Garland launches nine-month Fire and EMS Stakeholders Committee to review staffing and EMS delivery

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Chris Ott said the City of Garland on Wednesday launched a nine‑month Fire and EMS Stakeholders Special Committee to “give Garland the opportunity to lead, not just pace, how modern cities deliver life saving services.” The group will review the department's 24 hours on/48 hours off staffing schedule and evaluate the city's EMS service model; recommendations will go to the city manager and city council.

The committee opened with a department briefing from Fire Chief Mark Lee, who provided a snapshot of operations, staffing and finances and asked the group to help guide future options. "We operate 11 fire stations, operating seven engines, four ladders and 11 ambulances," Lee said. He presented a departmental budget of about $46,600,000 and described operations as the largest component. Lee gave a staffing breakdown that totals 285 sworn positions: 148 firefighters, 72 drivers, 14 lieutenants, 37 captains, 10 battalion chiefs, three assistant chiefs and one fire chief. He also said roughly 130 of the firefighter positions are currently paramedics and that the department expected a class of 22 members to enter paramedic school in January to close a reported shortfall.

Why it matters: Garland is a mid‑sized city with no active hospital within its limits, a fact the deputy mayor pro tem and the mayor said reshapes how leaders must view EMS — not only as transport, but as mobile emergency care. Committee members and department leaders focused on three linked issues: (1) staffing schedules and firefighter recovery, (2) EMS unit reliability and hospital offload times, and (3) how growth and vertical/multifamily development will affect response needs.

Key discussion points and evidence presented

- Staffing schedules and recovery: Chief Lee and several committee members discussed alternatives to the current 24/48 schedule, including 24/72 and 48/96 cycles. Lee cited peer‑reviewed research about recovery times and said the 24/72 schedule “is the healthiest schedule for a firefighter to work” based on studies the department reviewed. Several firefighters and union representatives said they favored 24/72 for recovery, while other members raised concerns that switching schedules could increase overtime or be unaffordable without new funding.

- Overtime and workforce pressure: Chief Lee said the department has relied on overtime to meet minimum staffing and described periods with about 10 personnel per day working overtime ("about 240 OT hours per day," the chief said as an estimate). City budget staff said annual overtime has varied; recent historical figures range from about $2,000,000 to $3,500,000 a year depending on the year. Committee members highlighted safety risks from very long consecutive work periods: the chief reported seeing individual firefighters working more than 2,000 overtime hours year‑to‑date and described cases of consecutive multi‑shift stretches.

- EMS capacity and hospital offload: Medical director Matt Theis and other speakers described frequent daytime surges in EMS demand and hospital emergency departments operating above capacity. Theis said peak EMS activity was roughly 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., producing a 2:1 daytime/nighttime call ratio; hospital waits for ambulance transfers vary, with typical waits “10 to 15 minutes” and occasional longer waits, and the department said it would provide a hospital offload time metric at a later meeting.

- Paramedic workforce and training: Chief Lee said the department was undertaking an aggressive paramedic training cadence to increase the number of paramedic‑certified staff. He reported that, at the time of the meeting, 22 or so members were headed to paramedic school, and that recent recruit classes and paramedic cohorts had produced a net increase in paramedic staffing compared with prior years.

- Facilities and apparatus: The chief reviewed the department's 11 stations, several recent station rebuilds and ongoing remodels (including a station projected to open in 2026) and noted a multi‑year apparatus replacement schedule with vehicles on order and letter(s) of intent for future deliveries.

Committee process and next steps

- Charge and timeline: The committee's charge is to evaluate staffing and EMS service delivery and return recommendations that are “effective, sustainable, and responsive to Garland's needs.” The chair and city manager said the committee will meet monthly; calendar invites and a Microsoft Teams channel will be used to circulate materials. Staff said the group will work toward preliminary and final recommendations later in the nine‑month window, with a suggested final record in May (the draft schedule described the committee meeting through the following May).

- Data and consultants: City Manager Judd Rex and others said the committee will receive consultant support, data overlays (including staffing, unit‑reliability and overtime histories), and periodic financial briefings from the city's budget and CFO staff. Members asked for overtime and unit reliability data; staff agreed to provide historical overtime totals with staffing overlays and a hospital offload time metric at a subsequent meeting.

- Public comment and meeting logistics: The meeting included an offer to accept public comment (none was given at this session). Staff noted the room was a test site for the renovated library audio system and confirmed meetings would be recorded and public materials posted on Teams.

Quotes (selected)

- "We are beginning a nine‑month initiative that gives Garland the opportunity to lead, not just pace, how modern cities deliver lifesaving services," Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Chris Ott said at the committee launch.

- "Our business is one where we respond to things that occur, so we react. We have to be more proactive through our prevention, through our preparation for our training, and then the response to the emergency, and then the recovery from it," Fire Chief Mark Lee said, describing the department's mission.

- "There's about a 2 to 1 proportion of calls during the day. And peak from what I was looking at is about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.," Emergency Medical Services Medical Director Matt Theis said when describing daily call volume patterns.

Ending

Committee members asked staff to return with more granular overtime history, unit reliability metrics, and hospital offload times for a subsequent meeting. The group will meet again on the schedule circulated by staff (the next meeting date announced at the session was Wednesday, October 8); staff will post materials in Microsoft Teams and send calendar invitations.

The article is based only on statements made at the committee meeting and on documents and figures presented there; where an exact figure was not provided or was presented as an estimate in the meeting, the article notes that and identifies the meeting speaker who provided the estimate.