Council prioritizes adding an ambulance for central Laredo after fire chief’s budget briefing

Fire Chief Guillermo Hur presented the department's FY proposal and described staffing and call volumes across the city. "Currently, right now, we have 419 firefighters... We have 51 cadets... So that gives us a total of 492 FTEs," Hur said as he reviewed the department's workforce and planned activations.

Chief Hur explained the department's plan to realign personnel approved two years ago so the city can activate an additional ambulance for central Laredo this summer without increasing the near-term budget. He told the council the department is projecting roughly $7,000,000 in ambulance/EMS billing revenue once the fire department absorbs EMS billing in the next fiscal year.

Council members asked detailed questions about response times, minimum staffing, the contractual community‑bargaining (CBA) obligations and whether an ambulance purchase would require new FTEs later. One council member warned that buying equipment without personnel commitments can create additional long-term costs; Hur responded that he would use cadets already in training and asked council to allow a reallocation to meet immediate operational needs.

After discussion, council took a motion to prioritize following the chief's recommendation to re‑prioritize and activate an ambulance for central Laredo. The motion passed (one recorded opposition); council directed management to reflect the action in next-round budget materials and to return with implementation details and any needed offsets.