PLATTSBURGH -- The City of Plattsburgh will go ahead and implement a change in its employee HMO plan for four of its five unions, leaving the Fire Department employees to pay more in premiums.

The plan -- recommended by a task force made up of Common Council members, Chamberlain Richard Marks and representatives from all five city unions -- calls for the city to self-fund its health maintenance organization plan.

No benefits would change.

The move could have saved as much as $700,000 for the city and about 9 percent in premium co-payments for employees who pay a portion of their health insurance.

Employees hired after 1993 pay part of their premiums.

The City Police, Municipal Lighting Department, American Federation of County Municipal and State Employees and the Public Library unions have all agreed to the change.

The Fire Department union did not.

Firefighters told the council they would agree to the change only if they received a 3-percent raise retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year and a one-year extension of their contract, which expired Dec. 31, 2007.

Councilors unanimously rejected the firefighters' proposal Thursday night, calling it selfish and not in tune with the city's taxpayers and other city employees.

By implementing the self-funding plan for the four other unions, the savings for the city will be about $93,000 less than the expected $700,000.

The co-payments will still drop by about 9 percent.

Fire Department union members will remain in the old plan, but their premium co-payments are expected to increase by about 26 percent by Dec. 1. Their benefits will remain the same.

"It appears that the executive board of the union is hurting their own members and affecting the health-care coverage of their own members simply because they did not want to cooperate with Chief (Paul) Williams and the mayor," Mayor Donald Kasprzak said Friday.

"If I were a member who was affected by this, I would certainly consider new union leadership."

Councilor James Calnon (I-Ward 4), who was a member of the task force, said that, by staying with the old plan, 17 of the 34 firefighters who pay a premium co-payment will see their share of health insurance go up an average of $50.32 per month, about $600 per year.