The city ratified an arbitrator’s decision on July 11 awarding DeKalb firefighters a 4.5 percent pay increase, retroactive July 1, 1987.

The award will cost the city about $35,000 more than the amount the city had offered, said DeKalb City Manager Mark Stevens.

Productivity was the major reason the arbitrator found for the firefighters, Stevens said.

Assistant City Manager Gary Boden said, “A minority dissenting opinion to the arbitration ruling will be filed by the city’s delegate to the arbitration panel within the next week.”