A state-picked fiscal oversight panel voted yesterday to have a Virginia firm study the city of Pittsburgh's Fire Bureau and help implement changes for $193,000.

The move was called "absolutely wasteful" by the firefighters union head.

The Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority will hire Virginia-based System Planning Corp.'s TriData division, which was honored last month by the International Association of Fire Chiefs for 25 years of studying emergency services.

"They have experience working with unions and management under similar conditions," said ICA Executive Director Henry Sciortino.

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1 President Joe King, though, said he was deeply skeptical of the need for a new study, given that the ICA already spent $95,000 on a review of the bureau's operations by Erase Enterprises of Texas.

"Erase did an objective and independent study and they didn't say what the ICA wanted them to say," Mr. King said. "So we spend another $200,000 until we get a consultant to say what they want?"

The Erase study, released nearly two years ago, recommended cuts in manpower but also expensive investments in equipment and new stations.

The ICA chose TriData over Erase and four other firms. TriData had great experience in crunching data, recommending changes and helping fire departments to implement them, said ICA Chair Barbara McNees.

"We really wanted a much more in-depth analysis, recommendations and a plan, as well as an estimate of what the cost would be," she said. Mr. King "would prefer we not do anything at all, I'm sure."

TriData Director of Local Government Studies Stephen Brezler said his firm has studied public safety services in 150 cities, from Chicago to Cincinnati to Waterbury, Conn., which like Pittsburgh is under state fiscal oversight.

The firm looks at the services provided, the management structure, training and equipment, among other things. "In this case, it's going to be as much about effectiveness as it is about efficiency," he said.

Such studies take six or seven months, he said.

The city's Fire Bureau has shrunk from a $60 million operation in 2004 to an estimated $49 million next year. The city has the option of reopening its contract with the union next year and seeking further savings, but Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has not yet said whether he will pursue that.

Ms. McNees said it's not clear yet whether TriData's work could have an impact on any decision to reopen the fire contract, or on the negotiations that would ensue if that pact is revisited. She said it's up to a separate oversight group, the Act 47 Recovery Team, to help the city decide whether to reopen the contract.

In any case, TriData's involvement is to be deeper and longer-term, aimed at creating a five- or 10-year plan for the bureau, Ms. McNees said.

Ms. McNees said the city has pledged to cooperate. The ICA did not contact the union, leaving that to the city, but hopes the employees will "be an integral part of this," she said. TriData staff, which includes former union members and leaders, "will be talking with people doing the day-to-day job out there."

"There's nobody that's going to answer any questions," said Mr. King. Because the 626-member union was not involved in drawing up the scope of the consultant's work, it would not cooperate with the effort, he said.

He also said that TriData should not be granted immunity from any lawsuits that come from any recommended changes that cost the lives of firefighters or residents.