Union leader Robert Wing believes the third-party study completed by FACETS is not thorough enough, nor does it paint an accurate picture of what certain parts of Kansas City, Kansas need.
The FACETS study calls for consolidating firehouses and reducing staff.
"I don't think the people in Rosedale, Argentine, Highland Crest, Turner, are going to stand for this," Wing said. "Reducing their coverage from was at one time seven fire companies south of the river, to two. I don't think KU Med Center is going to stand for it."
His top priority is having quick response times and meeting the national standard of four minutes.
“In my view, this targets those communities. which are in need of the service just as much as anybody in Piper ever thought about having,” he said.
Mayor Mark Holland was not available Friday to comment.
Last week in his State of the City address, he told reporters the city needs to follow the FACETS study and reduce the force in order to reallocate resources.
“There are about six different cost drivers in our department that we need to evaluate and change so that we can right-size our department and we will save enough money in right-sizing our department to be able to pay for the new fire stations," Mayor Holland said.
Wing said the fire department is simply asking for “status quo.”
“I hope it doesn't get to a fight. I hope reasonably we can come to some conclusions but clearly if this is not responsive to what the community needs than we'll take it to the community. That's where it needs to go."
A joint meeting between the fire committee and top city administrators is scheduled for Monday.
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Lexi Sutter can be reached at alexandra.sutter@kshb.com.
