Budget Cuts Will Impede EMS Expansion, Chief Says

D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said yesterday that the nearly $3 million in cuts to his fiscal 2009 budget "has us really worried" because it will slow the expansion of some emergency medical programs.

"There was no fat in our budget," Rubin said. "We're going to have to cut into the bone."

The D.C. Council amended and approved Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's $5.7 billion spending plan for fiscal 2009. After reductions, the fire department budget was $187 million. The police department's budget was reduced by $2.5 million, prompting Chief Cathy L. Lanier to write a letter of protest last week to council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who heads the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.

Mendelson said he thinks the budgets for both agencies are adequate.

"They have a very weak case," he said of the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services. "We have added to that department year after year."

This year's budget for the department is 4.4 percent higher than last year's, which was $179 million.

Still, Rubin said the belt-tightening means he will not be able to hire four high-level chiefs to supervise emergency services around the clock, oversight that he said is sorely needed. He also will not expand the department's "street call" program, which targets residents who need medicine and simple medical procedures.

Rubin said he wanted to hire the additional chiefs to keep a closer watch on medical services and "ensure the Rosenbaum situation is never revisited." David E. Rosenbaum was a retired New York Times reporter whom rescue workers mistakenly treated as a drunk after he was mugged on a Northwest Washington street in 2006. The ambulance got lost on the way to the scene, and Rosenbaum died at Howard University Hospital.

Mendelson said the cuts to the fire budget are based on the theory that money can be saved because of the vacancies the department will have during the year. The department has about 2,400 employees and 100 vacancies, with 150 more in the pipeline, Mendelson said.

Rubin said other programs that will not be funded from the budget include giveaways of smoke detectors, which he will have to fund with grants.

"To say we're disappointed would be an understatement," he said.