Firefighters, dozens of commenters speak out against Lawrence city budget’s proposal to cut fire-medical staffing

photo by: Bremen Keasey

The meeting room at City Hall in Lawrence overflows with members of the public ahead of the City Commission meeting on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

In an overflowing City Commission room Tuesday night, fire department staff and dozens of Lawrence residents expressed their concern over a budget proposal to cut daily staffing for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical department.

The proposed 2025 city budget, which was presented to the commission on Tuesday and would increase the city’s property tax rate by 3.5 mills, would also decrease minimum staffing levels from four firefighters required on a truck to just three as the department looks to expand its infrastructure.

The staffing cuts are far from certain; the commission did not take any action on the budget proposal at the meeting, and final approval of the 2025 budget won’t happen until September. But LDCFM Chief Rich Llewellyn and other members of the department had plenty to say about it on Tuesday.

Llewellyn said discussing the cuts for daily staffing of firefighters was difficult for him both “professionally and personally.” He said that the growth of Lawrence, both geographically and in population, meant that adding fire stations was critical.

“(New stations) will not just serve the areas they are built in, but they’ll serve the entire community,” Llewellyn said.

But, at the same time, Llewellyn made it clear that he was in favor of four-person staffing on fire trucks.

Llewellyn said federally funded studies showed that a four-person crew was much more efficient, and he told the commissioners he felt the staffing reductions would “no doubt” impact response time to fires and other events LDCFM responds to like cardiac arrests.

“This may slow us down,” Llewellyn said. “We won’t be able to send crews in right away if we don’t have the right number of people ready.”

Commissioner Lisa Larsen asked Llewellyn whether other communities in the region staffed three firefighters on a truck. Llewellyn said the Kansas City, Mo., department has four firefighters per unit, while Overland Park has four if the truck is responding by itself. Other nearby communities like Lenexa, Olathe and Kansas City, Kan., staff three firefighters per truck.

Before the meeting, dozens of firefighters and members of the union that represents them — International Association of Firefighters Local 1596 — stood outside of City Hall with signs protesting the proposed staffing cuts. Multiple motorists driving by honked in support.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Local firefighters and representatives of their union demonstrate outside City Hall ahead of the Lawrence City Commission meeting on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

On Friday, the union urged the commission to reject the cuts, which in the proposed budget would drop the number of firefighters on duty each day from 39 to 36. Additionally, the fire captains and division chiefs sent memos to the commission opposing the cuts.

During the meeting, dozens of public commenters — including many current or retired firefighters — urged the commission to eventually reject the staffing change. Some said the change would go against one of the city’s stated goals, that of creating a safe and secure community. Others said they thought the change would be a step backward and would leave not just Lawrence residents but also firefighters at a higher risk of dying or being severely injured in a fire or accident.

One commenter said he was a current firefighter and former Kansas National Guard member, and that the biggest lesson he learned in his time serving was that “no one gets left behind.”

“That’s a promise that we make to civilians, to each other, to anyone that we come across,” he said. “… Reducing our staffing from four to three will make that promise more difficult for us to maintain.”

After the public comment period was over, Mayor Bart Littlejohn asked staff to figure out how much the mill levy would have to change if the city wanted to keep staffing at the current level of four firefighters per truck.

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Another area that would be subject to cuts in the proposed budget, the Parks and Recreation Department, was also a topic of discussion on Tuesday. The proposed budget would eliminate three vacant full-time jobs and decrease part-time staffing hours.

Luis Ruiz, the director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the decrease in part-time staffing would likely mean reduced hours at many of the recreation centers and aquatic facilities. Ruiz said the hope was that some facilities would be closed during the day, when they’re the least used, to try to lessen the impact to the public.

Additionally, Ruiz said the proposal would remove a fund that helps the department replace certain outdated facilities. Because of those cuts, five parks — Clinton Outlet Park, Broken Arrow Park, Park Hill Park #1, Chaparral Park and McSwain Park — would eventually lose their playgrounds. Clinton Outlet Park and Broken Arrow Park would also eventually lose their shelters, along with Deerfield Park, and Brook Creek Park would eventually lose its restroom.

That doesn’t mean they would be gone overnight, but those structures — which Ruiz said all are considered “outdated” and are not ADA-compliant — would not be replaced as planned due to the decrease in funding.

Ruiz emphasized that the cuts currently aren’t final and the changes to hours at recreation centers are yet to be decided, but he promised the commission that he would ensure the department was still giving the best services it could, regardless of how the budget discussions proceeded.

“When the time comes, we’ll make sure we’re using whatever we can to make the biggest impact to our budget with the lowest impact to our service,” Ruiz said.

Another key request in the budget proposal would ask for a measure to be put on the November ballot in which Lawrence residents would vote on whether to raise the affordable housing sales tax from 0.05% to 0.10%.

The tax would add an extra nickel in sales tax to every $100 in purchases made by consumers in Lawrence. State law requires all city sales tax increases to be put to a citywide vote.

Director of Homeless Solutions Misty Bosch-Hastings said the increase in tax would be needed to sustain current housing programs. The increase in the tax, which would double the money the city currently gets to help tackle housing issues from $1.25 million to $2.5 million, would help fund programs that were previously funded by federal grants that only run through this year.

Tuesday’s meeting, with the presentation of the 2025 budget, was the first step in a monthslong budget process. At the July 16 meeting, the City Commission will be asked to establish the maximum mill levy rate, give notice of intent to exceed the revenue-neutral rate and formalize the dates of both the public hearing to exceed the revenue-neutral rate and the 2025 budget public hearing. Those are both currently set for Aug. 20. Finally, the commission is scheduled to vote on adopting the 2025 budget on Sept. 10.

photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Protesters hold signs outside of the City Commission meeting room during the commission meeting on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting:

• The City Commission approved a bid of about $2.1 million to Bettis Asphalt & Construction Inc. to resurface North Second Street/North Third Street from “the railroad tunnel to north City limits.” The project will mill, patch and overlay the street, install new curbs and gutters where needed and reconstruct noncompliant ADA access ramps.

The city will give $2.25 million to cover contingency cost as well; $400,000 of that comes from a Kansas Department of Transportation program.

The city expects work on the project to start in August and be finished by Nov. 8.

• The commissioners approved a resolution that will revise the School Area Traffic Control Policy for where crossing guards would be stationed during the year. Before, crossing guards at newly requested locations were put there for a full year to evaluate if the spot needed a guard. Since the city had issues staffing the required number of crossing guards, guards will only be at the newly requested locations for 30 to 60 days to determine if they are needed.