CHAMPAIGN — A state arbitrator ruled this week that Champaign firefighters should get wage increases, but that the city council has the authority to set the service levels at its fire stations.

That means it is left to council members' discretion to "brown out" a fire engine at Station 4 if they choose to continue with that budget-cutting plan, which they have supported in the past.

Toward the end of the last fiscal year, city council members approved a budget that would have cut more than $400,000 in overtime for firefighters. The overtime budget reduction ultimately meant that, most of the time, Fire Station 4 on the city's west side would not have enough staff on duty to run one of its trucks.

The proposed cut was one of many that added up to about $2 million in budget reductions to close a widening gap last year. Some city council members, however, have since expressed an interest in restoring the funds to the fire department's overtime budget, but that has yet to be formally considered.

Months ago, the firefighters' union and city administrators began negotiating around that point.

"Our position throughout arbitration was that we were trying to find ways to give a financial incentive for the city to guarantee the number of firefighters on the street that have been there for numerous years," said Carrol Whitehouse, a Champaign firefighter and vice president of the union.

The reduction in overtime pay would reduce fire service levels to near where they were in 2007, when Fire Station 6 opened in the southwest part of town.

Champaign Human Resources Director Chris Bezruki said the city still needs to figure out what the next procedural steps are and whether the city needs to include the arbitrator's ruling in a contract with the fire union.

The arbitrator also ruled that Champaign firefighters should receive a 1 percent wage increase retroactive to the last fiscal year, which ended in June, another 2 percent this year, and a 2.75 percent increase next year. The two sides had been unable to agree on salary.

"We were pretty pleased with the arbitrator's ruling on the wage increase because that pretty much reflects what's going on with the economy," Bezruki said.

As far as the overtime issue, the arbitrator's ruling "preserves their (city council members') ability to determine what each department spends on services," Bezruki said.

Whitehouse said the fire union will continue to look for ways to keep the fire engine in service.

"We're hopeful that we'll continue to work to maintain our shift manning," Whitehouse said.