Fire fighters cry foul on budget cuts

Ashland fire fighters, upset about budget cuts, will meet with city officials after their union went public — with an advertisement in the Daily Tidings — detailing their dissatisfaction.

Ashland Fire and Rescue's budget was cut by $300,000, a 5 percent decrease from the previous year, said David Shepherd, an engineer/paramedic with the fire department, who is also the president of the union chapter, 1269 of the International Fire Fighters Association.

"We feel the current system of how the Fire Department is funded is not working," the ad in Tuesday's Tidings read. "Unfortunately this year's cuts follow several years of relatively flat budgets for the Fire Department and have now placed a significant strain on the readiness, capability, safety and morale of Ashland Fire and Rescue firefighters."

Shepherd said the budget cuts are causing fire fighters to do without certain training programs, as well as preventing them from hiring additional employees.

"The guys were obviously disappointed with the cuts that were made," Shepherd said. Although the advertisement states that the union would like to be funded through property taxes, rather than utility bill user fees, Shepherd said the real issue is prioritizing emergency services.

"If we expect to remain a viable fire department we need some type of financial stability," he said.

The union represents all 28 of the non-management fire fighters with AFR.

Diverging from his employees' point of view, Fire Chief Keith Woodley said he is satisfied AFR made out as well as it did in the budget process.

"I think this is something we can weather," he said, about the budget cut. "If you look at the history you'll see this community has supported and funded us over the year. But we're not the only priority they have. This is a test budget year for everyone. There were cuts in almost all city departments, some even lost staff."

City Administrator Martha Bennett said budget cuts happened across the board and the fire department was not the hardest hit city department.

"I don't think anyone is particularly happy that we had flat revenues and increasing costs," she said, noting the Community Development Department lost staff hours in this year's budget. "Planning and building took much bigger cuts than either police or fire. This is a bigger problem than just the fire department."

She said cost increases — coupled with a downturn in revenue, mostly from lower than expected building fees — put the city in a position where it had to tighten its financial belt.

"The direction from (city) council going into the budget process was to hold revenue flat and not to increase the tax rate or other rates," Bennett said. "What we're seeing here is the fire union reacting to that."

She added that, while there is little the city can do for the union at this point, she and Woodley will meet with the Shepherd to discuss the union's concerns. The specifics of their budget will be a "policy question" for the city council and budget committee next summer.

"The ad has provoked a meeting," she said.

Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com. To post a comment on this story, go to www.dailytidings.com.