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Fire and Rescue budget review spotlights overtime overruns and staffing shifts; Hillandale and Laytonsville items put on rec list
Summary
Committee members and fire officials discussed chronic overtime overruns (FY26 already ~$7M over budget; a possible FY26 supplemental for $11.7M was cited), proposed staffing changes at Hillandale and Laytonsville, and a budget-neutral conversion of a day EMS transport to a 24-hour unit; the Hillandale and Laytonsville items were placed on the reconciliation list for the full council (3–0).
The Public Safety Committee spent a substantial portion of its April 29 work session on Fire and Rescue Services’ FY27 operating and CIP items, focusing on persistent overtime costs and several staffing-change proposals that would shift how the department deploys personnel.
Staff presented the department’s recommended base budget for FY27 (stated as about $312 million if approved) and emphasized that the executive’s recommendation includes no programmatic staff additions beyond previously known commitments. Committee staff noted that the department has a decade-long pattern of overtime expenditures that do not align with budgeted amounts; for FY26 the department reported being about $7 million over budget and indicated it may submit a supplemental appropriation request of roughly $11.7 million to cover overexpended personnel costs.
Susan Farag, committee staff, walked the committee through three interrelated staffing proposals intended to reduce system-wide overtime…
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