Vallejo residents recently went to the polls and revoked the city’s binding arbitration out of its charter – 40 years after the city had become the first California city to let arbitrators settle pay and benefit disputes with its unionized work force.

The closely watched Measure A narrowly passed with about 51 percent of the vote despite heavy opposition from police and firefighter groups around the state, which reportedly outspent the measures’ backers 10-1. One county and 22 cities in California – including San Luis Obispo – still have binding arbitration.

Vallejo city officials had previously tried twice to remove binding arbitration from its books but it apparently took the city’s 2008 bankruptcy filing and public scrutiny of pay and benefits to change voters’ minds.