(The Center Square) – Spokane Fire Department Chief Brian Schaeffer opened the public safety portion of the city council’s weekly study session by thanking the council for their prior support. Support that Schaeffer says helped alleviate staffing struggles within the department’s ranks.

In the meeting, Chief Schaeffer went over the current state of staffing for the department. Despite hiring around 100 individuals over the prior two years, the Spokane Fire Department still has 40 vacancies.

He noted those are vacancies in operations, or “where the emergency work is truly done,” as he called it.

That vacancy number is set to be lowered to just 11, as the first class of 2023 is set to graduate and move into the workforce on July 24th.

All of these new hires have significantly curtailed overtime spending from years prior.

The department spent $2.7 million on uniform overtime as of May 27th of this year, a 36% reduction compared to last year.

“People often ask, and I’m sure your questions are surrounding where the overtime goes,” said Schaeffer. “Right now, because we do still have those vacancies in the department’s budget until we get those graduations next month, predominantly shift coverage.”

He went on to note that things as they currently stand improved dramatically and will continue to improve once the first class of 2023 hits the workforce in late July.

“We’re actually sitting in a pretty good place,” said Schaeffer, adding “I’m expecting us to come in on budget.”

“Do you see some of the changes based on the previous contract that was approved?” asked Councilmember Michael Cathcart, referencing the new collective bargaining agreement.

Schaeffer noted numerous changes, all for the better, but the biggest change seemed to be in demographics.

“Candidly, we added 100 people. I think probably two or three years ago, I would tell you that 40 to 50 percent of our organization is eligible to retire. I checked this morning, and 13% is all we have now. We have an extremely young department,” commented Schaeffer before again thanking the City Council for their assistance with prior staffing woes.

More information can be found on the Spokane Fire Department’s website.