Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 12:45 p.m. (Denver time), Parr-Widener Community Room, Room 389
0:30 Pretty funny yesterday that
0:32 afternoon and welcome 3 of our
0:34 budget hearings this
0:37 afternoon. We having runs from
0:40 Denver fire department as well
0:41 Denver Sheriff's Department
0:43 offer something for fire
0:44 department. But before we roll
0:47 into the presentations on
0:47 mining Sarah Watson, I'm
0:48 honored to serve as the chair
0:49 of the Safety Committee as
0:51 well as a facilitator for
0:53 today's discussion. Tom and I
0:55 wonder serve on the road. The
0:57 in the fine District 9 was
0:58 over. Brief introductions from
0:59 folks are on the table. And
1:00 and folks online starting
1:04 right. Emily Garnet chief
1:05 operating officer morning's
1:09 Dan First Perfect 10. Think it
1:10 district 7 afternoon, Kevin
1:17 Southwest numbers District.
1:24 Just 6 and a part Union fight
1:25 Florida. This is not a Amanda
1:29 Sawyer District. I Nats and
1:31 funding to a standard district
1:32 cultivating chief financial
1:37 officer. I just the Mayor it's
1:42 like to run that. Doing a
1:44 teacher pause because anyone
1:46 online by chance because Paul
1:47 Kashmann South Denver district
1:52 6. Councilmember Cashman
1:53 hello, Diana Romero, Campbell,
1:55 Southeast Denver District
1:56 Court. All right. Thank you
2:02 all so much for being here.
2:02 Thank you so much for being
2:02 prepared Denver Fire
2:05 Department. We have your
2:07 presentation from 45 on till
2:07 above to one 30 on. So the
2:12 floor is yours. One. 45
2:16 actually have to for And
2:21 second myself to time as so
2:22 good afternoon, everybody.
2:24 First of all, city council
2:24 members, thank you very much
2:26 allowing me to be here to
2:28 present the 2027 proposed
2:29 budget for Denver Fire
2:31 Department. Looking forward to
2:34 it. My name is Kathleen
2:34 Fredenberg on the deputy chief
2:38 of Denver. Fire Department. So
2:39 jump right into it. I want to
2:42 back just a little bit. So
2:43 that everybody is clear about
2:44 where the Denver Fire
2:46 Department stands in priority.
2:47 And that's through our mission
2:49 and through our vision. And
2:50 it's very simply in our
2:51 mission, desire to serve
2:53 courage, to act, ability to
2:54 perform. And we make our
2:55 decisions based off of of
2:58 that, base model. You're going
2:59 to see consistent theme
3:01 throughout this presentation
3:05 and that's going to be around
3:08 3 things. One, is there a
3:09 prioritization of emergency
3:10 response to our communities,
3:12 making sure it's fully
3:13 resourced and being fully
3:16 resourced. That means fully
3:17 staffed and our firehouse is
3:20 staffed. 24 hours a day. And
3:22 also public safety oversight,
3:24 which is about ensuring safety
3:24 related to the buildings are
3:28 public goes in and that's your
3:30 permitting and inspection
3:31 programs and and bolstering
3:36 that for 2027. So for
3:38 strategic priorities for
3:39 Twenty-twenty 7. Right now
3:41 we're going through our 5 5
3:44 year review through insurance
3:46 services offices. I s o this
3:50 is an entity that evaluate
3:50 some reviews, fire departments
3:54 for their capability
3:55 preparedness for response, the
3:59 things they look at relate to
4:00 where our fire hydrants. Do we
4:01 have enough water going to the
4:02 fire hydrants? Do we have high
4:03 rises? Do we do we follow code
4:05 enforcement around that? Do
4:06 are we prepared with our
4:09 training? Do we have proper
4:10 apparatus? The proper amount
4:13 of people going to and
4:14 incidents to create what they
4:16 call an effective response
4:17 force for us. We're currently
4:18 iso one. That's the highest
4:21 rating that you can get. We
4:24 also happen to be one of the
4:26 133 fire departments in the
4:28 U.S. That are also nationally
4:29 accredited. And so to me that
4:32 evidence is our commitment to
4:36 commitment towards continued
4:36 excellence. But then also our
4:39 progress and improvement.
4:39 Which brings me to the second
4:40 one, which is a realignment
4:41 for response time models. I
4:44 think that we've realized that
4:45 we need to stay progressive,
4:46 more looking holistically,
4:51 especially rent, ems response.
4:53 With we're giving complete and
4:54 holistic response to someone's
4:57 needs when they call for an
4:58 ems emergency recognizing that
5:00 we partnered with. And then
5:02 when Communications Department
5:04 of Safety, Denver, Health,
5:05 paramedics division so that we
5:07 are encompassing all a lesson
5:08 bls resources and it's down to
5:12 the line of right resource,
5:13 right time, making sure that
5:13 we have proper resources for
5:16 the highest acuity type
5:19 emergencies in the ems world.
