Council votes to lay off firefighters

The six full-time fire equipment operators in the Brainerd Fire Department will be laid off on May 1 and the department will be staffed by paid on-call firefighters only.

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The change in the fire department was approved Tuesday by the Brainerd City Council in a 5-2 vote. Voting against were Anne Nelson Fisher and Kevin Goedker.

Brainerd firefighter supporters wore red to the Brainerd City Council meeting Tuesday in support of the full-time firefighters. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey

WE SPOTTED: » Brainerd City Council Meeting

The recommendation was one of about $672,500 in cuts to all city departments brought forth by City Administrator Dan Vogt Tuesday in a pre-emptive move against $683,000 in local government aid cuts to Brainerd proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Eliminating the fire equipment operators will save only $90,000 in 2010 because of unemployment and other costs, but the action would save an estimated $500,000 in 2011 and beyond.

The fire chief position and the administrative specialist position remain. Vogt also recommended the creation of a full-time deputy fire chief to act as a supervisor, perform the chief's duties in the chief's absence and to perform the duties of a fire inspector. He also recommended increasing the number of paid on-call firefighters from 40 to 45 in order to secure the city's fire protection insurance rating.

In making the motion to eliminate the positions, council member Bob Olson asked Fire Chief Fred Underhill if he agreed with the recommendations and if he believed Brainerd residents and the cities and townships that contract with the city for fire protection will have the necessary fire protection with a paid on-call department.

Underhill answered yes to both questions.

"As I said earlier, there will be changes in operation and there will be challenges," Underhill said. "It can be done if that's what you all wish to do. I will do my best to make whatever changes need to be done and support them."

Olson said the city needs to operate on needs, not on wants. He said making the motion to drastically change how the fire department operates was not an easy one, but was necessary.

"Now is the time to fish or cut bait. It isn't going to change," Olson said, referring to the budget deficits. "It isn't going to be popular. It isn't easy to vote to have any job loss but our responsibility when we were elected was to manage the city's finances."

Koep, who seconded Olson's motion, said cuts have to be made.

"No one on the council, I'm convinced, will vote for these things with a sense of joy," Koep said.

Vogt noted several cities in Minnesota, including Alexandria, Anoka, Elk River, Fergus Falls, Marshall, Worthington and several others in the Twin Cities area. Koep said she's never heard of any "horrible" incidents from those cities.

"It's the fear of change that we all fear," Koep said.

Council member Kelly Bevans said he supported the motion because, unlike other city departments, eliminating the full-time positions in the fire department still allows for an expectation that paid on-call firefighters will maintain the same level of fire protection.

Fisher questioned how the equipment and fire department buildings would be maintained. Vogt and Underhill said whatever can't be done by other city staff will have to be done by an outside company.

Goedker said police and fire protection should be the last thing considered by the council for cuts.

"Right now I think the public sentiment, with people unsure of the economy and with unemployment so high, they're scared and the one thing they want to see from the city is police and fire," Goedker said. "I don't think that should be the first thing cut."

Before the council's vote, Charlie Dunemann, full-time fire equipment operator and president of Local 4725 firefighters' union, addressed several points where the full-time firefighters disagreed with Vogt.

Dunemann said full-time fire equipment operators are the first to leave for the fire, and if the fire is canceled the call isn't recorded as a run, which happens often. Those calls include smoke alarms, smoke from burned toast or burning leaves. With a paid on-call staff, all calls would require several firefighters to respond before a call could be canceled, and all calls would count toward run numbers.

He also questioned how many paid on-call firefighters would be able to respond to a fire because of work and other obligations.

"If we have one fire that is fine. We'll have enough people responding," Dunemann said. "If we have two or three fires at once we start taxing our limitations in the department."

Call volumes typically increase about 10 percent a year, Dunemann said, and Brainerd has always been higher than the state average in number of calls.

The duties of a full-time fire equipment operator include more than just fighting fires, Dunemann said. They also include education to the public; dispatching firefighters; maintenance on the grounds, equipment and fire trucks; emergency medical treatment; trench, ice, rope, swift water and confined space rescues; OSHA requirements; and inspections. Those duties, he said, aren't performed by paid on-call firefighters.

Dunemann said presently more than half the Brainerd Fire Department has five years of service or less.

"Much of our experience now lies in the equipment operators," Dunemann said. "It's sad the worth of these individuals is measured in dollars and not in lives saved."

Several others spoke against cutting the full-time fire equipment operators at Tuesday's meeting.

Wendy Davis questioned whether the city had done a cost analysis of having full-time fire equipment operators versus more paid on-call firefighters. She wondered where staff got their information that fire protection wouldn't suffer with the change.

"I'm not very comfortable that we'll have the same fire protection just because you guys say so," Davis said.

Bill Mattson, owner of the First Street North house caught fire in Brainerd last Friday, said he lost a lot of things that were irreplaceable.

"But I have a lot because of the time and quickness that they responded," Mattson said of the Brainerd Fire Department. "I have great grandmother's quilt and bed that will be saved because there is still a structure there and I think as a citizen what I'm looking for from a community is I want to be safe from things that go bump in the night, I want my house safe and I want to educate the kids ... those are things that make a community."

WE SPOTTED: » Brainerd City Council Meeting