MANCHESTER — For weeks, Mayor Ted Gastas had been reminding aldermen who didn't like his proposed city budget that to pass an alternative, they needed to find 10 votes.

Tuesday night, they did.

With Aldermen Joe Kelly Levasseur and Ed Osborne jumping aboard, an alternative budget package proposed by Ward 1 Alderman Joyce Craig was passed over Gatsas' veto by a 10-4 vote. The board previously had upheld the mayor's veto of an earlier version of Craig's budget on an 8-6 vote.

Levasseur and Osborne sided with Gatsas when he vetoed the Craig budget last week. But both aldermen said that as a greater-than-anticipated surplus and more car registration fee collections materialized, the Craig plan became viable.

Craig said the loss of more than 200 school employees through layoffs and attrition led several aldermen to work on her proposal.

“There were 161 people that received pink skips, so that's what motivated me,” Craig said. “That's why I wanted to do something about it.”

Alderman Jim Roy also proposed an alternative budget, which also failed to pass last week. Roy's plan called for placing money for schools in a contingency fund, to be release for specific purposes approved by the aldermen.

First Levasseur, then Osborne, decided to join supporters of the alternate budget.

“I had spoken with Alderman Levasseur and had a sense of where he was going,” Craig said. “And I had many conversations with Alderman Osborne, but I didn't know how he would vote until he voted.”

Osborne said he initially opposed giving the schools more money than Gatsas recommended, primarily because the school unions had failed to join several municipal unions in agreeing to pay more for health benefits to save jobs.

“That was the biggest issue,” Osborne said,

But with time growing short for a decision, Osborne said it became clear that the city needed to avoid adopting Gatsas' budget by failing to act on an alternative.

“We had to close the budget one way or the other. We don't want to get the mayor's by default. It was between Roy or Craig,” he said. “Where do you want to put your dollars, into either helping the kids, or put half of it away for a rainy day fund?”

Levasseur said his prior vote to uphold Gatsas' veto was based on the expectation that teachers and principals would agree to contract concessions to save jobs.

“I was hoping that at some point, responsible people would come to the table and realize that having a job is more important than paying a bit more for health insurance,” Levasseur said.

Levasseur recalled a conversation he said he had with Gatsas, in which Levasseur said the mayor told him that avoiding the problems layoffs would bring to the schools was in the hands of school unions.

“We pushed the envelope and pushed the envelope,” he said. “When the decision came, I could get back 54 teachers without going over the tax cap.”

Gatsas said the Craig budget was unacceptable because it strayed from the principle of funding pay and benefits only out of recurring revenues.

“I vetoed it because one-time dollars funded wages and salaries,” the mayor said.

Craig said the compromise package was not something she came up with alone. She said other aldermen, in particular Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long, were involved in crafting the package.

“Many of the aldermen helped on this budget. There were a lot of calls and meetings,” Craig said. “The objective was to do our part in the process, not give them everything they need, but to help where they could.”

Gatsas said he will continue to push for concessions to save more jobs.

“I'm always willing to talk to the union to see if we can get something done,” he said.

Craig said negotiations on the next teacher contract need to focus on work rules as well as on finances.

She called for negotiation of a contract that will get teachers to spend more time teaching in the classroom.

“Teachers will go to a committee meeting during the school day, which will take them out of the classroom. We could potentially have the meeting happen after school,” she said.

The mother of three schoolchildren, Craig first became involved as a member of the Parent Teacher Organization at the Webster Elementary School before winning her first election for the school board.

She was elected an alderman in 2009 and reelected last year, but says she has no further political ambition.

“I don't,” she said. “I'm happy being an alderman and I'm happy working with my constituents.”

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Beth LaMontagne Hall may be reached at bhall@unionleader.com.