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A city that does not properly fund public safety is a failed City. Yakima's been in a state of failure for decades. Current leadership hasn't done anything to address the issue, only exasperate it. Some complain about the salaries for firefighters, suggesting they get paid less or go to volunteers. You can pay them here or they will go somewhere else. It's that simple. A city with 100,000 people running off of a volunteer system? Good luck with that. The financial hole didn't start yesterday, this has been a known problem for a long time and the people in positions to do something about it, didn't.

Does it make sense that the budget for fire is larger than the budget for police? Much of this budget problem has been caused by previous city managers giving too much away to the fire union. Look at the salaries of our firefighters and you will see the issue. They are bankrupting our city. We should have volunteers like most other fire departments do. It’s an anomaly that we don’t and the excuses are extremely weak.

Damn, it's like deja vu all over again! FYI: I'm a retired YFD firefighter/EMT. Years of service, 1977-2002. When I started on the job YFD had 5 Stations. 2 crews at Station #1 (#91), an engine company and a truck company. The Battalion Chief had a driver, which meant an extra firefighter at every fire call. A 3 FF engine company is an absolute bare minimum. The NFPA standard is a 4 FF engine company.

Kirstan Opsahl

Why Don’t We Have a Volunteer City Council? Because no one’s lining up to do a high-responsibility, high-impact job for free. Sound familiar? Firefighters risk their lives every day. They face trauma, strain their health, miss time with loved ones, and carry the weight of protecting an entire community. There’s a reason so few are willing to “volunteer” for that role, and why relying on a volunteer fire department isn’t just unrealistic, it’s unsafe. Let’s be clear: “Volunteer” means “not guaranteed.” • Not guaranteed coverage for fires or medical emergencies. • Not guaranteed compliance with safety standards or staffing requirements. • Not guaranteed availability when seconds count. But that was Matt Brown’s solution—just use volunteers. He didn’t have to leave his house to spread false narratives about “West Side volunteer departments” at a City Council meeting. Meanwhile, career firefighters leave their homes and families.. for real.. to save lives. And volunteer programs? They aren’t free. • Training costs • Equipment and safety gear (bunker gear, SCBAs, PPE) • And the biggest cost: No requirement to show up. Volunteers can choose whether to respond. And if not enough do, nothing happens. And here’s the kicker: When fire protection drops, your insurance rates rise. You might save a few dollars in taxes… only to lose hundreds (or thousands) more in increased premiums. Not to mention the risk to lives, homes, and entire neighborhoods. Let’s stop pretending that life saving emergency services should be run on donations and crossed fingers.

2010 City Management wanted to make significant cuts to YFD. I received a letter from the City Manager Zais notifying me my job at YFD wouldn’t be funded. Ultimately the union negotiated and gave back money to avoid lay offs. It’s my understanding the city has not reduced its population in 15 years and YFD has not increased staffing in that time. These proposed cuts are larger than the proposed cuts back then. It appears Yakima has a management problem more than anything else, and as usual they will again try to squeeze an already understaffed Fire Dept even more.

Funding has to come from somewhere it's true but the solution to a budget crisis is never less staffing. We can't say we want them to come and save us but we don't want to pay them. We can't say risk your life for my family but not give them the people and resources to be successful.We can't ask them to risk their lives if we aren't willing to make sacrafices and compromises. YFD has done more with less for years. I can promise you they are worth it. Their expertise matters, they saves lives and they are always coming to help you. Don't treat them like they are just a line item on a budget. Do better Yakima.

City Council always does this. They DON'T care. As long as they can keep their own pay increases . ( "ALL is GOOD")

They shouldn't have taken it from West Valley in the first place. They just wanted our tax base! Give it back to West valley. They know how to run a department.

Why does the city of Yakima want to keep expanding to the wv fire district? Station 51 is closer to all these calls that will have a shorter response time.!?!

This is BS! I pray there will be NO cuts to YFD! Maybe a vote is needed to cut city council's pocket books.

To all my Yakima friends. I understand budget issues affect us all. But under staffing and under budgeting your fire department not only puts you at risk but seriously puts your city infrastructure at risk. Failing to protect your city it will become another Detroit. Ask your city council how long do burned up buildings sit vacant? How many businesses never recover? How many lives are lost to save a dollar? How many people have to move from your city because they have no place to live? Or better yet how many of them become just homeless? Has the city done a complete risk analysis to see how this will affect the city?

So what can we do as a community to help this NOT happen?

And they keep annexing and approving house construction..saying they can provide good service.

John Bauer Jr. City council members have their own pet projects they would rather fund. I mean, they have built 3 round abouts so far this year. Those are not as necessary as fire fighters & LEO's.

Yakima City Council is a joke. Imagine having someone on the council that calls 911 because there are people asking for signatures for a bill outside a grocery store. Ya, that happened here, and she's still on the council!!!!

Everyone go to the last council meeting and watch it. The fire chief not only was unprofessional, lying, and practicing complete insubordination of his duties, but also openly admitted that he wants his greed and his greedy buddies who all make $130,000 to near a half a million because he is dipping into a $1,700,000 overtime budget for what he self describes as his refusal to want to allow Yakima community young folks between ages of 18-30 215 of them to be exact, the ability to learn, be trained in emt and fire fighter duties and possibly be part of their community safety or potential future career because he’s refusing to take a 10% pay cut….. btw the lower paid individual on that 1.7 million dollars is just above $124,000…. Everyone including himself would see still 6 figures however 215 could potentially be hired on all Yakima citizens if they would just quit with the narcissistic scare tactics and greedy behavior which is discriminatory against our fellow youth all so they have a fatter wallet, you less safety, and your kid not able to become a fire fighter. 94% of you don’t even make 6 figures with your spouses……. Combined…. Don’t you want your kids to become a fire fighter….. Demand they put the fire chief on leave and take a pay cut and end all discriminatory practices immediately!

You know how this could all be solved… if all of you took a 10% pay decrease. No stations would be cut. Safety takes up 82% of the city budget. Also add some volunteers. “It really wouldn’t take 5 to do the performance of one paid firefighter.” That quote from the fire chief was an embarrassment to every volunteer firefighter that I know.

Dear City Council, Why are we going through this AGAIN?? How do you not understand how much we need our firefighters, especially in light of the devastating effects of our current situation already?? It's dumbfounding to me that folks in your position can possibly look at the current situation of our community and think it's a GOOD idea to cutback on First Responders! Hello??!! Are you seriously NOT paying attention? Because I can guarantee you that the community is! And quite frankly, we are getting fed up with the decisions the city council is making on behalf of our community. You are clearly NOT putting the greater good ahead of your own desires or motives. Yakima is in dire straights and we fought this fight last year. The fact that we are having to do it AGAIN is absolutely ridiculous! Backing our firefighters and our First Responders ALL THE WAY and I suggest you do too! It's the right thing to do and it's what our community NEEDS!!

City council has some incredibly stupid people. We live in a tinderbox. We need more fire fighters, not less.

Pull your head out of your asses Yakima council! You guys have run this dept. understaffed for years already! Will it take your family trapped in a house fire to understand how disastrous this is?

Noooooooo!