Last month, members of Sparks City Council voted to lay off more than a dozen staff to help address an $18 million budget deficit.
That included five new firefighters, even though they hadn’t even finished their training at the time.
But now, city officials have confirmed they’ve been able to retain a pair of those new recruits after all.
According to City Manager Dion Louthan, that’s because they’ve got a clearer picture of the fiscal year that just ended than they did when the cuts were first approved — and that’s helped them find room in the budget for the two positions.
“We can start to project a little bit more accurately what the ending fund balance looks like, how we performed against the budget the prior year, and that just gives us more clarity,” he said.
But Fire Apparatus Operator Mike Szopa gave credit to fire department employees. He told KUNR that in the weeks since those cuts were announced, two senior personnel committed to retiring. That’ll free up funding for the two recruits to stay.
“It's a start,” Szopa said. “Obviously, retaining all five was our goal, and even retaining that, we're still in a not so great position as far as our staffing goes.”
Szopa said the department has been understaffed since the Great Recession, when funding was cut and never restored. At the same time, he estimated that call volume has tripled. The staffing shortage is especially troubling this year, when the fire season’s already off to a busy start, Szopa said.
Meanwhile, Reno Fire Chief Dave Cochran said his department has been in talks with the city next door, looking for ways to share resources and in the long run, potentially regionalize emergency services.
“Everything's on the table. Can we share dispatch? Can we share fire prevention services, training, logistics? Those are all options that we want to consider,” he said.
