Council gets earful on fire staffing

Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 28, 2000

The Austin City Council chambers were packed and the atmosphere emotional Wednesday night.

Thursday, September 28, 2000

The Austin City Council chambers were packed and the atmosphere emotional Wednesday night. There was no problem getting feedback on the issue – the bigger problem was getting the presenters and the audience members to get off their soapbox so others could speak.

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The topic?

Public safety.

The problem?

Staffing levels at the Austin Fire Department.

"Referendum" was the repeated cry from the audience: specifically a referendum on the staffing direction of the Austin Fire Department.

"I feel this is the city of Austin’s decision, not the council’s decision," Roxanne Gilbertson said toward the end of the almost two-hour-long meeting. "I would just like to know how to get this issue on the ballot."

The wife of a career firefighter wasn’t the only person asking the council to take the issue to the public. Resident Julie Guckeen said the same; so did Arnold Lang.

Lang pointed out the inconsistency of the message coming from the different presentations by city staff: with City Administrator Pat McGarvey arguing the merits of part-time paid on-call departments, firefighters talking about poor response times and safety and a need for more full-time staff and Fire Chief Dan Wilson arguing and expanding upon various points in previous newspaper articles and letters to the editor. Today, Wilson said he was not recommending any specific number of firefighters to the council, but he did say that when the Fire Department budget went to the city he had included the 11th position to maintain the department as it was.

"Do you realize how this is coming across?" Lang said after the presentations were finished. "You’ve got McGarvey trying to carry out his position (cutting the Fire Department) on a mandate from a council eight years ago. You’ve got Wilson telling us we don’t need any more full-time staff while his own crew, supervisors included, say that we are in jeopardy without more. We’re not just getting a double message, we’re getting a triple message."

Third Ward Council member Gloria Nordin expressed her disappointment after a statement made by retired firefighter Arden King that it made him want to "throw up that a fire chief will not support his department." The comment met with the loudest round of applause of the evening.

"I was really disappointed when you said the fire chief does not support the Fire Department," Nordin said. "He (Wilson) has never said anything derogatory about the department. He has said, ‘I will go with our guys – I trust these guys.’

"I interviewed some of you firefighters," she continued. "I was appalled because there were negative remarks about the fire chief."

Nordin wasn’t the only disappointed elected official. Second Ward council member Jeanne Poppe, who called the meeting as chair of the finance committee to get public input on the issues of public safety, didn’t think the meeting accomplished what she had expected.

"I would have hoped for a more balanced audience," the most senior council member said. "I’m not discounting what people are saying, but when you’ve been on the council long enough, you understand there are a minimum of two sides to every issue. The problem is, I don’t know how you’re going to get a fair representation of the community … the people who are most against something are always the most vocal."