WESTBROOK – When running for re-election, Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton said she wanted to keep finding ways to make the city run more efficiently, and she anticipated carrying that philosophy into the next round of collective bargaining negotiations.

Last week, Westbrook officials, including Hilton, met for the first time this year with representatives of all five of the city’s bargaining units, in what she called a “frank” discussion.

The negotiations begin as city officials gear up for budget season on the municipal side. This week, City Administrator Jerre Bryant said it was too early to even guess what the new budget would look like.

“We’re just getting stuff assembled right now,” Bryant said.

Hilton said she intends to participate in the negotiations herself, which is itself a change from how things have been done in the past, when Bryant represented the city without the mayor. Hilton said she is acting in part in response to public demands to make sure the unions do their part to help the city trim costs.

“We have a lot of constituents who are really screaming for some change,” she said.

Hilton and union representatives say that the initial discussions were positive. While there is no sign yet of any conflicts, Hilton said she is hoping the unions will not expect business as usual.

“I anticipate a number of changes,” she said.

Hilton revealed few details of what she thought those changes would involve, but did say she hoped to see changes in “language that doesn’t make sense from a management perspective.”

One example, she said, is language that dictates how the city will use personnel to cover shifts in the event of absences. City councilors have complained publicly about union contracts forcing the fire department into using an excessive amount of overtime to staff multiple positions while they remained unfilled, but Hilton declined to address that specific issue.

Last week’s meeting, Hilton said, was just an initial discussion, which she said will “hopefully forecast some of our challenges going forward.”

Bryant said it would likely take months to work out the new agreements, but Bryant anticipates finalizing new contracts before the current ones expire on June 30. With the City Council expecting a draft of the new municipal budget by the end of March, it is unlikely that the negotiations would affect the 2012-2013 budget.

“Those will be in process when (the newest) budget goes through,” he said.

But the new contracts would likely affect future budgets. On the school side, new collective bargaining agreements have created new raises for the district’s employees, putting pressure on school officials this year to tighten belts as they hammer out the 2012-2013 school budget.

On the city side, the five collective bargaining units represent firefighters and rescue personnel, police officers, public safety dispatchers, public services employees, and the “general unit,” representing other city employees not falling into the other four categories.

Three years ago, all the unions agreed to not take any raises, until the most recent, 2011-2012 budget, with a 3 percent raise for union personnel, and a 1.5 percent raise for non-union personnel, according to Bryant.

But three years ago, the city also didn’t have to raise taxes after approving the municipal budget. However, the municipal 2011-2012 budget was finalized at $24,292,628, an increase of $19,675 over the 2010-2011 budget.

That meant the city had to raise $477,106 more from taxpayers this year, translating into a 26-cent increase in the tax rate for 2012, or a $49.01 annual increase on a $190,000 home, according to Chief Financial Officer Dawn Ouellette.

This week, Hilton noted that difficult economic times are forcing everyone to cut back, and so far the unions appear to understand that.

“Our economy is very different right now,” she said.

Union representatives declined to discuss details of contract negotiations. Lee Libby, a staff representative for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, is representing the city’s public services employees. She said she knows that the city’s budget will likely be tighter this year, and that Westbrook is not alone.

“I think all budgets statewide are getting tighter,” she said.

Daniel Walsh, of Teamsters Local 340, which represents three of the city’s five collective bargaining units, also said this week that the unions are aware of the tightening economy, and are willing to work with the city to set reasonable wages.

“We recognize that our economy is in a painfully slow recovery and budgets are strained everywhere,” he said. “The city of Westbrook is no exception.”

Walsh said all he and the union members want is to protect a living wage, and that there is no agenda beyond that.

“We’re just trying to stay afloat,” he said.