Stalled contract negotiations for police and firefighters in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties will go to binding arbitration under charter amendments approved Tuesday, giving the public safety unions a right they have long favored - and county governments have traditionally opposed.

Voters in those two counties approved the amendments Tuesday by about 80 percent.

"Much like our brothers in Baltimore County, we are elated that citizens came forward to support us," said O'Brien Atkinson, president of the Anne Arundel County Fraternal Order of Police and chairman of the Anne Arundel committee of 1,800 union members formed to pursue binding arbitration.

The six-union committee, made up of police, firefighters, sheriff's deputies and detention center employees, flooded Anne Arundel County with 1,500 signs, advertised on television, and passed out literature.

Opponents of binding arbitration in Anne Arundel did not actively campaign against the charter amendments, said Mark M. Atkisson, director of personnel for the county. As a result, voters might not have understood the concept and financial effects when they voted, he said.

"It takes a financial decision out of the hands of elected officials and places it in the hands of a third-party unelected, unaccountable person who may or may not even be from Anne Arundel County," he said.

Now that the amendment has been approved, the newly elected County Council will have to pass legislation outlining the path to binding arbitration.

Unions say binding arbitration will streamline negotiations by making an arbitrator's decision final.

Until now, Anne Arundel County public safety workers' contract disputes took a winding route from one office to the next before a final decision was made by the county executive. Negotiations began with the county administration, moved to a federal mediator, then to an arbitrator who made an advisory report that the county could ignore.

The arbitrator's report was then reviewed by the County Council, which made a recommendation to the county administration, and at that point, the county administration made the final decision on the contract. The procedure was similar in Baltimore County.

"It was a lot of jumping through hoops to ultimately have the same person decide the fate of the contract," said Keith W. Wright, president of the Anne Arundel County Professional Firefighters Local 1563.

In Anne Arundel County, the fire and police amendments were placed on the ballot by the County Council this summer. In Baltimore County, union leaders collected more than 10,000 signatures needed to place the question on the ballot.

The strong voter approval in both counties could pave the way for the few remaining Baltimore-area jurisdictions that do not have binding arbitration - notably Howard County - to begin pursuing it.

Baltimore City, Prince George's County and Montgomery County use the process and, on the Eastern Shore, Ocean City approved a binding arbitration measure last month.

"We've already targeted the next election," said James F. Fitzgerald, president of the Howard County Fraternal Order of Police. "We believe in having parity with the other counties - for everything from pay to benefits to union operations."

Atkinson - half joking - said he was considering collecting campaign signs in Anne Arundel to save for Howard County.

Public Safety for Binding Arbitration, the Anne Arundel group formed to campaign for the ballot measure, spent about $35,000 of union money for the campaign, Atkinson said.

Wright, who has been involved with the fire union for about a decade, said binding arbitration was among the most important issues for which the unions have campaigned.

"Some of our guys have been waiting over 20 years for this," he said. "We are happy - very happy - the voters believe we deserve this process."