By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rio City Council members voted to cut six firefighter positions from the city budget, but city officials said no firefighters would lose their jobs because of the cuts.
The measure was approved by ordinance during the city council’s April 11 meeting and will save the city $315,893 a year.
In background information about the ordinance presented to the city council, Civil Service Director Ruben Luna wrote, “The city manager and city management staff, after appropriate consultation, review and evaluation of the needs of the fire department, have made recommendations relating to the existing number of budgeted positions and recommend decreasing the number of firefighters in the fire department by six firefighter positions.”
Luna reported in 2009, the city was awarded a federal $1.2 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to fund 12 firefighter positions. Luna wrote the grant was a for a five-year commitment from May 2009 to May 2014 “which was fulfilled and no longer required.”
After City Secretary Mari Acosta read the agenda item during the April 11 meeting, Mayor Al Arreola called for a motion. Mayor Pro-tem Steve Webb made the motion to approve the ordinance, and Councilman J.P. Sanchez gave the second.
After the motion and second, Webb asked, “I know we’re reclassifying some of these, and we’ve had some promotions and stuff, but what I don’t see is an actual breakdown of the structure. How many lieutenants do we have? How many of each do we have? Can you break it down and tell us how many we have of each?”
City Manager John Sheedy replied, “These would all be line-level firefighters. It wouldn’t affect any ranks at all.”
“And currently, nobody’s being replaced, nobody’s losing their job, is this what I see here?” Sanchez asked.
“I just want to make sure we let everybody know nobody’s losing their job,” Sanchez added.
When he was assured no firefighters would lose their jobs and with no further questions from council, the mayor called for the vote, and the council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance.
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