Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Come here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey Heat. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the New York City Council hearing on the committee on fire and emergency management. At this time, please silence all electronics and do not approach the deis. I repeat, please do not approach the deis. If you are testified today, make sure you have filled out a slip at the back of the room. Any other questions or concerns, please reach a sergeant-at-arms. Thank you for your cooperation. Chair, you may begin. budgets to understand how they address the needs of all New Yorkers. I would like to begin by welcoming fire commissioner Lillian Bonor. Commissioner Bon Seenora is the first woman to lead the fire department of the New York of New York City and we look forward to working with her as she takes on this important role. Yeah, you guys are wrong. She's the second woman but the first I guess that worked as an FDNY member. I would also like to thank the members of the fire department for their sacrifices over the past year and the frontline responses of EMTs, paramedics, and firefighters on the dis on their display every day. And because of their direct life-saving actions, our city is a safer place. The fire department's EMS members and firefighters are known as New York's bravest and best, and I believe those nicknames are aptly given. I would also like to thank the members of the NYC emergency management team. They have been working incredibly long hours to assist in the city's response, performing a job that often does not get the recognition it deserves. The fire department's fiscal 2027 preliminary budget totals $2.8 billion with funding for 1700 600 17,62 positions. The department's fiscal 2027 budget has undergone moderate changes in the preliminary financial plan. The department's capital commitment plan includes funding for hundreds of distinct projects across the five-year plan. During our hearing today, the committee would like to discuss the department's new needs in current in the current financial plan. This includes additional funding for personnel service costs, including overtime expenses, and various OTPS adjustments. The committee would like to revisit these items, such as EMS pay parody, fire and ambulance response times, and the department's increasing reliance on overtime. I would also like to discuss the diminishing conditions of our firehouses recruitment and retention and the FDNY's fleet maintenance. Over the past year, this committee has held a number of oversight hearings on a wide range of topics, including a hearing on local law 6 of 2025, fire and safety and permitting approval for community energy storage facilities and continued oversight of the department's preparedness for emergency ha emerging hazards. While these hearings are not necessarily budget hearings, as we all know, you often need to spend money to get results. I would like to thank our committee staff for their hard work. But first, I'd like to recognize that we are joined by council members Schulman and Maloney. Anyone on Zoom? Any members? Ah, and Council Member Wong. I would like to thank our committee staff for their hard work. Financial analyst Ten Ver Singh, Assistant Director Jack Story, Committee Council Josh Kingsley, political analyst Will Hongash, and my incredible chief of staff Phyllis Inserillo. I'd like to welcome and thank Commissioner Bon Senor and our firefighters and EMTs, paramedics, and the department civilian staff for the work that they do. I'm looking forward to hearing from the commissioner. The committee council will now swear you in. Okay, if you would just raise your right hand. Commissioner Lillian Bonorable. Okay. John Espazito, Paul Mayano, Lizette Kristoff, Nafishia Nunan, Daniel Flynn, Kevin Woods, Thomas Curaro. >> Uh, thank you everyone. Uh, do you just affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and to answer honestly to council member questions? Seeing seeing you all recognize you do, you may go ahead with your testimony. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning and thank you. Please excuse my cracky voice. I was full whisper two days ago. >> I know I heard you. >> This is much better. Uh good morning, Chair Arola and members of the fire and emergency management committee. My name is Lillian Bonsenor and I'm pleased to appear before you today to discuss a preliminary budget for the fire department. I am joined by first deputy commissioner Daniel Flynn, chief of department John Espazito, chief of EMS Paul Moano, deputy commissioner of management and budget Lzette Kristoff, Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods, Chief of Fire Prevention Thomas Caro, and Associate Commissioner of Workforce Development Nafisa Nunan. This is my first budget hearing as fire commissioner. So, I'd like to begin by telling you a little bit about my background. In 2022, I retired after 31 years as a member of EMS, including serving as chief of EMS during the CO 19 pandemic. It is an extraordinary honor for me to serve as commissioner of this department. I say that not just because it's the greatest fire department in the world, and it is, but because serving this department as commissioner gives me a chance to pay it back for the tremendous opportunities that I've experienced over more than three decades. Joining EMS saved my life. As a teenager, I was direction directionless. I didn't know what to do for a career and I wasn't certain how I would overcome the challenges of my life. I found EMS and it quickly became part of my identity. Public service is a calling for me. I am proud to be the commissioner of this agency because I know that public service is a calling for thousands of members of the FDNY. It takes a massive team effort to keep this city safe. And I thank the members of this committee for your support, your interest, and your attention to our issues. I know that you see our members the same way I see them, as heroes. They are heroes in every EMS station, every firehouse. There are heroes sitting behind the dispatch computers, and out conducting inspections and investigations. They are undertaking complicated plan reviews and analyzing finances and working to repair our facilities and keep our fleet on the road. They are on trucks and in ambulances and on boats and sitting at desks. And when the city experiences brutal heat waves or a long stretch of code blue conditions, many FDMY personnel are outside in the conditions making sure the job gets done. This September, the FDMI will mark the 25th anniversary of the darkest date in our history. September 11th was a day of immense loss for the department. 343 members made the ultimate sacrifice while working to rescue their fellow New Yorkers. As this committee knows well, that sacrifice has continued in the decade since. We have now lost 431 individuals to 91 911 illnesses and countless more struggle with diseases as a result of the time spent at that site. On the 25th anniversary, we will solemnly honor the sacrifice of those members and the sacrifice of their families as we do every single day. I responded to the World Trade Center on September 11th. I know how difficult it can be to look back. Each anniversary tugs at old wounds that never quite healed. But it also serves as a reminder of the duty and the mission that we carried 25 years ago and we still carry out each day. We honor the memory of those who we've lost by laying the foundation to those who come in two in 2026. We are stronger, better prepared, and more resilient than we were 25 years ago. My focus as fire commissioner is continuing to drive the agency forward, strengthening our resources and improving our ability to serve the people of New York. I am committed to making sure that we have the best equipment and the best infrastructure, to training, education, and preparing our members, to modernizing our approach to operations on the fire ground and medical responses, and in all the myriad ways that members of the FDMY interact with our fellow citizens. One of the ways I'd like to set the agency on a successful course for the future is by addressing the enormous challenge of EMS pay. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the merger of EMS with the fire department. Those three decades have been marked by bravery, heroism, and countless lives saved. And the city has always counted on EMS during times of great need. FDNYMs and paramedics shepherded the city through a global pandemic and they face a skyrocketing call volume and a need for their skills like never before. It is time to pay them a living wage, a salary that allows them to do their incredible life-saving work and provide for their families. As this committee knows, the authority to collectively bargain wages for city employees, including EMTs and paramedics lie with the Office of Labor Relations, not the fire department. As the fire commissioner, I believe in parody, and I will tirelessly advocate for their pay increases to the very best of my ability. 2025 was a busy year for the department. We responded to more than 25,000 structural fires and more than 14,000 nonstructural fires. We responded to more than 1.6 million emergency medical incidents. Of those, more than 600,000 were life-threatening emergencies. We also performed nearly 1 million patient transports to hospitals. I am happy to report that fire fatalities were down. 2022 and 2023 were years with the greatest number of fire deaths in decades with 97 and 104 deaths respectfully respectively. In 2024 that number decreased to 77 and last year it decreased again to 62. One component of the drop in fire deaths is that deaths resulting from fires that were caused by lithium ion batteries decreased from a high of 18 in 2023 to only one death last year. We attribute that positive development to changes in the laws regarding lithium ion batteries, including bills passed by this committee, and to our extensive outreach and campaign education campaigns. In 2024, the department's campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of lithium ion batteries produced 83 million impressions across social media and targeted ads. In 2025, the campaign reached another 36 million impressions. The public has heard our messaging about safe use of these devices and where possible is storing and charging them outside. 2025 was also a busy year for the FDNY recruitment and retention team. Firefighter uh firefighter exam 4044 was established in February. It produced a diverse list of more than 20,000 candidates who passed, including 22% black, 28% Hispanic, 40% white, and 6% Asian. 7% of the candidates who passed the exam were women. We are eager to begin the processing and we anticipate the first group from this class will enter the fire academy in the fall. Across the country, it is an incredibly difficult environment right now for EMS recruiting, and New York City is no exception. Our two most recent EMS recruitment campaigns produced a high number of applicants, but not as many viable candidates as we have hoped. We continue to work on enhancing our communication and programming efforts to assist applicants with the process and reduce attrition within the applicant pool. And we have adjusted our recruitment campaign scheduled to begin in June of this year. In this way, we hope to maintain active talent pool that will translate to more EMTs being hired by the department. I'm on record about how much I loved working as a member of EMS. When you have the opportunity, please encourage your constituents to consider a career with our team. It was also one of the busiest years ever for educational outreach to the community. FDNY members made 3,245 safety presentations to audiences totaling more than half a million New Yorkers. that included more than,400 events in schools to more than 218,000 students. The mobile CPR team trained more than 116,000 people on how to conduct CPR, compressiononly CPR, including more than 38,000 high school students. And in the light in in in the late 2025, we launched FDNY's new control the bleed campaign, teaching people life-saving skills to ensure that everyday citizens can respond with confidence when faced with critical situations involving life-threatening bleeding. First responders get to the scene as quickly as possible, but through these trainings, we're equipping communities with tools to act even before the help arrives. We also continued our partnership with the American Red Cross to install smoke alarms and work with members of the community to develop plans to stay safe during a fire. In 2025, this partnership installed more than 12,000 smoke alarms, bringing the total number of alarms installed since the beginning of this program in 2015 to more than 300,000 smoke alarms. With the generous support of the FDNY Foundation and its partners, we continue to expand outreach, reaching New Yorkers where they live, work, and attend school, arming them with the information and training to keep themselves and their neighbors safe. Another first for the department in last year is that we issued our first ever criminal summons following a fatal fire in which a fire hydrant was blocked by a vehicle. The department's Bureau of Fire Prevention continues to use this tool at fatal and m multiple alarm fires. We appreciate the council members on this committee who remind their constituents, if you block a hydrant, you may delay fire operations, if the possibility of endangering your neighbors isn't reason enough to avoid this, now you may be fined up to $5,000. After experiencing a historic spike in brush fires in 2024, last year we installed for the first time brush fire detective detection cameras in select city parks. The solar powered cameras are positioned high above the ground like traffic cameras. They use artificial intelligence to detect smoke and flame activity, providing live video feeds to the fire department operations command center. In the mayor's preliminary fiscal year 27 budget, the department's budget is approximately 2.6 billion. This budget is aimed at rectifying historical shortfalls. It includes 62 million and FY26 to fund the project the projected OTPS other than personnel spending shortfall in the current year. It is also includes 120 million in FY26, 57 million in FY27 and additional amounts in the outy years to make up for existing personnel fund funding deficits. By making up these shortfalls, this budget plans this budget puts the agency on a stronger financial footing moving forward. I'm thrilled to be your fire commissioner and I'm excited about the work we're going to do together to help improve the lives of our members and the people of New York. With your help, we can ensure the fire department is set up for success and continues providing the best possible level of service to our city. My team and I would be happy to answer your questions at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner. I just would like to note that we've been joined via Zoom by council members Paladino and Kaban and I will yield my questioning to our finance chair comm council members Linda Lee. >> Thank you. Sorry I didn't realize I was going first. Thank you chair. Um, it's great to see you, Commissioner, and I just want to commend you on all the work that you do because our office in Eastern Queens, District 23, have been partnering with you all for our health fairs, which is great. Um, because we do the CC the CPR trainings with you as well as the fire, smoke, alarm detectors. Um, and and really quickly, I just I have to say as someone who comes from the nonprofit sector, I've always been about pay parody and trying to make sure that we're giving folks the pay that they deserve. Um, especially for the work that you all are doing. So, I just appreciate your efforts in that. And um actually last year I I had neurovirus and my husband was freaking out because I was literally on the floor with my body frozen like this. So EMS came and while I'm trying not to drool on myself in the middle of it, they're trying to get me to breathe. And I said, "Pay parody. We need to fight for pay parody." They're like, "Okay, okay, thank you, but you need to just like calm down and breathe and we'll got to get you physically well." So I appreciate again all the efforts u that of the EMS as well as fire department. And so thank you. Um just going really quickly, I just have a couple uh budget questions. Um so regarding um the triaging protocols, uh what percentage of EMS calls are successfully triaged to alternative care pathways uh whether it be teleaalth, urgent care referrals rather than ambulance transport. >> Uh you know, these are things that we're taking on right now. The trying to embrace these new technologies. I don't have a percentage for you per se, but these are efforts that are continuing. And I think as we continue to embrace um technology moving forward, we'll see more and more transfer of calls to non-traditional EMS transports. >> Great. >> Uh you know, the these are these are changes in behaviors that we have to get the public used to. So, I'm sure in the future we'll be coming to you asking for your help in messaging these types of uh messages. >> No, definitely. And I know there's a lot of community groups ready and willing to help make those connections with you. Also, >> I appreciate it. >> Um, what percentage cost savings does trans uh Well, I mean, this is all stuff I'm sure that if you could get to us as you continue this, um, that would be great. Uh, what percentage cost savings does successful triaging represent compared to the traditional ambulance, transport, and emergency department visits? Because we know those are more expensive. So, >> right, for for these type of questions, Councilwoman, I'll I'll invite uh Commissioner Kristoff to jump in here. I'm not sure she has more of the information than I do, but certainly uh this is her wheelhouse. >> Thank you. Yeah, I mean I would say right now given given the volume that's going through um alternative methods, um I don't know that we're we're looking necessarily to to save costs on the fire department end, but more um to improve services to everyone else. So having some of those calls go to alternative methods um will enable faster response times to folks that actually need a physical transport to the emergency room. >> Right. Um and then lastly, similar question um is what percentage of EMS personnel have been trained in enhanced triaging protocols um so that things are passed on more efficiently if needed be and not you know something that maybe something a community group can handle or a referral out versus Yeah. So all all of all of our EMS members that are working at communications that's where we do our dispatching are are trained in computerized triage all of them. >> Okay. So a as we start to move forward in different uh modalities, they will continue to be trained to operate. They need to be able to move in and out of certain positions. So they are certainly kept educated in there. >> Okay, perfect. That's good to hear. Um in terms of hospital turnaround time, what is the current average hospital turnaround time um for FY26 and what percentage of an ambulance's daily operational capacity does that consume? the turnaround times are a bigger conversation. You know that this is uh part of um a healthc care system. So when I just want to define if you don't mind I'll I'll define the turnaround times and they are currently about 40 minutes the turnaround times for the ER. >> Okay. >> Uh for the emergency rooms. So in in EMS when we pick up a patient we have to be able to take them to an emergency room. Depending on the level of uh acuity for that patient the wait can be shorter the weight can be longer. If it if it's a more critical patient the nursing staff will address those patients before a non-critical patient. Right? >> So so it does fluctuate you know depending on the severity. It also fluctuates on the ability um for the emergency room to accept the patient. So depending on the volume for the day, it could get quite backed up. Uh but consistently we are turning around from getting into the emergency room, transferring the patient to the nursing staff and back out in the 40 40 minute range. >> Okay. And then do you know which hospitals tend to have the most delays? >> I'm sorry. which uh which hospitals tend to have the most delays. >> I I wouldn't say there is any particular hospital that has more delays without, you know, look looking at all the stats, but what I what I can tell you is that um it really is dependent on the day, you know, and the call volume for that particular area. On one day, you you may have a higher call volume in the Bronx than you do in Queens. Uh the next day, you may have a higher call volume in Queens than you do in the Bronx. and those hospitals will be more inundated. I I can tell you when I started this job in 1991 uh which was like four or five years ago 1991 there were more than 20 additional hospitals that existed within our five burrows than there are today. I believe we're closer to 30 now. Uh so you know when we had more hospitals people were able to go to different places and certainly the the nursing staff was able to you know um sign for those patients and we were able to get out quicker. As hospitals start to close down as hospitals start to struggle EMS feels the pinch of that because we have to go further to a hospital. we have to wait longer because more patients are going to a specific hospital than being distributed across many hospitals. >> So, um we cons we continue to see that type of movement and we always hope for the well-being of our hospitals. We certainly don't want to lose anymore, but it it is very flexible. >> No, definitely we don't want to lose anymore. Um and we know how that impacts the local neighborhoods and the communities and so hopefully that won't happen. And I know that our health chair, Chair Schulman, as well as Health and Hospitals chair, um, Mercedes Narcissis, are very attuned to this issue as well. Um, and I know that you had announced pilots at certain H&H ER locations to improve the turnaround times and so do you have any updates on that and if is that something you're looking to expand? >> Yeah. So, so that was called the hospital liaison officer pilot and that pilot is still ongoing. Um, we're going to be exploring lots of different things. I I would say over the next few years, uh, we have to continue to also have these conversations within the hospitals themselves and work with our partners in the emergency room, the administrators to come up with creative ways to transfer a patient from the EMS crew to the hospital themselves uh, so that we can expedite our exit from the hospital. So, as of right now, those programs are still ongoing and they are, you know, uh they're not in all hospitals. They're in certain hospitals. >> Sorry. What was the and um if you could remind me when did it start the pilot program and how long is it for? >> I I believe it was 2024. Uh Chief Ma. >> Okay. November 2024. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, and in terms of the chief savings officers, um, have you designated a chief savings officer or equivalent position as proposed by the mayor to identify some of the cost savings? >> Yes, I have. I've identified a a very awesome chief savings officer. And this is Commissioner Crystal >> sitting right next to me. >> Great. Um, and what percentage of your time is is sort of dedicated to looking taking a deeper dive and looking into the savings initiatives versus other administrative duties and what budgetary authority does the officer have to implement in terms of cost reduction measures without requiring approval from OMB or other external entities? Yeah, I mean it it is certainly taking up a lot of my time um as as we're moving to towards uh the submission of the chief savings officer reports. It's something me and my team are very focused on. Um you know because I am also the the deputy commissioner for management and budget. Um I do have the authority within the department to implement savings measures as we identify them. >> Okay, that's great. um and what specific cost-saving targets or benchmarks um have been established for FA27 and what percentage reduction in operating expenses um or improvement in operational efficiency do these targets represent? >> So the the targets are 1 and a.5% uh in the current year and two and a half% in the outy years. Um those percentages are off of our city tax levy budget. So for us the the sort of annual going forward uh is around 54 million. >> Okay. And what sort of uh just out of curiosity what what type of um uh cost savings are you know if you could give us buckets I mean obviously I know the reports are not due yet but what are some of the things that you all are looking at? So, we're still in the process of finalizing um what the recommendations will be um and and they will have to be, you know, internally vetted um as we move forward with the process. We do anticipate um that the savings will be reflected in the executive budget. Um and certainly, uh, you know, we're we're looking for efficiencies and things that don't impact emergency services. >> Exactly. I think that's key, too. Um, and what is, you know, and I know this is ongoing, but if you for for future reference, if you could note, um, if you could report back, uh, what the projected annual savings from each of the initiatives expressed are um, in terms of dollar amount as well as percentage of the total agency's budget, that would be great. And, um, if you are able to answer, have any of these savings been realized um, in reduced budget requests or have they been redirected to address other agency priorities? So there certainly are, you know, simpler components of our savings that as we're identifying them, um, you know, assuming they're non-controversial. There there are no negative repercussions to doing so, we we are moving forward and locking in those savings as as soon as as soon as we possibly can. Um, but the intent is for them to go towards the executive budget savings. >> Got it. Okay. Um and lastly, how does FDNY ensure the cost savings measures pursued by yourself um do not compromise service quality, public safety, as you mentioned, um or regulatory compliance? And what percentage of proposed saving initiatives have been rejected due to potential negative impacts on operations as well because as you mentioned, I think that's important to look at because we don't want to we want to make sure that you're still able to do all the things that you need to do. Um and so if you could speak a little bit to that, that'd be great. Yeah, the the savings process um isn't being done, you know, unilaterally by myself. So, there have been lots of conversations um with bureau heads throughout the department and our senior leadership team um to make sure that our our savings proposals won't negatively impact operations. Um ultimately, our final submission will get signed off on by the fire commissioner and will be reviewed um by city hall and OM as well. >> Great. Thank you. Um that's it. Thank you so much again for being here and thank you chair. