Fire dept. cuts a heated topic of debate at council

After weeks of heated debate, the Evanston City Council has decided to alter proposed cuts to the Evanston Fire Department to protect money for overtime staffing.

In City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz's original budget draft, the department would have suffered $360,000 in cuts, mostly in personnel reductions. After a council meeting Feb. 1, the council urged Bobkiewicz to find alternative ways to make cuts without compromising public safety, such as reducing funds for office supplies and uniforms.

The fire department's staff would have been reduced from 26 firefighters on duty to 23 in Bobkiewicz's plan. At a special meeting Wednesday, the council also unanimously decided against the proposed $275,000 reduction in overtime staffing when the firefighters' union agreed to $139,000 in other departmental cuts.

"We're not excited about any of the cuts that have to be made," Bobkiewicz said. "But we want to do this in a way that still gives our city the best services available."

Brian Scott, president of the Evanston Fire Fighters Association, said the staffing reduction would have caused one of the department's five fire trucks to be out of use for two-thirds of the year.

In the last 25 years, the fire department has been trimmed by 8 percent while call volume has increased by more than 60 percent, Scott said.

"We can't keep on trimming the department," he said.

To prevent the additional staffing cuts, the fire department made every effort to inform the council of the negative effects cuts would have on public safety, Scott said.

"We had a number of studies stating the importance of a good response time, and the studies showed we were already understaffed critically by every industry standard," Scott said.

Scott said before the firefighters banded together to persuade the council, many aldermen weren't aware of the negative ramifications of staffing cuts.

"If it hadn't been brought to our attention, I don't think we would have realized that it was such a safety issue," Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th) said. "I'm a fiscal conservative, but when it comes to public safety issues, I am very cautious about putting our people in harm's way."

Fire officials cited previous emergencies to highlight the importance of having a fully-staffed department. For instance, a woman walking her dog on the lake Jan. 3 fell through the ice. Because of the fire station's proximity, they were able to save her within two minutes.

"Obviously if that company was out of service, some other company from farther away would have had to come," Scott said. "That's what was worrying us so much. We're all about public safety here."

Burrus said the council will make every effort to keep Evanston safe, even if it means finding other ways to make budget cuts.

"It is all about public safety, and we're not willing to compromise on that," she said.
Scott said he's happy with the council's new decision and any other decision would have had negative effects on public safety.

"When you're talking about a $9.5 million deficit, no decision is easy," Scott said. "But I can tell you right now, you couldn't take a single company out of service without having a significant impact on Evanston's safety."

emiliabarrosse2013@u.northwestern.edu