Firefighters, Oakland city officials resolve differences over reduction in service

OAKLAND, Calif. - Firefighters and city officials in Oakland reached an agreement to take one engine company off the street to help address a budget shortfall in the city, fire officials said Friday. 

Originally, the equivalent of 2.5 companies were going to be removed on a rotating basis for about six months, fire spokesman Michael Hunt said. 

Oakland is working to close a $62 million fiscal year 2020-21 General Purpose Fund year-end deficit and the original fire department plan would have saved about $4 million. 

The new plan will go into effect Wednesday, last about 20 weeks and save about $1 million, Hunt said. 

If two engines were removed from the streets, it was likely to affect response times, interim Fire Chief Melinda Drayton said in a Jan. 15 letter to all department staff. 

"This plan on a temporary rotating basis is likely to have an impact on emergency response," Drayton wrote in the letter.  

That includes slower response times, she said, adding that it may jeopardize the fire department's ability to meet National Fire Protection Association response time standard of four minutes for 90 percent of medical calls.

Hunt did not say how the latest plan will affect response times. 

Mayor Libby Schaaf, in a comment on Twitter last Tuesday, said, "No (one) wants to make budget cuts. And we hope a Biden-Harris stimulus will help. 

"Yet we can't be shortsighted about our financial reality. The modest moves we make now can ensure our public safety + fire safety is healthier for the long term," she said. 

"If we cannot make hard choices right now, we will be forced to make heartbreaking ones later. We've succeeded at adversity before. We will succeed again," she added. 

Zac Unger, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 55, which represents some Oakland fire crews, said the union filed an immediate dispute resolution with the city over the initial plan because of concerns for the safety of residents and firefighters.  

The disagreement appears to be over. 

An engine company is a truck that puts water on fires and responds to medical calls. Seventy-five percent of fire department calls are medical calls and engine companies respond to 75 percent of those. 

Oakland has 25 stations, and none will close, according to the plans laid out earlier this week. But every six days a different fire station in the city will be down an engine company. The airport station will not be affected.