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Tag Archives: Austin Fire Department

Austin public safety agencies roll out electronic payroll system

Austin’s public safety agencies – the Austin Fire Department, the Austin Police Department and Austin-Travis County EMS – are in various stages of rolling out an electronic payroll system in an effort to streamline scheduling and other logistical tasks. The…

Public Safety Commission encourages language accessibility across public safety agencies

The Public Safety Commission encouraged the city’s public safety agencies to continue efforts to improve language accessibility at its meeting on Monday.  “It seems … hugely important that we grow our fluency across all the departments,” said Chair Nelly Ramírez.…

Council OKs contract for new AI wildfire tool

City Council on Thursday approved negotiation and execution of a contract for what Austin Energy describes as a powerful new tool to aid the utility in wildfire detection and response. The utility says it will use Pano AI technology to…

City continues to work on wildfire mitigation strategies

The public may not have noticed, but Austin-Travis County had 963 different brush and grass fire alarms in September, Assistant Fire Chief Andre de la Reza told members of the city’s Public Safety Commission on Monday. The department was able…

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Vacancies at public safety agencies drive overtime costs

Staffing shortages in the city’s police, fire and emergency medical services departments are driving record-high reliance on overtime. Following a request from the city’s Public Safety Commission, public safety officials provided data on overtime use, as well as some possible…

Austin firefighters have new contract in place

After years of heated negotiations, and about a year without a contract in place, Austin firefighters finally have an agreement with the city in place. The contract, which is effective immediately, comes from an three-member arbitration panel. Unlike a normal…

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As heat wave continues, city fleet department works to improve AC maintenance for Austin Resource Recovery

Amid an ongoing spike in repair requests for Austin Resource Recovery vehicles, managers of the city’s fleet have made some changes to improve air conditioning maintenance. A memo released last week showed that since June and July 2022, the Fleet…

Watson, Brown declare local state of emergency over wildfire threat

Mayor Kirk Watson and Travis County Judge Andy Brown on Tuesday declared a local state of emergency in response to the threat of wildfires. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott said that wildfires in 191 Texas counties “pose an imminent threat…

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Austin firefighters contract to be decided by binding arbitration

Austin Firefighters Association President Bob Nicks has made no secret of how angry he is with city negotiators. The union and those negotiators could not reach an agreement on a labor contract, and the matter must now be decided at…

Here's what you should do if a wildfire threatens your home

Lee esta historia en español Dry grass, wind and relatively low humidity mean a fire can spread easily and be difficult to control. All it takes is a spark from a metal lawnmower blade hitting a rock, a loose chain…

Fleet Mobility Services working to fix air conditioning in fire trucks

In late July, City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly wrote a memo pointing out that 20 trucks within the Austin Fire Department’s fleet “are currently lacking functioning air conditioning systems.” Not only is that a risk for firefighters, she wrote, but…

Fire chief says more firefighters and bigger budget needed

In a memo dated June 12, Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker gave Mayor Kirk Watson and City Council his proposed road map for reducing overtime expenditures in the department, and it involves a bigger budget and more firefighters. Baker was…

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