Council approves two firefighter collective-bargaining appropriations totaling $1.4 million

The Somerville City Council approved two appropriation requests from the mayor to fund a collective bargaining settlement with Local 76, the city’s firefighters union.

Item 7.2 authorized $929,513 from the salary and wage stabilization fund to the Fire Department’s “other lump sum payments” account to fund the retrospective portion of the settlement. Item 7.3 authorized $472,854 from the salary contingency account to various Fire Department personal services accounts to complete funding for the agreement.

Councilor Wilson moved approval of both items for immediate consideration. The council voted by roll call with all councilors recorded in favor. Councilor Wilson later moved to reconsider those approvals; the motion to reconsider failed on a roll-call vote, leaving the appropriations approved.

The mayor’s requests were read into the record and sent to the finance department for accounting. The council did not read detailed allocation spreadsheets during the public motion; specific line-item distributions are held in the Finance Department records.