Gadsden City’s new fire chief outlines staffing shortfalls, pay changes and training plans

Gadsden City’s new fire chief, Vance Brown, said the department faces an ongoing staffing shortage, has received recent pay and benefit increases and is moving paramedic training onto shift to address shortages, during a Meet the Staff interview with Mayor Craig Ford.

The discussion matters because staffing, overtime and training levels affect emergency response capacity across the city and neighboring jurisdictions that rely on Gadsden for mutual aid.

“The struggle has been…we're 10 guys down between guys leaving, attrition of guys retiring,” Fire Chief Vance Brown said, describing turnover that followed several recent retirements and departures to other departments. Brown, who said he has worked in the Gadsden Fire Department for 23 years, told Ford the department has responded by changing shift lineups and using mutual aid with Rainbow City, Glencoe and Attalla when stations close for staffing reasons.

Brown described the department’s operational tempo: “If you wanna be a firefighter, that's what you're gonna get to do,” and added that crews run high volumes of calls including structure fires, vehicle extrications and technical rescues in the city and surrounding communities.

Mayor Craig Ford said addressing long‑running legal and pay issues helped free resources to raise compensation and change department practices. “When I came in the office two years ago, we settled two lawsuits,” Ford said. “Since then, we've given pay raises.” Brown later summarized the effect on pay: “When you look at it now, it is about a $10,000 increase,” referring to the approximate rise in firefighter pay compared with earlier levels.

Both officials described changes to training and certification. Brown said the city is now paying firefighters while they complete EMT and paramedic coursework on shift, rather than requiring them to train on personal time; he noted a limit on paramedic slots, saying “we have three right now that are in EMT 3, which is paramedics. Only three can go a semester.” Ford and Brown said moving training onto shift helps recruitment and retention but also temporarily affects staffing because personnel attending classes count against available crews.

Budget constraints and overtime were a recurring theme. Brown and Ford explained that the current fiscal year’s overtime budget was set when the department was fully staffed, and it does not account for unexpected injuries or retirements. Brown said the city is trying to balance a limited overtime “pot” while keeping stations open, sometimes closing a station for the day and leaning on mutual aid to maintain coverage.

On facilities, Brown said he hopes to build a new station in the Club U area and eventually consolidate downtown and North Gadsden operations into a larger central station on recently acquired land near McCartney Construction. Both he and Ford described the new Station 5 building as an improvement and said additional station work is planned.

Brown and Ford also described efforts to improve departmental culture and management access. Brown praised having a finance and human resources liaison and said the administration’s “open door” approach has allowed more direct conversation about budgets, overtime and pay scales.

No formal votes or ordinance actions were discussed during the interview. The pair framed most items as implemented administrative changes (lawsuit settlements, pay raises, on‑shift training) or goals and planning items (new station construction, future budget adjustments for fiscal year 2026).

Looking ahead, officials said recruitment, completion of paramedic training slots and next year’s budget negotiations will determine whether staffing levels and overtime needs stabilize. “There’s only so many jelly beans in the jar,” Mayor Craig Ford said, summarizing the fiscal constraints that will shape personnel decisions.