Note: This is the final post in this blog written by former Saratogian city reporter Andrew Bernstein. All entries preceding this post were also authored by Bernstein under the username "City Desk" (which was changed following this post to reflect the primary author of the blog), unless otherwise noted.

On Tuesday, Mayor Scott Johnson and members of the city's police union spent several hours in their first mediation session with the state Public Employees Relation Board.

I spoke to the union leadership during the session (parties are kept in separate rooms during the session), and they were cautiously optimistic, and waiting patiently.

On Thursday, Johnson said it was a productive session, and hoped that that the next session, scheduled for early January would bring a settlement between the city and the union. The contract expired on Dec. 31, 2008, nearly a year ago.

Contracts with several other city unions, including CSEA-DPW and CSEA-City Hall are also expired, and in various stages of negotiation. Smaller unions, including administrative police and fire, are expired, and will likely not be negotiated until the larger contracts are settled.