbor Sam Dolan.
City leaders discussed the stalemate at their commission meeting Wednesday.
This after county commissioner Bill Proctor said Tuesday he was ready to step in if needed to come to an agreement.
Something Mayor John Dailey said the city has handled.
"I believe we're going to find a resolution and I'm willing to let the process work itself out," Dailey said.
That process: headed to a special magistrate after no agreement has been made on a current offer.
The city's proposal includes a more than $1,700 raise for starting fire fighters, a just over $800 raise for engineers and no raise for ranks such as lieutenants.
Pension is being cut and all ranks will get a bonus of at least $500.
City manager Reese Goad said that is fair.
"When we do a salary comparison with other like cities, what we find is the higher we go in rank, the more competitive if not over market we pay," Goad said.
The former president of the Tallahassee Professional Firefighters Joey Davis told me in January that they wanted an equal raise for all fire employees.
"It doesn't make sense to a lot of our firefighters and they don't understand why they're being treated that way," Davis said.
With no agreement reached, Commissioner Jeremy Matlow said he doesn't understand why the city doesn't take Proctor up on his offer.
"I'm at a loss," Matlow said. "I am willing to try anything no matter how unorthodox it is to get us there."
The meeting with the special magistrate is happening March 27
From there, both the union and city will get a recommendation from that third party.