5:20 You all as city council
5:22 members will be getting
5:23 individual meetings with Xi
5:24 Fulton and also Chief Harper
5:26 with Denver Health to talk
5:28 with you about it. More as
5:31 it's in process. It is being
5:35 created right now. We're
5:35 working through the
5:36 technological part of that,
5:37 which has its challenges.
5:38 We're hopeful to pilot it in
5:40 the end of this year and hopes
5:44 to put it into into action
5:47 activated in 2027 once we've
5:48 had a chance to test it and
5:48 make sure that it's safe and
5:50 where fully prepared to
5:54 execute it. Also during our
5:55 pilot for clarity, we're going
5:57 to be doing the pilot and
5:58 simultaneously continuing to
5:59 track our data based current
6:03 response time goals. And last
6:04 want to continue to prioritize
6:08 our member wellness that we
6:09 have new technology that
6:10 allows us to have anonymous
6:13 collection of information and
6:15 that over alleged to tunnel.
6:17 Access will tell us some of
6:18 the things that causing our
6:20 members to be Knecht. You all.
6:22 You all know because I've
6:25 heard she tell you the
6:26 occupation of firefighting is
6:28 amongst the highest for injury
6:29 ratings. So we're trying to
6:33 find ways that we can utilize
6:33 the information we gather so
6:36 that we're cutting down on
6:38 lost work, calling in sick and
6:45 retention. So again, as I said
6:46 earlier, our budget philosophy
6:49 or 3 core things, one is
6:50 keeping high-quality emergency
6:51 response to all areas of the
6:54 city. Focusing on our
6:55 permitting and compliance or
6:57 permitting programming in
6:58 compliance so that we are
7:00 making sure our buildings are
7:02 safe and then maintaining our
7:02 employee wellness so that
7:04 we're fully prepared and
7:07 responsive to the community's
7:12 Our equity considerations
7:13 obviously maintaining response
7:13 times through data. We're
7:14 going to be confirming that
7:16 we're doing that in an
7:17 equitable way consistently
7:19 throughout all of the areas of
7:21 our city will continue our
7:22 recruitment efforts to make
7:25 sure that we have a diverse
7:26 workforce that mirrors the
7:28 community that we're serving.
7:31 Some examples of that station
7:33 This is Councilmember
7:35 Gilmore's area. We're building
7:36 a new station there and it
7:37 will hopefully done by the end
7:41 of the year. It is one that
7:43 will fill that gap in an area
7:49 that is otherwise underserved.
7:52 This is our current agency
7:53 structure, green and blue. Our
7:54 current command staff. If you
7:57 recall last year, we blended
7:59 one of our divisions to be
8:00 administration and training.
8:00 So we're 5 divisions instead
8:04 6. Now. Our performance
8:09 metrics. So there's 2 things
8:10 that we're looking at here.
8:11 One is your turn out time,
8:12 which is the time in which
8:14 takes a firefighter from the
8:15 time they received a call in
8:17 the vocal arm in the firehouse
8:19 to get on the get their stuff
8:20 together and get out the door.
8:24 That's a 60nd standard. We've
8:25 pretty consistently stayed at
8:27 about 90% compliance, which is
8:30 great and also I compared it
8:33 with the Times in which were
8:34 being judged when we're
8:35 responding to what's called an
8:35 ideal age environment in
8:38 immediately dangerous to life
8:39 and health. We're allowed 80
8:40 seconds for that. And that
8:43 would be things that are
8:44 hazmat structure, fires,
8:44 things where we have to put
8:46 are bunking here on before we
8:48 leave and we are about the
8:49 same 90% compliant in that as
8:53 well. The second part is the
8:53 drive time. It's the time from
8:54 when we leave from the
8:55 firehouse to the time that we
8:59 arrive on scene and right now
9:02 we are steady at about 63%
9:11 compliance and that metric. So
9:12 2027 funding sources. So for
9:14 the general fund, we are
9:16 between operations and
9:17 administration at about
9:21 165 Million. That's for 959.
9:25 Ft ease firefighters. We have
9:26 a wild Land Special Revenue
9:28 Fund which is a fee for
9:30 services fund that funding
9:34 about 15 ft. Ease. And then we
9:36 of course, ended an internal
9:38 billings for our PRESIDENT,
9:39 sat down for about 137 fte is
9:41 at 26 Million. And then our
9:47 fire pension fund so I would
9:48 imagine you're hearing the
9:49 same thing from all of us that
9:52 our primary cause. Does people
9:55 salary and benefits. And that
9:58 is about 97% of our budget.
9:59 What you see below that is the
10:01 4 million for services and
10:03 supplies. I guess I'm giving
10:05 fair warning. That will be
10:06 something want to talk about
10:10 more because that has dwindled
10:11 lower over the last few years.
