PROVIDENCE — As staff from the U.S. Conference of Mayors arrived to begin preparations for the organization’s four-day convention, last-minute negotiations on Wednesday to call off a planned union picket failed.

Mayor David N. Cicilline attempted to salvage the conference meeting agenda, which was turned on end after Vice President Joe Biden and other high ranking officials from President Obama’s administration abruptly pulled out of the conference in response to threatened demonstrations by city firefighters and police officers, who are at odds with Cicilline.

But the mayor’s efforts failed to resolve the decade-long contract impasse that is at the heart of tensions between firefighters and City Hall. Biden and dozens of other federal officials are still not expected to appear at the conference, which had been built around expected face-to-face discussions with federal officials about Mr. Obama’s stimulus plan.

Those were the major developments in a flurry of convention-related activity Wednesday that included protesters near Kennedy Plaza calling on firefighters to cancel their picket and a Pennsylvania congressman deciding he would not give his scheduled speech at the conference. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Democrat, is the latest dignitary to pull out in deference to the unions.

Cicilline and Paul A. Doughty, president of Local 799 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, met privately for 45 minutes.

The meeting had been scheduled for the morning in the mayor’s office, but was canceled at the last minute by Doughty. Until 2 p.m., the mayor’s office dismissed speculation that the meeting was rescheduled for the afternoon at a neutral site.

At about 4 p.m. the mayor’s office confirmed that the meeting had taken place at 2:30 p.m. at the law offices of Motely Rice in Providence. The mayor’s office gave no reason for delaying that disclosure.

According to the mayor’s office, Cicilline asked Doughty to present the city’s latest contract offer to his union membership for a vote. Local 799 has been without a contract since 2000. Doughty refused.

“Everything the mayor is offering is old. What the local is looking for is a chance to discuss something new. We want a way to break the logjam,” said Jeffrey Zack, a spokesman for the union’s parent, the Washington-based International Association of Fire Fighters.

When Doughty declined, Cicilline says, he told him that if the dispute moves to binding arbitration, the city’s offer would not be the same.

Cicilline then offered the union president the opportunity to speak at the U.S. Conference of Mayors convention. This, too, Doughty declined. “That does not help us reach a new contract,” said Zack. “That is all we are interested in.”

Zack says that Doughty offered the mayor a contract counter proposal at the meeting, but he declined to say what it included. Doughty could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The Providence local, which has about 500 members, is still prepared to cancel picketing of the conference if the two sides can reach a tentative agreement to end the contract stalemate, according to Zack

“We do not think it is possible to resolve the contract issue entirely in the short amount of time before the conference, but we were hoping that, with the pressure of a deadline, we could find a few things that we could come to an agreement with so that the local could see a good faith effort by the mayor’s office,” he said.

The White House indicated Wednesday afternoon that Biden and other Obama administration officials might still attend the conference if the city can come to an agreement with the firefighters.

Meanwhile, there was a counter protest in Burnside Park on Wednesday at noon by a new group of advocates. About 45 residents called on the firefighters union to drop its plans to picket the mayors’ conference, saying its “contract tactics” jeopardized a chance for community leaders to discuss solving big problems with national officials.

“This is the time and place to show off Providence,” said Lorne Adrain, co-founder of Citizens for a Better Providence. “There will be plenty of time to pick up the negotiations on Monday or Tuesday when the meeting is over.”

Eva Anderson, 52, held up a sign at the rally reading: “Firefighters: You’ve crossed the line.”

Word also came late Wednesday afternoon that Fattah, the Pennsylvania congressman who heads the congressional urban caucus, would pass up the convention in deference to the union.

“He’s been aware of the union picket for some time and had been monitoring it, but with no resolution and the weekend approaching, he wanted to notify the Conference of Mayors as soon as he could,” said his spokeswoman, Debra Anderson.

Fattah had been scheduled to speak at a luncheon Saturday afternoon at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Some of the Washington D.C.-based staff of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the nation’s largest nonpartisan group of mayors, flew in late Wednesday afternoon, marking the start of a whirlwind of preparations in advance of the conference, which is expected to draw nearly 1,000 people including, mayors, their staff and families.

Organizers said they would release a revised agenda, in light of the slew of cancelations by federal officials, before the start of the convention on Friday.

––With reports from Tom Mooney, staff writer, and John E. Mulligan, of the Journal’s Washington Bureau.

pmarcelo@projo.com