The city of San Antonio notified the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association on Thursday that it has officially dropped the lawsuit that the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear over the summer. The dismissal of the suit sets the stage for contract negotiations to begin more than four years after the fire union’s contract initially expired. Union leaders did not return phone calls seeking comment, but President Chris Steele has maintained since the city filed its lawsuit in the fall of 2014 that he would begin negotiations within seven days of the suit being dropped. The union’s top ally on the City Council — Greg Brockhouse — called for negotiations in the days after voters passed a charter amendment on Nov. 6 that gives the union the unilateral ability to call for binding arbitration on contract negotiations.