A fact-finder appointed by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board is scheduled to visit Pittsburgh next week to start meetings with negotiators for the Port Authority and Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union, as part of ongoing efforts to reach a new contract.

Jane Rigler, whom the PLRB appointed on July 15, has already exchanged letters, e-mails and phone calls with the parties.

"We hope she can bring everybody closer together," Local 85 President-Business Agent Patrick McMahon said yesterday. "Maybe we can reach a deal."

The approximately 2,300 bus-trolley operators, mechanics and other hourly workers who belong to Local 85 remain on the job under terms of their previous contract that expired June 30. The authority and union were far apart on reaching a new agreement at the time and moved to the fact-finding process as required under state law governing the transit agency.

Ms. Rigler has 45 days, or until Aug. 29, to gather facts, hear testimony, ask questions, compile information and issue a report recommending a basis for a proposed settlement. Both sides will then have 15 days to accept or reject the report.

If either party says no to her recommendations, there's no contract. The recommendations and findings usually help, however, with further mediator-supervised negotiations and can weigh heavily on public opinion.

"Our attorney [Joe Pass Sr.] has been in regular contact with [Ms. Rigler]," Mr. McMahon said. "When she comes to town next week, we'll talk about how we proceed from here."

The major issues involve growing "legacy costs," namely health care, pension and early retirement benefits that Port Authority officials say will soon exceed what it spends in wages. The authority now has more people on pensions than on the active payroll, a result of employees being able to retire in their 40s and early 50s under terms of past contracts and policies covering management as well as union personnel.

Ms. Rigler, of Carlisle, retired as a professor at Penn State's Dickinson School of Law three years ago after a 27-year career. She has since been spending much of her time as an arbitrator and mediator in more than 50 public and private labor disputes. U.S. District Court for the Pennsylvania Middle District has been appointing her as a fact-finder for more than a decade.

Her fee is said to be about $1,000 a day, plus expenses. In past fact-finding practice, the authority and Local 85 usually split the costs.