The Jamestown City Council approved a retroactive contract agreement with the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association Local 137 for 2018, 2019 and 2020 during its regular monthly voting session Monday. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

“It’s deja vu all over again,” is one of Yogi Berra’s most memorable “Yogi-isms” and could be used to describe the latest union contract agreement by the city of Jamestown.

On Monday during the regular voting session meeting, the Jamestown City Council approved a three year agreement — 2018, 2019 and 2020 — with the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association Local 137. The reasons the contract agreement seems like deja vu — the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before — is because just last month the city reached a similar deal with the Kendall Club Police Benevolent Association.

According to the approved resolution, the union membership already ratified the tentative agreement.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the contract includes a retroactive 2% pay increase for union members. He said there is also an increase — from 19% to 21% — in health care premiums for union members, but that won’t be retroactive.

“We’ve been working the last year and four months trying to resolve contracs for all of our unions,” Sundquist said. “We’re excited (for the agreement) after long hours of back and forth and a lot of give and take.”

The agreement in March with the police union also included a retroactive pay increase of 2% for all three years of the contract. The police contract also included an increase in health care premiums for police department employees that increased from 19% to 21%, but also was not retroactive.

The last contract agreement between the fire union and the city expired at end of 2015.

In other business, the council approved to purchase 63 body cameras for the police department at the annual cost of $70,120. The contract for the cameras, if approved, will be for five years.

Earlier this month, Mark Dean, city IT and communications director, said the current model — Safety Vision –body cameras the department uses have been in operation during the last three years. He said, about a year and a half ago, some of the cameras started failing. He added that some officers needed to share cameras, which has led to some problems.

Dean said the new company, Axon Enterprise, will replace any camera not working properly within a week. He said cloud computing storage would be used to store the videos.

The city will also pay $12,669 annually for the cloud storage provider.

Dean said there will be two spare cameras if there is an issue with one. He said the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office uses Axon cameras and they’ve had no problems.

The cost for the new cameras this year will be prorated May to December at the cost of $46,747. The cloud storage will also be prorated this year at the cost of $8,446. If the purchase is approved by the council, contingency funding will be used this year. In the future years, the cost will be included in the city’s annual budget.

¯ The council approved the sale of city property to Lawson Boat & Motor for $5,000 for the purpose of developing and operating a full-service marina and tourist destination at the location along Fluvanna Avenue. The sale will be contingent upon a successful execution of easements on the property for the public use of the “Riverwalk Trail” and utility egress.

¯ The council approved entering into a shared services agreement with Jamestown Community College to hire a grant writer. Last week, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the city currently doesn’t have a grant writer and employees in several different departments are spending time away from their primary duties to write grants. He said the city doesn’t necessarily need a full-time grant writer, which is also the same position JCC is in currently.

Last week Maria Kindberg, JCC Foundation executive director, said the college has a difficult time finding a quality grant writer. She said the college’s salary range has been below other agencies looking for grant writers.

Sundquist said the plan would be for the college and city to split the cost for the grant writer 50/50. Also, the position would have an office at both JCC and at the Jamestown Municipal Building. He said the new worker would be considered a city employee, but would be non-union. The shared services agreement would be for two years.

¯ The council approved entering into an easement agreement with Lynn Development, located at 1351 N. Main St., for a 30-foot by 30-foot area of land that will be used for an entrance sign along the North Main Street corridor. Earlier this month, Jeff Lehman, city public works director, said city officials are still working on the design concept of the sign. He said the first step in the process is to finalize an easement agreement for the land with Lynn Development.