What if Philly mayor could not appeal contracts without council’s approval?

For years, the Nutter administration fought a contract an arbitrator awarded to Philadelphia firefighters.

Now one city councilman is pushing to block the mayor from contesting contracts for police and firefighters. 

Jim Kenney wants to require the mayor get city council’s approval before appealing an arbitration award to the firefighters or police officers.

“I just think we need to have a discussion as to why an individual CEO of a company, the mayor has the ability to spend a million dollars in legal fees with no consultation with the board of directors, i.e. city council,” said Kenney. “If that was done in a private company there would be hell to pay.”

Joe Schulle, head of the firefighters’ union, wants this amendment to the city charter even though a week ago Mayor Nutter stopped appealing his members’ contract.

“This amendment was never about the past contract. it’s about changing the future so none of the city’s emergency workers would have to worry about receiving fair compensation for the very dangerous jobs we do,” said Schulle.

The next step for the bill is a committee hearing.