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Texas City to Reduce Staff on Some Firetrucks, Not Library Hours
Sarah Coppola
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Austin City Manager Marc Ott no longer plans to cut library hours to save money. But he said he does want some firetrucks to at times operate with fewer firefighters.
Ott on Thursday announced those changes to the $20 million cost-cutting plan he unveiled earlier this month.
He had proposed cutting library operations at every branch by 9.5 hours a week. But he said he reconsidered after talking with residents in small groups and at a town hall meeting and hearing how much they value libraries.
"I cannot guarantee that we will not need to reduce hours as part of 2010 budget development if we see a continued downward trend in revenue this year," Ott told the City Council on Thursday .
Austin's sales tax revenues, which make up a quarter of the $621 million budget, have been dipping as the economy has struggled.
Under Ott's plan, the library director will hold open 10 vacant jobs and hire temporary employees if necessary, saving $80,000 . About $285,000 would have been saved by cutting library hours.
To save $200,000 , Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr agreed to put in place a "flexible staffing plan." Instead of paying overtime to have four firefighters (the national standard) on a truck at all times, the department will have only three firefighters staff some firetrucks at various times.
That change will cut 0.2 percent from the Fire Department's budget, the second-smallest percentage reduction among the 12 city departments in which Ott plans cuts.
The department had only three firefighters on trucks until it began adding a fourth person to some trucks in 2003. Shift commanders will decide on a day-to-day basis which trucks in which areas most need four firefighters and which can operate effectively with three, spokeswoman Michelle DeCrane said.
DeCrane said that under the plan, no stations will close, no firefighters will be laid off, and response times will remain under eight minutes.
Council Member and former firefighter Mike Martinez and Stephen Truesdell , president of the Austin Firefighters Association, said three-person staffing will threaten the efficiency and safety of firefighters and residents, because state law requires that two firefighters be outside a burning building before two others can enter.
"Waiting for another truck could take a few seconds or a few minutes, depending on the area and time of day," Truesdell said. "Mr. Ott is entirely changing the way we operate on an emergency scene, all just to save a minute fraction of the budget. " It's a striking contrast to have the manager say we can maintain library hours but have to decrease the staffing on firetrucks."
Fire Battalion Chief Harry Evans said a three-firefigher unit can still enter a burning building if it's obvious that people inside need to be rescued. And in fires that don't require a rescue, other trucks would arrive quickly, he said.
Martinez said the department can and should find other cuts that don't compromise day-to-day firefighting, such as trimming the salaries of executive-level fire officials.
Ott unveiled a few other changes Thursday .
He said he will consolidate two work units in the purchasing office to create a vacancy and save $86,000 . And he will use $80,000 for youth and parent support programs, including money to send 80 children to summer camp. He had proposed saving that money.
Council Member Lee Leffingwell asked Ott to consider moving some social services programs into the city's Economic Growth Department, which operates on the monthly fees that Austin Energy customers pay. That change would help preserve important programs such as job training and take pressure off the city's day-to-day operating budget, Leffingwell said.
Ott said he has begun an organizational review to look for inefficiencies in programs and services citywide. And he has asked finance staffers to assess city financial policies because, he said, Austin relies heavily on sales taxes, a volatile source of income.
Copyright 2009 The Austin American-Statesman
All Rights Reserved
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Foyle on
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This is typical of city and town administrators around the country. I like using my town library but the library won't help me when there is a car accident or structure fire in town. Priorities are so reversed it's getting absurd.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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Thats what I'm thinking, maybe they can stay at the library when thier house burns down too.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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This is typical of city and town administrators around the country.
And this is why FD's need to think like them- every stupid decision they make like this, we need to counter with facts, figures, stats, etc. We can no longer just sit back and say "we save lives" and that's the end of it.
These college educated tossers making these decisions need to be educated about what we do, how we do it and why we do it.
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Permalink Reply by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on
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Bro you know you guys were in for it once the economy took a dive its always the FD that gets slashed first for a one major reason...they watch us and they time us and they evaluate us and when you add up the amount of time a house or dept or company run everyday we have more down time than run time..face it even if we had a worker every day..thats a few hours out of a 12..24..or 72 hour shift..and yes we have other duties they don't account for drill and in house duties..to us its part of the job to them its time being spent aimlessly..Now add in your flag waving when its convient liberal Aholes that say closing a library 2 or 3 days a week is like Hitler burning books and whoooaaa buddy don't tread on their Rights..even though if the idiot who made the great number crunch had a brain he could have brought more moneyinto the community by putting the library entirely on line and having 1 or 2 retirees make delivery of books placed online to the 1 or 2 p/t workers sitting a t adesk to pull the orders and bring them to the residents door..for a nominal fee naturally ..but hey what do we know the economy is crashing around us communities need surplus funds and the best plan cut the fire protection..I wanna see what his plan is when you guys have a 4 or 5 alarm worker and the same day the library goes poof..hmmm bet that didn't make the calculater that day...face it this jackoff wants reelection or more..sounds like a work slow down is in order to the lesser degree calls and keep calling in the other units for them to strangle hold this guy..cause you can bet when his family doesn't get a fire truck to thier house you will have 6 members the next day in the rigs...
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Permalink Reply by Don Vuletic on
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621 million dollar budget. Seems that they could cut back on other areas before the safety forces. Politics and the fire service don't always go in hand until they need us then its our fault when we don't have the manpower and proper equipment to do the job. I hope Mike and Stephen take these guys on and win.
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Permalink Reply by Brandon on
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Cutting library hours...or...reducing staffing on fire trucks??? such a difficult question.
Ask the public what they would rather hear....."I'm sorry, you can't check out a book, because the library is closed today" or, "I'm sorry, we can't go into your burning house because we only have 3 guys and are waiting for a second crew arrive."
For politicians, the answer is obvious.....CUT FIREFIGHTER STAFFING....until its there house on fire!!
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Permalink Reply by Guerrerita on
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What if the library goes on fire? (Hey, I love books, too, but c'mon!)
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Amen.
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