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to do a couple of follow-ups uh with the the chief savings officer. Um I know that the position is to go in and see where there can be, you know, monies that can be better spent or perhaps taken from. The fire department hasn't received any new money in the four years that I've been the the chair and not before. It's always been flatlined and you you made references to initiatives. What kind of initiatives would you could you describe them better more um explain them? What type of initiatives you think could be money can be taken from? >> So, we're certainly looking at everything. Um I mean I I think the the actual final initiatives um won't won't be ready until later this month. um and we anticipate talking through them in detail as part of the executive budget process, but our our northstar in this whole process is making sure we're not negatively impacting emergency operations. So, we're looking for um you know, efficiencies that that don't do that, that don't negatively um impact on our first responders >> because in in the last uh three budget cycles that I've been chair, we've asked for $1 billion for the fire department, not for any money to be taken from the fire department. They've been working on a baseline. And in fact, when I had a conversation with the first deputy mayor and the um the director of O, I asked that the fire department be exempt from any type of any type of of um removal of any of their funding and exempt from having a chief savings officer. But I guess that was that fell on deaf ears. But okay. Um so the uh the FY27 preliminary budget totals uh 2.646 billion an increase of 24.6 million uh from the FY26 adopted budget. The headcount includes as I said in my statement 17,566 positions. Uh key increases include fire extinguishment, emergency p response, fire prevention, and fire investigation. at the 27 budget uh the 20 the FY27 budget totals uh 2.646 billion up 24.6 million from FY26. What percentage has the FDNY's budget grown over the past 10 fiscal years adjusted for inflation? So, um, the the comparison point for that would be the preliminary budget for FY17, which was released in January of 2016. Um, that was 1.9 billion. Uh, if you adjust that for inflation using CPI, that would be 2.62 billion today. Um, that's actually very close to the budget for FY27, which is about 26 million above that inflation adjusted number. Um, so our budget has gone up by about 1% above inflation. Right. So, so you're agreeing that the the the fire department has hasn't really uh gone over their budget. They actually are operating they're operating with a budget that's never been increased. They're continuing to operate, continuing to put out fires, continuing to send their EMS trucks out, continuing to do the job to keep the people of this city safe without receiving one extra penny from this city of New York. So, I'm glad we agree about that. um what percentage of the FDMY's budget is allocated to personal services versus um OTPS other than personal services. >> So our PS budget is approximately 90% um of our overall budget. So in FY27 PS is 2.396 billion and OTPS is 249.8 million. >> Okay. Okay. And fire extinguishment emergency responses, they represent um 1.844 billion or 69.7% of the budget. And that's and according to what we saw, that's up 21.5 million. What drove the increase and what percentage is for salary increases versus operational enhancements? >> So, none of the increase is tied to operational enhancements. Um it's related to the PS adjustment that um was provided for in the preliminary budget um that included um you know departmentwide 57 million in FY27. Um the purpose of that was really to align the budget with anticipated spending and that's >> I didn't catch the last to align the budget with >> with anticipated spending >> with anticipated spending. Okay. And fire prevention increased 6.9 million 13.8% to 56.7 million. what percentage of this increase for um is for additional inspector positions versus other fire prevention initiatives. So that increase is is also primarily related to the PS adjustment that was provided for in the preliminary budget. So that that 57 million that was given departmentwide includes 6.5 million that went into UOVA4 for fire prevention >> and and the emergency medical services is budgeted for 416.8 8 million down down 2.9 million given worsening EMS response times why was the EMS budget decreased and what operational impacts did this have >> so that decrease is primarily driven by the transfer of be herd funding uh to H&H uh that was done as part of the November plan under the former administration um we anticipate that that funding will be transferred back in a future plan >> I'm just going to hold for a moment because council member Paladino has another uh place to go and she just has two questions that she'd like to ask. So, I'm going to just yield to council member Belladino for questions and then I'll come back to my questioning. >> Good morning. Uh can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes. Okay. Uh I'm interested to know uh you know my uh office since fiscal year 23 uh we funded uh $1.2 million uh for generators for one firehouse. Uh 24 another 1.2 million uh for another generator. In 25 we uh fully funded an ambulance simulator at $300,000. And in 26, we just did an EMS 53 vehicle for another $323,000. It's over $3 million. Uh my question is uh how and is it true that uh after 911, the state required these firehouses to have these new updated generators? And how do we go about getting this work done? I mean this has been going on since 2023. My firehouses need them. Uh they are truly in need. Also another question uh the firehouses are in I visit all the time and my firehouses of which I have four are uh really need renovation terribly. Is there any way we're going to be able to get you guys what you need, most importantly, with your ambulances and your uh EMS vehicles and your generators? The renovation is like the uh topping on a cupcake, but still just the same. These guys practically live there, so uh and are in dire need. Uh can you help me out with that? >> Yes. uh and thank you for the support that you've given us. Uh very much appreciated. As as we start to move forward, you know, it it's important. I'll just level set us here and then I'll I'll tell you where we're at with um some of the repairs. This fire department is the most recognized fire department in the world. This patch will be recognized anywhere in the world. And it's primarily because we've been around 160 years. We were a staple of New York City and the greatest fire department in the world, but a lot of our buildings are about a century old now. We've been around 160 years and a lot of our buildings are about 100 years or more. So, yes, these buildings are in states of needing repair and we certainly appreciate all the assistance that we get from the committee um and council members. So when we're taking this into account and we have many many facilities they all need some sort of repair at some point. So the way we manage this generally is we'll take a look at the order right the the actual complaint what what it is that needs repair and we prioritize them. The most urgent or the most dangerous ones we address first. As a complaint comes in, we'll send our fleet team out to do an assessment and to prioritize whether this is something that is urgent or dangerous or if it's something that we can handle inhouse. If it's something that is dangerous or urgent we can handle in house, we do right away. We get our fleet team, I mean our our facilities team over there to fix it. If it's something we can't handle, we'll we'll vendor that out. Um but we do have to work in order of urgency because there are so many repairs that need to be done. The the capital budget that we have about half of our capital budget is for facility repair. If we were able to get unlimited money for these repairs, we still would not be able to handle all the repairs at once. Part of the the issue that exists is as we start to repair some of these houses and and we will we certainly you know will continue to do that work. We have to relocate the resource that is housed in that area in that particular firehouse or EMS station. And we can't move too many of them because that ends up leaving areas of our city that don't have coverage uh and response coverage. So, we're limited by the amount of resources that we can move out at one time and we're certainly limited by the number of people who can do the repairs. So, um I think that's where we are. We're just as interested in making these repairs as quickly as possible and I do believe that we're in the place where we're doing that. And should anybody have anything urgent, they should be sure to to put that order in so that we could get our facilities team out there to take a look at it. >> Commissioner, yeah, I I I know what the council member is asking also because we we will go much deeper, council member, as the hearing goes along into the condition of our firehouses. But I mean we all get very frustrated because the money that we do appropriate taxpayer dollars to give generators, bathrooms, kitchens, locker rooms, you know, oftent times gets coged up in procurement. So, uh, you know what we we would really, if anyone can answer the question is why there is always a backup that money from 21 or 20, I'm sorry, 20 22, uh, 23 and um, 24 and 25 and now we're into 27 and we're still not seeing generators that were paid for in previous years. >> Yes, I I understand the frustration and and um, do you want to speak? I think Jere Jeremy Brooks, it's our facilities. Uh, do you want to come up and address some of these questions about generators and repairs? >> Just introduce yourself. >> Yep. >> Hello. Sorry. >> So, just swear you in for a second. Hello. >> Excuse me. Can you just state your name for the record and I can swear you in? >> Sorry. Jeremy Brooks. >> Can you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Answer honestly to council member questions. >> Yes, >> you may go ahead. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. So, um, in regards to generators, approximately like 70% of our locations currently have emergency generator backup. It's one of our priorities to have every one of our locations to have a generator backup. We've been doing this program, like you said, probably since around 2001. So about 70% of our locations do have a generator. When we do get the money from city council for various projects and we are greatly thankful for because that helps us out tremendously for a lot of our work. It you for a generator it usually takes about 18 months to get the project completed from once we get the money to doing design construction. So it does take a little time to actually get a project from start to finish. It is a slow process. I wish there were some things we could do to expedite, but it's just permitting funding, but again, we greatly appreciate everything that everyone has given us throughout the years. >> So, what kind of program do you use? And do you find that the after you go through the 18 months of what you need to do, are you finding that there's a problem at OM with releasing the money for these items? >> I don't think it's a problem with funding. I think just sometimes there's a lot of permitting process there's a lot of um you know signoffs from different agencies landmarks public design commission that have to go through department of buildings that it's just unfortunately to do a lot of work on any city building or even public building it's a slow process >> right but once it reaches OM do you have a issue do you have an issue with OM releasing the funds after all those permits and all the processes are in place is there a problem with OM B. >> I think we have a pretty good relationship with OMB. They know what our initiatives are and what our priorities are and we have continuous um meetings with them weekly about projects. >> Would you mind checking on the on the um and and I can have them written out for you the just council member Paladino because you brought up her initiatives and see where they are in the in the pipeline and if they are at OM then possibly we can be helpful >> of course >> in in helping that get out. We'll get we'll get that information to you both. >> Sure. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just want to come back to um chief savings officer. Uh has the FDMY uh designated Well, well, obviously they have. Okay. um or is there um an equivalent position as proposed by Mayor Mani to identify operational efficiencies and cost-saving opportunities and what presented percentage of the position's time is dedicated solely to savings initiatives versus other administrative duties and what budgetary authority does do you have to implement cost reduction measures without requiring approval from OM or external entities. >> Yes. Uh so certainly a high percentage of my time has been focused on working on the savings proposals um since the announcement was made and and now through the development of my final recommendations. Um you know as the deputy commissioner for management and budget within the department I I do already have authority internally to execute um on these savings proposals. As you can see, we're very concerned that you're going to take money from the FDNY, and we cannot have that happen. We really can't. Okay. Well, let's talk about headcount. So, in 20 uh in FY27 budget included uh 17,566 positions 11,294 were uniformed, 6,272 were civilian. By what percentage has FDMY's total headcount changed over the past five fiscal years? >> So the January uh 2021 budget uh for FY22, which is the the comparison point from 5 years ago, uh was 17,288 positions. Um that breaks down as 10,945 uniformed and 6,343 civilian. That includes EMS. um which is 278 more than the FY27 budget. >> Okay. And civilian we have at civilian uh positions decreased by 44 from FY26. So you don't agree with that? >> So that that 44 for civilian positions. So EMS is reflected as civilian in all the the published budget documents. Um, and that 44 is the the decrease tied to the Be Herd transfer, which we do anticipate will be reversed in a future plan. This is just me thinking out loud, but it's interesting that EMS would be considered civilian when they are recognized by law as as a a member of um service, a member of emergency service. So, that that's interesting. We're gonna have to look into that. Um what is the current vacancy rate for uniformed versus civilian positions which you say they're up right? >> Yes. So um would be zero >> on the uniform side. Um so this is like firefighter and uh you know fire officers. Um our our current uh budgeted number of positions is 11,294. Um and our actuals are 11,092. Um so we have 202 vacancies. That's a 1.8% vacancy rate. Um on the EMS side, uh our budgeted number is 4,499 and our actuals are 4,174. Um so that's 325 vacancies. Uh which is a 7.2% vacancy rate. Um, I will note that that's comparing actuals on payroll. The number of people in the field is obviously less than that because the payroll actuals include folks who are still in training. >> Um, and then on the civilian non side, uh, our budget is 1,784 and our actuals are 1,795. We're actually 11 above budgeted headcount. >> Okay. What is the total cost impact of recent collective bargaining agreements of FDNY's FY27 budget expressed and please express as a dollar amounts and percentage of the budget growth? >> So I I don't actually believe that any of our U major unions have collective bargaining increases that that have been agreed to yet for that impact FY27. So my next question would have been what percentage of FDNY's budget growth over the over the next three years is driven by contractual wage increases versus new programs. >> None of it yet. So the city budgets for um anticipated collective bargaining increases centrally in the labor reserve. So that's where you would see um that funding which OM can speak to and as the agreements get settled that funding is transferred into agency budgets. >> Okay. I had asked earlier about what other initiatives you could take from to to give to the fire department. You know, you could take money from other initiatives. I really would just like one initiative. What what what have you in the time you've spent, what have you come up with that can be utilized to better fund the the FDMY? So, those are still being worked through, but um you know, as as directed by the mayor, one area we're certainly looking at um is um you know, payments that we make um to vendors. Um also just looking for efficiencies and and potential rate reductions. >> Do you think that the FDMY would benefit from a design build approach to capital improvements? Sure. >> Yes. Okay. Let's talk about overtime. I'm going to talk about overtime and then I'm going to yield to my colleagues who are here. And I see we've been joined by Perina Sanchez. Council member Sanchez. What is the total budgeted overtime for FDNY in 27? And what percentage of the total budget does this represent? >> So the total budgeted overtime uh in FY27 is $472.5 million. Um that's about 18% of our budget. >> How does this compare to 26 and 25 budgeted overtime expressed as uh percentage changes? So FY26 budgeted overtime is 546.9 million. Um so that's about 16% higher than the 27 amount. Uh and FY25 actual overtime spending is 569.1 million. Um about 20% above 27 levels. >> And what is the actual overtime spending year to date and what percentage of the budgeted overtime does that represent? So year to date through February 26, uh we've spent about 380 million. Uh that is about 69% of the FY26 budgeted overtime. >> Okay. And in firefighter overtime, what is the budgeted firefighter overtime? It was 381 million in FY25. And what percentage of the total FDMY overtime does this present? So, uh, we don't budget overtime by title. Um, but if you're looking at, um, uniformed overtime and you are looking for, uh, FY25 actuals, um, we spent, uh, 477.8 million in uniformed overtime. And for EMS overtime, what is the budgeted EM EMS overtime and what percentage percentage of the total EMS budget does this represent? >> So FY26 budgeted EMS overtime is 68.6 million. Um that is about 17% of the total EMS uh PS budget. >> Okay. I will now yield to council member Wong. >> Thank you, Chair. Um thank you, Commissioner. Uh, thank you for being here today. Um, District 30 is proud to be a district with one of the largest populations of active and retired FDNY members in the city, uh, including firefighters, EMTs, and civilian employees. Many families in our community have deep ties to the department and have served the people of New York for generations. As we approach the 25th anniversary of September 11th this September, it is especially important that we ensure our firehouses are properly supported, that our firefighters and EMS members have the resources they need to do their jobs, and that the legacy of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice is honored appropriately. One firehouse in my district, uh, Squat 288 and Hazemat 1 in Masbath, lost 19 firefighters on September 11th, and is the greatest loss from any single FDNY firehouse that day. My office has also been discussing an idea related to the upcoming anniversary about recognizing FDNY and NYPD members who died on September 11th through updated street site street sign designations and I will be asking about that shortly. With that in mind, uh I want to ask a few questions about firehouse capital planning and EMS staffing and several initiatives that are important to both to my district and to the city. Our first question is a firehouse capital funding. In the past, many firehouse capital projects across the city have appeared in the capital plan at roughly 1.2 million. Regardless of the scope of work, whether the project involves a kitchen, bathroom kitchen renovation, bathroom upgrade, generator or installation, or other infrastructure improvements, the amount is always 1.2 million. Can you explain why these projects have historically appear with the same funding amount? And then I have a followup. I mean, obviously the the costs um per location and and per project do differ. Um I mean, averages are used when when coming up with some of those estimates. Um I think it's just coincidence uh that the totals tend to be similar. >> Yeah. Um I was the former Councilman Robert Holden's budget director, so I see 1.2 million like everywhere we do capital projects and I always wanted to ask that. Okay, my next question uh is that figure based on a detailed engineering estimate or is it being used as a placeholder until the scope of work is finalized? >> So it depends on what stage of the process that we are. Um certainly at the very beginning it's it's based on average historical costs um and and you know it gets refined as the project moves forward. >> Okay. Thank you. Right. I want to My next question is regarding landmarking the Maspet Firehouse as Squad 288 Hazemat 1. My predecessor, Councilman Robert Holden, uh had been advocating for years to landmark the Squad 288 and Hazmat 1 firehouse in Mazbouth. As I mentioned earlier, that firehouse lost 19 firefighters on September 11th, the greatest loss from any single FDNY firehouse that day. Given the historic significance of the facility and the sacrifice associated with it, we need the FDNY to step in and support landmark designation of that firehouse. Would uh the department work with the landmark preservation commission and the city council to ensure this site receives the recognition and the protection it deserves? >> Thank you for that. you know, um September 11 was a very difficult day for our department. Um and we we we remember and uh mourn the loss every day of the people that we lost down there. I know how incredibly important that is. We were certainly engaged in a conversation regarding this topic. