While the City of Butler’s police contract remains in limbo 10 months after the expiration of the previous pact, Zelienople officials and the borough’s police officers’ bargaining unit have a new four-year agreement that will take effect Jan. 1.

Although Zelienople isn’t faced with the serious money problems that threaten the city’s financial future, it’s notable that both sides will benefit — and made concessions — in the new borough contract.

And, the best contract usually is one under which neither side gets everything it wants and makes sacrifices on behalf of the community’s well-being.

In Zelienople’s case, the new contract affecting seven full-time and two part-time officers gives officers two years of 2.5 percent raises and two years of 2 percent pay hikes plus the added benefit of long-term disability coverage to complement the existing short-term coverage.

In return, the officers agreed to some changes in health care co-pays and contract provisions that will provide the borough with cost savings.

The contract’s pay-increase provisions show a willingness by the police to help the borough and also acknowledges the low national inflation rate. That should be a component in the new Butler police contract whenever it is resolved.

For both sides in the Butler contract situation, there’s been the added challenge of helping the city avoid bankruptcy or state fiscally distressed status — a decision about which could be forthcoming within a couple of years if the city doesn’t get its fiscal house in order

“I think they (Zelienople police) got a fair contract and we got a fair contract,” said borough manager Don Pepe.

That must be the goal regarding the Butler contract, but it has proven more difficult for the two sides to get to that point than it was in Zelienople, where the two sides began contract talks early this year and were able to reach an accord two months before contract expiration.

The stage was set for Butler police negotiations when the city made an offer to the members of Lodge 32, Fraternal Order of Police, in the summer of 2011.

Mayor Maggie Stock said Thursday that no negotiations actually were held before the police union opted for a binding-arbitration hearing that was held in October 2011. As of Thursday, both sides still were awaiting the arbitrator’s decisions.

Butler Police Sgt. Ben Spangler, Lodge 32 president, said Thursday that he had sought talks with the city in the aftermath of the arbitration hearing but Stock had refused to respond.

Stock disputed that, saying she was unable to open an attachment to an e-mail from Spangler and had asked him for a hard copy, but that he had failed to follow up.

Spangler was critical of the city’s hiring of an outside negotiator when elected officials had the responsibility to bargain with the union. However, Stock pointed out city officials’ lack of experience in collective bargaining and determined that it was in the city’s best interests to bring in someone with negotiations experience.

What’s troubling from the city’s perspective is that many results from past binding-arbitration processes haven’t adequately acknowledged the city’s money problems. Instead, they worsened the city’s money plight.

The contract limbo is unfortunate for city officers, but it’s also unfortunate for city taxpayers who remain in the dark about contract provisions and how those provisions might affect their taxes and the city’s financial health.

Fortunately for Zelienople, it avoided what has evolved in Butler and can now concentrate on other important borough business.