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Fire Department agrees to modest budget cuts, secures vehicles and pursues behavioral‑health crisis response pilot
Summary
At the Aug. 26 Fire Commission meeting, officials said they negotiated roughly $300,000 in annual reductions (about $600,000 over two years) largely from overtime while securing funding to keep a ladder truck, an engine and command vehicles. The department also described a mayoral $2 million pilot to expand a behavioral‑health crisis response team modeled on EMS‑6.
At its Aug. 26, 2020 meeting, the San Francisco Fire Commission heard a budget overview from Mark Corso, deputy director of Finance and Planning, who said the department and the board’s budget analyst narrowed an initial proposed reduction and reached an agreement the department can absorb without affecting frontline services. "We are essentially done with our process," Corso said, summarizing the negotiations.
The department said the initial analyst reduction proposal had been about $2.2 million and focused on one‑time fleet and equipment allocations. After talks with the analyst and committee members, the department agreed to about $300,000 in cuts per fiscal year—about $600,000 over two years—largely by reducing overtime. Corso said that agreement made it possible to retain funding for a ladder truck, an engine and two command vehicles that had been at risk.
The discussion also described a behavioral‑health crisis response pilot stemming from the EMS‑6 community paramedicine model. Corso said the mayor’s office allocated $2 million for the pilot, which was originally designed for two teams per day; commission briefing materials and staff testimony said the board has discussed expanding that to six teams per day if additional funding becomes available. Chief Tong described the planned teams as a joint effort between the Fire Department’s EMS division and the Department of Public Health, staffed by EMS personnel paired with DPH behavioral‑health clinicians and peer‑support specialists to respond to street‑level behavioral‑health calls. "Rather than a law‑enforcement approach, this is much more of a behavioral‑health approach," Chief Tong said.
Commissioners asked about timing and implementation. Chief Tong said the department is aiming to field the first unit in November, add a second by February, and ramp to a larger number by the end of the fiscal year if funding and legislative measures allow. Officials cautioned that the expansion depends on additional resources and board actions.
The meeting record shows the Commission approved routine minutes and otherwise spent the session asking clarifying questions; no policy changes beyond the negotiated budget adjustments and program planning were adopted at this meeting. The Commission scheduled a follow‑up budget update for a future meeting.