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. My next question is regarding the 25th anniversary of 911 memorial street sign initiative. Um, uh, this September marks the 25th anniversary of September 11th, and my office recently met with the Department of Transportation to discuss an idea that many families and first responders believe would be meaningful. In the immediate aftermath of September 11, hundreds of streets across the city were co-amed for those who died the attacks. At the time, all of those honorary street signs were in store in green regardless of whether the individual was a firefighter, police officer, or civilian. Today, however, the city uses a different system. Red signs are used FDNY. Blue signs are used for NYPD. Can I have more time? I'm almost done. Yeah. Green signs are used for civilians. Uh, our idea is simple. For the FDN, FDNY and NYPD members who died in September 11, we believe those existing green sign should be replaced with the appropriate red or blue sign so that it is immediately clear to residents and visitors that the individual honor was a firefighter or police officers who died in the line of duty. Would FDNY support working with the council and the Department of Transportation to help advance this initiative ahead of the 25th anniversary? Thank you. >> Yes. >> Yes. Thank you. That's it. I'm done with my questions. Thank you. Thank you. And and commissioner, just for clarity, because it really kind of stuck in in my craw about um EMS being considered um civilian, and I know what my opinion is about EMS, and I know how I view them, and I know how the law views them as members of uniformed service, and I also know how you view them. But I just like that to be said for the record. >> Yeah. So, you know that this particular issue is an issue between OLR and the unions. But I can tell you that in the fire department, they're all uniformed workers. And when 911 is called, the the question you get is police, fire, or EMS. You don't get police, fire, or the civilians that hang out with us. >> So, uh, you know, I would love to see this topic work itself out between the unions of our city. Thank you, Council Member Schulman. >> Thank you very much and chair. And um yeah, I was going to ask you the same thing about uniform and um and civilian because I consider EMS uniform as well. And um just for the record, I used to work at the emergency medical service and the commissioner and I know each other a very long time. Um and I actually worked there during the merger. Uh I was in the leadership of the administration there. So um I have a a a few questions. One is about um I just want to delve a little bit um deeper uh on the questions asked by the chair around the overtime. Do you have because in in previous years you've overspent your overtime um funds. So is there a plan in place to rein in overtime because that's also a place for savings as well. >> Yes. Um, so we monitor overtime very closely. Um, and we actually have regular monthly meetings with OM and city hall to talk about um, our overtime spending uh, and our overtime projections. Um, you know, we've there were several mayoral directives on overtime in the former um, administration and and we have been working towards uh making progress on reducing overtime. Um it gets a little complicated when you're looking at dollars because collective bargaining increases and just changes in in where folks are in their tenure do impact those. Um but if you look at overtime hours um from FY23 to FY25, we actually did see a 2% decrease um which which is showing the the impact of um the various measures we've put into place. Um, when you're looking at our overtime, the overwhelming majority of it is tied to staffing fire companies. Um, so we operate on a fixed post system. Um, which means that at the start of every tour, we need to make sure we have the right number of fire personnel available, otherwise the the company can't be in service. Um, and so overtime is used to fill those gaps. Um and and as we were talking about earlier when we were talking about our headcount, we're still under budgeted headcount on the fire operation side. Um so the single most impactful thing that we can do to control overtime spending is to continue to work to get back up to headcount um by hiring additional firefighters. >> Whatever we can do to be helpful there. And you know, we were one of the things that the council was looking at maybe is like a an overtime reduction plan. And I mean the NYPD has similar issues, you know, as a uniform service. Um and so and also what are your headcount targets for 27 for fiscal year 27? >> Um so I I mean we are continuing to to process um firefighter classes. Okay. Um if not sure if you want the the class information or the overall headcount. >> Overall headcount target. >> Yes. Um so our authorized headcount uh on the uniform side is 11,294. Um we're actually at 11,92. So we're 202 um under >> Is that on both sides, the EMS and the FDNY or just FDNY? >> So that's fire. On the EMS side, our authorized headcount is 4,499. Uh, and we are actually at 4,174. So, we're 325 under budgeted headcount. Um, and as I mentioned before, it is an even greater um, you know, deficit in the field because that payroll headcount does count folks who are still in training. >> Okay. Um the other thing too, I know we've spent a number a little bit of time on the response times um for um particularly I'm focused on EMS. I know it it's it's gone up um to some degree. You know, when when I was in EMS many many years ago, the the targeted response time was 8 minutes. Um, and so I just want to know where we, you know, what what the thinking is in terms of moving ahead in terms of lowering the response time. >> Yeah. Eight minutes, huh? >> What? >> Eight minutes. >> It was eight minutes. >> Yeah. >> And we met it. We met it pretty much. And that was during >> There was a lot going on then, but go ahead. >> Yes. I I remember. So I I just would like to talk a little bit about response times and what that that means and then we'll talk about uh some solutions hopefully. So one one of the things that happen in response times is that there are lots of different things that lead into these response times. And when we talk about response times, we talk about picking up the call from 911 and actually getting to the patient. And there are lots of factors in between that lead to higher response times. Staffing most certainly is one of the priority concerns here. The fewer ambulances you run, the longer it takes to get an ambulance to an assignment. So staffing is um is a priority, which is why I've come out so strongly in support of parody. This is not just about being fair, but this is about stabilizing an EMS system for New York. So, um, we do want to increase our staff. We want to create an environment where people could come and stay, be a destination itself. They can come and have a long career, help us run ambulances so that we can uh, continue to serve the public. The other thing to to note here is one-third of the EMS system is um made up of our voluntary hospital partners. So these are private EMS, hospital-based EMS system, right? So they provide one-third of New York City service. The fire department provides twothirds. There have been across the last several years several uh places where ambulances were taking taken out of the 911 system. Right. So that's fewer ambulances in the system to help us get to those calls. We've had an increase of call volume. So while our resources are static for the most part, our staffing is low, the call volume has increased. And we've seen a significant increase in call volume. From 2022 to 2025, we've seen about an 18% increase in call volume and a 4% increase in fire incidents. So during that period of time, so we have resources that are either diminishing based on participation, staffing that is much lower than it was and increasing call volume and hospitals that are closing, meaning that we have to go further and we have to wait longer because the hospitals are also in this triage circle where they're going to take the most urgent patient first and make us wait basically uh until they can triage out our ambulance crew. So there there are a lot of different things that contribute to this. We also I will note are in a promotion cycle in EMS. So over the next year to year and a half, two years, we expect to lose up to 25% of the EMS workforce >> moving from EMS to fire. Again, parity is something that is critical here so that people who love medicine can stay and still be able to afford their lives. So, um we're in this cycle right now where things are working against each other leading to uh higher response times. There's also congestion in the street, you know, um that slow things down and it slows us down as well. And that that is by design and we know when you slow traffic down you also save lives. So I'm not against that. It is just a fact that it slows us all down. So things we can do to try to help. Well, we have um tried several uh pilots. I I I think you you mentioned one earlier and that pilot is still going on. We've tried the paramedic response unit right now. So what we've done is take paramedics and put them in essence in a fly car so that they can make themselves available if that particular assignment doesn't require ALS care. They can make themselves available and go on to another another assignment. Um we're talking with our partners in the hospitals to try to expedite at the hospital level uh to get the the units out and get that triage process a little bit uh quicker. Right. so we can get those people out. >> We're we're also exploring ways to keep our ambulances better stocked so that they don't have to go off service after every assignment >> uh to restock their ambulance. So these are things that we're going to continue to explore. We'll continue to explore ways of uh you know restocking ambulances, cleaning ambulance, preparing ambulance, get them out quicker, having those conversations and relationships with our hospitals to to try to get them out quicker. And the staffing, you know, is something I really hope we can solve while I'm still here in my tenure because it is one of the key things to fixing our response time problem. >> Right. We uh chair, do you mind if I ask a couple of other questions? I ju I just want to interject because I it it carries on to yours and and but um how are the negotiations for EMS and paramedic contracts proceeding? >> How how are they going? >> I think they're in process. They're in process. >> Okay. And and and Okay, we can go right back. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Um no, I I and I appreciate there. First of all, I I also want to say that I'm very proud of having you as the commissioner and um the city is going to be much better for that. So, um congratulations on that. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate. >> Uh and I also want to ask you in terms of just the turn two quick questions. One is the turnaround time. They used to have light duty supervisors in the EDs. Do you still do that? >> Uh no, we we don't have light duty supervisors. We did have the the hospital liaison officer, but that was a separate pilot. Okay. >> We don't have we used to refer to it if you remember as Baywatch. Uh uh we we don't have that now. Uh primarily due to staffing and and call volume has you know >> and then a totally separate question. Do you have a database of where all the fire hydrants are in in New York City? >> Is there a database? >> Uh Chief Espazito could talk about fire hydrants for you. >> Hi Chief. >> Hi. Good morning. Uh we have on one of our maps that we're able to access the the location of all the fire hydrants. Uh the the city's divided up among all the fire companies by administrative districts. >> Okay. >> And each fire hydrant is inspected uh twice a year by our firefighters to ensure uh that it's operational. And if it's not, we have the ability to report it to Department of Environmental Protection. They're the ones that actually own the fire hydrants. They're in charge of repairing the fire hydrants. >> Is there a master list? I know you said administrative. Is there a master list of all the I'm I'm asking for the purposes of when we had the big snow and everything else and you know, I'm trying to figure out like ways to make sure that those hydrants are kept clean. So, that's that's where my head is going. >> Each company has their list and we can see them all on a map. >> Okay. Uh maybe we could work uh to to figure out how to get the council members >> mapping of height. >> That would be that would be really helpful I think. So thank you so much to everybody. Thank you. Thank you chair. >> Okay we're going to switch to zoom now since we have quorum and just uh go over to council member Kaban so she can ask her questions. >> Thank you chair areola. Um apologies for not being able to be on screen. Can I just can y'all hear me? I just want to confirm that. >> Yes. Beautiful. Um, like has been said before Commissioner congratulations. Also very proud and excited to see you in this leadership role. Um, I want to ask you about Be Herd and I I I sort of want to approach it from like a past, present, and and future. Uh, I could you talk a little bit about Be HERD funding? Um specifically, you know, did did FDNY receive dedicated funding for Be Herd in the past? Um is funding being reallocated or removed or shifted in in this year's uh budget? Like I I am curious about, you know, what funding is left in in the in the agency for BH herd. Is there anything left for the program? Is it all going to H&H? So what's what's the state of of be herd funding? >> Yeah. So um as part of the November plan that was released under um the Adams administration, there was a transfer of the Beeheard funding that was associated with the dedicated units. Um so it was about $4 million annually that was uh part of the transfer to H&H. Um there there had been an announcement about the program itself transferring uh to H&H. Yeah. Um and so that funding had been moved. >> Has that happened? >> So the program continues to operate um as status quo. The the fire department is still operating it um and and we anticipate that the the funding will be moved back um in in a future financial plan. Um the other part of funding associated with Beer is there is a differential um that folks uh in EMS receive once they've completed the appropriate mental health response training. Um and that funding was never moved. Um so that continues to be in our budget. >> So is it your understand I I know obviously that the previous mayor um you know made the decision to move uh be heard from FDNY to H&H. is based on what you're saying if the the funding is going to come back to you guys, do you anticipate it staying under FDNY for the foreseeable future? And also, how does this relate to, if you can speak on it at all, to um you know, a developing department of community safety? >> Yes, th this uh this program, as you know, is a pilot um that started in 2021. It was between the fire department and H&H where the fire department and H&H got together and sent a unit that was responding to mental illness crisis assignments, low acuity, non-violent assignments together so that law enforcement would not have to go there and that the the patient would get the the help they need from the social worker and from the EMTs. and we've been running this program as a pilot um in partnership with H&H since then. We've not stopped running this program. We've continued to run this program in conjunction with our partners. And this administration, I can say, is very interested in providing different uh opportunities for those with mental illness to get the help that they need, the appropriate help that they need. and this program is is important to that mission. The fact that the funding is being transferred back to FDNY at some point um indicates that it will likely stay with FDNY, but it is still being negotiated and discussed at this point. >> So, up until something changes, >> yeah, >> we're going to continue to run it. >> And I know I have limited time, so that's why I'm just um cutting in in here. Uh, and I know that's that I'm happy to hear that also because the EMS union obviously, you know, made it known um that they would prefer it standard FDNY and also we know that in terms of federal reimbursement and eligibility where it lives determines sort of like what funds um are available to the the program. Another question I have too is that I mean if it's it's being moved back is it you know we had heard information about EMTs being taken off of the B heard calls and not being part of that core team. What's the status of that? >> So it it it has never moved. So it's not moving back. We've we've maintained it the entire time. So if the program continues to expand, we will restaff it with the appropriate staff. >> Great. Thank you. Um, the last thing I'll say on this and I'll hand it back to the the chair is like I I just I'm obsessed with this model. I have gone to several cities to visit uh their alternative responders and so just would love to to continue to be a partner on on strengthening it and talking about what resources are needed um to also strengthen the the out outcomes. I know this has been said by the chair and others, but AMTs need to be paid a whole lot more. uh y'all are training folks and then losing them to all of these other first responder um you know cohorts. So I just thank you again for your work and I'm looking forward to to to staying in touch and thank you chair. >> Thank you for your support. So I I'd like to talk about uh unit availability data. Uh what is the percentage of ambulances, engines and trucks available at any given time by burrow and for fire operations? Why is it that they determine response time to be when the fire truck arrives on the scene and not when the water is on the fire on the fire side, the water on the fire would be a different time obviously than than when we arrive on the scene. We have historically um counted our response time for when we uh pull up in front of the building. Uh to be able to accurately determine and capture when we have water on the fire uh would be significantly more difficult uh because the the the firefighters operating don't have contact with uh with the dispatcher. That would have to be relayed. uh it would be another step. Uh we acknowledge that it's generally several minutes from the time they arrive on the scene to have water on the fire and obviously the further uh vertically from the ground the longer time that would take as well. >> Okay. And then the first part of my question was what percentage of ambulances, engines, and trucks are available at any given time by burrow. >> Uh I'll talk about EMS and then Chief Espazito can talk about fire. So, um it's it's it's not really easy to give you a number because it really depends on the actual day. There there are some days that availability is extremely low. There are some days that we're holding assignments for quite some time waiting for ambulances. So, it really does depend on the volume of the day. >> Okay. So and for fire >> right and then on the fire availability uh generally we are available at least 50% of the time uh and generally higher if we have uh below 50% availability in any burrow we would be relocating companies to ensure coverage >> okay because back in um uh I I passed intro 1229 which is now local law 30 in 2026 six. Um, and it requires the fire department to report monthly on the average number of emergency medical service vehicles available each day and to respond to the emergency. So hopefully we'll have more a better counting on that. And and just my final question before we go to council member Maloney is um how is the production of the new EMS CAD system proceeding? Uh we're moving forward and we're all very very excited about it. This the system we have right now is 35 years old. So uh we're excited about moving forward with new uh new refresh and technology. We've had a contract awarded and they're they're beginning the um collection of information that it's going to take to get this thing done. So we expect to have a new EMS CAD in place in about two years. Thank you, Council Member Maloney. >> Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you for being here, Commissioner, and for the really thoughtful and helpful testimony earlier. I wanted to come back to the ambulance response times questions that Council Member Schulman brought up. Thank you for outlining clearly some of the causes and the ideas and solutions that you've proposed. One um question I had a follow-up was that fire engines supplement EMS response times and is increasingly putting pressure on engine companies. So just wondering how frequently are engine companies being dispatched to EMS calls due to ambulance shortages. Well, uh, going on about 30 years, uh, fire, uh, engine companies, the CFR, certified first responder companies have been responding to the most serious life-threatening incident. Segment one, two, and three calls. Uh, and that is not necessarily because there may be a shortage or a delay in an ambulance. The ambulance and the fire company are dispatched simultaneously. And about half the time the ambulance arrives on the scene first and about half the time the uh engine company arrives on the scene first. And those engines would perform, you know, the perform a patient assessment and provide life-saving care until the ambulance responds. >> I'm sorry. I Hi, Paul Maniano, chief EMS. I just wanted to I know we're focusing a lot on on response time and the amount of time it actually takes to get to the patient and um that is just one one metric but it doesn't tell the whole picture and the story of what my members do. So far this year since January 1st we have resuscitated over 200 people who were in cardiac arrest and delivered over 25 babies into this world. Last year, we provided over over 2,000 times um life-saving epinephrine to people who were in anaphylactic shock. Countless amount of times, we've provided aluterol to patients who couldn't breathe and were having severe asthma attacks. So, while I understand that we put a lot of emphasis on the amount of time it takes to get there, what I really want everybody to focus on is the the medicine that we provide when we get there and the abilities of my members to stop people from dying. and the me men and women of EMS uh while response time is is a really really really important metric the men and women of EMS the job that they do that's the most important metric that we should look at. >> Thank you for that and again thank you for all the hard work um of the men and women of EMS. Um, one of the things I know the Bronx has a bit of an outsized increase in ambulance delays and there was a pilot program looking at increasing engine company staffing to address the demand and just curious, are you planning to implement that program? Any updates on um how you'll measure success of that pilot program? >> So, we are aware of the proposal and we are currently reviewing uh reviewing the staffing proposal. Thank you. Shifting gears, I wanted to talk about firehouse conditions. In your testimony, Commissioner, you talked about how the department is committed to the best equipment and the best infrastructure. And uh some of the firefighters in my community have raised concerns around structural conditions in the firehouses, roofs, and mold. Um how many firehouses currently have outstanding structural maintenance issues like that that you're aware of? And what are the timelines for addressing some of those challenges? >> Well, if there are structural issues, we assess them immediately to make sure there's no health or safety risks associated with them. Um, if there are, we get scaffolding up or whatever needs to be done and then we will work on allocating proper funding to uh ensure that um nothing major occurs. And since this is a budget hearing, does the FDNY currently have sufficient capital funding to maintain firehouse facilities in a safe condition for firefighters? >> So, while while we would always welcome additional funding, um we we do have a significant amount of funding for firehouse uh renovations and reconstructions. Um so the capital plan more broadly includes $970 million um going from FY26 to FY35. Um it's about 52% of our capital budget. Um that includes uh 141 million that's tied to kind of wholesale new facilities. Um includes things uh like engine 287, engine 268, uh EMS stations such as EMS7 and EMS7. um also includes uh $310 million for very large rehab uh programs. Um $84 million that's assigned for like smaller or single component repairs at firehouses and EMS stations. Um and about $434 million um in lump sum funding uh which gets broken out into specific projects as that prioritization process occurs. >> Thank you. And I yield back to the chair. Well, good. Okay. I just I want to piggy back on on council member Kaban what she was talking about. You mentioned previously in the November plan that Be Her program was shifted from FDMY to H&H and and the funding being moved out of the fire department. Then you stated that FDNY has continued running Behe with the assumption that the program funding will return to FDNY. What funding streams has FDNY been running this program with? And the preliminary budget included 72 million in PS adjustments. Does any of the new funding include an increased overtime budget for the Be Herd program? >> So none of the the PS adjustment in this plan was tied to BHDR. We anticipate that the Be Herd adjustment will be part of a future plan. Um likely the the executive budget. Um but we continue to operate Be Herd using city funds. >> Yeah. I I have to say I'm really disappointed in the answers. I'm disappointed in the non-answers. I'm disappointed in the nondefinite absolute answers. And considering there should have been much more preparation. Uh if we'll stay on on EMS, um can you provide data for assaults to our EMS members are our uniformed members of the EMS? Yes, I I have that uh information here. In 2025, as of 10:15, that's October, there were a total of 161 physical assaults by patients and 23 assaults by civilians. There were seven patient verbal assaults and 11 verbal assaults from civilians. Aggressive behavior. There were six from patients. That's not assault. That's um behavior- wise. And there were six from civilians. And um we have a total there of 161 assaults from patients. Council member Feliz had asked that question. Okay. So now um let's go on to maintenance. So, we spoke about uh the council member aptly brought up the condition of the firehouses and there was quite a bit of capital money that you mentioned um uh that that we have for uh fixing that. So, I'm going to go to the apparatus. What is the current total number of fire apparatus in the fleet? So for fire apparatus, we have roughly about 500 fire apparatus. >> 500. Okay. And what is the average age of the fire engines and what percentage are beyond the 11-year 364 day replacement standard? >> So the average age of our fire apparatus for uh pumpers and uh ladders are about six years. And what are the average age of ladder trucks and what percentage are beyond the 10-year 364 day replacement standard? >> So yeah, ladder trucks is also a sixth year and there's probably roughly about 43 that are beyond replacement. >> And what percentage of fire apparatus are out of service on any given day due to maintenance or repairs? Um on average it's about uh 20% but we have spare