What's The Cost of Cutting Costs?

Delray Beach's new Fire Rescue Chief, Ronald Martin, has been tasked with exploring staff reductions in the Fire Rescue Department. This plan was outlined in an October 25th letter from City Manager Terrance Moore, which included a report on the potential impacts of such reductions.

Key potential external impacts include:

- Reduced patient outcomes and safety

- Increased risk of medical errors- Longer response times and fewer available units

- Criticism from neighboring communities- Potential negative impact on ISO ratings

Internal impacts could include:

- Increased worker’s comp claims and turnover

- Lower morale and employee satisfaction

- Possible labor grievances and political tension

Reducing staffing on Ambulances could mean longer response times and waiting extra minutes for help in a heart attack or stroke situation.  Why would the Fire Chief, and the City Manager, consider reducing staffing and risk such possible impacts?  The reason behind considering these cuts?

The Budget

Facing pressure from the City Commission to reduce taxes, the city is looking at cost savings. This is in response to campaign promises made to cut property taxes.  Juli Casale, Tom Markert and Mayor Tom Carney voted on a property tax rollback.  To put the impacts of this roll back into prospective, it would save a resident $11.05 a month if their home is worth $600,000. 

Today Police and Fire account for 53% of the general fund, and the Fire Rescue budget is currently $48.9 million, expected to rise by $2.5 million due to a new shift agreement.

According to Craig Mahoney, President of the Fire Fighters Union, even with this increase, Delray’s percentage of the general fund allocated to Police & Fire would be comparable if not lower than surrounding communities. He outlines the following:  The $2.5 million increase would raise the portion of the general fund allocated to police and fire budgets in Delray Beach to 54.1 %. This is below Boca Raton’s 59.2%, Boynton Beach’s 64% and Highland Beach’s 59.7%.   

It is important to note Delray Beach’s fire department budget includes $3 million for Ocean Rescue, a service not included in the budgets of the other municipalities. 

Breaking Down the Budget Increase

Last year the city utilized outside legal counsel to negotiate with the Firefighters Union and agreed to a new contract, which instates a 24/72-hour schedule starting October 1st, 2025, which would require hiring 16-20 new firefighters. The current working schedule for a paramedic firefighter in Delray Beach is 24 hours on and 48 hours off. This schedule works out to a 48-hour work week.  

To compete in the workforce marketplace, avoid attrition and encourage recruitment, many neighboring departments have already or are switching to the 24/72-hour schedule. The commission at the time of negotiations felt that they had to “keep up” or lose men and women to the neighboring departments.

Cutting Costs by Cutting Staff

Instead of hiring, the city is considering cutting staff on each ambulance to save costs. Currently, ambulances (rescue vehicles) and suppression units (engines, ladders and trucks) each have three paramedics. The proposal calls for one less paramedic firefighter on each rescue vehicle. Here is the problem with having only two - rather than three - paramedic firefighters on each rescue vehicle.  

Most calls to the Fire Rescue Department are medical calls.  Last year there were 14,178 medical calls. which resulted in 8,089 patients being transported to the hospital.  

Currently, when a medical call comes in, a rescue vehicle, staffed with three paramedic fire fighters is sent to respond, which leaves the suppression truck at the fire station.  If a second medical call came in, the paramedic fire fighters on the suppression truck would respond.  They are qualified and equipped to respond to medical emergencies just as a rescue vehicle is, with their sole limitation being transportation of a patient to the hospital.   

When a patient is being transported to the hospital, depending on the patient’s acuity, it would require a driver to drive the vehicle and two paramedics to attend to the patient to start IV’s, administer medications and other life-saving steps. 

If rescue vehicles are only staffed with two paramedic firefighters, then every time a major medical call comes in, the rescue truck would be dispatched, but also a suppression truck would have to be dispatched so that there were enough staff for the possibility of transport to hospital if the emergency acuity required it.  

High acuity emergencies are heart events, brain events, respiratory events or a traumatic injury.   A seemingly minor fall with unknown injuries can quickly escalate into a high acuity “trauma alert”, requiring immediate transport to the hospital with two paramedic firefighters accompanying the patient in the back of the Rescue during transport.

When the call comes in, the patient’s acuity is not known, so a Rescue and a suppression truck would have to be dispatched.  This leaves the responding station with no coverage during that incident and any additional calls would be covered by other more distant stations.  The result would be minutes added to response times—minutes that could be critical during medical emergencies like heart attacks or strokes.

If the emergency call came in with a heart attack on NW 3rd Ave located 2 blocks from Fire Rescue Station 111 on 5th Avenue, and both units were responding to another call due to short staffing, then the response to the heart attack would have to come from Station 114 on Lake Ida.  This adds several minutes to the response time that a patient cannot afford.

In summary, while the city seeks to balance its budget, cutting staffing could compromise response times and patient care, potentially putting lives at risk. Many residents would likely prefer to pay what comes out to the cost of two cups of coffee for faster, more effective emergency services.