Mansfield City Council approves new 3-year contract with firefighters’ union

MANSFIELD — Mansfield firefighters would receive 12.25-percent wage increases over a three-year period under terms of a contract approved by City Council on Tuesday night.

Union members began voting on the report and contract Monday, a process that is expected to conclude Wednesday.

The deal also includes adjustments in holiday pay and $750 in annual payments to firefighters who have obtained paramedic status.

The entire new contract has not yet been made public.

Local lawmakers voted unanimously to approved the new labor contract after first approving a state fact-finder’s report that offered final recommendations on differences between the city’s positions and Local 266 of the International Association of Firefighters.

If approved by the union, the contract would be retroactive to April 1, 2025. The city’s previous deal with the IAFF Local 266 expired March 31 and negotiations have been ongoing.

Pay increases would be 6 percent in the first year of the deal, 3.25 percent in the second and 3 percent in the third, according to the report prepared by State Employee Relations Board fact-finder Kenneth Hickey, a Columbus-based attorney.

The previous contract had 12-percent wage hikes over the three-year life of that deal.

The fact-finding hearing and report focused on three things: wages, EMT/Paramedic certification and holidays/emergency leave, according to Hickey.

“Everything else we were able to come to agreement on,” Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry said after the council session, which included a 45-minute executive session to discuss the fact-finding report and the contract.

There was no discussion of the fact-finder’s report nor the contract during the public portion of the meeting.

“We had good conversations with the union. Just by way of a lot of scheduling, really, it went longer than I think either of us hoped or expected, but it wasn’t for acrimonious reasons,” Perry said.

“I think they were productive negotiations. I think both sides were able to address issues that both sides had,” she said.

Mansfield Fire Department Chief Dan Crow attended Tuesday’s City Council meeting. He was not on the city’s negotiating team and declined to comment on the contract. Crow complimented the professionalism of firefighters during the period.

“From my point of view, it’s business as usual. My job is to make sure the department is still meeting its mission (in terms of) in delivering the service to the citizens. But obviously this is an issue that’s been going on for a while, so it’s good to finally get at least to this end of the process,” he said after council’s vote.

“The fire department has been business as usual. The guys have maintained professionalism and have been answering the calls throughout the entire time,” Crow said.

There are about 87 members in IAFF Local 266, which consists of all full-time firefighters, lieutenants, captains and probationary firefighters. Only the fire chief and assistant chiefs are not members of the bargaining unit.

Hickey, who issued his report Jan. 14, praised both the administration and the union for their work in the process.

He said the city and union leaders had about 10 negotiation sessions and several mediation sessions with him prior to the fact-finding hearing. That hearing was done in Mansfield on Dec. 10.

“The parties in this mediation and hearing process were true examples of how collective bargaining was and is designed to occur,” he wrote. “Each side openly discussed with the other side why each (side’s) proposal was made and the reasons behind it.

“Each side discussed within itself various pros and cons on each Article. Articles were resolved based on discussions in the mediation process. The discussions and the resolution were the basis for further discussion on the three remaining issues that were placed before the fact-finder,” Hickey wrote.

“The (holiday pay) relates to continuing the reduction of overtime and its impact on the firefighter workforce. Wages related to pay and furthering the recognition of the importance of the city’s firefighting and EMT services to the city. The paramedic Article related to the importance of these services and a recognition financially and on an annual basis of the certification and its importance,” Hickey wrote.

Hickey recommended the city be allowed to “buy back” 96 hours of holiday benefits, “totaling $3,328 to be added to base compensation with the first pay period” in January 2026. There are 12 designated holidays each year, totaling 192 hours annually as each firefighter will be paid at the rate of 16 hours of leave per holiday.

In terms of the paramedic bonus, the union had proposed $1,500 annually to be added to the base salary for each firefighter/paramedic. The city proposed a $500 annual bonus. Hickey’s report called for a $750 annual payment.

In terms of wages, the two sides agreed on a12.25 percent increase over three years, in line with what AFSCME Local 3088 received in its contract approved in 2025. The difference came in the breakdown of annual percentages.

The union proposed 6 percent, 4.25 percent and 2 percent during the three years of the deal. The city asked for 6 percent, 3.25 percent and 3 percent.

Hickey’s report sided with the city and also recommended a $3,500 lump sum payment to each union member “to cover the time period following the expiration of the previous agreement.”

Next up for the city is a new contract with the Blue and Gold units of the Fraternal Order of Police William Taylor Lodge 32. That contract expired July 31, 2025. Perry said the two sides have reached the fact-finding stage.

“Hopefully, we’ll be back here before too long with the FOP contracts,” the mayor said.

The contract with AFSCME also went to a fact-finder’s report before the two sides agreed.

“I do think right now what we’re seeing in the public sector is that wage pressure that was happening in the private sector about three years ago,” said Perry, who took office in January 2024 after a decade spent leading the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.