Sacramento City Council Kills Plan to Expand Fire Engine Brownout Program
Looks like the City Council finally made a wise decision:
Sacramento Bee
Published: Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009
The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday not to take more than one fire engine out of service on a rotating basis to cut costs.
The Sacramento Fire Department was scheduled to begin rolling closures of a second engine beginning March 1. The department has shelved engines on 48-hour schedules one at a time since July, a move that has led to an increase of response times in areas of the city where the nearest rig was off-line.
Mayor Kevin Johnson said the proposal of closing a second engine company “concerns me a great deal” and that “seconds and minutes make the difference in peoples’ lives.”
“Public safety is clearly everyone’s top priority,” said Johnson, who was the first on the council dais to propose limiting the number of engines on rolling brownouts.
Closing a second engine was part of a budget adjustment that city budget officials recommended to solve an $11.5 million midyear deficit.
Budget officials will come back next week with a report on how the city can offset the approximately $500,000 in savings that would have been created by shelving a second engine from March 1 to the end of the fiscal year. Among the proposals floated Tuesday were using redevelopment funds, rainy day funds or proceeds from the sale of the downtown Sheraton.
“We need to find (the money) from somewhere because I don’t want us to get to March 1 and brownout a second company,” said Councilwoman Lauren Hammond.
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