The Brainerd City Council Monday night approved a resolution restructuring the Brainerd Fire Department from a mix of full-time and paid on-call firefighters to a fully paid on-call department. A group consisting of Fire Chief Tim Holmes, city officials and representatives from the Minnesota Professional Firefighters, the firefighters union, have been working on restructuring discussions for about three months. The department currently has five full-time equipment operators who work over three shifts to staff the fire hall 24 hours per day.
City Attorney Eric Quiring said adopting the resolution means the ongoing discussions will now focus on the council's adoption of the resolution.
The resolution passed on a unanimous vote, and prior to the vote, each council member explained how they came to their decision to vote for the restructuring.
Council President Gary Scheeler said the council wasn't "plowing new ground here." Of the 781 fire departments in Minnesota, 17 are full-time departments and 73 are combination full-time/paid on-call departments, he said. The rest are entirely paid on-call departments, like the structure Brainerd is moving to.