Ball State students and Muncie citizens should not be worried about fire department cuts, said Muncie Mayor Sharon McShurley.
The mayor and the fire department are involved in a public disagreement about how the city and the fire department should respond to budget cuts.
Muncie Fire Chief Sean Burcham said recently that people "should be worried" about the pending layoff of 40 of the city's 109 firefighters.
McShurley said such warnings are overblown.
"I believe we can overcome this dilemma and we will still be able to provide fire protection to the city of Muncie," she said.
Muncie is in the midst of a budget crisis. McShurley said she asked the city council for additional revenue last year, warning the council that if they did not provide more money, serious cuts would be necessary. She said it provided no new revenue.
Muncie residents found out in May that the city would have to cut more than $2 million from its budget or face bankruptcy by November. McShurley said she asked the police and fire departments, which make up about 80 percent of the city's general fund budget, to each cut $1 million.
The mayor said the police department made the cuts and the fire department did not. She said this forced her to find cuts herself. The mayor declared an economic state of emergency, which allowed her to lay off firefighters.
McShurley said she warned city departments last year that the city would be facing difficult times.
She said she asked the former fire chief Eric Wilson to stop filling empty positions and decrease the budget through attrition. She said she warned him that new hires would have to be laid off in the future. She also said she warned him that the severence pay of new hires would force additional lay offs. She said the department hired people after these warnings.
Deputy Mayor Dick Shirey said the mayor took issue with Wilson's decision to continue hiring people at a staff meeting in March 2008. He said the fire department hired six people after this. Wilson was demoted in March 2009.
Firefighter union president Mike Whited said he was never told that more hiring would mean more layoffs.
A group calling itself the Community Action Committee has an alternative plan that recommends merging the Muncie Fire Department and the Center Township Volunteer Fire Department. Whited and Center Township Trustee Kay Walker both said they support the plan. The mayor said she met with this group on Tuesday. McShurley said the city can't accept the plan. She said the biggest hang up is Walker's insistence that Muncie commit to minimum staffing of 26 firefighters per shift. She said the city doesn't know what its budget will be in the future and could not commit to a minimum number. She also said the city couldn't borrow money to buy out firefighter's retirements.
McShurley said the city is considering longer-term changes to the fire department. She said one option is to establish a fire territory or district with other government units. She said another option may be to cross-train police and firefighters to do both jobs.
McShurley said the county and other local governments are being impacted and will have to make tough decisions.
"The real survivors are going to be the ones that are able to pull their resources together and put their heads together to come up with ways to provide public safety, but do it with less money," she said.
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