Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 21
And also they do the training for the firemen that have been filled in by other people who aren’t doing the full
job that they should be doing because they have to do the training; training is pretty essential. So it is
something that existed before, it was cut from the Fire Department by the previous Mayor for a budget to
stay under the spending cap. And it is something that is required. Let’s hypothetically say if they take a Fire
Company off line, they take a truck off line. We are spending between $800,000.00 and $1.5 million dollars
on trucks. Are we going to have that truck sitting somewhere that it can’t be used. To me that is physically
irresponsible. And also, who is the first person to arrive if you have a medical emergency, a fire or some
type of other activity? It is always the Fire Department. They are all paramedics and some of them are
even more highly trained medically. If you are having a heart attack, do you want to wait a few extra
minutes for the ambulance to get there instead of the fire truck? | don’t think so. | don’t.
We didn’t give them all the money back that they had requested but it makes senses to give them this
amount of money to retain the fire company and hire this person that is critical, | think, to school safety and
the safety of many of our businesses in town.
President Wilshire
Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette
| won’t repeat everything | said previously about trying to support the Mayor and what | said about the Police
Department pretty much applies to the Fire Department. | haven’t been around as long as you have, but
when Alderman Klee mentioned that every budget season any cut is going to be the end of the world. | don’t
think so. A lot of these problems that you mention are problems that have existed for year. | agree with you
that they should be fixed but picking this year under the financial restrains that we have to remedy those
situations, | just think that it could be postponed and | think that cooperating with the Mayor’s efforts to try to
deal with this budget, is the right thing to do. | would have expected the Fire Commissioners and the Fire
Department to help out as well not try to solve problems that have existed. The Fire Department, I’ve heard
the Fire Commissioners say “it’s never a good year’ and the Chief say, “it's never a good year for the Fire
Department”. But since I’ve been here the Fire Department always needs something. Every Department
needs something.
| am sure there are projects that the Department of Public Works would like to tackle this year. A 6%
increase would enable them to do that. And | understand about the critical role that they play and they may
not believe me when | say this, but | appreciate the firefighters and | am trying to support them but there’s
only so much money and so | am sorry | can’t fully support them to the degree that they would like on this
issue. But that’s why | made the motion.
President Wilshire
Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Lopez
So my impression is that these aren’t these are like “to do projects” or like on the same level as repainting a
park or trying to re do a pool. Making sure that we have our schools inspected for fire safety is more
leveraging assets against a large unmet need. So the fact that we’ve gone this far or we have had this
many years without being able to address that issue doesn’t speak particularly highly of the governance that
we were ranked with. It probably speaks more to the Fire Department compensation for their lack of
resources by working overtime and | am pretty sure that was part of the Chief’s reference as well that they
are being spread increasingly thin. We have expressed a lot of pride in ourselves at growing the tax base
and investing in new opportunities to build and grow our City; that comes with dangers, that comes with
liabilities. There’s a huge building that collapsed in Miami that speaks to the need to do regular inspections,
when you don’t do that the human cost is high, a tragedy is enormous.
