Steve Howard said it was a first for the department.
"This was the first time we've reduced the minimum staffing level by one person," said Howard, the city of Waukesha's acting fire chief.
Howard said it was done, under a directive of City Administrator Ed Henschel and Mayor Shawn Reilly, as a way to control department overtime through the end of 2014. The action started on Nov. 27 and resulted in 14 days of one fewer ambulance in service, Howard said.
Tighter budget
Henschel said he sent out a memo to both the police and fire chiefs in Waukesha, because both departments had already exceeded overtime budgets in November.
Howard said the department had exceeded its overtime budget by $150,000.
Howard said it's not unusual for the department to exceed its overtime budget, but typically there is enough money in the city budget to cover the fire department's budget. Not this time.
"Things were tight across the board," he said.
As a result, an ambulance was taken out of service in stations 4 and 5 when the department was short staffed due to illness or vacations, Henschel said. He added that those two stations were chosen because they are the city's least active stations on western and northwestern parts of the city.
Howard said the same number of personnel — including emergency medical technicians — responded to calls during this period. However, the main delay could have been in transporting the patient to the hospital.
"The same care was implemented," Howard said.
Union alerts public
Even so, the Waukesha Professional Firefighters Association Local 407 took notice of the city having one less ambulance in service. The local firefighter's union sent out a postcard mailer last month to residents in the areas that were impacted.
Dan Holehouse, president of Local 407, said citizens had a right to know about the ambulance being out of service.
"The citizens, taxpayers of Waukesha need to know they have a great Fire Department and will continue to have it," Holehouse said. "But it is their right to know when we have an out of service ambulance. It is their right to know that we need to desperately fill vacant positions or meet the overtime needs to staff ambulances."
Henschel said the union also responded with a sign illegally erected on city property. Holehouse, however, countered by saying the sign was put on county land.
Henschel said several residents contacted him regarding this matter, while Howard said just one resident contacted him.
"The response was evenly divided by citizens, who either thought the fire union was just trying to get more money in the firemen's pockets or that ambulance service was being unnecessarily limited," Henschel said in a memo to the common council.
Holehouse, however, said his union's goal was clear in sending out the notifications.
"Our goal was to inform, not to point fingers or lay blame on anyone," Holehouse said. "When fielding these calls, the citizens were assured and all should know that the Waukesha Fire Department has a long and excellent reputation for quality service. We will continue to provide the best possible care and fire protection that we can with the resources we have available to us."
Henschel said he and Howard monitored ambulance service over this time period and found no missed calls, unnecessary delays or other service limitations.
"You don't like to have one less ambulance, but did we do it safely? Yes," Howard said.
However, Holehouse said there are serious consequences when taking out an ambulance.
"Our biggest concern was the quality of service that we would be able to provide to the citizens of the city of Waukesha," Holehouse said. "Operationally, it does not matter how anyone looks at it, when an ambulance is taken out of service, and another unit has to support that 'browned out' area, it undeniably affects operations - not only from an EMS standpoint, but from fire capabilities as well.
"Calls become stacked, meaning that other units have to keep covering other station responses."
Holehouse doesn't expect this issue to go away in 2015 since a lack of personnel is already impacting the fire department.
Holehouse pointed out that two years ago, the department had an assistant chief position go unfunded and had three firefighter positions go unfunded.
In 2014, those positions were lost altogether due to budget cuts, Holehouse said.
Moreover, in 2014, Holehouse said the department also continued to work without a permanent fire chief (Howard has been serving as the acting fire chief since former chief Jesse Alba was demoted in 2013), and lost other positions or was short at certain positions.
Holehouse also noted the department is sharing a training officer with the Pewaukee Fire Department.
"It is fairly predictable that we again will go over our overtime budget in 2015," Holehouse said. "I am certain unless measures are taken, ambulances will be taken out of service again this year. If we are going to run this short on personnel and overtime is not going to be modified accordingly, something has to give. That something is ambulances that are going to be out of service."