SAN ANTONIO — The Texas Supreme Court will not take on the City of San Antonio’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that upheld the firefighters union contract’s 10-year evergreen clause, according to a list of court orders published Friday on the court’s website.

The union's collective bargaining agreement expired in September 2014. A 10-year evergreen clause was drafted and has kept that old agreement in place.

The collective bargaining agreement, as extended by the “evergreen” provision, requires the city to pay healthcare costs for fire department employees through 2024. Under the current contract, employees pay no healthcare premiums for themselves or their dependents — something the City of San Antonio calls an  "unsustainable plan that threatens to jeopardize or eliminate funding for other City services, such as street maintenance, sidewalk construction, libraries, parks, code enforcement, animal care and social services."

The city wanted the court to strike down that evergreen clause — and ultimately force the union to negotiate a new agreement — because it says the city is being forced to pay for skyrocketing healthcare costs after the contract’s expiration, creating what it called an “unconstitutional debt.”

“We aren’t going to waste time looking back,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg stated in a news release.

“Union leaders have said the lawsuit was the roadblock to negotiations. Now that it is over, they should come to the table. The public deserves good faith negotiations. We must remember that we are at this point due to the shortsighted decisions of the past. I’m committed to making sure that the City’s future contracts with police officers and firefighters are fair to all involved, are legal and done right.

“We are disappointed that the Texas Supreme Court chose not to hear the case,” City Attorney Andy Segovia said. “With the 10-year automatic ‘evergreen’ extension in their current contract, the fire union has shown no willingness to negotiate in good faith a new contract that is fair to their members and affordable to our taxpayers. Consequently, a provision that usually facilitates negotiation has effectively foreclosed it.”

Statement from Councilman Greg Brockhouse, District 6:

From day one, I have said the Evergreen lawsuit was a frivolous and divisive path for the City to take against our First Responders. Today, the Texas Supreme Court denied hearing this matter agreeing with the lower Court’s decision.

I believe the City Manager and Mayor have mishandled this issue from the beginning and wasted over $1.2 million dollars and almost three years suing police officers and firefighters. This decision should call into question their leadership and decision-making abilities. They were dreadfully wrong and now we are left with little to show for this decision, other than animosity and wasted tax payer dollars.

In my opinion, no matter how you portray this latest decision, the legal strategy was not convincing and the attempts to bully the Unions for leverage in the Courts failed. It is my hope real leadership prevails and the City acts with humility in its request to re-engage negotiations. I will do my best to bridge the gap with our firefighters and open the lines of communication to protect our community and its future.