Call it what you will, but I call it poor management.

The three highest priorities in any jurisdiction should be:

• Public Safety
• Education
• Refuse Collection

Those are in no particular order. Those are the necessities. PERIOD. Over the last 5 or so years..maybe longer, firefighters and EMT’s have seen their budgets cut, hacked, and brought down to an all time low.

I don’t care where you are or who you work for, your City/County/Locality should not be cutting the operational funds of any fire and/or EMS department without completely cutting other programs. When I say “CUTTING”, I mean completely gone like they never existed before. Things like economic development, risk management, transportation, technology, fleet management, social services, homeless assistance, general services, planning, neighborhood services, parks and recreation. These departments should be decreased to a skeleton crew and or merged with another department. Other programs should have been deleted way before we got to this point.

Below are stories about Station Closures, Brownouts, Layoffs, and such from the past month to today. Today is important because it is the first day of many jurisdictions fiscal years.

• I recently wrote about Flint, Michigan learning the hard way here.
• STATter911.com on West Coast Firehouse Roulette
• Alemeda, California lost Firehouse #5
• Alemeda – Website on the issue by firefighters
• Sacramento Fire Department Plans to Expand Firehouse Rolling Brownout Program
• Sacramento – Brownout Blues: Response Slowed on Another Fire
• Boston - Fire union protests “brown-out” at Neponset’s Engine 20
• Boston – Mayor, fire union spar over ‘brown-outs’
• FireGeezer on Boston Brownouts
• San Francisco - Fire station brown outs mulled
• San Francisco – Website on the issue by firefighters
• San Francisco – Proof of Station Closures
• Atlanta Fire Department Continues Rolling “Brownouts”
• Vallejo closes another fire station
• Muncie Firefighters Mark Final Day On Job
• Fire chief: Lawrence layoffs, firehouse closures ‘terrible’
• Is anyone home? New Prince George’s County overtime reduction plan leaves some firehouses empty. Volunteers staff others.
  

And yet some firefighters have agreed to make up for budget shortfalls out of their own pocket! And to think that there are some assholes out there who just don’t get it. The Administrations, Fire Chiefs, City Councils, County Supervisors, Aldermen,etc. will never understand that we mean business and we are in the business to save lives! We don’t stand up for what we believe in just to hear ourselves talk. Check out these ALL-AMERICANS.

• San Bernardino council approves firefighters’ wage cut – Council members approved the agreement unanimously. Firefighter union members already had approved it, union President Scott Moss said.
• San Diego – City firefighters agree to concessions, ratify contract
  
• Santa Rosa firefighters, police give up raises to avoid layoffs

These are just some  examples of closures, brownouts, and layoffs as well as some departments who have given up even more to prove the point that we CANNOT afford anymore cuts for our safety and that of our citizens. Feel free to chime in if you have another City, Link, Story related!