Council expedites a fire-equipment capital amendment; council votes to expedite

Binghamton City Council members voted Monday to expedite consideration of an amendment to the 2025 capital fire budget that would fund a range of fire and emergency-services equipment.

Council moved and seconded a motion to expedite the item for the city’s Wednesday meeting; the clerk took a roll-call vote and council members present voted to expedite. The recorded ayes in the works session were Council member Rathmill (aye), Council member Kavanaugh (aye), Council member Middleton (aye) and Council president pro tem Hotchkiss (aye). The clerk recorded the tally as four ayes.

After the expedited motion passed, Fire Chief Veil Gardner described the amendment’s requested purchases and the operational rationale for each. Items listed in the works session discussion included: approximately 40 Petzl Exo personal escape systems (personal escape devices), upgraded fire-investigation cameras with improved low-light performance, spare SCBA regulators (about five spares at roughly $1,800 each), a forcible-entry simulator (purpose-built training door), two Zodiac rafts with outboard motors, replacement EMS stretchers (Stryker Pro units; about $20,000 each), two cardiac monitors/defibrillators (current units over 10 years old), updated training mannequins (adult, adolescent and infant), and a drone program for reconnaissance and fire-scene/river searches.

Council members asked several budget and sourcing questions during the review, including whether the amendment proposed moving lines from other departments’ capital accounts into the fire capital account. Comptroller Robinson confirmed that the amendment pulls available balances from a variety of other capital lines (engineering, police, DPW, parks) into the fire capital budget rather than from the general fund. Chief Gardner and council members subsequently agreed to remove one $58,000 transfer line from Bridal Improvements and to substitute a different seizure-proceeds special-police-activity line after a council request for that change.

The works session record shows the expedite motion passed by roll call; no final passage of the fire-equipment amendment was recorded during the works session—the item was set for expedited consideration at the upcoming Wednesday meeting.