California Firefighters Face Possible Layoffs

The Shasta Lake City Council this week will hear the town’s fire chief explain why the department must eliminate almost half of its nine paid positions.

The council will take up the issue at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday in the council chambers at 4488 Red Bluff St., according to agenda documents.

Fire Chief Dennis Beck will provide a report on the Shasta Lake Fire Protection District’s budget, which he says without layoffs would go into the red by October.

“When the housing market crashed in 2008 so did our income,” he said in a seven-page report submitted to the council. Beck did not return requests for comment.

According to his report, the district will have about $260,770 on hand as it ends the fiscal year, owing in part to a one-time transfer and incoming property tax revenue.

However, the district will dip into these funds to pay for bills and payroll while receiving much less tax revenue, through December, he wrote in his report.

The district will have to take out loans, but how large those are and how soon they must be obtained depends on how many positions are eliminated, Beck wrote.

With the layoffs and elimination of a vacant battalion chief position, the district will have to borrow $150,000 in October.

But if the district retains personnel, it will need $300,000 in August.

In both cases, about two-thirds of the loans would be used to get the district through December, Beck wrote. Eliminating the positions would save the district a total of $355,200 and reduce the monthly payroll by about $29,700 each month. However, a hand-drawn graphic included in his report shows the district’s coffers moving back into the black in early 2016 to $406,000 with layoffs, while it increases to only $306,000 without the layoffs.

By Dec. 2016, however, the layoffs lead to a difference of about $218,000 between the two options – without the layoffs, the district winds up about $175,000 in the hole, versus a positive $43,000.

Beck did not include any other documents elaborating on the funding beyond December 2016.