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Joe K writes, "The Fire Dept is 8% of the total budget".

Come on Joe, get real!

I guess if we take the Fire I employee salaries from 2018 fiscal year of $2,433,199 (line item 35-104) and the salaries from the Fire II employee salaries of $14,452,556 (line item 35-105) for a total salary expense of $16,885,755 and divide that by the total budget of $166,457,113, that would equal 10.1% of the budget.

But how about we consider an analysis of total firefighter costs which include the cost of all personnel line items, including overtime, sick pay, uniform allowance and all other compensation, active and retired firefighter healthcare costs, pension cost, services line items, commodity, capital expense and principal and interest line items?

Well guess what I did that and here are the results.

In 2004 all these expenses added up to a total cost of $28.6 million. Dividing the total number of firefighters of 213 at the time by that cost equals a per-firefighter cost of $134,515.

Based on the mayor’s proposed 2020 fiscal budget document, the total cost is projected to be $52.3 million. Dividing the total number of firefighters of 193 by that cost equals a per-firefighter cost of $271,089.

That means per-firefighter cost has increased 201 percent in 16 years from $134K to $271K.

As a percent of the overall fiscal 2020 proposed budget of $165,900,428, the firefighter budget represents 31.5 percent of the city budget.

To be fair if we subtract the $3.1 million from rescue fees, that leaves the total cost at $52.3 - $3.1 = $49.2 million / 193 firefighters = $255K per firefighter.

It also equates to 29.6 Percent of the overall budget.