BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG -- Twenty-three firefighters, some former and some current, received an average payment of $23,681.22 in back pay from the city following an arbitration award and interest following an Oct. 16 order from Judge Mary Farley.

The order stemmed from a lengthy court battle that cost the city nearly $100,000 in legal fees and ended in arbitration in favor of the union.

The city had willfully violated the contract with Local 1799 on grounds that the contract was invalid as it was built on job security rather than public safety.

The union disagreed, and in the end so did the judge.

The city was ordered to pay $519,680.68 stemming from more than 10,510 hours denied under the union’s six-year contract that began Jan. 1, 2020 and continues to Dec. 31, 2025.

“The award by the arbitrator validates the union position that city officials failed to honor the terms of its legally binding contract each time it failed to have five firefighters on duty. In fact, the arbitrators award clearly indicates that this was neither incidental nor an honest mistake,” Jason Bouchard, President of Local 1799, said at the time.

However, the city attempted to make the payment to the union's law firm rather than to the firefighters and that led to a claim by the union that, due to the delays, they were owed additional money.

Farley agreed and ordered a new award, which added nearly $30,000 in interest payments, bringing the new total to $544,668.07 to be paid directly to the 23 firefighters impacted by the action.

Sixteen of the awards totaled $30,927.73 a piece. Two firefighters received payments of roughly $18,000. Two firefighters received payments of roughly $5,000 and one firefighter received a payment for roughly $2,400. Finally, two payments totaling less than $600 went to two former firefighters.

The award concludes a years long labor dispute between the city and the union over whether some clauses in the existing contract were for job security or public safety.

In recent years, the city cut the fire department from 27 members down to 16, not including.

That's despite numbers provided by the city comptroller and fire chief that showed savings, at least in the short term, if the city were to hire additional firefighters.

That's due to language in the contract that provides payment when firefighters are working short-handed.

The legal battle was costly for the city as special attorneys were hired to handle the case only to come up short in the end. The dispute between the city was also unpopular with many members of the public who rallied at city hall and vocally condemned council members at public meetings over the past couple years.

Still, some members of city council have remained adamant that the contract is "crippling" the city's finances. They've blamed cuts made in other departments on the high cost of the fire contract and have pleaded with the union to renegotiate.

Union members, in turn, have maintained they do not trust the current city council and are not interested in returning to the table due to actions taken by leaders in recent years.