Fire Chief Seeks Strategic Plan Support

Atlanta Fire and Rescue Chief Kelvin Cochran told the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods Thursday that the department is looking for increased funding in the future after severe budget cuts left the department with seriously inadequate resources the last few years.

Taking an optimistic view for the future, Cochran presented a slide show on the department's strategic plan. While emphasizing Mayor Kasim Reed's aim to restore the department's equipment and manpower, Cochran outlined a current woeful situation.

After a series of budget gaps including a $140 million shortfall three years ago, the fire department hasn't kept up with firetruck replacement and maintenance, he said. The department's problems go back even further, he said: only five stations have been built or replaced in the last 15 years, and the fire stations, despite neighborhood assistance, are inadequate.

Among stations with residential standards that need to be replaced are Buckhead's stations 26, 27 and 23, he said.  is to be replaced in Fiscal Year 2016, he said. Stations following commercial standards that need renovation include and 29. The total cost of fire station renovation or replacement will be $48 milliion, with $17.5 million in the fiscal year 2012 budget of $75.1 million. 

Cochran said that to meet response time guidelines, a new station in the Peacthree Battle area is planned for fiscal year 2015. He said three areas need new stations throughout the city.

He conceded that fire protection in the western part of Buckhead will continue to be inadequate under the strategic plan. BCN Chairman Jim King asked if the city could work out an agreement with Cobb County to provide service in that area.

"It definitely is possible," Cochran said. "We haven't per se explored it."

Cochran said that although he doesn't see a city tax increase as feasible, he said that city Chief Executive Officer Peter Aman and Reed are "weighing all possibilities" to increase funding for the department.

On the plus side, the department has received a federal grant to pay the salaries of 75 firefighters for three years.With the grant, the department is just nine firefighters short of the necessary number, he said.

But, although the department needs to replace all of its engines and ladder trucks and the Insurance Service Office ratings for the city have fallen to Class 4 from Class 2, the department has only $1.1 million in the fiscal year 2012 budget to replace equipment. He said the department requested $8 million. The money is just enough to buy one ladder truck and three vehicles for battalion commanders, he said. 

Firefighter pay is another issue; he said that while the city competes well with salaries for beginning firefighters, it falls behind metro counties when it comes to pay for experienced personnel. And its hourly wage is far behind other metro areas in the country, he said.

See the accompanying PDF for the complete strategic plan.