apparatus so there's never a company that does not have apparatus. >> Okay. Uh what is the annual maintenance cost on per fire engine and per ladder truck and what percentage of the fleet maintenance budget does this represent? >> Uh so the annual maintenance cost for a fire apparatus engine or ladder is roughly about $80,000. So, um, the apparatus downtime that we we're hearing, is that due to mechanics? Uh, is that directly impacted because the FDMY's ability to respond to emergencies? Is because historically the mechanics portion of the FDNY has had its fleet workforce uh, at inadequate staffing levels or are they at adequate staffing levels now? We could always use more. I would never say we cannot use more. >> Look at your phone. >> I'm sorry. >> I would say we could always use more. I would never. >> You could say we could always use more. And >> we have 167 fleet auto mechanics and that staffing level has remained effectively flat. >> Flat. How many openings do you have >> over the last several years? How many how many lines do you have that are not filled? >> So, we're we're actually above budget for our civilian headcount. Um, so we don't technically have any vacancies. >> Okay. On your spare apparatuses, what is the average age? >> I'll have to get back you too with that number. Okay. All right. We're gonna we're gonna now we're going to switch. If everybody can take a look at the board, the um the screen >> here. So, we spoke earlier about the capital money and I wanted um council member uh Maloney especially because she asked the question because it doesn't it doesn't track with what with what we're seeing. So, the following photos show water damage at Engine Company 59 Ladder 30 in Manhattan. These pictures show water damage that has corroded the ceilings, the walls of the firehouse. There is a pipe that is clearly showing that that water has been leaking out of the water has damaged the steps inside the firehouse from the constant leak and we see steps with stain and buildup. Would you consider these safe or healthy conditions for members to work in? >> Well, the safety and health of our sorry, the safety and health of our members is always the utmost importance. When we see water infiltration, we immediately dispatch staff to survey to see if it's something they could patch or it's something that needs a total roof repair roof repair. For something like this, this location needs to be repointed, which is a larger capital program. So we will do what we can to ensure that there is u minor infiltration until we can get to the larger repair. >> So what is the 970 million that you have appropriated to if not cleaning these up that we can answer that later. Uh, next we have the roof leak at Engine 262 in Atoria, Queens that has at least five work orders reported on 125 of 23, 429 of 23, 1125 of 25, 17 of 26, 215 of 26. In the photo, you will see a drop ceiling that is missing tiles from what looks like a leak. The tiles are filled with heavy water stains. There is another picture of the ceiling covered where tiles seem to be missing. There is a picture of a blue wall surrounding a window air conditioning unit with what appears to be the outlet of the unit to the left of the unit. What is the timeline for repairs of this nature? >> So, this location, we actually are in the process of doing a lot of the uh sampling around the house and um we are working on submitting this work. >> How much are safety conditions like water dripping into air conditioning units and outlets taken into consideration? This was first reported over three years ago. When did you start? When did um facilities start to do the work that you're referring to? >> I'd have to go back and check my notes to see when this was the first reported. >> I told you it was first reported on 125 of 23. >> Well, I have to double check with my staff on when they were they they received the request. >> Do you have the ID have the information of when you began the work? >> You said it's currently being worked on. >> Yes. So they've uh did some of these testings uh in the past two weeks. >> In the last two weeks. >> Okay. >> Next, we have pictures of the first floor at engine 4, ladder 15. The first picture shows the crumbled support wall of the firehouse between the two apparatus doors. Next, we have a picture of the rear wall of the apparatus floor, which we also see crumbling. There are so many areas with ceiling missing tiles around light fixtures with either water stained tiles surrounding the missing tiles. So, we can assume the tiles are missing due to water damage from the leak. How dangerous would you say the crumbling support wall between the two apparatus doors is to the integrity of the building? >> So there were no work orders called in for this work. There was no work orders called in for this work. So if there is, I would like them to be forwarded and check knows there is work orders. >> Yeah, we're going to forward you those work orders. We do have them. This is the roof of engine 229, ladder 146 in Brooklyn. The photo shows ceiling damage and the roof has sunk from its proper place. The roof should be in line with the metal rail on the exterior wall. The picture shows the roof about 1 ft below the metal rail. The next picture shows the water damage happening inside the firehouse above the cooling heating unit. Work orders for this were submitted on 10521 for the section of the ceiling collapse on the third floor. 1022 of 25 of the roof line sagging, water pooling on the roof and leaking to the third floor. 129 of 26, no heat. 21126, the Netherman system, out of service. And the Netherman system is the vacuum for those who don't know that the fire department attaches to their apparatus exhaust system to capture noxious exhaust and diesel fumes. 218 of 26, Netherman system still out of service. 226 of 26, no heat. Need neater Netherman system still out of service. So I'm going to ask you four questions and then council member Maloney has a followup. What was the delay in repair of this roof caven-in? What is the function of the Netherman system beyond what I described and how does having it out of service for over a month affect the firehouse and its members? >> So in regards to the roof, I will have to do some >> look into more information on about the specific roof issue here. In regards to the netman, the netman system, like you said, it attaches to the exhaust of all the apparatus and um pulls all the um fumes from the apparatus outside the building. We have staff on cold that repairs the netammen. I would this specific issue I would have to find out if what it was. Were they waiting on a part? Not sure what it is, but I will find out about that. But when a netman issue occurs, we have in-house staff that immediately responds to correct the issue. to one moment out of respect for time for my colleague uh Perina Sanchez. She has a couple of questions and then we can get back to this slideshow. >> Amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much chair and good morning commissioner. Good morning chief. Good morning everyone. Um first I I also want to join in in the congratulations. It's exciting to have uh an EMS expert at at the helm. You know that we we always see different expertise reflected in leadership and this is great. My my first question uh is around the split between FDNY EMS respon uh responses and private systems as you mentioned. You mentioned it's about a third that's going to private systems. Sorry, I have five questions and five minutes. So, we're going to try to try to keep the answers brief as well. Um but so the first question is um when are those units dispatched versus FDNY units? And um they are better paid. Do they have a different workload? >> They they're dispatched as part of our dispatch system. So they're the dispatched based on who's the closest. So they work in particular areas. They have higher rates of pay uh because they work directly for the hospital. We're not paying them as city employees. uh they have different packages um uh different benefit packages you know because they're private employees. >> So thank you. Um second question is I'm really happy to to hear the the statistics regarding the declining number of fatalities. You mentioned 2022 was a high at 97 and then it went down to one uh to 62 in FY25. Could you share this information uh with the committee uh in terms of say by battalion? I know I have battalion 19 in district 14. It's about 90% of my district and I'd just be very uh curious to see what the numbers have been there especially as as you know and we discussed last week. Thank you for the conversation uh that we've had a number of fatal fires just in the in the last couple of months. >> Sure. We can get together and talk about the uh information that you need. >> Thank you. Um, and in particular, I just want to highlight as chair of housing and buildings, it'd be particularly important to to see when the cause of a fire is something like electrical wiring, something related to the building condition. Um, so as you as you share information with us about uh fires, causes of fires across the city. Uh, very interested in seeing that. Um, Chief Espazito, you you answered Council Member Maloney's question regarding the the Bronx delegation reaching out to you about a fifth firefighter. Uh we we understand that deploying uh three to four person teams takes longer than sending two fivep person engines. Uh so in addition to I know you said you were reviewing but I'm curious your response to some of uh the ideas that we raised in in the letter if you agree or disagree with anything as stated. You know, on the operational front, uh, an engine staffed with five firefighters, we know will stretch and operate a hose line quicker than an engine staffed with with four firefighters. Um, and we are continuing to review um the proposal. It would re it would result in a reduction of the number of engines sent on the initial call for a fire from three to two. Uh and the theory is that that would free up some availability to respond and and reduce response times for other emergencies. >> Yeah, exactly. Thank you. We we look forward to to your response on that. And you know, as my my colleague, no relation, council member Justin Sanchez said said in the letter, uh, we we do, you know, want to be mindful of reducing response times and anything that can be done there. Um, my my my last question, I mean, I have like three more, but I don't think I have time, so I'm going to focus it on the conversation that we had um last week. Uh, it feels like three years ago, but that was just a week ago. um regarding the AY's coordination with additional agencies after a fire, right? Um I will be the first to admit, you know, I I try to go to as many fires in my in my district. FDNY is almost always gone by the time that that I get there, unless it's one of the major ones because, you know, thankful for all of the work. You know, they they put out the fire, they do their thing, and then I I'm really working with my constituents to make sure people know where are they going to go for the evening. you know, uh what what um what happens next, right? There's big questions. So, we've had this uh you I I want to u sort of emphasize we we we are having a non-legislative conversation about improvements, right? We don't have to legislate everything, but um on the occasion when FDNY is responding to fires with less than three alarms, um I have noticed and I I know other colleagues have also noticed a gap in FDNY's I don't know if it's the communication or uh the way that the agencies are working together to make sure that vacates are issued appropriately because those vacates then trigger the more, you know, call it human side, the the American Red Cross, you know, hotel for the response. So, I just uh am requesting an update right now on those conversations. How are any protocols going to be changing or when can I expect a response? Thank you. >> We're we're definitely having those conversations and thank you for bringing that up. Um we're working with our partner agencies to make sure any gaps that exist will be closed. It's going to take a couple more conversations. As you can imagine, every every agency has their own protocol and we have to see how those protocols align and where we can close some of those gaps. I think uh you're probably getting emails about fires now. >> Yes. Thank you. So excited. >> So, we've made we've made some progress on that front and I expect we'll continue to make progress there. >> Thank you. Um Madam Chair, can I ask one more quick question? Um you you talked about the criminal summons issued for a fire a vehicle that was blocking a fire hydrant. Can you tell us where where that was first and second? What are how often are are trucks getting stuck behind double parked vehicles, right? So they're not getting to their their sites. Do you keep that information and um what can we do to improve that? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Uh so this year we have issued several criminal court summones for vehicles parked on hydrants. Uh two of them were for the fifth alarm on uh Finley in early January. Uh one of those resulted in a $3,500 fine. Uh the second one is still being uh adjudicated. Um you know, we do get stuck in times behind uh cars and traffic uh double parked vehicles or vehicles blocking the road. Uh sometimes we're able to squeeze by or have to wait for the driver and other times we have to back out of the block and go around and it does does lead to a delay. And with the, you know, the the snow that we had this year and how long it stayed around, I think we all saw it that, you know, cars were now parked further off the off the curb into traffic and and if there was going to be somebody double parked or or delivery trucks, it's just all of that congestion that slows us down. >> Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chair. Council member Maloney. >> Thank you, Chair. Um my next question continues in the theme around um replacements and maintenance. Um the city has a commitment to replace the engine and ladder apparatus every 10 years and reports of uh supply chain disruptions and issues with manufacturings um have meant there's a bit of a delay. So how many apparatuses were delivered in the last year and then what is the the follow-up question to that? What is the gap between what was ordered and delivered? >> Do you know? >> Well, while Commissioner Brooks looks that information, uh, in the fall, I I was able to to visit the factory that makes our fire trucks out in Wisconsin and had a discussion with the uh the the CEO of of the company. And initially, all of our apparatus had been ordered on time. And initially the delay was what everybody referred to as the global supply chain shortage. But what Crrave had to do during the pandemic was lay off some of their workers. And as the supply chain caught up and started to deliver the parts, as they went to hire their workers back, uh many of them did not come back. So the supply chain shortage has been rectified. They now have a skilled workforce uh issue. Uh they would love to be working double shifts. They're just not able to at this point. Uh they are prioritizing FDNY apparatus. Uh we are getting consistent deliveries and it's considerably better than it was this time last year. And then in regards of what's being received, we're in the process of receiving eight squads, 41 pumpers, 11 tower ladders, and 22 uh rear mount aerials. >> And what was the uh gap between ordered and what was actually delivered? >> Um what do you mean like the turnaround time? Is that what you're >> It's about 900 days from when we submit the purchase order until we receive the the vehicle. >> Thank you. And uh the my last question is around the number of women serving in FDNY continuing to grow and many firehouses only have one locker or a single shower designated for the female firefighters and wondering if you have any comment on that regarding steps to take to make sure we have adequate facilities to accommodate more female firefighters entering. So uh like you mentioned all our facilities have um a female locker room. We are in the process of our new uh design specs is that we are building gender neutrality for our locations. We have already done that at a location in Brooklyn and all our new design specs will include that. So going forward we will have gender neutrality locker rooms for all our locations. >> So obviously that's a a big undertaking right? We have a 100-y old buildings and we're trying to retrofit that uh with new bathrooms and locker rooms. So, the the truth of the matter is we still have space issues. Uh though every firehouse has a a bathroom for females, there still may be some space issues that we continue to work through and move moving forward. Um, it's not just these firehouses and EMS system, EMS houses, stations that we, you know, we have to maintain and some of them being very old, but also moving forward as we put new housing in, you know, we we'd like to be considered for new firehouses, EMS stations, and new resources to accommodate the people in those growing areas. And that's just part of our uh modernizing the fire department and preparing our infrastructure to go for the next 50 years and and handle the calls that that are going to be happening all over our city. >> I agree. And and please understand that these these issues that we're bringing up is not a knock to the fire department or to facilities. It is because we have a new administration and they need to know what's happening on the ground and they need to know why we've asked for $1 billion to be infused into the fire department and why we cannot afford to have any money taken out. So um how many neater neater uh min systems are inoperable ballpark or if you know exactly >> I don't have that information in front of me. Do you think that possibly one of your team members can get that information, maybe call over to Metro Tech? I see people putting notes on your on your thing. Maybe they could find that out and then find out how long an you wait be when when you learn something is expired for an order to be put in, you know, or when you know it in advance because it's very important that we know that. We have to know that there is a constant chain and flow of communication when an order is called in that it is looked at immediately. Um so before we get back so so does the fire department have a platform that tracks the priority work orders requests assess and a res resolution? Do you have that program or or policy? Yeah, we have a database that has all all the information when the work order is called in. Uh trades people who assess it, project managers who assess it, >> right? And are you able to get the information on the Netherman system >> for me? All right. And um and and then right now what you've seen up here, I just have a question. If you were in that these firehouses that you've seen thus far, and there are there are a couple more to come, would you feel safe working in that firehouse? I I'll answer that. Um, you know, to to your point, Madam Chair, the the men and women that work in these houses are heroes, and they would put their life on the line and have put their life on the line for their fellow New Yorkers. They don't deserve to be in facilities like that. They don't deserve to be in the presence of mold or water infiltration. They absolutely don't. They deserve better. and we'll work with what we have to make those repairs as quickly as possible and attract those repairs. Um, we have to move forward in a different way because these these houses are getting older by the day and one repair will lead to another repair. So, we have to do a better job and I can commit to that that we will do our part to to make sure that we're on top of this. uh whether it be a better tracking system or you know certainly better communication about what our needs are for these facilities. >> Um there's a lot of facilities so we we expect that there's going to be these situations but you know to your original question should they be living like that? The answer is no. >> No >> they should not. >> Brava you're right. No. >> Okay. We're ready to go to the next slide. Okay. Okay, the next slide is ladder 78 and they put in for an unstable front parapet all of the firehouse numerous times. In June of 2023, the building's unit subcontracted out a company to put a protective netting over the unstable parapit wall. No repairs have been done since the netting was put on. Previous work orders were submitted on 621 of 22, 311 of 22, 126 of 21, and 125 of 2020. We're here today on March 13th of 2026, and that netting is still on. What is the cause for the delay here? So, this particular uh firehouse, we had contractors out there about two weeks ago, and they're in the process of coming up with a revised proposal on the cost for that. Once we receive the uh cost proposal, we start to work on submitting it. All right. Do you see a pattern, though? First, it takes a very long time to get out there. Then, they put up a a scaffold or netting. Then, they have a contractor go out. Then, what is it? Six years later, contractor goes out again and because things are more expensive now, they have to do a new cost proposal for what it'll cost. Why? Why is there such a gap from what the time that that you have? Because if the money is there and you have to maintain these houses, why is there such a gap in the time frame from when you first get a very dangerous condition reported to the time that it gets gets fixed? Six years is a ridiculous amount of time. So, you have no answer. Okay. Okay. No answer. Let's go to the next picture. >> So, I I just wanted to add to that to to give a a partial response. Um so, you know, we we have um we have had our our civilian headcount reduced over the years and so that that certainly contributes. Um if you look at actual staff in facilities pre- pandemic to now um they've lost about 20 actual people like not just vacancies but comparing payroll headcount to payroll headcount. Um and that's about 18% of their staff which certainly contributes to a longer time. >> Is there a reason for those vacancies? Um so they they were part of previous um financial plan savings initiatives um in order to to to contribute towards filling the budget gap um without impacting uh fire and EMS um where we have taken reductions generally speaking has been on the civilian support staff side >> since 2020 since the co shutdown. >> Yeah. >> Okay. The next picture uh pictures are from squad 288. That's in Massmith. I want to make sure it's up so that Well, you got it. Okay. The apparatus floor is buckling patched with concrete. The following picture shows how it is being held up by hoists that are installed in 2001, which are also now buckling and unsteady. The apparatus floor holds rigs that weigh several tons. There is sometimes flooding in the basement which also compromises the hoists. Why has this project been delayed 25 years? So this project actually is going to be started shortly. We have funding in place. Um there the jacks are correct. Those have been there about 20 years. So, but we will be starting this project shortly. We have funding in place for it. >> Is it fully funded to be reconstructed? >> Yes. >> It took 25 years to do that. >> 25 years. Is everyone listening to that? 25 years. