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Residents press council on fire-territory legal costs and payroll changes; police and fire chiefs cite staffing strains
Summary
During public comment on March 26, residents raised concerns about reported Fire Territory legal costs and recent payroll/shift-rollout decisions; Police Chief Joe Grimes and Fire Chief Larry Alcorn reported multiple staff vacancies and ongoing recruitment efforts.
Residents used the March 26 meeting’s public-comment period to press the council for clearer oversight of the Fire Territory and to question recent operational changes.
"I asked what the FLSA expenses were for the legal costs… I was told it was about $173,000 as of December 2025," David Wyatt told the council, adding that subsequent packet line items showed roughly $31,000 in January and $12,000 in February, creating an unexplained gap he said "is not a rounding error" and appears to be a reporting failure. Wyatt also criticized rapid and inconsistent changes to payroll calculations and shift start times, saying those operational changes had not been reviewed by the Fire Territory Executive Board and that public and firefighter communication was uneven.
The meeting record does not show an extended formal response from the Fire Territory or the executive board during Wyatt's comment period; Fire Department and Fire Territory leadership addressed staffing and recruitment elsewhere in the meeting. Police Chief Joe Grimes briefed council on staffing vacancies including a removed crime-scene investigator and open sworn positions, urging council members to engage on sworn personnel raises during the 2027 budget process. "Based upon that timetable…we hope to establish a higher eligibility list," Grimes said of a proposed lateral recruitment process.
Fire Territory Chief Larry Alcorn reported six new firefighters assigned to shift and six more entering the academy April 27 for a 20-week program but said pay and benefits remain primary reasons personnel leave for other departments. "We had a hiring list, but by the time you get to a second hiring…all of those people went out to another department," Alcorn said, describing turnover challenges and retirements tied to pension vesting.
No formal board-level action on the legal-cost reporting or the payroll rollout was recorded during the meeting; several residents urged greater transparency and advance notice for substantive operational changes.
