Austin Firefighters Association petitioning to solidify 4-firefighter staffing in city charter

Austin Fire Department ballot initiative

The Austin Firefighters Association is petitioning to solidify 4-firefighter staffing per truck in the city charter. This would go on the May 2026 ballot. This is because the city manager and fire chief had suggested allowing 3-person crews during the budget cycle. FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen reports.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Firefighters Association is petitioning to solidify 4-firefighter staffing per truck in the city charter. This would go on the May 2026 ballot. 

What we know:

Four-person staffing became city ordinance in 2018. Right now, every truck has four firefighters, but the union wants to make sure that doesn't change depending on the budget. 

That petition is also to add an amendment to the city charter that prevents "browning out," or shutting down neighborhood fire stations, unless the city can show severe financial crisis. 

This comes after the city manager and fire chief proposed allowing 3-person crews on some units during budget negotiations. It would save $8.3 million in overtime. 

They have to get 20,000 signatures from registered voters in Austin to get the amendment on the ballot. 

What they're saying:

"That sounds like a lot to you and me, but it's one half of one percent of the general fund budget," Bob Nicks, Austin Firefighters Association president, said.

Nicks is opposed to the 3-firefighter model, saying it's much harder to make entry or rescue people. 

"The Safer Austin petition is necessary because the actions of the fire chief and the city manager's team that we feel injected politics instead of upholding safe public safety decisions," he said.

"This issue doesn't need to be a political football. It's time to let the voters decide and settle this issue once and for all," John Hatch, president of Texas Petition Strategies, said. 

Nicks says their proposed charter amendment doesn't add to the budget and still allows the city to manage the fire department. 

With the tax rate election coming up, Nicks says there is one-time funding to keep 4-person staffing , but he thinks this will continue to be a problem year after year. 

"I think it'll be in the budget if the TRE passes, but the whole approach to the disregard for safety of the firefighters and citizens and the reckless policy of lowering standards that quickly for such a low amount of money, I don't think will go away even if the TRE passes. That's why this is a petition is so important," Nicks said.  "If the TRE fails, what the manager's hoping to do is then get the city, the council to reverse the ordinance and then move to 3-person staffing on 48 of 50 fire engines."

By the numbers:

A city memo from July showed an absence rate of 36 percent for firefighters last year. Nicks says that included every type of leave. 

"Our sick leave users, the only thing we can call off on, by the way, is very low at about 5.4 percent," Nicks said.

Dig deeper:

During budget negotiations over the summer, the city manager said the staffing model doesn't change response times, and the same number of units are at each scene. 

The Fire Chief said ladders, quints, and rescue trucks would still have four people, but engines could have three or four, depending on staff availability. 

City considers restructuring AFD crews

Fewer firefighters could be responding to emergencies if the city goes through with a proposal to restructure crews to save money

AFD will continue to send eight units to structure fires. Both said the proposal reduces dependency on overtime and ensures firefighters have enough rest. 

City responds to petition

City manager T.C. Broadnax released the following statement:

"The City recently considered amending the current ordinance to maintain four-person staffing while also providing the Fire Chief with the flexibility to ensure continuous operations and avoid excessive overtime should staffing levels to achieve four-person staffing not be attainable. Our current policies ensure that we send eight units to a fire. That means we are sending 32 firefighters to a fire, which is well beyond the national standard of 16 to 17 firefighters. The current ordinance, an inflexible mandatory four-person staffing requirement, forces firefighters to work overtime which doesn’t allow them to get the rest they need during their days off, and costs the community $8.5 million in overtime expenses. 

The proposed charter amendment would further limit our ability to address these types of challenges by removing day-to-day decision-making authority on staffing from the Chief, the City Manager, and also the City Council. This would negatively impact the City’s ability to deploy resources in the most effective manner, avoid excessive overtime, and make it difficult to provide reduced work-week hours to improve firefighters’ work/life balance so they can benefit from much-needed rest. The proposed charter amendment would force us to make even tougher decisions about how we manage the Fire Department’s budget in the future, especially in our rapidly growing and changing community."