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, and the 25 years, um, I don't think you have a look back that far, but I would imagine that the staffing wasn't as low as it is in now as it is now. So, the commissioner makes a valid point. The reason why they're allowed to get away with 25 years, six years, 10 years of firehouses being in a shambles being if the department of buildings, I don't know how the department of buildings doesn't go in and market that it should not be inhabited because it looks like it's going to fall down a lot of them. It's because firefighters go out every single day. Ambulance, EMTs, paramedics go out every day and no matter what the conditions are, they do their job. And they do their job without any any squeaking. There's no squeaking. They they just do their job. Doesn't matter how old their rig is. Doesn't matter how hot their rig is in the in the summertime, and they still go out and do their job. But does that make it right? That does not make it right. They deserve the best. They deserve equipment that they're not that is probably sometimes as hot if not hotter than the fire that they're about to go into when they're going and and going to a summer fire. They deserve a house that's not falling on them. And what we have here is the reason why we cannot take any money from the fire department. We must put more money into the fire department for facilities for to to to if we need to get new firehouses. Fine. That's great. We'll do it. We need to make sure that that all of the money that is being spent gets spent at the firehouses that we put forth right now that when I look in two years that these are fixed. But you don't have any idea because you know that it won't be fixed. It won't be fixed. And maybe you are sending people out, but they'll go out and put another band-aid. And then it will be another 25 years. Somebody else will be sitting here with council members Maloney and and Schulman and Sanchez and and and Council Member Wong, Council Member Kaban, anybody else who's on this this panel. There'll be new new members 25 years from now, and they'll be in the same condition. It's pitiful. And this administration has got to see that. Has got to see that firefighters, EMS, and our paramedics deserve better. And that's what this committee is committed to to get you more money. So don't take the knife out, commissioner. Don't take the knife out. We need to take a bucket and pour into the fire department on many different levels all the way from staffing to to facilities. But quite honestly, facilities for what is your first name? >> Jeremy. >> Jeremy. And my name's Joanne. >> Jeremy, it's appalling that you don't have any answers or you have standard answers or you have just placating answers as to why these facilities are in this condition. Because if I were the head of facilities, you bet your bottom dollar I would get the money from the administration to fix it so that nobody gets hurt inside the firehouse before they exit the firehouse to save someone's lives. That's on you. So whether you have full staffing or you're decreased in staffing, this has been going on well before the staffing was cut and it continues to go on. But through our dedication to the fire department and the the entire agency, we're going to make sure that it ends because we're going to make sure that the public is aware and the administration across the hall had best be paying attention because the fire department is where there needs to be attention paid. And if there are people within not doing their job, they need to be replaced, commissioner, and that's your job to figure out who's doing their job and who's dogging it, who's who's dragging their heels. And you are a commissioner who wants to make sure that your department shines because you are a member of this department. And that's why I am so excited to have you as a commissioner because I know you want the best. And as I said before, the things that are brought up here are not because we we want to the fire department has you there's no culpability at all because you're doing your job. This is about dollars and cents, OM, the office of the mayor, and making sure that you have the money that you need to make sure that this these conditions are fixed, that the rigs are upgraded, that there's proper staffing, that there is a an equitable fair wage given to members of EMS so that we can maintain EMS members and that they don't leave and this city can be a lot safer. >> Page nine. >> Okay. >> Here. >> Okay. We're going to wrap up very soon. You've been very uh patient, but these are things that have to get out. Okay. So, according to the law that I mentioned before, um the next inspection report uh for engine 266 would uh in my district, what when would we get the next item that is the inspection report for engine 266 in my district? >> If you look up here, >> this is it. >> Yeah, >> but I can't see it from here. >> You have questions on page nine. >> Okay. So, so engine 266 has exterior condition. >> Great. Right here. Got it. Right here. I know. I get it. The MSA Rubik's award broad ratings across 10 categories. Um, uh, and we're talking about 266. They received a 92% overall score despite 11 documented deficiencies, including raw sewage, backflow, collapsing ceilings, and a firefighter struck by a falling plaster the day before the visit. Does the FDMY believe the current methodology produces meaningful assessments of facility conditions? So if 266 got what? A 94. Was it >> 92? >> 92. And it is in desperate condition. What does an an engine company that has a 72? >> What does that one look like? >> So we don't use the MSA scores as a basis. We go exactly by what is being reported from the surveyor. So while it mentions 92, we don't look at we goes right to the photos and what the issues are. And that's what we immediately try to respond to. If there's any safety and health issues for 266, we send staff out immediately to assess and see what can be done right away. But we don't look at the rating. We go right to the report, read the report. >> So So you're telling me that that you're going to fix that right away? >> Is that what you're telling me? >> Well, there's a lot of things on here that have already been fixed. >> I understand. Right. Because it's from 2024. >> Well, yes. Yes. A lot of these items have been corrected already. There are some things that we do have a large scale capital project that will be starting shortly there. But a lot of the other things we had already been >> what was corrected? >> Well, the issues with the sewage backup was corrected. Um we had uh some of the plaster was fixed, but there's a larger issue with the roof leak that will be taken care of. >> Okay. That's not what I'm seeing when I go in because this is in my district. So, um I don't I don't see where anything has been corrected. I'm hoping the raw sewage backflow has been um has been corrected, but um I will certainly check back at that firehouse to make sure what's been corrected and what hasn't. I'll check. Okay. Unless any of the members have any other questions. Council member Wong, did you have a question? >> She'd like a followup. >> Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Um, I would like to know where do you recruit the VM EMTs? Like I know high schools or colleges that offer like advanced first aid, first aid classes. uh and quite many of them want to be EMTs, but do you do you ever reach out to them or you go to other places for recruitment because uh I know people that want to be EMTs and they're taking AFA right now just don't know where to go. Can you talk about it? >> Yeah, that's great. Thanks for bringing that up because we want as many people as we can get to be EMTs and they can always go to joinfdny.org org for information.com. Joinfdny.com. Uh, Commissioner Nunan could talk about our recruitment efforts. >> Sure, happy to. >> Thank you. >> Uh, thank you. Um, actually, we have a recruitment campaign for EMTs upcoming in June. So, your timing is perfect. Um, if you are interested in partnering with our recruitment unit, you can absolutely reach out. we or we can reach out to your your uh your me your team to see where we can help assist and partner with uh various schools or community programs that are interested in um helping their their organ their members >> and I understand is is pay the reason why you have having recruitment problems or there's something else that I I'm missing here. I would say pay is definitely one of the reasons um you know it it puts us uh in comparators of of some uh other positions that maybe are not heroic positions where we think we shouldn't have to compare with with Starbucks or Uber or Lift and things like that. Um but really we are doing a lot of recruiting for um members that that don't even know that they want to be EMTs, right? This is a career that can touch people that don't even know that this is this would be so inspiring to them and their families and their communities. So, we're looking for those people that don't necessarily know that the fire department has an entry- level position where in, you know, very short, you can apply for an exam, go through an academy, and have a very fulfilling career. So, a lot of the work that we do is focused on inspiring young people or really not just people, right, our civilians. there is no age uh range for members that want to become EMTs to, you know, to come in and learn about what an EMT actually does, how to get involved, how to prepare um and we do a lot of that engagement and work with our initiatives in preparing people for becoming an EMT. So whether it's uh a detailed information session, whether it's uh phys physical uh requirements and you making sure that you're physically prepared to pass the physical exam to become an EMT, whether it's making sure that we have uh content on our website so that you can start studying some of the medical terminologies that you're going to have to learn once you go into the EMS academy to be successful. These are all, you know, very important initiatives that we spend a lot of time on and pursue and make sure that we're not we're doing more than just recruiting you. We are helping you all the way up until the moment that you've gone to the academy. >> Okay. Yes, you. >> I'm sorry. Um, so, uh, being an EMT and paramedic is extremely f fulfilling, right? There are not many careers where you can save lives and bring lives into this world. The problem with our job is there is not a lot of exposure about exactly what an EMT and paramedic what they do. Uh the fire department through our social media consistently pushes forward stories of heroism and and acts and and life-saving moments that our members do. But we need your help. I would love to partner with with you and have an event where I can bring some of these members out and and young children or your young adults who are looking for careers can actually speak with them, learn their stories, hear where they started from. I was a restaurant manager. I had a customer who was a paramedic. He talked me into coming out and checking out what being a paramedic was. And here I am 27 years later in a position I never thought I would be in. But had it not been for a chance meeting with a customer at my restaurant, I don't know if I would have ever realized what goes on in the back of that ambulance. So I I would love to partner with you, be able to bring some of my members out and have them speak to the to the people in your community. >> Okay. Thank you. I I'll reach out to to at our next community events. My my final question is um um I wasn't I had to step out for a com a zoom with my civic organization so I missed about 20 minutes of the hearing. Um my question is um uh firefighters uh if you're EMT there is a path to be become a firefighter. Okay. So what is the percentage of that compared to your new like those that graduated from the academy? Like uh as I see it, you have firefighters from the academy and your firefighters from EMTs. So how many of those people are you pulling? >> Well, specifically for 2025, we saw about 35% of our firefighters that graduated came from our um EMS command. >> They still go through the fire academy. Earlier I mentioned about the law that was passed. Um I have to go back to the question I had asked um who in the department is in charge of tracking the emergency medical service vehicles that are available each day to respond to emergencies. I don't believe that portion was answered. Who is in charge of that tracking? So me uh so um >> I feel better now. >> But just just recently within the last two weeks we've deployed a new uh vehicle tracking system uh that was actually built inhouse by our own um um by our own uh tech department uh along with some of our members uh who who weighed in on on how this should be built. And uh over the last two weeks we have deployed this out into the field and our tracking between uh what we know we have in the field and what fleet has has reconciled almost 100%. >> And then who's in charge of sending it to the community boards which is by law now needed. >> That's our intergovernmental. So >> intergovernmental. >> Yeah. So we we can certainly make sure we're usually pretty good about sending that stuff out. So >> okay. Maybe we can get PR to start putting some EMS stuff up, too. >> Yeah. No, they they've actually have increased it quite a bit. I I don't know if you heard that their commissioner is an EMS person. >> I know. I know. >> So, let's go back to academy classes because that was that was a great question by council member Wong. So, um how many firefighter academy classes graduated in 25 FY25 and what was the total number of graduates and what percentage of the budgeted hiring targets were achieved? So, in FY25, uh, we had three classes of firefighters that graduated, uh, with 895 total graduates. >> And how many are planned for FY27? >> Um, so the class that started in early March will graduate uh, in the summer. Um, that should be about 240. Um we expect to start two additional classes in FY27 with an estimated 530 uh across the two classes. >> And what is the average firefighter academy class size and what percentage of completion rate do the classes have? >> So a a normal full class um is about 320. Um, some of our classes have have differed from from that number um, recently as as we're working through uh, the promotional list and the number of folks that have reached the four years that they need. Um, but as we approach the open competitive, we should be getting back to that normal class size. Um, the dropout rate is generally 8 to 10%. >> Okay. And what percentage of firefighters are promoted to lieutenant, captain, or higher ranks annually? So in FY25, we promoted 287 lieutenants, 145 captains, 48 battalion chiefs, 25 deputy chiefs, and 10 staff chiefs. >> And what is the current Oh, okay. He gave me the current level. All right. Um I do not have any further questions. Council member W. >> Yeah. Um I'm just a little concerned about did how did EMTs get trained to be a firefighters if if they become firefighters without going through the academy. >> Now the uh that thank you. Um, when you get promoted from EMS to firefighter, you go through the same fire academy and you do the same program as those that did not work for EMS or get hired off the promotional list. Uh, it's the same training. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And and uh thank you for uh mentioning uh you know, Squad 288 and Hazmat Company one. Uh, I knew and worked with many of those guys and uh, appreciate you keeping the memory alive. >> Good. Okay. Uh, I just want to uh, Jeremy, I I just wondered if you were able to get that uh, number for me about um, how many Netherman systems are inoperable now? >> I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Please come to the table. There are 30 open anetime work orders and about 90% of those will be closed by early next week. >> 30. How long were they open? Do you know how long they were open? >> That I don't know. >> That would be the interesting part. >> Okay, we'll check back to make sure they're closed. All right. I have no further questions, council member. Okay, then. And um thank you so very much for your testimony, Commissioner. You made it through your first budget hearing, and it'll be one of many, many, many hearings that we'll have together. And thank you so much for everything that you do. You are dismissed. Thank you. Okay, we have now begun again the hearing, the budget hearing for the fire and emergency management committee. And now we are now joined by the leadership team of New York City Office of Emergency Management with Christina Farrell, Commissioner Christina Frell and Brava and also Chris Blanco. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you raise your right hand, our council will swear you in do you firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth and to answer honestly to council member questions. Seeing you acknowledge that. You may go ahead. Thank you. >> We good? >> Great. Uh, good afternoon, Chair Areola, uh, Member Schulman, other members of the city council. I'm Christina Frell and it is my pleasure to be here today at my first hearing as commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management Department to testify on the preliminary budget. I am joined today by our chief financial officer, Christopher Blanco. I am very honored to be here, newly appointed as the commissioner of the agency and the first commissioner appointed in internally with decades of experience as an emergency manager for the city of New York. We are standing at a moment of change as the city, state, and federal landscapes are in their own moments of transition. And I'm I am excited to be here to meet this moment. I greatly look forward to leading the agency through these transitions and to continuing my work in partnership with the city council. I have always greatly valued our friendship and collaboration. As you all know, whole community is necessary for successful management of emergencies, and that will remain a core focus of mine as commissioner. New York City emergency management has a big mission. We lead the development of the city's emergency plans and the coordination of multi- agency responses to emergencies, educate the public about preparedness, and advance long-term initiatives that reduce risk and increase the resiliency of New York City. Today, New York City faces more frequent and complex emergencies and disasters due to climate change, social and economic inequity, aging infrastructure, reliance on technology, cyber threats, domestic terrorism, and more. Emergency management is the city's go-to leader for solving complex problems, issues that cannot be solved easily or quickly, and that cannot be solved by one entity alone, such as CO 19 or the recent influx of asylum seekers. Our planners write and maintain dozens of plans for varied emergencies, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazards, coastal storms, transit strikes, power disruptions, flash floods, and winter weather, among other hazards. Our public warning specialists issue thousands of public safety messages and emergency alerts in multiple languages every year to keep New Yorkers informed. Our logisticians manage the city's resource request process to source and strategically allocate critical supplies like generators. This work saves lives, protects neighborhoods, and reduces disaster costs to New Yorkers and to the city. Over the past 5 years, emergency management's roles and responsibilities have expanded. Since January 2022, the agency has managed 68 emergency operations center activations, 38 of which were simultaneous with other incidents. This trend towards the city experiencing more emergency incidents with a greater need for consequence management continues to accelerate. In the first eight weeks of 2026 alone, emergency management managed five large-scale emergency activations. This included a 2026 snow a January snowstorm, a February blizzard which was the largest snowfall in the city in the past decade, prolonged extreme cold, a weeksl long New York State Nurses Association strike, an emergency fuel task force activation, and multiple major fires, all with overlapping timelines. Summer 2026 will bring an unprecedented convergence of global and national events to the New York City region, including eight FIFA World Cup matches alongside major celebrations such as America 250, Fleet Week, and the International Naval Review. These high-profile activities, expected to draw over 1.6 6 million visitors coincide with annual events like Pride and the National Puerto Rico Day Parade and heightened seasonal risk such as heat, flash flooding, and power disruptions. Emergency management's role is coordination across multiple partners, fostering collaboration to minimize disruptions, strengthening community engagement, and maximizing resources. Emergency management is staffed by more than 250 dedicated professionals with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. Nearly everyone at emergency management has two roles, their dayto-day and their emergency activation role. The duality of roles is unique in city government and the model allows the agency to respond rapidly to citywide emergencies while maintaining continuity of operations, minimizing overtime, and reducing reliance on consultants or surge staffing contracts. Since emergencies always take precedence, thousands of staff hours normally dedicated to key preparedness work like managing the city's emergency supply stockpile and updating emergency plans were diverted to the response activities. in the last year alone. With that, let me now provide a snapshot of our budget for the next fiscal year. Our projected total fiscal year 2027 city tax levy expense budget is $39.6 million. We rely on our city tax levy expense budget to support the agency's administrative technological and operational costs. The projected fiscal year 2027 city tax levy personnel services budget is 13.9 million which supports the 93 personnel lines paid directly through our tax levy funds. This includes 1.2 2 million in funding for 16 staff members dedicated to working on increas in sorry working on increasing communication and services to people with disabilities access and functional needs as well as funding for personnel overtime to support the upcoming World Cup preparation and response activities. Our projected fiscal year 2027 city tax levy other than personnel services budget is 25.7 million which covers all agency operating and administrative costs. This budget includes a significant portion of non-discretionary funding. These funds are dis designed to cover our warehouse lease utilities and telecommunication costs including the maintenance and operations of our emergency operations center and backup facilities. This money also supports our fleet and all additional equipment, supplies, and materials needed to run the agency. This also includes funding for World Cup support for public information and language access. The agency receives grant funding to support many of our core programs. In the past year, we secured 36.2 million in federal funding, primarily through Homeland Security funding. This funding is vital to our ability to run many of our initiatives, including the Ready New York public education campaign, community emergency response team program, continuity of operations program, geographic information systems, technology and exercises, watch command and response, and citywide incident management system planning, as well as the emergency supply stockpile. The impacts of cuts to federal spending and the federal workforce, especially at FEMA and other federal agencies we depend upon should not be underestimated. Federal grants make up the majority of our AY's personnel services budget with 62% of our AY's budgeted headcount supported by federal funds. New York City has yet to receive this year's Homeland Security Grant funding awards from FEMA. Despite commitments from the president on social media and reporting in the press that the city's award would be fully restored to prior year levels, the federal government has not followed through on this commitment. The award as it currently stands totals $133 million which represents an $87 million or 40% cut to the program for New York State. New York City Emergency Management anticipates a reduction of upwards of $8 million though this uh the final award has not yet been awarded. This would result in significant impacts to critical programs during a time we are coordinating the World Cup, America 250, the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and at an increasing time of rising global tensions and negativity towards the United States. We will continue to work with city hall, OM, the city's congressional delegation, and our partner agencies to push for full funding. I would like to close by expressing my admiration for our dedicated emergency managers. They accomplished their roles with exemplary professionalism and service to their city. I am honored to be leading this agency and I know that the expert team at New York City Emergency Management will continue to set the model for what emergency management should be. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Chris and I look forward to working with the council and we're happy to answer your questions. