HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Fire Department and the Department of Corrections could each get $1.8 million to recruit another cycle of trainees next fiscal year.
Money for the new recruit cycles was tacked on to the proposed fiscal 2024 budget act on Monday night by Sen. Will Parkinson, legislative chair for fire response.
GFD leadership in June told the Legislature that the agency was short about 100 firefighters and had held only one recruit cycle during the last four years, largely due to funding issues. DOC has likewise been dealing with what prison leadership has called the highest inmate population in 29 years while trying to deal with a recruitment backlog, The Guam Daily Post reported.
“Too often we focus on the short term that we don’t invest in the long term. This is an opportunity for this body to correct that and invest in the long-term health of our public safety services,” Parkinson said.
Local firefighters were very well-trained, but have to fulfill mandates with just 200 of the 300 firefighters needed, he said. And the problem is even more dire than that, according to Parkinson.
“I was trying to find out how many firefighters would be retiring in the next 10 years when they reached (the) retirement age of 55. And in just 10 short years, we stand to lose half of our fire department’s invaluable experience, their collective wisdom and their irreplaceable skills,” he said.
Things were looking worse at the island’s prison, according to public safety chairman Sen. Chris Barnett.
“I wish I could paint as rosy a picture (of) the Department of Corrections as the previous speaker did for the Guam Fire Department. But yeah, they’re in trouble,” said Barnett.
The senator stopped short of mentioning just how many inmates each correction officer had to handle, “but it’s a very dangerous level.”
The public safety chair said he supported Parkinson’s amendment.
“I don’t think anyone in this body would argue that they don’t need an additional cycle,” he said.
The amendment was added to the budget bill without objection.
The total of $3.6 million for both recruit cycles will come from surplus tax revenue collected by the government of Guam in fiscal 2022. Lawmakers are waiting for an audit of GovGuam’s books to confirm whether the cash is available. Based on budget discussions, over $10 million worth of appropriations is riding on the availability of surplus funds.
Chris Barnett
William Parkinson
