|
Last year, the Portland Fire Bureau went through a "gut-wrenching" budget process, according to union president Tom Chamberlain. When it was through, 12 firefighting positions were unfilled and three battalion chiefs were demoted. This year, the bureau managed to find $210,000--about as much as it would have cost to keep the three demoted battalion chiefs for another year--for seven brand-new Ford Expeditions. Six of the high-end vehicles will be driven by top bureau commanders, including Chief Robert Wall, whose duties are normally confined to a desk. "It's sort of galling," Chamberlain says. "To go through that whole process and cut back on stations, and now we're buying Expeditions. It doesn't make sense." The commanders make a credible--if not compelling--case that the 4x4s are needed. But the fight shows continuing tension between the rank-and-file and fire brass. Randy Leonard, who was union president last year during the budget fight, sees it this way: "This is Bob Wall saying, 'I'd rather have a new Expedition for myself than a battalion chief.'" Deputy Chief Howard Boyte, who not only ordered the Expeditions but will be driving one within a month, defends his decision: He found the money within the existing budget by "downsizing" the bureau's fleet. And the Expeditions, he says, were a good deal--$26,000 each, plus an additional $3,500 each for equipment such as light bars, radios and laptop computers, which help the driver coordinate efforts at a fire scene. As for last year's budget triage, Boyte argues that the normally desk-bound managers will need the fancy vehicles because of the cutbacks. With fewer battalion chiefs, Boyte says, it's more likely that deputy chiefs like himself will be forced to race out to a fire and take charge. Nancy Biasi, an aide to City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury, agrees with that logic. "In one way, we've cut back on the number of battalion chiefs, but this is a good way to help existing command staff fill some of those functions when they're needed." Although Kafoury, who oversees the Fire Bureau, would like to hire back firefighters, Biasi says, "cars are cheaper than people." At the same time, though, it seems image is an issue. Boyte, for example, clearly is unhappy with his city-issued Chevy Corsica, which is just one year old and has 15,000 miles on it. "I'm a deputy chief with 23 years of experience and I'm riding around in a little Corsica," he told WW. "I go down to my little cubbyhole of a Corsica with no MDT [a computer terminal hooked into the Bureau of Emergency Communications]. I don't know who's at the fire. I can't monitor the different stations I need to." Although Chamberlain says that "it's conceivable [top managers] could come to a fire and take over incident command," he wonders whether that scenario will be frequent or even likely. Boyte has been on call to cover a district when the battalion chiefs are busy, but he concedes that he hasn't been called out to a working fire in a couple of years. "Where are the Fire Bureau's priorities?" Chamberlain asks. "If we have extra money, we should be giving more services to citizens by getting out there and protecting them. Buying vehicles for administrative staff doesn't really accomplish that." But according to Boyte, the bureau's mission is to be prepared. "It's kind of like the military," he told WW. "They're not always fighting a war, but we're always ready for it." A 1996 study found that Portland has fewer firefighters per capita than most cities its size, but its costs are higher. The Fire Bureau may put a bond measure on the November ballot to build fire stations. |
