A judge ruled in the city’s favor Monday in a dispute with the Omaha Firefighters Union.

Mayor Suttle covered sick time last month by shutting down a fire engine and two rescue squads and shifting personnel to another station for a day instead of calling workers in at time-and-a-half pay. The decision saved the city $4,000.

Just five weeks into the new budget year and the fire department's budget overrun is about $2.4-million.

In January, the firefighters union filed action against the city claiming the city failed to maintain minimal staffing levels in its effort to reduce costs and that was a violation of their contract, but Judge Patrick Mullen disagreed.

Mullen ruled the city did violate some stipulations of the union contract, but found no contempt and said in fact the city acted in good faith considering the budgetary constraints.

“This affirms that the decisions we are making are in compliance with the fire union contract," says Mayor Jim Suttle. "I am an advocate of exploring every aspect of performance based budgeting to create a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars. I will continue to work with all of the City’s unions to stay within the law while finding ways to increase efficiencies in city government.”

The judge sided with the union on a couple of points. In one example, he ordered the city to remove four firefighters from jobs they had been transferred to when the department's civilian workers had been cut during layoffs.

Firefighters Union Local 385 president Steve Leclair tells Channel 6 News that he respects the judge's decisions and that they'll abide by the order. Leclair says the union is weighing its options regarding any next steps.