The Oklahoma City Fire Department may have to lay off firefighters because the city did not collect enough sales tax to fully fund the department, said Fire Chief Keith Bryant. The city council has mandated that each department cut around 4% to make adjustments for the budget shortfalls. As a result, Bryant will have to fire 29 out of 950 firefighters.

Bryant said staff cuts are his only option, as the department already shaved $10 million from its $111 million 2010 annual operating budget by slashing programs and line items. During the budget review, the chief said he engaged the command staff and took the advice of a business manager to look at every line item and sort out service-delivery priorities while still operating safely to address the nearly 80,000 runs annually.

“We’ve taken all of those measures and now we are at the point where staffing cuts and decreased service delivery are our only options,” he said.

Bryant doesn’t have the option of choosing where staff cuts are made. The fire union’s agreement with the department says personnel are cut from the bottom up, meaning those with the least seniority. “That forces me to cut line firefighters,” he said.”I also have to look at taking apparatus out of service.”

Staff cuts will lead to increased response times and risk to property and life in areas where an apparatus is out of service, Bryant said. At the same time, he must contend with an increased demand for mainly EMS calls at around 5% annually.

“The one thing that I won’t do is water down our responses, even if I have to place apparatus out of service, I’m still going to respond the same amount to a structure fire and other incidents that we think is appropriate,” he said.

Bryant advised other chiefs in the same precarious position to determine what services are most needed to protect the community give the resources afforded.

“You base decisions around your mission and core services while minimizing the impact to service delivery,” he said.