Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Fire Commissioner Tyrone Scott announced a plan Thursday to run a smaller, more efficient fire department by radically changing the department's management system, cutting by five the number of trucks responding to fires and laying off 65 of the youngest firefighters.
And yet, the reductions are not enough. Even though the cuts will impact nearly every level of the department's operations, they still leave Kilpatrick struggling to close a gaping hole in the city's $1.4-billion budget that he will need to fill by cutting city services elsewhere.
The impact the Fire Department plan will have on residents is still unclear. Union officials argue that it will severely impact response time.
Scott, however, said that response time will not be affected because many of the fire rigs are new and better equipped, and the department is going to upgrade its supervision. He said firefighters still would respond within 5 minutes of a call.
Combined with the cutbacks that took effect July 1, the department soon will be battling fires with 10 fewer trucks than it had in service at the beginning of the summer.
Since July, it also has been operating with 113 fewer people, including 65 firefighters.
"They are screwing the city," said Verdine Pierce, the vice president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association who argued that the cuts will severely impact response times. "The men and women will still be fighting the fires, but at what cost? We're going to start looking like Highland Park."
One of the companies slated to close is Engine Co. 47, which shares the station at Mt. Elliott and Davison with Ladder Co. 30. According to Engine 47's logbook, its runs have increased every month in 2005.
Lt. Joyce Stoll, who was commanding Ladder 30 on Thursday, said she is concerned about firefighters' safety once the cuts take effect.
"And if firefighters aren't safe, how can we protect citizens?" she asked.
Firefighter Beth Szmrecsanyi added: "Without Engine 47, it's going to be absolute madness out there."
Kilpatrick and Scott said their plan is designed to keep as many firefighters on the street as possible. Kilpatrick said the Fire Department could not adequately protect the public if its workforce shrunk by 190 firefighters, the number originally called for in the budget.
And even though he will need to find more cuts or revenue elsewhere, Kilpatrick said he won't take another penny from public safety.
"In terms of the layoffs in both police and fire, that's it," Kilpatrick said Thursday. "What we're doing now is we're looking at other departments to see if we can have other reductions, but also looking at places where we can raise some revenues."
The reorganization comes on the heels of a police plan that lays off 150 officers and collapses 12 police precincts into six districts.
In rearranging the Fire Department, Scott said cuts needed to happen at the top. So 10 battalion chiefs -- who now supervise fire scenes -- will be demoted. In the future, the senior officer at the scene -- most often a captain or lieutenant -- will direct the action for what Scott called "garden variety" fires. If the fire becomes more complicated, a chief will be summoned.
Detroit Fire Fighters Association President Dan McNamara said putting a captain or lieutenant in charge at fire scenes will take a person from the crew whose job is to attack the fire. That, he said, violates the contract.
"I'm just sick to my stomach at what is happening," McNamara said.
With the demotion of chiefs, the department will shrink its districts, or battalions, from eight to five, increasing the geographic areas that firefighters will have to cover. There were nine battalions before the July cutbacks.
Eventually, Scott said, he wants firefighters to take on more work by responding to medical emergencies, as firefighters do in many suburbs and in such big cities as Chicago, Toronto and New York.
"When you come to work, you ... have to produce," Scott said during an interview with the Free Press editorial board Thursday. "That's what we're paying you to do. We're not promising that you're going to get two dinners, or you're going to get to lay down in the afternoon or lay down at night. We're not promising that."
The plan for the Fire Department trims just $8 million from the department's budget. Combined with the layoffs announced Monday in the Police Department, the total cuts amount to less than half of the $70 million the mayor needs to hack from the police and fire departments in order to balance the budget.
Irvin Corley Jr., the City Council's fiscal analyst, said the Fire Department plans, like the police changes, are good starts. But he said the plans still don't deal with the budget problems.
Although the council did make $70 million in public-safety cuts, he said, members later approved an amendment that reduced the total cuts to $47 million.
Even still, he said, the mayor's plans for the police and fire departments do not cut enough to help balance the budget.
He and Council President Pro Tem Kenneth Cockrel Jr. reiterated other city leaders' concerns that if public safety is not cut sufficiently, the savings will need to come from somewhere else.
"The bigger issue is the overall global budget; that's what needs to be dealt with," Cockrel said. "Specifically, where and in what other departments does the mayor intend to make the cuts, and how will they impact those other departments. Many are already cut to the bone."
When the cuts are enacted, Detroit will have about 1,100 firefighters, Scott said, and 1,500 employees in the department overall.
Currently, when the department receives a report of a fire in a house or commercial building, it dispatches one ladder truck, four pumpers -- or engines -- a rescue squad and a chief. Scott said officials are studying whether to reduce that response by one engine.
"Detroit is at a crossroads," Scott said. "And the Fire Department is at a crossroads. We have to do more with less."
Distributed by the Associated Press
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