Auburn council hears public-safety budget driven by contract raises and full-year third ambulance

The Auburn City Council discussed public-safety budget drivers on March 16 as staff prepared FY27 numbers that follow a directive to add no new services. City Manager Phil Croll told the workshop the largest cost drivers in public safety were multiyear wage increases settled in recent contracts and the decision to fund a third ambulance for a full fiscal year after a six‑month pilot.

Chiefs for police and fire told the council their negotiated contracts produced increases that appear across FY26 and FY27, explaining why the proposed public-safety figures are higher than last year’s adopted budget. “You’re getting two years” of negotiated salary changes, the manager said, noting the fire unit’s wage impact is larger because the unit itself is larger.

Fire leadership said the third rescue, funded for six months in FY26, has been staffed by a newly hired employee so the city can provide the service on straight time rather than double‑crewing with overtime. “Rather than having that third rescue staffed with overtime, we’ve changed our staffing model and hired an employee to do one of those positions on straight time,” a chief said, describing the cost‑control measure now built into the FY27 proposal.

Councilors probed operational metrics as they weighed budget choices. Police and fire officials said they monitor response times (a rough national target is ~6 minutes) and unit utilization; the fire chief said Auburn’s EMS units run in the low 20% utilization range versus a 27–30% national benchmark, a difference complicated by combined fire/EMS duties. Police reported roughly 28,000 calls for service annually (about 90–100 daily) and noted daytime population spikes to 100,000–150,000 because Auburn functions as a regional service center.

Budget staff cautioned that EMS transports produce about $1.7 million of revenue and that any change to the volume or type of EMS service could change that revenue stream. “If changes happen with the amount of service we can provide, that would change the revenue,” the city manager said.

Council members also raised training and staffing concerns. Chiefs said high turnover and a young workforce are reducing time for advanced specialty trainings — confined-space, rope rescue, hazardous-materials response — and that each year departments reassess whether to retain lower-frequency, high‑impact training programs. The police chief said the training division faces coordination challenges after the elimination of a professional‑standards lieutenant position.

Managers and chiefs emphasized that the FY27 public‑safety numbers reflect the council’s directive to maintain existing services, not to expand them, and that department leaders will return with more refined figures as the budget process continues. Councilors said they will examine these public‑safety drivers alongside CIP priorities and other department budgets as workshops continue.