"II told the chiefs they need to come up with a plan. I put it on the two of them to present it to me," Nickels said. "And they'll be in my office next week to show me what they've come up with."

What has the Mayor fuming is an incident last week on Bitter Lake. A boat overturned. A fire department diver went in the water.

Then came this message from the Police Harbor Patrol:

"You do not have authorization to splash divers. You are not authorized to splash divers. We are incident command on this situation."

In effect, a police department official, not on the scene, ordered the fire department out of the water.

"I think what happened last week was absolutely unacceptable and I don't expect to see a repeat of that," Nickels said.

Nickels says he will insist that whichever dive team in on the scene first dives whatever the police and fire labor contracts say.

"I'm not going to let issues of turf or even issues of jurisdiction, labor jurisdiction, get in the way of that prime mission of keeping our public safe," Nickels said.

Those sound like fighting words to the fire union, which sent letters officially requesting time for input, but didn't get the chance.

"We are the men and women that are in the front lines actually doing the rescue and emergency services work," said Paul Atwater with the firefighters union. "For us not to be involved excludes one of the most important voices from the process."

The police guild is concerned too:

"I have some concerns. Agreements are agreements," said Ken Saucier with the Seattle Police Guild. "I'd like to hear what he has planned first. But I'm glad he's getting involved in it."

The Mayor's confident he can keep you safe on the water. But the fire and police unions say his job would be a lot easier if he would just talk to them first.