CRANSTON — The mayor and the mayor-elect have each voiced a desire for a smooth transition as one man takes over for the other, but they disagree on one issue: whether the city should provide work-related disability pensions for three employees whose claims were rejected by the state.

The employees — two police officers and one firefighter — belong to the state Municipal Employees Retirement System, but the state Retirement Board has rejected their requests for work-related disability pensions.

With backing from Mayor Michael T. Napolitano, the police and fire unions are now arguing that the city should pay the difference between the standard disability pensions for which the employees are eligible and the work-related disability pensions they sought.

Lawyers for the city and the firefighters’ union say the request stems from the fact that the employees’ disabilities — which officials would not disclose — have been verified by doctors but were not recognized by the state Retirement Board because they developed over time rather than stemming from one event or injury.

Yet, state law says that a police officer or firefighter who retires because of on-the-job injuries shall receive not less than two-thirds of their pay at the time of retirement — the amount the employees sought through the state system.

The situation has left all three employees on the city payroll, at 100-percent pay.

And union leaders say the only way to get them off the city payroll is to have the City Council adopt two ordinances that would allow the city to make up the difference between the disability pensions the state will grant and the work-related disability pensions the employees want.

“The city is in a very bad spot,” said James Kelleher, lawyer for the firefighters’ union.

Ernest J. Carlucci, Napolitano’s chief of staff, said the ordinances would allow the city to take the employees off the city payroll and open up positions that otherwise cannot be filled.

The annual payroll and benefits costs for the three is about $202,000, while the city’s pension costs would be about $85,000 a year, said Corsino Delgado, the city’s finance director.

But Mayor-elect Allan W. Fung said paying a share of the pensions could cost the city more than a million dollars over the long haul, depending on the employees’ ages and salaries, which he did not have. And the city’s police and firefighter pension plan, closed to new employees since 1995, is already under-funded by some $200 million.

Fung also pointed to a state law that says Cranston police and firefighters who joined the state system waived “all accrued rights and benefits of any other” municipal pension system that existed before July 1, 1995, when many moved from the city to the state plan.

“The state system is supposed to be the only remedy,” he said.

Paul Saccoccia, a national representative with the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, said the issue is one of fairness.

Police officers and firefighters were told they would be entitled to the same benefits when they switched plans, he said.

The council is expected to consider the ordinances, which would also apply in future cases, on Dec. 15.

redgar@projo.com