Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson broke a Board of Trustees tie to approve a new contract with the village’s professional firefighters last week.

The unusual situation occurred because Trustee Nicole Siracuse recused herself from the vote, and the four remaining trustees tied. Trustees Ben Brauchler and Michelle Twichell voted against the contract, while Jon Espersen and Paul Wandel voted in favor of it.

The contract contains pay raises for the firefighters, but dollar figures were not explicitly specified — except in comments by Brauchler, who suggested they would lead to property tax hikes.

The resolution as read by Espersen mentioned that the village and Fredonia Professional Firefighters Association Local 2931 had a collective bargaining agreement that expired May 31. Under state law, public employees work under their previous contracts if they expire before a renegotiated deal is approved.

The village and firefighters’ union reached a tentative settlement Nov. 13, and the union’s membership ratified it pending Board of Trustees approval, according to the resolution. The new contract is to expire May 31, 2029.

“I’m not going to second this, because I’m not going to vote aye on this contract, because of the unknown costs for our budget,” Twichell said.

“I have a lot of difficulty with this one,” Brauchler said. “I did discuss the costs of this at our workshop and we are baking in a 3% (annual) increase in our taxes in future years going forward with this, so I am going to say no.”

Espersen and Wandel voted without comment. Ferguson was told he would get to break the tie.

“Based on the fact that we wouldn’t pass a contract unless we knew what the cost was to us — and I’ve been assured that this is a cost effective contract — I’m going to say yes,” Ferguson said.

Brauchler’s workshop comments indicated that the contract will increase fire department payroll by $65,000 this year and by $75,000 annually In subsequent years.

“That is no different than the police contract we approved,” Espersen replied. “It was dictated, I’m going to say mandated, by the mediator. If it went to arbitration, the arbitrator would demand we spend the same amount of money on their benefits as we did police. So it was going to be foisted on us either way. So it wasn’t anything we could have avoided.”

Espersen asserted that Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau had planned for the compensation increases in the village budget.