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Nov. 22—Tacoma firefighters are upset over the city's decision to cut 16 positions in its proposed upcoming budget, accusing city leaders of risking lives and being unresponsive to the needs of overworked crews.

The 2025-26 biennial budget, which city officials met to discuss this week, increases funding for the Tacoma Fire Department by about 10%. But it also calls for eliminating funding for 16 roving firefighters tasked with covering shifts of colleagues unavailable for work due to unplanned leave and other reasons.

The program was enacted this year in response to an increase in leave, such as sick or paid family and medical leave, among firefighters. It was intended to be a temporary solution to help reduce the costs of overtime and maintain service levels, according to the city.

In Tacoma's proposed new budget, the roving positions were eliminated, saving the city $4.2 million. The personnel who filled those roles would be reassigned to other positions within the Tacoma Fire Department, the city said.

For many inside the department, the end of the rover program has made an untenable situation worse. Critics say the department is under-staffed and in need of new equipment and facilities as calls for service continue to rise. About three dozen firefighters expressed frustrations about the proposed budget during a City Council meeting Tuesday.

"The Fire Department is already in crisis and in desperate need of new fire apparatus, increased staffing and improvements to outdated and unsafe 100-year-old facilities," Capt. Chris Perry said.

Allyson Hinzman, president of department union International Association of Fire Fighters Local 31, said that reducing staffing equated to lowering services.

"I think there's a disconnect in that our people are literally killing themselves right now for this department," Hinzman said. "And it is clear that our people care more about this department than the city does."

Several who addressed the dais put the proposed budget change in terms of life and death.

"If you cut our budget, if you cut our finances, the reality is those response times get worse," firefighter Nathan Carlson said. "And it's not just people are unhappy, frowny face — the reality is people are going to die."

As Tacoma contends with expenses outpacing revenues, some city leaders publicly pushed back against the notion that the council was ignoring the Fire Department's concerns. After hearing from more than 30 firefighters on Tuesday, Council member Kiara Daniels noted that the department's total proposed budget increased over the last cycle's and the city approved a 9% raise for firefighters.

The proposed $274 million total budget would exceed the $246 million budget adopted for 2023-2024, according to city figures.

Daniels said that the budget represented a "math problem." She suggested that there would be protests from others had the council proposed cutting from elsewhere and that all items funded were core services, too.

"I'm asking for the respect of not calling us murderers when we've done nothing but give raises and do everything that you all have asked since I've been here," she said.

Tough budget decisions

The backlash comes as Tacoma's financial picture at large looks bleak. Across the board, the city was forced to shore up a projected $24 million structural deficit by reducing expenses, eliminating certain tax exemptions, using fund balances and other means.

"Despite economic challenges like inflation and a slowing economy, the proposed budget focuses on maintaining essential services and building trust with residents," city spokesperson Maria Lee said in a statement.

The failure of a proposed property tax on the Nov. 5 ballot, which would have generated some $30 million annually for the fire department, didn't help matters. If voters would have approved the levy, the rover program would have been maintained, according to City Manager Elizabeth Pauli.

In a special meeting Wednesday, Council member John Hines proposed saving the program by reallocating dollars from a mental health and substance-use disorders fund and enacting staff cuts. Under Hines' proposal, the fund would be restocked by settlement money received from companies found to have fueled the opioid epidemic. He withdrew his proposal after it became clear that fellow lawmakers were reluctant to steer money from the fund.

The budget's proposed elimination of the rover program came after interim Fire Chief Sionna Stallings-Ala'ilima was asked by the city to reduce fire spending by about $4 million to address the structural deficit. She chose to cut the program over the alternative of shutting down an engine, she said during a council study session days after the election.

She said she would work with her team on strategic staffing plans to help the department stay within its $3 million overtime budget and decrease the need to reduce service levels. Last year, the department was between $8 million and $9 million over budget, but that figure shrunk to $3.5 million following the inception of the rover program, she said during this week's council meeting.

Factoring in two recruiting classes and anticipated retirements, the department is expected to net roughly 30 additional firefighters next year, according to Stallings-Ala'ilima.

During the special meeting on Wednesday, Mayor Victoria Woodards said that the only permanent fix to the city's structural deficit was to increase revenue, and she asked the Fire Department to put itself in the city's shoes as it faced requests to pull money from other needs.

"I would like to cut nothing," Woodards said, "but that is not the reality."

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