An appellate court ruled Thursday that the city of San Antonio and the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association must go to mediation to resolve a lawsuit over the constitutionality of a clause within a collective bargaining agreement.

City Manager Sheryl Sculley said she was pleased by the 4th Court of Appeals’ recognition of the “city’s willingness to negotiate” and that the fire union was “ordered” to come to the table.

"This is progress for the city, our taxpayers and the fire personnel who work hard to serve the San Antonio community," Sculley said in a news release.

Mayor Ivy Taylor said, “I’m glad our city staff and the SAPFFA will be working to get this process back on track. We want to find the right balance between compensating the life-saving efforts of our firefighters while protecting taxpayers.”

Chris Steele, president of the fire union, said he’s not necessarily pleased with the order because the union is seeking “victory.” A district court judge has already ruled against the city in its lawsuit claiming that the evergreen clause in the collective-bargaining agreement, or CBA, is a violation of the Texas Constitution and public policy.

The city appealed the judgment, and the 4th Court of Appeals has yet to rule on the matter, first insisting that the two sides begin mediation within the next 60 days.

“Our goal is that we’d like to see the end of the lawsuit and start negotiations,” Steele said.

If the justices think mediation will help, the union is willing to try, Steele said. But finding middle ground may be tricky.

“It's hard for us to see — we believe the evergreen is constitutional,” he said.

He asserted that the city, too, believes that the evergreen clause is constitutional because it’s included in a new CBA between the city and the San Antonio Police Officers Association. Both of the public-safety union contracts expired on Sept. 30, 2014. But much of the agreements, save wage increases, is kept intact for up to 10 years while new contracts are being negotiated.

The city and SAPOA agreed this summer to an eight-year evergreen clause.

Steele has repeatedly said that the fire union will not negotiate as long as the city continues its lawsuit over the evergreen clause. SAPOA President Mike Helle said the same thing leading up to when his union and the city entered court-ordered mediation this summer. When the two sides emerged after a few meetings, they announced that they’d struck a deal on a new contract.

But they’d also been negotiating off and on since before the last contract expired in 2014. The fire union has yet to begin its own negotiations.

“We wish them the best of luck and hopefully they can come to a conclusion quickly,” Helle said Thursday.

It’s unclear exactly what will happen in the coming weeks. Steele said he was confident that the two sides could easily agree on a mediator to handle the case. But he also said he wants the mediation sessions to be open to the public.

"I do want everybody to be there,” he said. “I'm never good with trying to do these things behind closed doors."

Jeff Coyle, the city’s chief spokesman, said that’s impossible. By law, mediation is a confidential process, he said, adding that the city has asked the union for three years to begin negotiations, which are held in public.

“We will approach mediation the same way we approached it with the police union: with an open mind and willingness to consider all the issues,” he said in a text message to the San Antonio Express-News. “By law, mediation is one of the ways that collective bargaining agreements can be negotiated.”

jbaugh@express-news.net

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