Some Heat But No Fire in Ocean City Budget Workshop

A City Council workshop on police and fire department budgets on Thursday offered little of the drama that might have seemed imminent when the first half of the meeting on Nov. 14 was cut short before the public could comment.

A full house of firefighters attended the November meeting to hear Ocean City Fire Chief Chris Breunig propose reallocating three firefighting positions to create three new positions: fire inspector, training officer and community education coordinator.

Breunig also proposed hiring a pool seasonal EMTs to help reduce overtime costs in the department. (Read more about his proposal.)

About 20 firefighters attended Thursday's workshop, but only John Murphy, the president of the Ocean City firefighters union, spoke.

"Taking three guys off the street to put them into staff offices is wrong," Murphy said. "The trend is to take them out of the office and put them in the street."

He said the proposal raises contractual issues and that the duties of the new positions could be handled by existing administrative staff.

Murphy called overtime a separate issue and said the union is willing to sit down and discuss ways the city can save on costs.

"I don't disagree with the end game. I just think it needs to be vetted out a little better," Murphy said after the meeting.

At issue in the workshop discussion was a fire department of 62 and a police department of 58 full-time officers and 40 seasonal officers in a resort town that houses as many as 150,000 people on a summer weekend but has just 11,701 year-round residents. 

Councilman Keith Hartzell, who with Councilman Scott Ping had called for more dramatic staffing changes, seemed pleased with what he called "a baby-step approach" that maintained a strong department with some savings.

"The bottom line is we're trying to save tax dollars," Councilman Scott Ping said. "We don't want to have to get in a position where people lose jobs."

Eight other members of the public spoke on Thursday, offering various ideas and observations on public safety in Ocean City.

The workshop was part of the 2014 budget process. It started last month with Breunig and Police Chief Chad Callahan making presentations to City Council explaining current staffing and operations and plans for the future.

Because the presentations ran so long, the two-hour workshop was adjourned before public comment could be made.

See the full presentations:

• Ocean City Fire and Rescue Services
• Ocean City Beach Patrol
• Federal Government Surplus
• Ocean City Police Services