Lane Fire Authority cuts wildfire staffing, reduces ambulances following levy defeat

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated when the current levy expired.

Among the reduced services announced by Lane Fire Authority after its proposed levy increase failed to pass in the May election: cuts to summer wildfire staffing.

The rural fire district announced its budget reduction plan, including staff and service cuts, Tuesday, June 30. The authority also worked with the firefighters union, IAFF Local 851, to voluntarily reopen their labor agreement and make concessions to previously negotiated benefits, according to a post on Lane Fire Authority’s Facebook page. 

The personnel reductions and contract concessions, which include wage freezes and reduced time off, are expected to save the authority $1 million in the 2026-27 budget year, which began Wednesday, July 1. The district provides fire and emergency medical services to western Lane County and has 15 fire stations in communities including Santa Clara, Elmira, Noti, Walton, Veneta and Crow.

Lane Fire Authority has twice put a measure on the ballot asking voters to approve a new levy that increases the rate 20 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value to help fund the district.

Voters rejected the measure both times, last November and again in May. The current levy of 35 cents per $1,000, expired June 30.

The November measure was defeated 53.2% to 46.7%, with 6,674 votes cast. About 3,000 more people voted in May, when the measure lost 52.2% to 47.8%. 

Fire Chief Dale Borland has said Lane Fire Authority’s permanent tax rate is not keeping pace with the district’s cost of service, as calls increase and volunteer numbers decrease. 

Lane Fire Authority tries for levy increase again, after defeat by voters in November

Wildfire staffing

The Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office established a grant in 2022 to help fire agencies pay for additional staffing during the wildfire season. Lane Fire Authority received that $35,000 grant for the first two years, “and we saw that it was really a huge benefit,” Assistant Fire Chief Rose Douglass told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. 

“One of the number one things that the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office and Lane Fire Authority really want is to keep these wildland fires small, keep them contained before they go into a large operation that requires conflagration and state of emergencies and all that,” Douglass said. “So, really being able to get boots on the ground and apparatus to these fires, which Lane Fire Authority has a very large area of that wildland urban interface, is the number one goal.”

After not receiving the grant in 2024, Lane Fire Authority elected to pay for wildfire staffing out of its own budget, dedicating the same amount as the grant. She said the district applied for but did not receive the grant this year. 

“We were hoping to be able to keep that this year with our own budget, but unfortunately, we had to cut that,” she said. “We’re unable to fund it. So there’s no wildland up-staffing for the summer.

“We have the staffing we have, and we’ll do our best to respond to those fires and keep them small,” Douglass said.

Ambulance service

The fire district is also removing an additional peak-hour ambulance from service; it removed one earlier this year. Two 24-hour advanced life support ambulances remain in service. 

“We have two less ambulances during busy times, which means there could be longer wait times for folks calling 911,” Douglass said. 

She said that also means fire engines might stay on scene longer if they respond to a call and are waiting for an ambulance, which could lead to longer wait times for engines as well. 

Additionally, she said that the ambulance was staffed with single-role paramedics, while the others are staffed with firefighter/paramedics. That means that during big calls, firefighters can shift from ambulances to engines. 

With one less single-role ambulance in service, “our other ambulances are more likely to be on calls, so it can also reduce the number of fire suppression apparatus we’re able to get to calls.”

District leaders have previously said medical emergencies account for about 80% of Lane Fire Authority’s calls.

Staffing reductions 

Ahead of the election, district leaders chose not to fill vacancies in order to mitigate involuntary layoffs if the levy didn’t pass. 

Douglass said Lane Fire Authority is down 10 positions from what the district budgeted for last year. She said staff reductions were predominantly made through employees taking jobs elsewhere or through retirement and then reassigning employees. 

She said one maintenance employee took another job after being notified that they would be laid off and one part-time paramedic was laid off. 

In its post, the district said that employee concessions, retirements and restructuring has meant fewer layoffs than originally expected. 

The fire authority plans to hire for some “critical emergency response positions” made vacant by retirements. After the hiring process is complete, the district will operate with six fewer full-time positions and three fewer part-time positions than before the levy failure.

“In other words, while some critical vacancies will be filled, many positions have been permanently eliminated as part of the organization’s long-term budget reduction strategy,” the post states.

Positions that have been eliminated or reduced include fire and emergency medical training positions, maintenance positions, multiple single-role paramedics, a public information officer and an executive secretary.

No union employees are being laid off at this time, said Brett Deedon, president of Lane Professional Firefighters Local 851. He said some have voluntarily left the district. 

“One of the difficult pieces when the levy failed was to come back to the negotiating table and try to figure out how things move forward,” Deedon told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. 

He said it became clear there were two options. 

“One was to try to maintain the current benefits that members have and wages, which would then result in more than a third of the department potentially losing their jobs, or making major concessions,” Deedon said. “LFA members elected to take those pretty significant concessions at this time to try to protect jobs and service to the community.”

The concessions include wage freezes for the next year, reduced vacation time and the elimination of comp time. 

Deedon said the standard work week for Lane Fire Authority members is 56 hours, “so to have those benefits reduced significantly or taken away is kind of a huge hit to their mental and physical well-being to get the time off that they need.”

While it was a difficult conversation, he said, union membership voted “overwhelmingly” to accept the negotiated contract. 

He said Lane Fire Authority is in transition as it moves from a primarily volunteer-based organization to a paid organization.

“As the community looks to understand what service levels they need and can afford, we’ll continue to have that conversation of what it looks like to be able to have a balance between what the needs of the community are and the well-being of membership,” Deedon said.

Other reduced services 

The district also announced it will no longer offer public CPR classes, portable fire extinguisher training, defensible space assessments, community presentations, school programs, station tours and field trips.

The district said it did not host a spring volunteer academy and will not be hosting one this fall.