Statement From Las Vegas Fire Chief William McDonald
COVID-19 Causes Economic Impact To Fire & Rescue Dept.
The Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Department, and the entire city of Las Vegas, is feeling the economic impact caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic. It has resulted in holes in our budget that could not be offset entirely by the receipt of funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This remaining budget deficit has required our fire department, as well as all other city departments, to decrease the operating budgets for this fiscal year.
For the fire department, it means there are limited overtime (OT) funds available to fill vacancies that are created on a daily basis. Personnel who are not reporting to work for various reasons that include (but are not limited to) vacation, sick leave, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and on-the-job injuries will first be replaced by a pool of unassigned employees known as rovers. Once the rover pool is assigned, then there are positions that can be filled by our limited amount of OT. If after the rovers and OT are assigned, and there are still vacancies, up to four pieces of apparatus will be placed out of service.
There will be no reductions on this Fourth of July holiday weekend (July 3-5).
This plan can save over $10 million and was developed with the goal to ensure that every station will still be able to provide, at minimum, two pieces of operational equipment staffed with firefighters. One of these pieces of equipment will have the ability to transport the sick and injured of our community, and the other piece of equipment will be available for fighting fires.
We recognize the optimal service is when all units are operational, but COVID-19 and the resulting fiscal impact has reduced our ability to provide that level of service for our community. This is a fluid plan and process. We will continuously be reassessing the demands for service across the city so we can maximize the utility of our resources with the greatest amount of efficiency. I want to emphasize that the reduction of units is a last resort as part of the operational plan and will be done in coordination with overlap from other fire stations, other local entities and our private partners America Medical Response and Medic West EMS.
END ## LVFR/PEIO-TRS
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