Mayor Scott Eisenhauer proposed laying off 16 firefighters at a Tuesday night budget meeting as a result of a contract arbitration decision.
Eisenhauer, who described the cuts as a "harsh" plan, proposed reducing fire department personnel from 42 to 26 after learning earlier in the day that the city lost an arbitration decision on the firefighters' contract regarding minimum manning and salaries.
Currently, according to the contract with the fire department, there must be 13 firefighters on duty per shift. The city wants to reduce that number to 10 per shift.