10:12 But we're finding that the
10:13 things we use it for like
10:16 urban can gear our fire hose
10:17 cb Azar medical supplies are
10:19 the gloves we wear is rising
10:21 in cost. So the way we're
10:24 going to talk to you about
10:25 that personnel changes were
10:28 not going to be adding or
10:31 deleting people. We will be
10:31 reallocating people. We're
10:32 going to change their
10:34 assignments. So they'll be 11
10:39 people who will be moving from
10:39 support assignments to
10:40 operation supine assignments.
10:41 Nats with the goal of lowering
10:43 over time. Also, they'll be
10:44 one reallocation of an
10:46 operations position that's
10:46 already within wild land that
10:48 we're moving to an admin
10:49 position totaling one 65.0 1
10:55 million. All right. So here's
10:57 the comparison of the General
11:01 Fund versus our staffing. You
11:02 will see that our staffing
11:03 will stay primarily the same
11:04 this year and next year at
11:08 about 959 for authorized
11:09 strength and that our csa
11:12 staffing is at 41, which is
11:13 has gone down a little bit
11:16 from 2025. The reasoning. And
11:17 that has to do with the fact
11:19 that we have re allocated some
11:22 of the csa employees from like
11:23 the department, our finance
11:25 department over underneath the
11:28 director of safety's office
11:32 and also revenue collection
11:33 position is now under under
11:38 the Wild Land Budget. So
11:39 addressing City Council
11:47 priorities. 3 things. Ensuring
11:48 that we're going to be giving
11:51 you the highest quality of
11:51 emergency response with the
11:53 highest quality staffing that
11:55 we can. And that's for us. And
11:58 for Dan, it's for continuing
12:01 to bolster Wild land program.
12:02 Believe it or not, there is
12:04 some well then interface
12:05 between Denver. We've got a
12:08 very robust wildland team.
12:10 It's good for us to be looking
12:10 at how we can be utilizing
12:13 that here in our city as well
12:14 and continuing that program.
12:15 So we'll keep that about as it
12:18 relates to community safety.
12:20 And also as they spoke about
12:21 before with permitting and
12:22 inspections. And that's
12:23 keeping our buildings, people
12:25 healthy within buildings,
12:29 making sure that we have
12:33 compliance around the areas we
12:34 can control prior to it
12:38 becoming an actual incident.
12:39 So what is staying the same
12:43 and what is changing?
12:44 Obviously, our core protection
12:45 services to the community
12:46 community are staying the
12:47 same. We're not reducing any
12:50 budgeting. No ft ease. I'm
12:51 sorry. No budget uniform fte
12:56 is from Dan. We're going to be
12:56 staffing for firefighters on
12:57 every apparatus as we have
13:00 done that will remain. The
13:04 mayor has committed to that
13:05 mayor with the director of
13:08 leadership see the importance
13:08 safety, our union in our
13:11 of a foreperson staffing in
13:14 order to be as effective as we
13:16 as we can be for our
13:19 communities. And then again,
13:19 Oliver fired course. Houses
13:20 are going to remain fully
13:24 open. 24 hours a day with no
13:28 closed ranks. What's changing?
13:30 So there's going to be there
13:30 was a proposed revenue
13:32 increase for permits that
13:35 actually took place in JULY.
13:37 We haven't. It just basically
13:38 began, but they'll be an
13:40 increase in those. And then
13:42 projected increase in volume.
13:44 We're working on keeping that
13:47 area fully staffed. And we've
13:49 added in instead of just
13:52 relying on civilian staffer,
13:54 professional staff. We're now
13:55 allocating so sworn staff. So
13:58 we have overlap in our
13:59 permitting areas. So we make
14:00 sure that we remain staffed
14:02 and we don't have any legs.
14:02 That was a challenge that we
14:08 had in the last year.
14:09 Additionally typically we
14:10 would have to academies per
14:13 year to make up for recidivism
14:14 this year. It's going to be a
14:15 little bit different. We will
14:19 be hosting an 18 person fire
14:20 recruit Academy in 2027 and it
14:21 will be a split funding
14:33 between Dan and for services.
14:36 So as it relates to fire
14:37 Suppression Administration
14:39 services, which is our support
14:42 units and down the first top 3
14:46 are all related to
14:48 reallocations to fill the 26
14:49 27 collective bargaining
14:52 agreement. And then the last
14:55 wild land fires reimbursement
14:57 fee program. That is a
14:58 reallocation of wild, an
15:03 eligible funding that would go
15:04 from the general fund to are
15:07 Wild Land Fund because while
15:08 planned related basically
15:10 staffing over time. Those type
15:19 of items. Then moving on to
15:19 General Fund budget change
15:23 summary. They'll be a 1.1
15:25 million dollar expansion.
15:26 That's for Dan to cover the 26
15:29 27 collective bargaining
15:31 agreement. Then the
15:34 reallocation of that's for
15:35 personal expenditures. And
15:36 that's going from the general
15:40 fund to wild land. Then
15:42 revenue. We are projecting an
15:42 increase 7, it revenue around
15:46 permitting and licensing
15:48 inspections because we have
15:50 we're going to increase our
15:51 staffing. But then also we're