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner. And I have to say if there was one person that need that deserved to be promoted from within it was you. You have done this job for many many years and we have enjoyed working with you uh this this committee and myself. Um, one thing is with with New York City Office of Emergency Management, constantly in contact with council members offices, community boards, and um, no matter what's going on, and having a district that is the recipient of lots of climate issues, uh, whether it be snow or flooding, I really appreciate your partnership with us. So, thank you so very much. Um, uh, let's see. Uh, I have a few questions and then I want to toss to the council member Schulman because she has she has another hearing. Unless you want to go first, Lynn. >> Okay. All right. So, the PMMR shows EOC activations plummeted 90% from 123 days in the first tour uh first four months of 25 to 12 days in 26. NISM states it has ended the perpetual EOC model. That's the emergency operations center. uh and will now primarily activate for weather related emergencies returning to traditional activation patterns for specific events. Uh that that's done uh and also EOCC activations have uh decreased and that would be a good reason why you would deactivate it. But uh as a question, what percentage of NISM staff are assigned to the EOCC operations when activated? And does the staffing scale differentiate between active when it was activated and when it isn't activated? Um, so I will say the second uh quarter or the third quarter, whatever quarter we're in for FY27, those numbers went right back up uh because people know the January and the February we had. Uh the last few years we were activated uh 365 first for COVID and then for the asylum seeker operations. Uh thankfully both of those are uh all but closed out. And so, um, our activations have been more, uh, focused on, you know, our more traditional hazards, um, the summer, you know, severe heat, uh, luckily no coastal storms recently. Um, you know, all of that. And then, like I said, we've been activated for winter weather a lot so far this year. Um, hopefully we're closing that out as well. We have three teams at emergency management, red, white, and blue. They're up for three weeks at a time. Um and so at any one moment um about a third of our agency is on call. There were people in the last six weeks that were on call every day for those 21 um days, you know, because of of all the weather and everything. Uh the team that's up right now, they are on call, but they haven't been as heavily activated. Um although we might see some flash flooding Monday, so stay tuned. Um but we have our ongoing you know operations but then we also um have this model with our teams where they're activated uh for a third of the year. >> Okay. So they're always on call. >> Yep. And uh for the community emergency uh response team or C, the PMMR shows strong growth in theert program. Volunteer hours increasing 35% from three 3,766 to 5,84. Deployments increased 48% from 61 to 90. And NISM recruited 44 new members versus zero in 2025. After restructuring the curriculum in late 2024, uh NISM emphasized the locals driven community engagement rather than um NISM initiated requests and you you do an excellent job on community engagement. I cannot say that enough times. So the cert volunteers hour hours increase 35%. Um what do you what what do you think are the specific changes to CERT that drove that drove the growth and what are the targets for annual volunteer hours and deployments in 27. Uh so we um last December we had our 50th cycle of CIRC graduation which I have to say for me was um you know really a personal milestone uh because I started in 2003 the same year that we started with C. Uh and so to have the program go all those years and you know through COVID through a lot of other uh challenges to have 50 cycles really um you know really really made me proud I have to say. uh and that was also the biggest class that we had had in like six or seven years. Um so that you know there were challenges especially during the years when um most of the work was remote uh you know that C is not set up to be a remote program. It's set up to be a program where people are in neighborhoods are working. So you know I think we've re really rebounded from some leaner years. Um we have a new director uh who came up he started as a civic corps five or six years ago worked his way up and now he is the director. He's an army veteran and he is um super fantastic and has more energy than all of us combined. So he's really doing a great job and um you know I think that over the time over time with support uh such as yourselves and and you know other partners people really see the value inert see their flexibility see their dedication. Um, one thing we're working towards uh in the spring and the summer which I'm really excited about is we are looking to do a class uh in the Rockaways because as we know um you know it's a really the classes are are hybrid now we we can do some of the textbook learning online and then uh obviously the drills and things are in person. Um, but you know, asking people after their workday or taking care of their kids or whatever they're doing all day, asking them to spend maybe two hours to get to our headquarters uh to train for three hours and then get home is a really tall order um for anyone, but especially for volunteers. So, we're working to recruit a class that will be um uh trained in the Rockaways, which I'm really excited about. >> Oh, that's excellent. And yeah, >> if you know anyone, let them >> Oh, well, if you send me something, we'll pump that right out. Rockaways is part of my district. >> Yep. >> So, >> so what is the annual budget for the C program and what is the cost per volunteer hour? How does the value of CERT volunteer contributions compared to the program cost? Um, you know, I think it's an incredibly uh efficient program. We you know they're volunteers so obviously uh you know they get um a go bag they get a uniform some food now and then and profuse gratitude uh but you know the cost per volunteer is very short is very low we uh the overall division that they are out of community engagement um which I used to lead back in the day um the whole program ready New York strengthening communities all the staff all our C members it's about $4 million in federal funding. Um so a very low cost if you think about the mission of community engagement across the city, right? >> Uh we're very lucky through this whole um you know now we're getting ready for our 51st cycle. Uh the model is that we use uh instructors from the police department, fire department, EMS, and our staff who come at the end of their day and do this for a little bit of overtime. And I think that model of having the three agencies together has really been key to the success of the program. >> That's good. And if you need any help locing, just feel free to contact our office. We can work with you on that. >> Thank you. >> And then let's talk about emergency preparedness education and outreach. um emergency preparedness um participants increased 23% to 20,367 in the first four months of 2026 projecting approximately 81,000 annually. What is the target for annual participants and by what percentage does the current trajectory fall short or exceed this target? Uh I think you know our our goal is to prepare every single New Yorker. Um, obviously we need to do that in waves, but one of our mandates for all of our staff in addition to their blue sky role and their gray sky role is that every um staff member who comes in, and they're told this through the recruitment and and when they meet with me uh before they get the job offer, is that they need to do at least three Ready New York presentations each year. Uh they're all different ways that you can accomplish that. Um but, you know, we really practice what we preach. We also have our volunteers doing it. As you know, we do a lot of work with the council, with other partners. Um, we do a lot of work in schools, senior centers, houses of worship, businesses. So, um, you know, our goal is to be out there in every community meeting people where they are. Uh, you know, I think we're doing a very good job of that. We can always do more. uh we can look to see um you know what ways we can do it more effectively do it with technology but we also don't want to miss you know seniors uh probably don't want to maybe but they probably don't want to scan a QR code and go through that they probably want someone to show up and talk to them and work it through with them um maybe in a language other than English so you know we there is the quantity for sure of of getting the message out as widely as we can but there's also um you know this is really important work and uh you know we need to person by person group by group we need to make sure that people understand the message that they have the supplies they are keed in to notify uh NYC and someplace so you know we will continue to push and and to work with that across the city and across uh partners such as yourselves. Yeah, for sure. Um, the emergency management training and learning management system. Uh, that's an online course. >> It's both. Uh, the management system is online. It's a portal. Uh, but we do a lot of in-person training and then we also do, uh, online training. >> Okay. And the exercises, drills, and training, how how does that roll out? A full-scale functional exercise. Uh it it shows a decrease from seven to three, but but um you know what is the average staff cost per exercise specific staffing constraints is that you know what what are the things that could enhance those numbers. >> Um so we're actually doing an exercise tonight in Sunnyside. Uh it's important to do exercises at at night since there are different challenges. It's with the police department, the fire department, Amtrak, uh our agency and others. So, um I might take a nap in between this and going over there. Uh well >> deserved, >> you know, but um we do lots of of different exercises. Um you know, sometimes the MMR is a point in time. >> Um but we are uh gearing up. We're doing a lot of exercises for FIFA, the World Cup. Um we always do a lot of coastal storm exercises and um obviously we have a new administration. There are new commissioners. So, we are focused on making sure uh there are new council members, making sure that everybody uh that is new to this process understands. You know, it's a really great environment where you can ask questions, you can test assumptions. And so, uh like all of our units, the staff is pretty small. It's about uh three staff people and a director, but they love their exercises. Um and they are out there as often as they can training people. and and certainly we're going to need that because we have so many things that are going to be happening in this city um or in this year and and next. So, um I I you know, I always refer to NISM as the the little agency that could because you guys get the job done. You really do. And you're you're out there in person in boots and um and with snow shovels. So, uh, I I get concerned because you don't have a line on the federal funding yet because I know you rely quite a bit on it. So, what is the total federal funding in 27's FY27's budget and what percentage of it is NISM's 44.9 budget? I know you answered earlier in your in your testimony, but um, how how could if if that money does not come to you, how could it negatively impact you? Where would you see de decreases in your ability to do your job? >> Um I can talk about the program and then if you want to talk about any other >> Sure. >> Um >> yeah, you can go. >> Okay. Um yeah, so um you know, I think when we're talking about federal funding and NISM, you know, as we mentioned, it's about 40 48% of our overall budget when you remove sort of like one-time funding for things like asylum seekers. Um, so when we we're talking about really impacting every single program um that the agency does. Um, so I think we are in constant contact with city hall with OMB and with our federal partners. Um, and as mentioned in the testimony um, just some of the programs that are impacted. Um, we talked about CERT, continuity of operations, geographic information systems, training exercises, watch command, citywide incident management systems, our emergency stockpile, our staffing, um, and just all the the great programs that we sort of um talked about as part of the testimony, but I'll I'll defer to Christina on the individuals. Um, >> and do you have any reason to believe that that federal funding will not come through? >> So, um, until we have it, um, I there's there's always a chance something can happen. Um, as mentioned, the president had made a commitment on social media to fully restore that funding. Um, obviously, we also know that the federal government's currently shut down. So, you know, they're they're not able to actually even click the button even if they wanted to give us the money today. Um, so we continue to really closely monitor that with city hall and OM um and remain optimistic that um, you know, the commitments that the president had made will come through. >> So, I want to uh turn Lynn, do you have anything? Okay, great. Go right ahead. Hello, Commissioner. Um, it's very nice to call you commissioner. Uh, I want to echo the the sentiments of the chair and we are so excited to have you be the commissioner for NISM and um you've done a great job and we've worked together when I was staff, you were staff and now here we are. So, um, anyway, one of the questions I want to ask was, um, with all the increasing severity and extreme weather events and all of that, um, there doesn't seem to be extra money in the budget for climate adaptation and resilience and there's really nothing that we can see in the in the state budget. So, I just wanted to get your response to that. >> Yeah. Um, so I think as we've talked about federal funding, there has been a lot that has taken place over the last year and continues to take place. Um, you know, I think we've talked mostly about the homeland security funds, but um, you know, NISM is is involved in working with other agencies on their submissions for climate related work. Um, I think there's a number of lawsuits that the city's been a a party to, and we've recently gotten some pretty positive news as far as winning that money, uh, winning those lawsuits and seeing that funding restored. So, um, you know, continuing to work with the existing sort of infrastructure that we have administratively across the city, um, to make sure that New York City is getting its fair piece of, uh, the funding that's out there. >> Okay. And the preliminary plan includes $230,000 for the FIFA World Cup, but that doesn't seem to be sufficient from my perspective. So, I just wanted to ask what more you think you might need and what what are the plans for that? Um we you know I think that we feel pretty confident about 50% of our staff doesn't earn overtime. Uh so 50% of the people that were just working every day for the last uh two months unfortunately for them were uh doing it at their base salary. Uh so that amount of money um which Chris has been working with OM on I think will actually uh go a long way. We're a very uh you get a lot of bang for your buck with us. Uh but you know, we're always working with OM um and talking through if we have more needs. We were also really excited. We got uh money specifically for Notify NYC. We know there's going to be an influx of visitors. Um we are working with the FIFA host committee and others to make sure that we have appropriate messaging uh you know in languages. we all of it templated um and translated so we can kind of go into these events feeling prepared and feeling ready to share whatever messaging we need to on on whatever platform. >> So I know that um no and by the way you should let us know if there's additional monies that are needed. I mean we're in the you know we're in this budget phase now so ear early in the process. Um, so that's very important, but also with the deconstruction of weather satellites and all kind and personnel and everything else in the federal government. Um, is there anything we're doing to beef up the weather forecasting um for us? So, we have uh and I think that you probably uh got briefings from her on the multiple elected calls we did during the the winter weather. But we have a meteorologist that we recruited from Albany >> uh who has a PhD who is incredibly smart and and knows weather, but also knows how to speak to uh people like us about it. Um so, she is fantastic. She's also been training some of our watch commanders uh to be kind of auxiliary um you know, weather forecasters as they need it. And we also have a uh weather contract um through a contracting group because we let Alex sleep and you know see her family once in a while. And so uh we also can use that that contract. Um and other you know when we're doing the larger calls and everything sanitation has a weather vendor. Coned has a weather vendor. Um so we get a lot of crowd sourcing and look at different as we saw with the last blizzard. It started out that it was going to be an inch. was going to be 3 in and then we ended up with 27 in in Staten Island which was a new record. So um so you know the weather forecasting and all of that we feel very confident that we have multiple layers um you know just for redundancy but also to get different um different forecasts so we can kind of look and see what's the most reasonable so we don't miss something. >> How how far out can they um forecast? >> Uh it depends on what the hazard is. Um, you know, some of them you can go pretty far out, others, uh, it's, you know, a lot closer. But, um, you know, she will give us a heads up. Uh, like I said, we may have some, uh, you know, kind of strong rain on Monday. Um, and then we know that St. Patrick's Day is Tuesday, so we're already looking at the beginning of next week. We're going to do a call with the agencies this afternoon just to give them the early heads up. We would much rather, and I'm sure you've seen with our communications with you, I would much rather um you know take 20 minutes from people and get them on the phone and say what might happen and then a couple days later say don't worry about it as opposed to the other um thing that we have experienced from time to time. >> No, we really it it it's much appreciated. So um and then if I can ask um a couple more questions. Thanks. So what are the plans? So we had as you know we had this very frigid winter. Um what are the plans? Are there any additional plans for cooling centers? Because we can always go to the other extreme as well, which might happen. >> Uh yeah, for sure. So, um you know, one thing we've been doing, we held two hot washes with um which is when you everybody comes in the room and we talk about what happened, you know, and what we wish had gone differently, what what did go well, what are some new ideas. Uh so we did that for winter weather for the in infrastructure agencies and then also on the social services side. Um so we're looking uh to build uh annex for the winter weather plan as we're doing that it's the same people that are you know working on on the heat and so we're also looking at that what if we had to have cooling centers open overnight right usually cooling cooling centers close when the heat advisory goes down 8 n:00 when the sun goes down. Um but you know there is a world where you could have a heat advisory that goes overnight. um you know having people at cooling centers during the day is a much easier thing to manage than having a cooling center overnight becomes a shelter basically right um which are more complicated and there's a lot of other things going on but we are looking to expand the cooling center program looking at other options and then what would we have to do I have to say um you know that schools who opened up many warming centers uh first for unhoused and people that needed that but then also as we saw some power outages we saw some heat and hot water complaints. Um, you know, schools really came to the rescue. I don't think you had any in your district, but I know we had the power outage. Uh, a large power outage with PSEG the day of, um, the blizzard and, uh, Cherry Ariel. It was very helpful. Use this school, don't use this. Like, it cut through a half hour of us looking at a map and figuring all that out because you guys know your districts. So, we really appreciate that. Um, and so, we will be doing a campaign to see what else we can bring on as cooling centers. We're um we did a couple misting stations last year which are you know that you can walk through kind of the cool weather when you're doing the cool rain water when you're doing stuff outside. We had one in the Bronx and one in Queens which worked really well. So we're working with health to expand that to seven. Um and also talking to FIFA and to the other partners that will be running events and telling them that they have to work with the city and they have to figure out how to keep their participants and their fans cool um while this all goes on. So >> yeah. And do you and do you have con conversations I'm sure with with KHED and and the others around the electrical grid because one is electricity is going up. So even if people have air conditioners, they may not want to um the electric rates are going skyhigh and then you have AI um air AI institutions that are pulling electricity and all of this. So are you guys keeping on top of that? >> Yeah, for sure. We uh they were in the um in our office on Wednesday and similar to what we did with the city leaders, we did the same thing with Coned. We looked at because there were some um you know longer than we would have liked power outages, there were a lot of challenges with um you know alternate side being cancelled, snow, a lot of salt in the system. Um so we did it on the cold side and now we're looking to uh the heat as well. And um you know I will say the city ked emergency management um we're much more used to dealing with the heat than we were with the prolonged cold. Um but there's always more we can do. There's always better partnership and so we're we're definitely working closely with them. Thank you so much and thank you for I thank please thank your team and um I also want to say that to my well my colleagues that are watching so that they also um Nism offers to have um the council members and their staff come out to the facility and see what goes on and I think that's a valuable thing to do especially for new staff um so that they know how you operate and we know what needs to be done in an emergency and again I want Thank you guys for everything that you've been doing. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, >> chair. >> So, just just to get back to the federal portion, I have one question. Uh, at a previous preliminary budget hearing, your predecessor said that uh NISM was working on a contingency plan for all agencies if federal funding was cut. Do you have a status on that plan? Uh so we have been working through that and um you know we have a lot of continuity of operations plans with different agencies uh looking at things with FIFA. There are some things sometimes you you know we may get to a place where we have to prioritize um you know what we're doing and how we're doing it um and so that is some of the work that different agencies are going through uh and you know if if there are specific questions we can go back and look at those. Okay, great. And I and I just want to go back to where you said we had we had that major outage in the Rockaways and the fact that we did work together and that you were so open to our suggestions that we were making from our office and how quickly you opened the warming centers was was really phenomenal. Thank you for that. >> You're welcome. I would give credit to how quickly they opened to the schools. Kevin Moran, if you know him, that was all him. >> Well, everybody's got to work together, right? Our office, your office, the schools, everybody has to work together. It was unprecedented. 20 ft of snow and no lights. It was pretty bad. Uh so I just want to talk about the coastal storm plan and evacuation zones. You know the Yep. near and dear to my heart. >> Yes. >> So uh what percentage of NYC's population lives in a hurricane evacuation zone and what is the estimated timeline to evacuate each zone? >> Uh so about 3 million New Yorkers out of the um 8.5 live in the zones. There are six zones um as I'm sure you know uh because most of your district I believe is in zone one. Yep. >> Uh yeah. Um so each zone has about 500,000 residents. Um you know and really zones one and two. Um those were those zones affected by Sandy. Um but you know it it we like to plan for uh you know the very worst that could happen. Um so it is a very sizable group. Um, you know, I'm sure people that live in coastal districts, uh, they remember Sandy, they have more of an idea that they live in a coastal zone, but there could be people living in, especially zone five and six, who may be a little bit from the shore, but just the way of topography and different things. Um, you know, they may not be as aware. Uh, so we will, um, again do know your zone this summer, partnering with your office and with others. Um and then the evacuation uh you know we start tracking storms and we would activate our plan um 120 hours out which is about 5 days or when we start seeing impacts off the coast of North Carolina. Um so you know we look at those. We have um you know luckily there are times where we start to activate with some calls um some preliminary putting some supplies and things on um on alert and then we have been able to to pull back from that. Uh but the bulk of the evacuation and things would happen within the 48 to 72h hour timeline before uh zero hour of the storm hitting the city. You know, the challenge with that, which I know you know, is that uh usually 48 to 72 hours out, it's probably going to be a sunny, nice day. Um, so it is, you know, uh, challenging work to encourage people to to leave, but, you know, that's what we're here for. >> Yeah, it it is very challenging and and a lot of people don't want to leave and I know that firsthand. So the so you you will work with other agencies whether it's on a state level like the MTA or PSENG or Con Edison or any of the other like like the ferry system any type of mode of transportation to get people off we'll use the peninsula broad channel out of out of um Hamilton Beach and Old Tower Beach in my district which are which are our lowest lying lying portions of the district and I've I've seen you do that. I would do wish that we we could um get better signage up. If I had say one thing we needed more was better signage. Not that the signage isn't there, but it's worn. >> Mhm. >> So, it's some some of it is you can't read it. So we have to kind of and and we can do that help you with you know where those worn out signs are so we can get better signage especially along the peninsula because um and that that's important for people to know if they're taking their own means to get off the peninsula. >> So I'll tell you um our team is actually working uh I believe next month they're doing an audit of the coastal storm evacuation signs because obviously they get you know wear and tear and everything. Um so yours is one of the major districts um the district next to yours and uh you know if you have a list or if um you know places that I you know we know where the signs are right >> but but it all you know we'll always take more information and then once they get the audit we will work with department of transportation and others to get as much new signage as we can up by June 1st and August 1st. >> Great. Great. The one thing about your agency is you're very proactive which is not something that a lot of us are used to from agencies. So, thank you. And also, um, you know, Notify NYC has grown exponentially and people following it. And if they don't have Twitter, we always share that on our our social media platforms that they may have. Older people tend to go to Facebook. We're on Facebook >> more than I'm on Facebook. >> They can they can get Notify NYC on Facebook >> and and so we share that and because that is really the most up-to-date accurate information that can be shared. So, we appreciate that and and I urge everyone if you're not following NotifyNYC, if you can hear me, please click the button and follow. Um, effective evacuation depends not only on root planning, but the public's awarenesses. And that's why I ask you to please um uh click on there and and and follow your elected officials social media pages as well because we also are in constant contact. So I council member Schulman has left. We have exhausted our our questions because a lot of your qu our questions were answered in your testimony and um and just we look forward to a safe uh season for for this city and I know that you're a part of it and with all the things that will be happening, you know, like the uh soccer and everything else that's going to go on, but uh I know that you'll be on top of it. So, I want to thank you. I want to congratulate you again. Thank you. >> And and you, sir, you have a wonderful woman that you're working with as your commissioner who understands every nuance of your agency. So, >> we 100% agree and we couldn't be happier. >> Right. Exactly. You're a keeper. >> Chris also has a little six week baby. So, he's uh >> Oh, congratulations. >> He has his own emergency management at home and then he does exactly financial work here. >> Your emergency management training will help you will. So, um, if there are no other questions, we're good. >> Great. >> Please, thank you so much for coming in and the panel is dismissed and we will go into the public forum. >> Thank you. I'll talk to you soon. Okay, we'll just we'll get back to Biz. I now open the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a government proceeding and that decorum shall be observed at all times. