BILLINGS - One night after the Billings City Council worked to fix budget issues for the Billings Police Department, it turned its attention to the Billings Fire Department.
The council looked also looked at budgets for the finance department, urban renewal funds, and municipal court at a special work session on Tuesday night.
The fire department's budget looks to be about one million dollars more from last year.
"On the operating budget, just kind of broken down a little bit further, 82 percent goes to personnel," said Interim Fire Chief Matt Hoppel.
The city of Billings is starting in a budget shortfall, but the proposed fire department budget would potentially increase almost $1 million to more than $29 million for the fiscal year next fiscal year starting on July 1.
“Where can you bring that down to where you're actually like the police is cutting another $630,000-40,000 out of your budget instead of increasing, almost a million dollars,” Councilman Roy Neese asked.
“Overall, I'm trying not to lose people,” said Hoppel. “The other ones are station improvements that we can't get around. It's infrastructure. It's not face lifts so the capital items I really can't get around.”
Hoppel says despite the increase, some open positions will not be immediately filled.
“There's a few positions that are currently vacant and will be left vacant,” said Council Member Jennifer Owen. “But with fire in particular, we know we have real infrastructure needs and we don't want to get behind.”
“Sometime in the next 10 years, we're going to have a pretty expensive issue with our stations,” Councilman Scott Aspenlieder said to Hoppel. “And we’ve got to be proactive about that. So please get that rolled into this fiscal year through vacancy savings as you're as you're going through that.”
“Absolutely,” Hoppel said. “Thank you, Mayor and counsel, that is something that will be on my list.”
Owen says efficiency and response times affect homeowners’ insurance.
“We want to make sure we're doing our part, that fire response times are appropriate,” Owen said. “So that we're not contributing to the increased cost of homeowner insurance.”
“And we're racking up lots of future cost here,” said Councilman Tom Rupsis. “
"Absolutely, I think the more transparency needs to happen,” Hoppel said.
Other than staffing, the funds will also be used for maintenance, including repairs to trucks and updates at the stations.
“I'm trying to look forward to past this year so we're not having the same conversation next year,” Hoppel said.
