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Fire chief urges council to pursue alternative funding and add staffing as calls and system demands grow
Summary
The Fire Department presented a FY27 operating budget emphasizing staffing shortages, the need to staff Station 8 and plan for Station 9, and multiple alternative funding paths (federal SAFER grants, impact fees, TIF, fee‑for‑service) to avoid unsustainable local tax increases while maintaining response capability.
Fire Chief Bence told the council that current staffing and facility configurations strain operational readiness, recommended pursuing federal and state grants and other alternative funding mechanisms, and described pilots intended to reduce demand on full apparatus.
Why it matters: The chief said long‑term service reliability and firefighter safety depend on adding staff and stations. He urged the council to explore grants, fees and partnerships to reduce the burden on property taxpayers while addressing station, equipment and staffing gaps.
Chief Bence described the department’s FY27 operating budget drawn from the Public Safety Fund and noted personnel costs account for the largest share of the fund. He emphasized the department is seeking to restore an assistant chief of administration position (partly funded by budget adjustments), continue support for mobile response teams and revive the crisis response unit when stable mental‑health partnerships are available.
On station capacity, the chief said Station 8 staffing and Station 9 construction are priorities and that the department needs to plan financing and phasing carefully because facility costs are large (he cited a $11 million placeholder for Station 9 in later-year projections). He advocated pursuing SAFER and other federal grants to underwrite early wage costs when staffing new stations and offered examples of grant match timelines for multi‑year subsidies.
On operational innovation, the chief highlighted the two‑unit mobile-response pilot (squads 1 and 5), which he said averaged roughly 2,200 calls per unit in 2025 and freed apparatus for higher-acuity incidents. He described a nurse‑navigation pilot with AMR to triage low‑acuity calls and a hybrid crisis‑response unit that requires mental‑health partners to scale fully.
The chief framed the overall argument as balancing fiscal stewardship and responder safety: "Operating at current staffing levels places a significant strain on our personnel," he said, and asked the council to support aggressive grant pursuit and alternative revenue models to avoid unsustainable tax increases.
What’s next: Councilmembers asked for more detail on alternative funding mechanisms and BUFSA/contract implications for county partners; staff said they will return with proposals and more concrete financing options for stations and staffing.
