King George Fire and Rescue Chief David Moody presented a five-year staffing plan on Tuesday that includes creating six new positions for the next fiscal year.
But he got a different response than Sheriff Steve Dempsey, who told the King George Board of Supervisors a week earlier he needed six additional employees because he didn’t have enough officers to answer 911 calls immediately.
Supervisors gave Dempsey a verbal commitment to hiring six new dispatchers and deputies but didn’t give the same assurance about emergency-services workers.
“No one disputes the need,” Supervisor Chairwoman Ruby Brabo said to Moody. “I think you know you have advocates in all of us.”
But board members seemed surprised that Moody hadn’t filled positions the board approved during the budget process this time last year.
King George’s Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services received funding to hire a coordinator to focus on recruiting, training and retention. Money was in the budget for the new coordinator to start July 1 and for six new workers trained as firefighters and medics to start Jan. 1.
The coordinator position hasn’t been filled, and the six new positions, as well as two staff vacancies, were filled recently, Moody said.
Brabo said during the meeting that the new workers were hired the same day as the budget work session.
Moody explained in a separate interview that it’s difficult to recruit people who are fully trained and ready to run calls as soon as they start work.
If his department didn’t require certification—training that can take four to five months of full-time study—it probably would get lots of applicants, he said.
“We’re trying to hire those already trained, almost turnkey firefighters, and that’s where it’s very difficult,” Moody said.