Fire Prevention Commission outlines staffing, equipment and background‑check costs, cites unfunded items

The Delaware State Fire Prevention Commission and Delaware State Fire School presented a FY2026 budget request to the Joint Finance Committee that included multiple personnel additions, new equipment and recurring operating requests — many of which the governor’s budget did not recommend.

The commission’s chairman, Ron Marble, told the committee the supplemental requests reflect items the joint sunset review identified and a previous law that “did not get funded adequately” during the enactment process. He introduced State Fire Marshal John Rudd and Fire School Director Tucker Dempsey as agency witnesses.

The agency detailed personnel requests for the State Fire Marshal’s office that would add or reclassify positions to expand inspections, investigations and supervisory capacity. John Rudd told the committee the marshal’s legal duties are codified in “title 16 chapter 66,” and described plan‑review and inspection workloads that have risen with development. The packet presented to lawmakers listed requests including: one new supervisory fire protection specialist ($102,100, not recommended), additional fire protection specialist 1 positions ($155,600, not recommended), a deputy fire marshal 1 ($98,800, not recommended) and two investigator 2 positions to support ambulance licensing, inspections and investigations (amounts listed in the briefing).

Tucker Dempsey outlined State Fire School requests and performance trends. The school asked for an administrative specialist 3 to handle increased fiscal and certification paperwork after the school raised required training hours and expanded national certification work. Dempsey said the school’s EMT pass rates and industrial training contracts have improved, and he highlighted a pending Department of Labor grant to build burn training facilities in Sussex and Newcastle counties.

Committee members pressed agency witnesses about House Bill 411 (often read in the transcript as “4 11”), the background‑check law lawmakers passed for firefighters. Marble and Rudd said the law’s implementation created new costs and administrative work that were not included in the bill’s original funding. Representative Short, identified in the hearing as the bill’s sponsor, and other legislators described work to re‑draft implementing language to meet federal requirements and reduce the risk that volunteers would be deterred. Rudd and staff said the upfront estimate for an implemented background‑check program could be “less than… $100,000” per year, and that the State Fire Commission currently processes background checks in a locked, audited file system.

Agency requests also included a $40,000 wellness and resiliency outreach program (recommended in the governor’s budget) and a $37,000 one‑time House Bill 101 request for emergency training equipment for the Fire School (recommended). Several other operating or one‑time items — from fleet and radio funding to a $100,000 request for investigative laser scanners and a modest companion‑dog care allowance — were listed as not recommended in the governor’s budget.

Marble and Rudd said the requests stem partly from a recent joint sunset review that recommended expanded staffing and operational resources for investigations, inspection and certification. Several legislators asked whether the background‑check requirement would reduce volunteer recruitment; Rudd and commission staff said they have not seen evidence of a recruitment slowdown and emphasized confidentiality and a case review process that the commission administers, including FBI and SBI audit trails.

The hearing did not produce a committee vote; agency representatives left the committee with an updated list of requests and follow‑up items lawmakers asked staff to research.

The commission’s materials to the committee list multiple specific line items and whether the governor recommended them; those detailed line items remain the authoritative source for exact counts and amounts.

The commission and fire school also described outreach and training partnerships (including work with local volunteer organizations and industrial customers) and said they will continue to pursue federal grants and private partnerships to cover some program costs.

Requests to the committee included both recurring FTE requests and one‑time equipment funding; the governor’s recommended budget did not include many of the recurring FTE items, according to the agency’s presentation.