Members of the City Council’s finance committee voted to torpedo a Fire Department spending request on Monday night, saying they are unsettled by the department’s continued efforts to seek money for a line item that was eliminated under the firefighters’ contract in 2012.
Prior to the contract change, language in the collective bargaining agreement entitled firefighters to a yearly medical evaluation that the city was required to pay for.
The city continued to set aside money for those expenses even after the language disappeared from the contract, officials say. The fire department, they say, continued to seek funding in the budget even though the money wasn’t spent on medical evaluations.
The proposed line item for the fiscal year that begins July 1 was for $120,000, but the finance committee voted unanimously to recommend to the full City Council that the budget request be rejected.