The City of Sparks tells 2 News that Fire Chief Jim Reid has submitted his letter of retirement.
The announcement comes after the Sparks firefighters union voted "no confidence" in his leadership last month, due to staffing shortages and other issues.
After nearly 26 years with the city and 33 years in the fire service, Sparks Fire Chief Jim Reid will retire on June 30, 2022. “I will miss him for a host of reasons, both professional and personal,” said City Manager Neil Krutz. “His work ethic is incredible and his mantra of ‘an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay’ is something for all of us aspire to. I am grateful for his service to the City of Sparks. He has truly been a model public servant.”
After 33 years in the fire service, his last day will be June 30th. Reid has been the fire chief with the City of Sparks for almost 33 years and says he looks back on his time of service with pride.
"When you are the top guy, people are always gunning for you, and you make decisions, and I feel good about the decisions I've made, and I can back those up," says Reid. He has been eligible for retirement for the past 2 years and says now is the right time.
He says that in Sparks, the fire chief is traditionally hired from within, but the process will be up to the city manager.
"There will be someone who will fill my seat, and I will share my knowledge of the department for the past 26 years and the department will do good. There are some positive steps being made," he says.
Reid says if timing works out, the City of Sparks will hire a new fire chief by mid June, before his last day.
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The Sparks Fire Department is dealing with a tight budget. Firefighters say that budget is affecting their ability to serve the city's residents to the best of its ability. They say leadership in the fire department is a reason for some of its struggles. That is why 85 percent of the members of Sparks Firefighters Local 1265 gave Chief Jim Reid a vote of no confidence.
"We need an advocate in the chief's office," Capt. Darren Jackson, Sparks Firefighters Local 1265 said. "Somebody that can go with us to the City Manager and the City Council and advocate for the things that we need."
City leaders disagree that Reid is to blame. They say the budget is not where they would like it to be but that Reid is doing the best he can with limited resources.
"I will tell you, unequivocally, Chief Jim Reid has my full support and he's doing a fantastic job," Neil Krutz, Sparks City Manager said. "He is an ethical employee both by action and by word. I intend to keep him around as the City of Sparks Fire Chief for as long as he wants to stay in the position."
The firefighters union says SFD has been slowly getting worse over the years because of budget restraints. It says it has 25 percent of the firefighters than it did in 2007 when they had four-man crews. The Great Recession changed that to three-man crews. Jackson says today, the department has 89 approved staff, compared to 108 in 2007.
"The city is exploding in population and call volume and we're just hitting a point now where we're kind of at a breaking point," Jackson said. "We're not getting to calls in the right amount of time."
Jackson says Sparks firefighters worked more than 11,000 hours of forced overtime in 2021 to make up for staffing shortages. Firefighters work 48 hours per shift, followed by 96 hours off. Many work more than 80 hours though.
"They're getting hurt more often, we're seeing burnout, we're seeing all kinds of injuries and it's just not good for anybody," Jackson said.
Krutz says 11,000 hours of overtime sounds like a lot but not when you put it into context. Individually, he say the overtime can be inconvenient at times but that others jump at the chance for the additional pay.
"When you divide that by the number of firefighters that we have in the city over a given year, it comes out to about 175 hours each for the whole year," Krutz said.
Sparks has five fire stations. A sixth station is planned for Spanish Springs in the coming years. The national average for response times is 4-6 minutes. Sparks is averaging 12-15 minutes. Krutz says the city's budget just recently reached the same levels as 2007 but costs are much higher today.
"If money were not an issue, we could have 25 fire stations and have 45-second response times but that doesn't line up with the fiscal reality that we have," Krutz said.
Jackson says hiring 45 more firefighters and building 2-3 new stations would be reasonable considering the city's population. He says the challenges take their toll on their physical and emotional health, adding that morale is very low within the fire department.
"You're tired and you're drinking caffeine and it's really hard when you know, you show up and you know somebody's hurt or there's a problem and you can't get there in a reasonable amount of time," Jackson said.
70 percent of the city's budget goes toward public safety, leaving the other 30 percent to operate the city's other departments. Krutz says that that ratio was closer to 50-50 just a few decades ago.
"We've certainly got to the limit of there's very little left to cut to make more for other needs," Krutz said.
Krutz expects both sides to come to the table and resolve the issues. He says both sides might disagree how to fix the problems but that the communication is there and they both know what the issues are.
