Mesa City Council updated on fire, medical department budget

By Connor Van Ligten
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The Mesa City Council was given an update on the current budgetary plans for the Mesa Fire and Medical Department at an April 10 study session, and it looks like the department will see budgetary reductions in some areas and increases in others.

In a presentation given by Fire Chief Mary Cameli and other members of the department, the budget for the fire and medical department was separated into three funding categories. The first being general, capital and quality of life funds, the second being a public safety sales tax fund, and the third being an emergency transportation services fund.

The bulk of the department’s expenditures in those three categories are made up of general, capital and quality of life funds. In the 2024-25 fiscal year, the revised budget in that funding category came out to $121.6 million, with a year-end estimate of $123.1 million. The current proposed budget for fiscal year 2025-26 comes out to about $121.6 million.

The Mesa Fire and Medical Department typically separates each funding source into three main expenditure categories — the first being community involvement, which includes things such as fire safety education, public information and social services.

“That includes emergency management prevention, public education, PIO and social services,” Mesa Fire & Medical Deputy Director Tara Acuna said. “In fiscal year 2024-25, there was an increase (in community involvement budget over the previous year) and that was for our prevention division. We added four full-time employees and a vehicle.”

The community involvement budget hovered around $4.3 million for fiscal year 2024-25 based on year-end estimates. However, the proposed budget for this upcoming fiscal year 2025-26 will see that number increase to $4.8 million.

The second is departmental support, which includes departmental training, EMS Training, administration, tech support and more.

“Departmental support is stuff like training, EMS maintenance, planning and research, personnel and wellness resources, special ops, tech support,” Acuna said. “There was a huge increase in fiscal year 2024-25. That is largely life cycle (breathing equipment, ventilators, etc.) and carryover.”

However, that will be reduced for fiscal year 2025-26. While the year-end estimate for fiscal year 2024-25 was $36 million, the proposed number for fiscal year 2025-26 comes out at around $26.9 million.

The third is incident response, which involves dispatch and deployment, transportation services, fire and medical operations and more. In fiscal year 2024-25, that number came out to about $82,8 million based on year-end estimates. The proposed amount for 2025-26 increases that number to $89.9 million.

“We’ve continued to have higher overtime than budgeted in dispatch for a few years,” Acuna said. “We’re working on that.”

The remaining expenditures come from two categories: public safety sales tax fund, which funds fire and medical operations, resource management, EMS training, and more, and the emergency transportation services fund, which funds emergency transportation services.

Public Safety Sales Tax Funds will account for $18.4 million in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025-26, which is more than the previous fiscal year. Emergency Transportation Services is projected to amount to $22.5 million in FY 2025-26, compared to the year-end estimate of $15.7 million in the previous fiscal year.