Eight of ten hired recruits will report to duty on July 21 after two rescind their offers in wake of uncertainty
A standing room only council chamber and a lengthy session of discussion amongst area fire personnel, the public and council concluded with a unanimous decision Tuesday night by the Folsom City Council to move forward with onboarding eight new firefighter/paramedics, reversing a proposed deferral that had stirred public concern and regional response. The council’s decision came after hearing impassioned comments from fire officials, residents, union representatives, and agency leaders from not only Folsom but from across the Sacramento region.
The original proposal, brought forth by City Manager Bryan Whitemyer, sought to defer the hiring of 10 already-selected firefighter candidates as a way to reduce a projected $3 million deficit in the city’s 2025–26 operating budget. However, before the meeting, two of those candidates withdrew their acceptance offers after learning their jobs were at risk—leaving eight recruits moving forward in the process.
“Despite having increases in projected revenues about $4,600,000, our expenditures have gone up quite a bit. And so with those expenditures, we’re showing a $3,000,000 use of the general fund reserve,” Whitemyer told the council. He added that some of the city’s increasing costs stem from statewide trends. “There’s just a general cost increase that we’ve experienced. But then we’re also experiencing some of the same challenges that cities across the state are. And that’s with, you know, pension liabilities and retiree health liabilities.”
He emphasized that approving the budget was only the beginning of the fiscal challenge. “When we adopted the budget, my commitment to the council and to the community was that we weren’t going to sit idly by and just breathe a sigh of relief that we adopted the budget. It was now we got to get to work.”
He explained that the hires were not new additions but replacements for long-standing vacancies in the department. “One of the circumstances that we have is that the intention was through the budgetary process from July to August to look at ways to come up with a comprehensive plan where we could present to the council for our final budget in September and October with different reductions that was more comprehensive. The situation that we do have is that we have pending conditional hires for these 10 firefighters,” Whitemyer said.
“On July 21, they’re expected to start work,” he continued. “And so the question that was posed was, is this a good idea in light of the deficit that we have and the projected $5,000,000 deficit in the year subsequent to this to fill those positions knowing that we may have to eliminate some of those positions later?”
The proposal had also come alongside a broader citywide hiring freeze for all general fund–funded positions, which Whitemyer implemented in light of the ongoing deficit. “Because of these financial realities, we’ve implemented a hiring freeze for all positions fully funded by the General Fund. The firefighter positions fall under this category, and now it’s time to weigh our options carefully and transparently, with you, the community, at the table,” he said in a message to residents ahead of the meeting.
Area Fire Chiefs Warn of Broader Impacts
If the council had approved the deferral, the impact on public safety services would have been immediate, according to Folsom Fire Chief Ken Cusano. “With the proposed deferral, if those 10 positions don’t happen, we really have no choice. There will be one of our three medics closed and there will be a fire station closed,” he told the council. A fire station brownout refers to a temporary, planned reduction in fire department services. With fewer units available, neighboring stations must cover a wider area within the city, which in turn would affect emergency response times.
Cusano explained that the fire department is currently holding the line with overtime and extended shifts but warned that the physical and mental toll on firefighters was mounting. “We’re maintaining right now, but it’s at the cost of overtime every day. It’s at the cost of our employees completely being burned out trying to keep things staffed in the city,” he said.
“We’re not adding resources. These are people we need to fill longstanding vacancies just to maintain the level of service our residents expect. Anything less compromises our entire system,” Cusano added.
Cusano further noted that the current group of eight recruits had already undergone months of training and preparation. “To where they’re at now, it’s been close to four to five months. The entire process from recruitment to becoming fully operational is between six to eight months,” he explained.
Several neighboring fire agency leaders, including Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Chief Adam House, El Dorado Hills Fire Chief Michael Lilienthal, and Cosumnes Fire Chief Felipe Rodriguez, addressed the council with warnings about regional implications if Folsom were to scale back services.
“Your decision not to hire these firefighters sends ripple effects way beyond the city of Folsom,” said House. “We cannot risk drawdown in the city of Folsom that leads to slower response times or degraded service in our own communities. Because of this, I will have no choice but to evaluate suspension of apparatus move-ups to cover the City of Folsom stations during your own brownouts or closures.”
