AUSTIN, Texas — At a city council work session on Tuesday, Austin’s fire chief, Joel Baker, defended a controversial proposal to reduce minimum staffing on fire trucks from four to three personnel in an effort to address an ongoing budget deficit.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax stated that this staffing change could save the city over $8 million, a critical step as Austin grapples with a $33 million shortfall in the upcoming budget.
Baker highlighted that the Austin Fire Department (AFD) has been incurring excessive overtime costs to maintain the four-person minimum staffing level that has been in place since 2018.
He attributed the need for increased overtime to a staggering absenteeism rate, which averaged 36% during Fiscal Year 2024.
“I have enough bodies,” Baker remarked.
“I don’t have enough bodies coming to work.”
The proposed staffing adjustments entail maintaining five firefighters scheduled for each shift. However, if the absenteeism rate exceeds 25%, the minimum staffing on engine trucks would be reduced to three, while other units, including aerial, rescue, quint, and ESD 4, would retain four-person staffing.
“My goal here is to keep every fire station open, staffed with personnel,” Baker emphasized, as he responded to council members’ inquiries.
Council Member Krista Laine from District 6 expressed her surprise at the high absenteeism rate saying, “I, personally, have never worked anywhere where there’s a 40% call-out rate.”
Addressing concerns raised regarding firefighter safety, Council Member Mark Siegel from District 7 stated, “I don’t want to balance our budget in a way that makes our firefighters feel less safe.”
In response to potential safety concerns, Baker reassured the council that planned staffing levels would still exceed national standards.
He suggested that the changes would allow firefighters the necessary time off to address mental health issues, telling council members, “It would give them the time off that they need to work on their mental illness they tell me they have.”
Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Firefighters Association, voiced skepticism about the reported absenteeism figures, calling them “misleading.”
He pointed out that out of all types of leave available to firefighters, only sick leave is discretionary. “What we should be doing is taking this overtime bucket, or money, and converting it to firefighters, and you’ll end up having the exact same cost,” he argued, suggesting that overtime spending was essential to maintaining staffing standards until more firefighters can be hired.
On July 21, Nicks participated in a protest alongside union leaders and fellow firefighters at Austin City Hall opposing the proposed cuts, warning that they could pose risks to public safety. “Whether that’s for medical response or a fire response, this is going to be dangerous to the city and to the firefighters service,” said Laurie Wagner of AFD at the protest.
Another AFD member, Sara Coon, stated, “All of these [minimum staffing requirements] are set in place because people have died in the past.”
The situation has seen some improvement; on July 25, 40 cadets graduated from the Austin Fire Academy, helping to reduce the number of vacancies in the department from 100 to 60.
The Austin City Council will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed budget on Thursday at 3 p.m.
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