Falls Church and Arlington County outline staffing, fee changes in proposed Station 6 fire agreement
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Summary
City and Arlington County staff described a proposed update to the 2014 fire and EMS contract that would reflect current staffing at Station 6, share personnel costs 50/50 for 39 positions, and cap city ambulance-fee revenues at $295,000 with excess retained by Arlington County.
Falls Church city staff and Arlington County officials presented council members with details this week on proposed changes to the long‑standing fire and emergency medical services contract that governs operations at Station 6.
City Manager Wyatt Shields and Arlington County Fire Chief David Pavlitz told the council the principal structural shifts before both jurisdictions would: update the contract to reflect the actual number of personnel assigned to Station 6, share the salary-and-benefit cost of those personnel equally, and cap the city’s retained ambulance-transport revenue at $295,000 with future excess retained by Arlington County.
The updated staffing number would move the contract from its current stated count of 33 positions to 39 personnel assigned to Station 6; the city and county would split the full cost of those 39 positions 50‑50. “For the workforce at Station 6, there’s currently 39 firefighters, medics, and also officers assigned,” Arlington Chief David Pavlitz said. “We dispatch all the entire Northern Virginia region dispatches the closest unit regardless of jurisdiction.”
Shields and Pavlitz described the ambulance‑fee proposal as a mechanism to compensate the county for growth and increased calls that are originating in the city. Under the concept the parties are negotiating, Falls Church would retain ambulance-transport revenue up to a $295,000 cap; revenues above that level would be retained by Arlington County. “We would cap that at that $295,000 level. And in the future, revenues in excess of $295,000 would be retained by Arlington County,” Shields said.
Councilmembers asked how the proposals would affect overtime billing, long‑term facility and apparatus costs, and the term of the agreement. Arlington fiscal officer Meghan Carney said the county uses a percentage-of‑salaries proxy to estimate overtime costs; the parties have discussed increasing the percentage used for billing from 7 percent of salaries to 10 percent in later years, rather than tracking actual overtime dollar‑for‑dollar. Carney said the 7 percent proxy “is 7% of the salaries. It’s not tied to Arlington County Fire Department’s actual overtime costs,” and that the plan for FY26 keeps the 7% level and phases to 10% afterwards.
Both county and city speakers noted larger cost pressures: rising apparatus and equipment costs, supply-chain delays for vehicles, and negotiated changes in shift schedules intended to reduce employee fatigue. Pavlitz pointed out capital cost trends for fire apparatus: “We have million‑dollar fire engines now… They also take 36 to 48 months to build.”
Shields told council staff plan to bring authorization to execute the updated agreement for council consideration in May; at the work session he asked the council to schedule consideration for the May 12 meeting. Several council members pressed staff for more data on call volumes by neighboring jurisdictions, planning assumptions about future growth and how any new labor contract cost increases would be handled in the city’s future budgets.
Why this matters: Falls Church pays for part of Station 6 staffing and capital, and Arlington County provides operational staffing and EMS apparatus. The proposed change would shift known costs to match actual staffing and create a revenue-sharing rule tied to ambulance transports. That recalibration would affect the city’s FY26 and longer-term public‑safety budget assumptions and the county’s compensation for service changes.
Council next steps: City staff said they will return with the contract authorization item at the council’s May meeting and with follow‑up data requested by councilmembers, including usage splits by jurisdiction and further detail on overtime and admission of future labor costs.