Lilienthal added, “When your community is suffering from the lack of an engine company getting to them quick enough, people will die. There is not a single question about that.”
Rodriguez, whose district often provides mutual aid to Sacramento Metro, emphasized that “any movement here shifts Metro up, and then it shifts us into Metro. Ultimately, you’re going to need those firefighters regardless. If Folsom chooses to brown out an engine, my district is impacted immediately. I lose coverage in my own community because I have to fill the gap in Metro’s district. This is not a sustainable model for mutual aid. We don’t just operate in silos—we are interconnected, and your decision affects our ability to protect our residents as well.”
Residents and Firefighters Speak Out
Public testimony was equally urgent. Dan Carson, a local resident and a firefighter paramedic who spoke and also represented the firefighters union Tuesday, delivered a series of sobering statistics on recent ambulance coverage. “Without Medic 36 that we’ve been operating the last nineteen days, we’ve had approximately six and a half hours—six hours forty-two minutes during the day—without an ambulance in the city of Folsom at all,” he said.
“Last month, we had 661 medical transports. A 103 of those were done by outside agencies, either AMR, Sac Metro, or El Dorado Hills.”
He warned that when local ambulances are unavailable, response times significantly increase. “We talked about the average response time for an ambulance when we have ambulances in the city being roughly eight minutes. When we have no ambulances in the city, the average time was thirteen minutes and fifty-one seconds to get an ambulance on scene, with the longest time this past month being twenty-nine minutes and fifty-six seconds.”
Carson added that nearly two-thirds of local medical calls are followed by another within one hour. “It’s actually 64% of the time,” he said. “We had 59 transports out of the prison last month, so approximately two per day out of the prison.”
He emphasized the financial importance of Medic 36 as well, stating, “Last year, Medic 36 brought in a revenue source of $1,700,000. Staffing that equipment was roughly $1,500,000.”
Carson cautioned against assuming brownouts or staffing delays would be temporary, recalling that “the last time we heard that for a short term was February 2008. Engine 35 was taken, and it’s been seventeen years now that we have not gotten those positions back.”
Carson also addressed the council about the public message sent in November. “I want to be very clear that the community was very clear when they voted down Measure G. It wasn’t just about taxes. It was about trust. And trust is built when you fund what matters,” he said.
Longtime resident Shelley Martell spoke emotionally about the city’s identity and priorities. “That’s what Folsom has been about forever, and that’s what Folsom needs to be about today. Everybody that has showed up tonight, it’s just another reminder of exactly what has been the backbone of Folsom,” she said. “We didn’t get in California to the top 10 best places to live by not having the safety that we all have and deserve and need. The men and women behind us are just another testament to the dedication of what they bring to this community.” She added, “I don’t know about you, but nothing matters more to me than my community’s safety. The hard work that they put in, their life on the line for you, nothing else matters more than that, that they’re running in when you’re running out.”
Tracy Mandel, a former Folsom firefighter, reminded the council that the hires were replacements, not additions. “You’re already down 10 positions. These eight firefighters are not numbers that can be cut. You’ve already hired them.”
Brian Beck, assistant chief of training for Folsom Fire, confirmed, “My academy of 10 has been decreased to eight. I lost two last week when HR advised them that their jobs were at stake. So we only have eight. These eight firefighters are not numbers that can be cut. We’ve already hired them. We’ve already invested in them. Uniforms have been issued, gear has been ordered, and some have left other careers to be here. This is not just a budget line item—this is about keeping our promises to real people who made commitments to this city.”
In the end, Whitemyer thanked everyone for their input and adjusted his position, telling the council he would support onboarding the eight remaining candidates, while continuing to work with fire leadership on additional cost-saving strategies. “If we were to move forward with the hiring of the eight, the fire department recognizes that doesn’t mean that we’re going to continue to operate how we’ve operated,” he said.
In the meantime, the eight recruits will report for duty later this month and begin their final steps toward full deployment within the department while Cusano and his team work to adjust their staffing plan after losing two of the original 10 hires that rescinded their offers due to uncertainty prior to Tuesday’s meeting.
Copyright © 2025, Folsom Times, a digital product of All Town Media LLC. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