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the sergeants at arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with the sergeants at arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have two minutes to speak on today's oversight hearing topic, the budget of the FDNY and New York City Emergency Management. If you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the Sergeants at Arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony@counsel.nyc.gov within 72 hours of the close of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. For uh in-person panelists, please come up to the table once your name has been called. I will now call the first panel. Andrew Ansboro, James Broce. It's the same Vincent Brial and Orin Barzel. If we can start with Andrew Ansboro. Welcome. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Areola, for having us today. Uh, good morning. My name is Andrew Ansro. I'm the president of Uniform Firefighter Association of Greater New York. I represent New York City firefighters. I'm here for the budget hearing to make a case for an increase in funding to the FDNY for the sake of increasing the staffing capability of the department, specifically the engine companies in the Bronx. 30 years ago this week, the FDNY engine companies began responding medical runs, CFRD, as we call them. CFR CFRD as a res as a result uh has increased our workload. Uh the population of New York City has grown by 1.5 million people since then, but the resource of the FDNY has shrunk. In 1996, the average engine company responded to 2,850 runs. 768 of them were CFRD runs. In 2025, the average engine company now responds to 3,800 runs. 1780 of them are CFRD runs. That's an increase overall of 32% over 30 years, but an increase of an additional 132% in CFRD runs. Currently, one out of six engine companies are taking in more CFRD runs than their entire workload of 1996. In my opinion, the FTNY has been neglected. We have not received the resource to meet the everinccreasing workload being put on our firefighters. In order to fully understand the impact, you need to look at the busiest companies. And in the Bronx, you will see the busiest companies uh all in one place. There are 197 engine companies in New York City, but only 15% of the engines are in the Bronx, but 16 of the top 25 busiest companies are in the Bronx. In 1996, two engine companies had over 5,000 runs. Now, the average in the Bronx is over 5,000 5,300 runs. There are two companies in the Bronx doing 7,000 runs. 7,000 runs a year is a run every 1 hour and 10 minutes, 24/7, 365. The run total is outrageous. Uh, no one could or would question our ability to respond to fires quickly. We do get there on time. Uh, but the effects of the increased workload are seen in the CFRD runs where due to our workload, one out of four CFRD runs in the Bronx doesn't have an engine company assigned because there isn't one available. By comparison, in Staten Island, this is there one out of 12 CFRD runs goes unanswered by an engine, but an ambulance does respond. Also, as far as response subs are concern concerned, engines and ambulances are approximately 1 and two minutes faster in Staten Island than in the Bronx. What's more troubling than this is that the discrepancy between engines and ambulances in the Bronx is over 4 minutes. Uh 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Uh if you had a family member waiting for a defibrillator to get there, you had a 1 in4 chance of not getting an engine. that would mean that there's a one in4 chance you're getting a 10 minute and 45 second response time which is likely death. Uh I would never assume that uh I would there's not meant any way to shape or form to disparage the workload of EMS. They're overworked. They are underpaid and they need a huge raise to but this solution will be years in making uh years in fixing the problem that has taken 30 years to make. At the end of the last administration, the UFA and the FBNY worked on a pilot program that program that would increase staffing in the Bronx engine companies with the intention of increasing engine availability and reducing run totals throughout the burrow. This reduction and run totals I feel would increase engine availability and keep engines more able to respond to both EMS runs and fire runs because unfortunately uh even in the Bronx although we can respond to fires quickly the Bronx also has the largest number of multiple alarm fires and it is necessary to get increased staff and get water on the fire faster. For example, in December of 2025 the Bronx had nine multiple alarm fires. There were only 29 multiple alarm fires citywide. The Bronx has 15% of the engine companies, as I said, but 30% of the multiple alarms. This pilot program would increase availability and also help get hoses in place faster, which is critical in keeping fire smaller and essential for increasing the chance of survival of both firefighters and civilians. I understand the leadership of the FDMY is currently reviewing that pilot program in the Bronx and making adjustments as necessary. I'm asking this council include funding in the budget of this program so that we can take immediate measures to do something about the lack of equitable fire services in the Bronx. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Broie. >> Good morning. I'm Jim Broie, president of the Uniform Fire Officer Association. I'd first like to say thank you for holding this hearing and shedding light on the deficiencies in the budget process for the FDNY. I do concur with Andy's proposal in that the life lost, property lost, and the increased workload on the members in the Bronx is a disproportionate impact and a threat to their safety and the safety of the public. But I'd also try to shed light on a few other things. I think one of the things that is getting overlooked is the impact of the facilities in New York City Fire Department. as you heard from their own testimony, their inability to track the most uh simplistic deficiencies in a timely manner to prioritize them to have a shared database in which people can look at their submitted work order know it was received and what progress of the repair process we were in. Unfortunately, there is no platform that's readily available to us. Submitting having 90% of the needs being able to be fixed by the end of the week means they should have been fixed last week. It is an OSHA recommendation and it's a known cinogen to discharge diesel fumes into the workplace. Not knowing whether or not we have adequate facilities for female firefighters until they're assigned is too late. Not being able to prioritize lockers is too late. Not having adequate storage for second sets of gear for covering offices or lockers for covering offices is unacceptable. When we speak about apparatus, yes, the department is buying these apparatus as fast as they can and they were blindsided by the pandemic and the influx of money as a result of the man pandemic to other municipalities. What the department never did was prior to the pandemic buy rigs in advance. What they did was they relied on an outdated apparatus, outdated fleet service of spare apparatus that were already in disrepair. They had already been set off into the sunset because they were no longer suitable against our collective bargaining agreement. Had they purchased more rigs in advance of those expiration dates, they wouldn't have been hit so hard by the setback. Unfortunately, there's been no energy in making in an update to those spare apparatus, to the collapse rigs, to the RVs, to the division messenger vans that are not bound by the collective bargaining agreement, but are an intricate part of the service provided as the New York City Fire Department for either moving equipment, moving personnel, or or responding to operations beyond the normal use of an engine or a truck. And so I think what we need to do is start figuring out one what the most efficient firehouses are, what their problems are, where there is lead contaminant, where is their asbestous, where is their carcinogens in the air because the needin system is broke. It is it is inconceivable that we will experience the contaminants we do in the workplace saving lives and then we'll return to a firehouse and experience those same contaminants. It is inexcusable that we will get on to apparatus. the doors don't close properly, that don't go up, that don't operate in life-saving measures because the city failed to buy apparatus in a timely manner. They have known expiration dates and they have a known life cycle and they have a known amount of time it will take to replace them. It is inexcusable that as we integrate into a more um genderfriendly environment that we did not prioritize and anticipate that not only will we have bathrooms for female firefighters that we would have lockers and locker rooms that didn't exist inside the bathroom. It is okay to start off that way. It is not okay to make that a business model. And it's equally not okay to rely on city council funding out of discretionary funding to put in things like apparatus doors and generators. Those are part of the budgetary process. They are known requirements for a first responding agency and they should be budgeted for accordingly. City council discretionary money should be dedicated for the unseen for the things we couldn't anticipate and those should backfill the budget. They shouldn't stabilize it. And I'm glad we're bringing attention to this. I am glad that the fire department came here and testified that they are they recognize some of their deficiencies and that they're moving towards a better process of streamlining. But one, we need to get there quicker. And two, we need to dedicate more funding on a routine basis for what I would consider mandatory standards and working conditions for the men and women of New York City Fire Department. Thank you. >> I completely align myself with your statement. Thank you so much, Mr. Bars. >> Good afternoon, chair. Name is Orin Barzel. I am the president of FDNYMS Local 25507 Uniform EMTs, paramedics, and fire inspectors of the FDNY. I joined New York City EMS in 95. I have served our city for more than 30 years. I represent roughly 4,500 EMTs, paramedics, and inspectors who serve our city proudly as members of FDNY EMS. Every day we put our lives on the line to bring you medical care when your loved one suffers a heart attack or a stroke, sometimes car accidents or major falls. Our paramedics and EMTs were at ground zero and beyond. We worked around the clock during COVID pandemic to provide emergency care and relief. At great risk to ourselves, we didn't flinch from our duty. We step forward and answer the call to help New Yorkers and keep our city safe, strong, and healthy. We are the unsung heroes of New York City, but we aren't treated as heroes. 80% of the calls are for medical needs. Medical call volume is already at record high levels and only going up. Our EMS personnel, who are larger people of color and women, are working non-stop around the clock under exhausting conditions. It's hard, physically challenging, often growing work, lugging, lugging, ludging heavy equipment up long flights of stairs, working long hours, responding to an endless stream of emergency calls. The strain on our EMS rank is real, and it is made worse by the staggering pay disparities our EMS heroes are forced to endure. Right now, our EMS personnel make far less than other uniform personnel in the city. Paramedics and EMTs simply can't afford to live in New York City on their current salary. McDonald's Walmart employees make more in some cases. Some of our personnel have been forced to reside in homeless shelters because they can't afford housing on EMS salary. Let that sink in. EMS paramedics and EMTs working for the FDNY, saving lives in New York City, the greatest city in the world, living in homeless shelters. It is a stain on the honor of New York City to treat our medical emergency heroes in this way. This pay disparity also exacerbates racial and gender pay inequities since the EMS ranks are composed of more women of people of color than the other service agencies. The outrageous pay disparities are forcing personnel to leave the service because they simply cannot survive on the current EMS pay. Roughly 1500 medical first responders, 37% of the workforce is projected to quit the service in 2026. And because the EMTs because EMS is hemorrhaging EMTs, the response times are going up. I'm almost finished. In the calendar year 2025, FDNYMS responded to 1.6 6 million medical emergencies and average response times to life-threatening medical emergencies rose from 10 minutes and 52 seconds in 2024 to 11 minutes and 21 seconds in 2025. Further compounding the issue, according to the 2026 mayoral prelim preliminary management report, in the first four months of fiscal year 2026, response times for life-threatening emergency have have increased to 12 minutes and 5 seconds, up 2 minutes and 31 seconds since 2021. This means New York's New Yorkers face longer waits for critical life-saving care in emergency, putting the lives, healthy, and safety of New Yorkers in peril. New York City Council has been an ally in for our fight for pay equity, and you understand and recognize the danger New Yorkers who rely on emergency services face when we don't properly resource those services. We must we must ask you for your help again and and to prioritize this issue which is life and death. We've been without a labor contract for four years and unconscionable delay. But collective bargaining alone will never fix this problem. We need your help once again to ensure budget includes sufficient resources to address the necessary numbers of EMS, proper pay, and proper resources to perform our job, which is to save lives of New Yorkers. We don't believe the service agencies should compare with one another or compete with one another. We are all part of the same mission and all should be treated fairly. But that's not happening with EMS. Without a strong EMS first response, the city will suffer. The entire system is pushed to the edge and New York City has a little life and death crisis. As a result, we are here to today with the hope of partnership. The mayor is new and the city council has long supported these efforts. While the speaker is new, I am sure she too will be an advocate for this right. This crisis has been long in the making and we are now at a breaking point. We can and must do it right by our EMS heroes and best serve the people of New York City by paying our EMS workers a real wage and by budgeting what is necessary to prioritize the resources EMS. I hope you will join me in that mission. >> Thank you sir. >> Good afternoon chair chairwoman. Um my name is Vince Barali. I'm an EMS lieutenant and president of the uniformed EMS officers union representing over 600 EMS sergeants, lieutenants, and captains of the New York City Fire Department. I've been with the Health and Hospice Corporation and then the New York City Fire Department for 31 years. I'm here once again to report to you about the crisis in EMS uh with the EMS workforce. The same officers and paramedics and names who ushered in the city through COVID, rushed through the burning towers of 911, who saved the lives of New Yorkers many times a day and every day, are being driven out of the ranks to outrageously low and unfair pay and benefits. We have EMS members living far outside the city because they can't afford to live in the city they serve, and some actually living in homeless shelters and in their cars because they can't afford the rent. It's an outrage and a slap in the face of those city workers who serve all all of us every day. It does not go unnoticed that EMS is one of the most diverse uniform services in the city, consisting consistent consisting of predominantly non-white and largely female members. The lack of resources and equity for our EMS members jeopardizes the health and safety for every New Yorker. Here's why. EMS operation represents 80% of the overall 911 FDNY call volume. However, it only staffs 25% of the FDNY and receives 16% of the FDNY budget. At the same time, due to high turnover and attrition, we are losing EMS officers, EMTs, and paramedics at an astonishing rate. We are looking at losing anywhere from 900 to,500 members by next year. EMS members in the next year alone. EMS is staring down the barrel of a stunning 70% turnover rate um within the next three to five years. Paramedics simply cannot afford to remain paramedics and feed their families. This is driving up weight times at for 911 call responses to life-threatening levels. Um the 2026 mayor's per premillary management report just found the first four months of fiscal year 2026 response times for life-threatening emergencies have increased 12 12 minutes and 5 seconds up 2 minutes and 31 seconds from fiscal year 2021. That's an extra 2 and a half minutes while your spouse is having a stroke. your parents or grandparents fall suffer from a serious injury. Two and a half extra minutes to wait while you're suffering from a heart attack. Two and extra half a minutes to wait when someone calls about a person on the street or in the subway having a severe mental or emotional crisis. In a system where minutes matter, we have a system that is completely out of balance and teetering on the brink of collapse. Those are the words also from the former commissioner talking about EMS. Without change, EMS simply can't keep up. New Yorkers must know that this is that it is now more deadly in our city if your loved one suffers a heart attack, life-threatening illness, serious accident, or fall. Health and emergency care in our city is in serious jeopardy. The survival rate from a cardiac arrest is at an all-time low at 17%. This crisis didn't happen overnight. It's been a long time in the making with years of neglect and bad decisions. This may or didn't cause the problem and this city council certainly did not as well. In fact, the city council has been an advocate for EMS over the years, and thank you for that um for your effort and your help. Um the mayor states he's committed to equity, affordability, and fairness. And pay equity is an affordability issue. We come to you today to ask for help with these issues and go far beyond collective bargaining. Uh and we'll take more to fix them. It does not help that our three EMS unions uh have been out of labor contract for over four years. Um, a lot of the issues we have in EMS, and I'm coming off the the report, the testimony I wrote here, is not only be handled just for a contract with pay, there's a lot of other benefit issues that even contract negotiations can't resolve. So, really, this needs to be looked at by the mayor's office and the city council to see how we can resolve all these issues to get these members to to what we heard today is the problem. I mean the whole thing today besides the facilities falling down which EMS has that problem as well. Um is staffing no matter how you look at it recruitment and and retention is is non-existent in EMS. People are leaving in droves. Um recruitment is hard to get anybody to come on this job. And when they do come here they don't stay very long. They're gone. And we're like the best teaching city in the world. They come here, they move on to another EMS profession which they respect them because they came from New York City. they think they're great or they move on to a totally different profession altogether. Um, it's not even an EMS issue anymore at this point. It's an operational issue where the people of New York are dying. They're the ones that are suffering. EMS people that don't want to be bothered with the low pay and the pay inferior benefits, they're leaving. So, the people that are getting hurt by this are the people of New York City. And we really need to fix it. And we appreciate your help and um your hearings and everything you can do for it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Shefflin. >> Good afternoon. My name is Malaya Shefflin. I am a concerned citizen of New York City and I've done my research using the information readily available on New York City government websites. My following statement consists solely of my views on these issues. New York City EMS members are struggling to survive. Some have a starting salary of just over $36,000, which is barely above the city designation of extremely low income. After 5 years, it only increases to 59,000. Firefighters make nearly twice that. And for reference, our city's average salaries between 128 to 100 155,000. Meanwhile, all of the council members on this committee except Mr. Felder sponsored legislation that would make your own salaries $172,500, over 17,000 above the city average. Before this proposed increase, your base salary of $148,500 hadn't been increased since 2016. Not getting a salary increase for 10 years must be frustrating. I can assure you the members of EMS feel this far more severely than you do, as your previous salary still falls on the higher end of that average range, even 10 years later, while their current salaries are less than firefighters made in 2010. and you have the audacity to ask for more when EMTs and paramedics are out working on the streets while being harassed, assaulted, and killed for less than minimum wage. You should all be ashamed for putting yourselves ahead of our city's actual heroes. EMS, unlike the other uniform services, brings in revenue. In 2025, the city collected at least $500 million from EMS calls. The city also collected an additional $2.1 billion in thirdparty reimbursements for EMS services between 2020 and 2025. This money was earned off the backs of the EMTs and paramedics who are the ones answering those calls. And politicians like you reap the benefits while city residents die waiting for an ambulance. Why? It's easy to follow. EMS response times are increasing because they're severely short staffed, which is because hundreds leave per year, most to move to fire for a living wage and a secure benefits package. And the rest leave because they're burned out from a minimum of 60-hour work weeks earning poverty pay. and somehow the preliminary budget for 2027 accounts for 41 fewer EMS staff. How can you justify such inhumity when Miss Delar Roa, a member of on this committee, has introduced legislation that would require the Department of Education to pay annual $10,000 workforce stabilization payments to school paraprofessionals. 