The city won't be filling a dozen vacant Anchorage Fire Department jobs this year, a $1.1 million savings that leads the second round of Acting Mayor Matt Claman's budget cutting parade.

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Matt Claman

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Claman, who says he needs to close a $17 million deficit in this year's city budget, announced $3.3 million in reductions Thursday. That's on top of about $7.3 million in cuts announced last week -- a list that hit the police department the hardest.

Next up, Claman said in an interview, are concessions he wants to get from unions representing city employees. He didn't want to talk about specifics, but said he's opened conversations with leaders of all the unions and has told them he will be looking to them in coming days to help reduce city spending.

The fire department cuts cover two command positions and 10 firefighters -- which Claman says will make it harder to properly staff fire and emergency services equipment.

"As a result, there may be shifts during the year in which one or more apparatus is unavailable for emergency response," according to a press release put out by the mayor's office Thursday morning.

Fire Chief Craig Goodrich said the practical effect of leaving positions unfilled is to reduce the manpower cushion his department has to make up for unusual runs of sickness or injuries.

Combined with a clampdown on departmental overtime, the cuts mean there may be times when a fire station has to shut down an engine or truck company, he said.

More likely, if a station is only one person short, Goodrich would look to take a tender -- a water tanker -- out of service.

"Almost always," he said, stations will have other equipment available. An exception is the 2-year-old Southport station in Southwest Anchorage, which has only one engine. Firefighters from other stations would come to that zone in the event of a fire.

Goodrich said ambulances and medics will be the last units affected. But the budget reductions may mean response times to fires could be marginally reduced.

The department's goal is to be on scene within four minutes, and it hits that mark about 90 percent of the time now.

"We may not hit that," Goodrich said. "We may drop to 80, or it may be 75 percent. That number is going to be reduced."

Still, he said, leaving the 12 positions unfilled is the best option available for the fire department.

Other targets in the latest round of cuts include two People Mover bus routes that run from Peters Creek through Eagle River and to the Muldoon transfer center.

Service on routes 77 and 78, which Claman's release says are the system's least-used, will end in July and save about $422,000. Eight positions will be cut, either through layoffs or unfilled vacancies.

Altogether, the mayor's office says, some 23 positions will go away, including five to nine layoffs.

Also, 32 senior executives will lose 3 percent pay raises they got at the first of the year, and city contributions to the its self-insurance fund will be reduced by $1 million.

Assemblywoman Sheila Selkregg, like Claman an announced candidate for mayor in the April 7 city election, said she's uneasy about public safety cuts.

Selkregg said the city could save about $400,000 by eliminating four executive positions in the mayor's office, a staff she said has "exceedingly expanded" during the six years of former Mayor Mark Begich's administration.

Other reductions announced Thursday:

• $228,000 from the Office of Economic and Community Development;

• $168,000 by freezing two vacant information technology positions;

• $131,000: One layoff in the Health and Human Services department, and cuts to supplies, travel, staff training and other expenses;

• $133,000: Related to a proposed change in how the city contributes to the Police and Fire Medical Retirement Trust.

• $50,000 in the Office of Management and Budget;

• $35,400: Downgrading a vacant position, resulting in possible service delays; and

• $25,000 in the Purchasing Department, achieved by "maintaining a higher vacancy factor."

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