Residents are pushing back at Pasco’s proposal to cut a significant portion of police and firefighting positions.

The city is facing a financial crisis and is considering nearly $14.4 million in general fund reductions.

One of the proposed scenarios would eliminate about three dozen police and firefighter jobs. The proposal with the fewest cuts would still eliminate about a dozen police officers and close a fire station.

Residents made clear they were opposed to the cuts at the council’s Tuesday workshop meeting. What residents said

Tuesday’s meeting was packed. The council chamber was standing room only, with additional seating in the gymnasium.

Both the fire and police departments showed up in droves, with matching shirts reading “One Pasco” and “Cuts Cost Lives.”

City Manager Harold Stewart kicked off the presentation by declaring that Pasco’s budget is the most difficult and drastic of his 20-year career. This is the first budget he’s drafted for the city.

Stewart requested department heads to come up with proposed 20% cuts to their departments, with fire and police taking large hits.

Jeremy Garrett, President of the Pasco Firefighters Union, was one of the first to speak.

“These are not just (full-time equivalent positions),” Garrett said. “These are firefighters. These are your firefighters.”

He also spoke about the impacts that this will have on not just the city, but the firefighters who are let go.

“Decisions matter to the 14 firefighters that you’re going to let go,” Garrett said. “These decisions you make in the next month matter. They matter to them, they matter to us that will remain, and they matter to this community. I want to be abundantly clear, eliminating 14 firefighters will in fact hurt out city. It will. Work with us. Protect your city. Protect your citizens and protect your firefighters.”

Other speakers were residents of Pasco who were there to support first responders, or, like Octavia, was watching the meeting from home before deciding to come to the meeting to speak.

Octavia, who did not state her last name, addressed the council and department heads, asking “who are you going to call” after you cut the police and fire department?

Lesa Griffin, who has several family members in both the police and fire department, shared a story about her husband, Jason, and the reality of what cuts mean to the police department.

“He’s been in two shootings and knocked out,” Griffin shared. “If he didn’t have backup behind him, he could’ve died. These men go out there who have families, and you’re going to cut their backup by taking their fund away from them.”

Stewart laid out four scenarios for the council. Scenario one is the “most corrective,” he said, but it also results in the most cuts in order to close the $14 million gap. Even then the city will still see a $2.7 million shortfall in 2028. Why does the city have a $14M gap?

Pasco staff said there is not one cause for the budget shortfall in the general fund, citing issues such as lack of revenue growth, fuel costs and more as part of the larger picture.

The city also lacked a firm reserves spending policy and had become reliant on dollars meant to keep it afloat during a crisis.

The general fund pays for police, fire, parks and rec, community development and more. Between 2015 and 2022, the revenue going into the fund exceeded the costs coming out, which led to new fire and police stations, land investments and more.

In 2023, Pasco added 53.4 positions that were funded by the general fund, resulting in approximately $12.8 million per year in costs. That year, fire gained nine full-time equivalent (FTE) positions and police gained 14, but nearly every general fund department gained FTE allocations in 2023.

It’s unclear why the city added these positions without the increased revenue already in place. Inflation and costs for salaries and benefits also have greatly increased over the past decade.

The city has had to dip into reserves, or one time dollars, to bridge the gap. During the current 2025-2026 budget, $6 million was budgeted annually from the reserves. That’s approximately the same as one month of general fund operating expenses.

Staff members have proposed several solutions for the budget shortfall based on the council’s directive to “look for efficiencies evaluate staffing and workload, protect public safety and consider an appropriate role for reserves,” according to budget documents and social media posts by the city.

From the 2025-2026 budget, 26 FTEs were frozen, six of which were police and 2.5 were fire. Proposed solutions

The first proposed solution would not rely on reserves. It is the plan with the steepest cuts.

This would result in a reduction of 50 FTEs, 22 from police and 15 from fire — on top of the frozen positions. When looking at the FTE allocations, note that the fire department reductions appear in both the general fund and the ambulance fund.

The city would close one fire station, the community outreach program, reduce team training overtime and more.

Parks and recreation would lose three positions and would stop hosting events like the Fiery Foods Festival, Cinco de Mayo and more. It would also cut senior center programs.

Police would be looking at moving to a 12-hour shift, response times would be impacted and the Lewis St. and Alderwood area stations would close.

Scenario two would use $3 million in reserves, but would still cut 17 police and 14 fire positions, as well as others for a total of 41.5.

Scenario three would use $4 million in reserves, but would still cut 15 police and 14 fire positions, as well as others for a total of 37.5.

Scenario four would use $5 million in reserves, but would still cut 11 police and 15 fire positions, as well as others for a total of 34.5.

All four scenarios would see police and fire stations close, positions cut across departments and community events removed from the 2027-2028 budget. Next steps

These proposed scenarios aren’t final budgets for the city. After the workshop meeting on Tuesday, staff will use council members’ feedback to draft a final proposal.

Public hearings on the budget are scheduled for Nov. 2 and Nov. 16 before the final 2027-2028 budget is adopted.

Potential budget adoption would happen at the first meeting in December.

Stewart said estimates will be updated online this week to account for voluntary cuts by department leaders.

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