(The Center Square) – The Spokane Fire Department is anticipating budget challenges ahead of 2026 that could impact service levels, with overtime costs currently 24% higher than last year.
Fire Chief Julie O’Berg told the Spokane City Council on Monday that her department may have as many as 20 vacancies by the end of the week. SFD has averaged eight to 15 every week this year, but she said it’s now rising due to a shallow relief pool after canceling the 2024 academy.
Spokane closed a $25 million deficit ahead of 2025, partially offset by $750,000 in savings from cutting last year’s recruit school. Now, overtime costs are compounding as people take medical leave and others retire, despite SFD cutting overtime costs by 6% last year compared to 2023.
“A healthy relief pool is the solution,” O’Berg said. “The reason [last year] was looking better is we were moving towards that healthy relief pool size — 2024 — we didn’t do that recruit school.”
She said staffing levels are comparable to 2023, a low point for SFD in terms of overtime. The department averaged 284 full-time equivalents in 2023, rising to 302 FTEs last year, which has since fallen to 293 personnel. O’Berg called it the cost of helping the city close the deficit.
The first academy of 2025 is almost over, so O’berg plans to deploy six recruits next week while the other four complete Emergency Medical Technician training. However, those recruits are already filling FTEs, so O’berg said SFD will still have 20 vacancies at the end of the week.
Spokane tracks overtime by pay period. The chief said at the end of period 10, which wrapped up on May 10, overtime costs were up 24% over that time last year. O’Berg said wages are also higher than in 2023, which is adding up after logging 32% more overtime than this time in 2024.
“In 2026, we’re now facing a $6 million shortfall,” Councilmember Michael Cathcart said. “There will be significant impacts and challenging decisions we have to make; and so to that end, whether it’s it’s the relief pool or other reforms, is there sort of some work being done behind the scenes right now to look at other ways to mitigate for those costs, particularly in [2026]?”
O’berg said that not a day goes by without her team considering how their decisions may impact the budget and overtime. Some of her staff are working on showing the council how much of the budget is contractually obligated. O’Berg has little control, so she said cuts will reduce services.
Despite SFD saving 6% in overtime costs last year compared to 2023, the department exceeded its annual overtime budget by 22% in 2024. The council allocated $3.2 million for overtime through 2026, but Cathcart advocated for more in November to avoid future cuts they now face.
“There’s some hard questions that all of us have to ask,” O’Berg said Monday.
