One of the highest priorities for any governmental body is providing safety for citizens. That is true in Garland as much as anywhere. Rumors and concerns have surrounded this year's budget process as the proposals in the budget are studied by council members, employees, and the public. The hottest item in this year's budget is a slightly more than 1% temporary pay reduction being proposed.
 
A couple previous posts have dealt with this same subject, here and here.
 
Among many fire fighters and police officers, concern has been expressed whether safety levels can be maintained if employees all take three extra days off each year to compensate them for the pay reduction. Management has said yes. The rank and file have said not so fast.
 

The chiefs from both departments testified that safety levels will not suffer.
 
An article in last Sunday's Dallas Morning News documents Fire Chief Danny Grammer's presentation to Council and the questions and concerns expressed. The video is also available (Item 6) at CGTV at the city website.
 

From the Dallas Morning News:

Garland to use fire inspectors to maintain station staffing levels

09:48 AM CDT on Sunday, August 23, 2009
By RAY LESZCYNSKI / The Dallas Morning News
rleszcynski@dallasnews.com
 
Garland Fire Chief Dan Grammer and City Manager Bill Dollar unveiled a plan Thursday to reassign two of the city's three arson inspectors to fire operations in order to provide fire employees with additional days off without impacting operation or service times.
 
The issue had been the biggest impasse during the city's budget process, delaying the chief's presentation a week. Under Dollar's proposal, all Garland employees are to receive three days off in return for a temporary 1.15 percent reduction in pay.
 
Grammer said the reassignments will cause limitations in the areas of investigations, public education and follow-up inspections. But staffing levels at all stations will remain intact, which is the news most City Council members seemed eager to hear.
 
"Are you going to assure me and the public that you can maintain that same level of service, of protection to our citizens and our properties?" Mayor Ron Jones asked the chief.
 
"You are assuring us, then, that you support the city manager's budget. Is that correct?" asked Mayor Pro Tem Laura Cox. "And you believe that the 36 hours additional time off will not result in any direct impact on citizens who call the fire department in emergencies?"
 
"One of the rumors that was going around was that we were going to have to close stations or close stations part of the time. We have heard tonight that that's not going to happen," council member Doug Athas noted.
 
The chief found a way to please the council with his remarks and, in return, the council had praise for the department.
 
That was a far different scenario from two nights earlier, when members and supporters of the Garland Fire Fighters Association stood in opposition to the budget in a public hearing.
 
The council has given no indication that it will pursue the fire association's request to look at utility funds as a means of offsetting the temporary salary and bilingual pay cuts and the elimination of the arson investigation positions. As provided by state law regarding competitive matters, the utility budget talks Thursday were closed to the public.
 
The city's final public hearing on the budget is Wednesday. The budget is scheduled to be adopted Sept. 1.
 
Earlier in the week, the comments got personal as bonuses and incentives given to staff members in the city manager's current and previous budgets were challenged by the fire association.
 
Dollar said Thursday he felt compelled to comment and embarked on a 12-minute statement prior to the chief's presentation. He pointed out that the city had spent $79 million over the course of the last decade on police and fire stations, a fire training facility and equipment. He said public safety expenditures alone were equal to 6 cents on the debt side of the city's strained tax rate – which stands to go over 70 cents per $100 assessed valuation in 2009-10.
 
Those expenditures have not been lost on the council, either, and Grammer was pressed to confirm.
 
"It's not just the opinion inside the department but outside among other cities. There's nobody in the metroplex that has better equipment than Garland. Period," the chief said.