Dickinson council reviews FY2025–26 budget; discusses EMS reorganization to boost second-ambulance coverage

Dickinson city officials met in a workshop to review the proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget and spent significant time on a proposed reorganization of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) intended to make a second ambulance available more often, while also reviewing staffing changes and equipment costs across departments.

The budget workshop opened with a public comment from Wally Dietz of Dickinson, who urged councilors to be transparent about property-tax revenue increases tied to rising property values and to restore a dedicated sales-tax allocation for streets and drainage projects. “People are looking at…how much are my taxes going up due to my property values going up, even though you keep the tax rate the same,” Dietz said.

City staff then led a department-by-department presentation of the proposed budget. Finance director Sarah Clark said the numeric documents distributed to councilors reflected no substantive changes since the prior materials, with the exception of moving vehicle replacements into a separate vehicle replacement fund and possible EMS staffing adjustments. “I did move the vehicle replacement into the vehicle replacement fund, but that is a net effect,” Clark said.

EMS reorganization

Assistant City Manager Matt Magdaleno described a restructure of the EMS chain of command recommended after a third‑party assessment. Magdaleno said the city plans to eliminate two captain positions (one full‑time, one part‑time) and one lieutenant position and instead staff a director, an administrative assistant and one lieutenant (supervisor) per shift. Magdaleno said that configuration would…