45 city council members, including eight out of nine in this very committee, sponsored this legislation, which would total $243.9 million per year. And since school pair professionals don't bring any revenue, that cost would fall solely upon the taxpayers. You could all choose to replicate this for EMS. You could give them annual payments, pulling them out of poverty until their nearly 4-year expired contract gets renegotiated with parody wages, reflecting that of the other uniform services, as both 2001's local law 19 and 2020's resolution 1062A were enacted to do. And the major difference here is that EMS does bring in revenue, which would offset the cost of such a bill. I'm calling on city council to rep prioritize for the sake of all New Yorkers. Getting legislation to the mayor's desk regarding news rack requirements while EMS crumbles is embarrassing for you. EMS is in a state of emergency and it is time for the city to provide relief. This all starts with you. Pay EMS now. >> Thank you so much for your testimony. This panel is dismissed. We have uh Suzanne Du, >> Andrew Fina, William June, Christian Bara Lopez, and I think we have one more chair. We have right there for Michelle Floratin. >> Okay, we'll start. >> Good afternoon. My name is Suzanne Duka. I'm an FDNY EMS BH herd lieutenant. Um, be herd is an interdisciplinary team of licensed clinical social workers, EMTs and sergeants and lieutenants who are experienced. Um we're working in the field and on the desk uh in the field speaks for itself on the desk um to write reports notes and to help out the dispatch who are sitting in front of boards full of calls that are not being answered and we assist them in uh dispatching the calls to us that are appropriate. Why are we having such a big diverse team with um people of so many backgrounds is because mental health calls are very complex. Um you can think if I have a panic attack it's not all it is related to my surroundings. So it's uh we have a licensed clinical social worker who will do a mental health assessment. We have the EMT who will do um medical assessments. Uh the sergeants lieutenants uh assist with operational guidance and uh interdiscipline uh inter agency cooperation. And what do we do? We have um for example the nine-year-old who doesn't has a crisis in school issues between school officials, parents um uh uh other misunderstandings that we deescalate. We have the 76 year old who potentially would be transported for dementia just so we find out that this person has a language barrier and thought he was going to be sent to the nursing home after being evicted in two days. So he says, "I rather stay at home." And we made it happen that this person was able to be um uh sent to an assistant living place, for example. Uh altogether, I'm very amazed about the work that our EMTs and social workers are doing in the fields. I see them work very hard, sometimes for hours to get everything done. And be heard to make make this world a better place. Thank you, sir. >> Good afternoon. My name is Andrew Fina. I was an EMT for 5 years and then I worked in the emergency department as a PA for three years. If you go on to the end-to-end response times right now, the latest available data in New York City, you'll see the average response time to a life-threatening emergency was 18 minutes in the last week of February. When we were kids in school, they gave us coffee stirs, the really thin one. Maybe you have some up there with the coffee. I want you to try to breathe through it for 18 minutes. It's very hard to do. And that's how they described what having an asthma attack is like. The response time in the last week of February for a non-lifethreatening emergency was nearly 40 minutes. Now, granted, those are for non-lifethreatening, so you can wait a little bit longer. But if any of our grandparents fell and they broke their hip and they're laying there on the ground with a broken femur, you'd want them to get some some morphine, some analesia from the paramedics sooner than 40 minutes. The response time, which amazingly the FDMY came up, said that they didn't want to harp on that metric, but if you're having a heart attack, we know heart attacks strokes sepsis trauma the time to blood transfusion, the time to having percutaneous coronary invention, a stent in your heart, right? right? That the time to getting TPA, these are the things that that save lives. Not to diminish the work of EMTs and paramedics. That's obviously important, but the response time is a crucial metric and I do want to pay attention to it. Uh the union president was right. Why would you come why would you risk your life coming to work in a blizzard when you can make more money shoveling snow? No disrespect to anyone who did shovel snow. Thank you for cleaning our city. But you 450 EMTs about called out that day. And I get it. Staffing is a crisis. We heard about this again um through the FDNY. No disrespect to any of those positions that that are making more than EMTs, but we all want them to make more. We talked about PAR pay and they deserve it. We need parity pay. The last thing I want to say is that it's a $2.6 billion budget. only about 418 million of that was allocated to EMS in prior years. But EMS generates revenue and they generated a similar number to the person before about 400 million. So EMS almost pays for itself and almost none of the budget is going to EMTs and paramedics. So I don't know where the money needs to come from and I'm very happy that everyone keeps giving their support and we love to hear that. But we we need the actual money now. We need more than just statements of yes, pay parody, you know, from everyone said. We need to have a hearing to discuss, you know, different solutions to improve the response time. It doesn't matter whether you send firet trucks, cops, it doesn't matter what you do. If there's no one to show up, if you're not paying enough, no one's going to show up on that ambulance. Thank you very much. I >> I just want to say I completely agree with you and that's why we changed the entire way we hold this hearing. I've been the chair of fire and emergency management since 2022. I was elected in 2021. We've been calling out the very same issues and yet it falls upon deaf years. So, we decided then to change to visuals and that's why we bring the visuals with us. So, this why they can't say that it's not happening. And you're right. Why? Why are we paying a a a snow shoveler, seasonal snow shoveler, $45 per hour, and we're paying our EMTs much less? Why are we have why do we have legislation for $30 an hour for for a minimum wage when our EMTs are making much less? Why are we worried about increasing the the um the salary for deliveristas but not our EMTs? It's unfathomable why we would do that. Even looking at our own our own uh uh pay. I didn't sign on to that bill to make the commission because there are so many other people that deserve it like our paras, like our our EMTs, people who work for this city for below low income um what's considered low low income and it's unfair. They're taking care of our children, taking care of our our elderly, taking care of us when we're sick. And as a person who has asthma, I know what it's like to breathe through that little straw. So, I agree with you. But you're right. It's time we stop talking about it. This is the fifth year that I'll be the chair of this committee and we're going to do everything possible to make sure that we stop talking about it and it gets done. So, thank you so much, sir. Good afternoon, chair and members of the council. My name is Christian Bear Lopez, 24 years old. I'm from Hollis, Queens. I'm a graduate of St. Francis Prep. I attended St. John's University on a merit-based scholarship. Since graduating high school, I've spent over 10,000 hours working in EMS across New York City while going through college. I'm a paramedic and I've worked with private hospital and firebased systems with agencies such as Senior Care, Northwell, Jamaica Hospital, and Inwood Fire Department in Nassau County. So, I've seen the system from inside. Let me start with something simple. In FDNY, EMS today, the starting wage to transport sick and injured patients is around $18 an hour. Meanwhile, legislation guarantees food delivery workers about $23 an hour starting pay. Everyone deserves fair wages, but when someone can make more delivering food rather than delivering a patient, we shouldn't be surprised that EMS has staffing shortages. 70% this this number has been raised in this meeting today. 70% of FDNY EMS leaves within 3 years. People want to help their communities, but many can't afford to stay. When EMS providers leave, ambulance coverage drops. And when coverage drops, response times grow. During COVID, ambulances again reached life-threatening emergencies in about 9 and a half minutes. Today, it's over 12. That's more than two extra minutes before help arrives. Also, there are more FDNY paramedics working on firet trucks today rather than working in FDNY ambulances themselves. That's because fire becoming a firefighter is treated as a promotion and not a lateral career path. And remember, EMS is the only emergency service that generates reimbursement revenue through medical billing. And in many ways, it helps pay for itself, unlike police or fire. Yet, FDNY EMS is often treated like the redheaded stepchild of public safety. And I can say that I'm a redhead. By the by the time the speech ends, more than two minutes will have passed, roughly the additional time New Yorkers are now waiting for an ambulance compared to just a few years ago. Across roughly 5,000 EMS calls every day in this city, those extra minutes can add up to over 10,000 minutes of delayed care. In medicine, 2 minutes without oxygen to the brain can mean the difference between walking out of the hospital or living the rest of your life with permanent brain injury or death. For the greatest city in the world, that's a gap we should be working to close. Thank you. And with that, I yield my time. >> Thank you so very much, ma'am. >> Hi. Thank you so much for having this hearing and for giving me some time to speak. I won't be speaking about this very important issue right now. Um, my name is Michelle Florentine. I'm an environmental justice attorney at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and I'm here to just urge the committee to continue to make sure that the fire department has the funding it needs to continue ensuring battery storage is safely installed and inspected across the city. Um, Nilpi is part of the Peak Coalition, which I know you may be familiar with, where a campaign to replace the New York City's most expensive, dirty peaker plants with clean renewable energy and battery storage. And peers emit high levels of harmful pollution and impose costs that fall hardest on the communities of color living closest to these facilities. and replacing peakers is not only an environmental necessity but a public health imperative for these communities and an essential step towards lowering rising household energy bills. Bess is a vital component of any plan in the city right now to shut down these peaker plants and address these issues. Uh at NOPI we work directly with residents and environmental justice communities who want community scale best because they understand what's at stake. Community scale bests will help deliver bill savings, improved health outcomes, and more electrical, more reliable electrical grids. And for example, in places like the South Bronx, uh a community long overburdened by polluting infrastructure, high asthma rates, blackouts, and brownouts, and ever rising utility bills, residents are calling for these projects to shut down peakers, improve their health outcomes, strengthen the grid reliability, and lower their bills. As you know, the city has the strongest um codes regulating best to make sure that they're safe. They're very comprehensive. FDNY has comprehensive guidance, safety standards, and review processes that make New York City the leader in in battery storage safety. Uh we thank the community uh the committee for supporting the FDNY and carrying out their work. It's just as these projects come become more frequent and come down the pipeline, FDNY is going to need additional hiring to keep up their pace of work. So, we just want to make sure that FDNY gets the money that they request for for that staffing. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. Uh my name is William Jum. I'm a disability justice attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Thank you for this opportunity uh to testify today. I just want to talk about uh the be her heard and the city's uh mental health crisis response. Uh so first New York City, you know, is in a mental health crisis. Uh nearly one in four of all adults experience mental health disorder. The number goes up for high school students. Nearly 40% of public high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless. Uh what is most striking is that uh close to 10% of them uh have attempted suicide. So, uh, we know New York is in trouble. Um, second, uh, we're failing our response to mental health crisis. Uh, in the past 10 years alone, more than 23 individuals were killed by police while experienced mental health crisis and most of them were people of color. Uh, police are simply not trained to handle mental health crisis. Um, we talk about EMTs today. uh you know when someone's having a heart attack we send in EMTs not police officers to the scene because they're the ones who are trained to do the job. So why is it that when we have a mental health crisis we send out police officers instead of professionals who are trained to do the work. Um so mental health is a health issue. So we need a health response to this health crisis. Unfortunately, uh the city's current programs such as the BEH her program do not meet this goal. Uh despite the city's claims, Be HEARD is not a true non-p police model. Uh in fiscal year 2025, for example, uh close to 80% of all mental health calls in the BHER pilot areas were not answered by Behe. This means uh thousands of New Yorkers uh in crisis encounter police response instead of caring support they needed. What we need uh is to implement uh nonp police response teams as first responders to mental health crisis calls. We need peers with lived mental health experiences and EMTs to respond to these mental health crisis calls. We therefore urge the council support a truly nonp police peer-led system in response to mental health crisis calls. Thank you very much. Thank you so much and thank you for coming out and waiting such a long time and sharing your your testimony with us. It it is completely compelling and we heard each and every one of you. Thank you. We will now turn to the virtual panelists. For virtual panelist, once your name is called, a member of our staff will unmute you and the sergeant-at-arms will set the timer and give you the goat to head to begin. Please wait for the sergeant to announce that you may begin before delivering your testimony. I will now call on our first virtual panelist, the Bronx Burough President, Vanessa Gibson. >> Good afternoon. Hello, Madame Chair. It's good to see you and the members of the city council. Thank you so much, Chair Areola. Appreciate you. Thank you for your leadership. To all the members of the city council, u my friends and former colleagues, the committee on fire and emergency management, I thank you all for your incredible leadership on behalf of the Bronx and the city of New York analyzing the proposed budget for FY27 for both the FDNY and New York City Emergency Management. As you all know, these are two critical agencies that my burrow works with hand in hand. We show up at scenes of building collapses and fires and explosions. And these men and women of FDNY, firefighters, and NISM do tremendous work to protect New Yorkers during emergencies, collapses, and so many other occurrences that we often find ourselves dealing with. I truly understand that our constituents and New Yorkers rely on all of us to ensure that each agency is operating at the highest level of efficiency as well as capacity. So I am joined virtually testifying this afternoon to particularly advocate for the restoration of the fifth firefighter to fire engines across our city. But of course, I needed to start in the Burrow of the Bronx because since the 1980s, our city has moved between four and five firefighters for every engine company that responds to a fire. And we know that over the years, that number has changed. And most recently in 2023, then Mayor Eric Adams removed that fifth firefighter for the 20 engine companies uh that had them only to restore them the following year when the budget uh crisis uh was relieved and improved. So, I continually understand the important work of both agencies and I truly join you and other members of the council in advocating for sufficient staffing levels, making sure that the city continues to commit to bringing that fifth firefighter to our engine companies across the city. But I know we have to start somewhere and I'm respectfully recognizing that the Bronx has faced a number of fires and chair I want to acknowledge your leadership and standing with us years ago when we suffered a horrific fire of five alarm on January 9th, 2022 uh at Twin Parks Northwest when we lost 17 neighbors of the Gambian community after we fought relentlessly to save lives. the FDNY and NISM and DOB and HPD. Uh we worked collaboratively inter agency coordination and we had press conferences with council member Oswald Pheliz and council member Fedina Sanchez and you stood with us then and I know you stand with us now in understanding the urgency of this matter of a fifth firefighter. Um our firefighter crews are associated with faster response times and more efficient staffing. And as early as 1987, the department data showed that a team of five was able to stretch a holes and make it up to the fifth floor of a building about four minutes faster than a team of four. And we know that in emergencies, these few minutes can provide crucial response time and saving the lives of civilians, older adults, and children. Uh when fires occur, FDNY protocols often necessitate sending three to four firefighter engines in response. And we know that adding this fifth will make it even more better. And unfortunately across the city, it's the Bronx. We face the highest burden when it comes to response rates and fires, increasing demand. And so we know that we're asking for what is necessary for New Yorkers and certainly what's necessary for the Bronx. I believe that adding that fifth firefighter to each engine would save approximately 14,000 runs per year burrowwide at a least expensive price tag than adding additional engines to meet that gap. So, as part of the FY27 budget, I am asking the city council to take the step of restoring a fifth firefighter crews to all of our engines starting in the Bronx and helping to protect the lives of our residents and families as well as our firefighters, the men and women of the department. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, to the members of the committee, to the city council, to my Bronx delegation, to my co-chair, co-chairs Amanda Faras and Justin Sanchez. I want to thank council member Sanchez for his OPEDD recently and council member Faras for her leadership and really to the men and women of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, UFA, UFO, all of our union officials. Thank you for not only making this an important priority, but ensuring that the Bronx Burough President is here to add my voice to all of you. And I truly know that working together during this budget crisis that we're in now, we will make sure that services are increased and not decreased and do everything we can to work with our mayor and the Mamani administration as well as the Hokll administration in Albany as well. Uh thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate your leadership. You are excellent. Keep fighting for the FDNY. Keep fighting for New York City emergency management and our commissioner, Christina Farrell, who's a dear friend. I see these leaders all the time. They call me 2 am, 2 pm. We show up because that's what we have to do to protect the livelihood of our communities and our constituents. So, I thank you for the opportunity to testify virtually. Sorry I could not join you in person, but my heart and spirit is always there at city hall. And I thank you again for the opportunity and I look forward to working with you, Madam Chair, and your team and your leadership on this budget process for FY27. Gracias. Thank you so much, Bur President, and thank you so much for always being on the ground, always being first to respond, always being first out on an issue. And I'm so proud to work collaboratively with you since I became a council member. You're right. And this is something that we did not discuss today, which was the fifth firefighter. And I'm glad you brought it up because it is a major need that we have in the next budget. And we do need to do that pilot program in the Bronx. It's needed mostly in the Bronx right now. And and then we need it throughout the city. I was proud to sign on to a delegation, Bronx delegation led by you with your name at the top uh letter to our current mayor asking him to fund the 20 fire houses in the Bronx. I I was we were just at a hearing last week and it was it was council member Perina Sanchez's turn to have her questioning and she had to yield because there was a fire in her district at the time. We we cannot go every every day, every week learning about fires in the Bronx that, you know, where people are getting injured, firefighters are getting injured. By adding that fifth firefighter, we can save lives and we can get to fires faster, get water on fires more quickly, and this way fires don't spread. It makes sense, but we're going to make sure it happens. We've been talking about it a long time, but this time we're going to get get get it done because we are working collaboratively and that's what's important. Thank you so much for your advocacy >> and and thank you as a Queens council member and a chair for the committee representing all five burrows. You know, I have love for Queens County. You also have a fair share of your fires as well. Yes. Um across the city. So, I know again this is a shared responsibility. It's a shared agenda and priority because no matter what burrow you live in, what zip code, everyone should be safe and in the event of a fire, we need sufficient staff and we also need to protect our firefighters as well. So, I'm so glad you agree and I thank you and let's keep working together. >> And you said it right. We got to start somewhere. So, let's start in the Bronx. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. >> Thanks again. Thanks, Madam Chair. Okay, our next virtual panelist is David Bez Profsy. >> You may begin. >> Good afternoon, Chair Areola and members of the committee. My name is David Vespersani and I'm a New Yorker, a 911 EMT for the last eight years, and an incoming medical student. I'm here today because the structure of how New York funds emergency medical services is increasingly unsustainable for both patients and providers. Uh the numbers are clear. Uh in the FDNY's fiscal year of 2026, the budget was about 2.6 billion. Yet the entire EMS bureau receives roughly 418 million, about6 of the department's funding. So we have a system where one sixth of the budget is responsible for about 3/4 of the work because at the same time 75 to 80% of all FDMY calls are medical emergencies. And despite the imbalance, EMS operations generated about 400 million in ambulance transport uh revenue in the fiscal year of 2025, nearly equal to the bureau's operating budget. Uh recently, we've heard, you know, concerns even in this uh hearing uh from some in fire suppression and firefighters uh that firefighters are being sent to more medical runs. But the reason for this is not complicated. There are fewer ambulances available. The city cannot retain EMS professionals when wages remain dramatically lower uh to comparable uniform services. And as a result, hundreds of EMTs and paramedics simply leave the EMS bureau every year. And many of them, you know, are also promoted into fire suppress fire suppression simply because of a livable wage. Uh this creates a cycle. There's fewer EMS crews, fewer ambulances on the street, longer response times, and more medical uh calls falling onto firefighters. Meanwhile, New Yorkers are seeing the consequences. The city handles about 1.6 million EMS calls every year, which is roughly about 5,500 calls per day. Uh, average end-to-end response times are now 18 minutes for medical emergencies. And for non-white life-threatening calls, it can be a weight of over 45 minutes. So, stabilizing the system will not uh uh will not just require an enormous investment. Estimates suggest uh bring EM bringing EMS pay roughly in line with firefighter salary scales would cost around only 166 million per year uh which is barely a dent in the overall budget. Uh you >> expired asking EMS uh to handle the majority wrapping up that's fine. >> No problem. Uh if we want faster response times, better patient outcomes, and a workforce that stays in this profession, the city must finally align EMS uh funding with the reality of the work. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for taking the time to testify. >> Anyone else? >> We have now heard from everyone who has signed up to testify. If we inadvertently missed anyone who would like to testify in person, please visit the sergeants at arms table and complete a witness slip. Now, if we inadvertently missed anyone who would like to testify virtually, please use the raise hand function in Zoom and a member of our staff will call on you in in the order of the hands raised. Seeing no one else, I would like to note again that written testimony, which will be reviewed in full by committee staff, may be submitted to the record up to 72 hours after the close of this hearing by emailing it to testimony at councsil.nyc.gov. I would also once again like to thank uh Tanvir uh Singh our senior financial analyst, Jack Story, our assistant director, Isha Wright, our deputy director, Will Hunges, senior analyst, Josh Kingsley, our chief counsel, and of course the formidable Phyllis Inserillo, my chief of staff. At this point, I will now end the the uh hearing. Thank you so much.