Austin City Council once again votes to prioritize much-needed AFD ladder truck staffing
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After a KXAN report found Austin was behind other growing cities in bringing new ladder trucks online to match population growth, the problem still remains. This week Austin City Council once again voted to prioritize staffing for those trucks.
"After excellent reporting by KXAN, I learned that there was a purchase that had been made in 1995, that was the last time that we purchased an aerial fire truck for the city of Austin," said Council Member Mackenzie Kelly of District 6.
Council Member Kelly worked at least one new truck into last year's budget as a result. But staffing for that truck, and another that was intended to be brought online, has remained in limbo despite a unanimous push from city council to get it done.
"It does us no good to have a truck with nobody to be able to be on it," Kelly said.
This week, Austin City Council once again directed the city manager to prioritize funding to permanently staff those units, by no later than next fiscal year. Chief Bob Nicks, the president of the Austin Firefighters Association, says with a new city manager at the helm, he's confident it will get done this time.
"They have a lot of different priorities to juggle, and they're being pulled by different ways on that and regardless of all that past action, now's the time to do something about it," Chief Nicks said.
We've told you previously that this issue also has a trickle-down effect on AFD staffing. A memo obtained by KXAN last year found the department's wildfire battalion was not able to expand as planned because AFD ties its highest tactical crews to those aerial units.
"We don't have enough captains in the wildfire division to even train those firefighters well, because that's our delivery model," Chief Nicks said. "The captains provide most of the training. So from a tactical standpoint, way behind. From administrative and training standpoint, way behind. It's just time we do something about this."