By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati firefighters are expected to vote Monday and Tuesday on a two-year contract proposal that offers bigger raises but tightens sick leave usage. The contract is intended to racially diversify firehouses by allowing the city to move new firefighters around.

The proposal gives firefighters 5 percent raises for this year and 2004, up from the 3 percent they got in each of the past two years. It would add $15,000 to the death benefit for active firefighters, upping it to $35,000, and 12 more hours of vacation time in each of the two years.

And in a move aimed at better integrating firehouses, the city would have the right to transfer firefighters with less than five years' experience anywhere.

City Manager Valerie Lemmie wanted the transfer policy in place to expose firefighters to working in different neighborhoods and with different groups of people, said Rashad Young, assistant city manager.

But the practical effect of that might be years off. The current force of about 800 remains allowed to "self-select" where they want to work. With no recruit class this year, there will be no new hires until at least 2004.

Joe Diebold, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 48, said the union's goal was to make the city understand the expanded role firefighters have taken on in being first-responders for terrorist incidents. Also, he said, some firefighters in the city's most violent neighborhoods are now wearing bullet-resistant vests.

The union wanted more money. The salary for firefighters after one year's probation is almost $41,000.

But Diebold said the 5 percent raises show the city appreciates its firefighters and that they were a good compromise "particularly in these difficult economic times."

The city's deficit last year topped $30 million.

Firefighters will pay more for their health care and will have to get a doctor's note for the third time they call off sick in a year, rather than the fifth time, as required by the current contract.

Lemmie cited the sick leave policy as a way the city hopes to save money. The city also will apply for a federal grant to pay for a health and wellness program.

Firefighters also won the right to wear T-shirts to work in the summer and to put union stickers on their helmets. The stickers emerged as a big flap last year when Chief Robert Wright ordered them removed.

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com