As Greenbelt’s City Council held a closed-door meeting, Berwyn Heights and College Park did the same. Around midnight on Thursday, June 27, the three cities filed a joint motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Prince George’s County Fire Chief Tiffany Green to prevent them from removing career firefighters from Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights on June 30.
On Friday, June 28, the county filed a response arguing the summer staffing plan is for the department’s health and safety and in the public interest. At a hearing on Monday, July 1, Judge William Snoddy rejected the motion for a TRO, primarily on the grounds that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated irreparable harm.
Motion for a TRO
In their motion for a TRO, the municipalities argued: “The county is ‘solving’ what they have identified as a critical career staffing shortage with a reliance on volunteers. Both Green and Alsobrooks have been informed that reliance on volunteers to staff the career positions that are being reassigned is not realistic and will fail.” The summer plan “will result in drastic shortages of adequate fire, rescue, and medical personnel to respond to emergency situations and impose an untenable workload onto the volunteer personnel” at the Berwyn Heights, Greenbelt and College Park stations, they warned. Following reallocation “of the six fire stations surrounding the Town of Berwyn Heights and the City of Greenbelt, only two have full coverage, one has daytime coverage and three routinely do not answer calls for service,” states the motion. They also argue that the county has not shared data on which they base their assertions of minimal impact or response time calculations. Additionally, the municipalities questioned the timing of the plan to pull career staff when shortages have existed for years and 53 new recruits are set to join the force. (Editor’s note: Thirty-two firefighters will graduate from training on July 16. On June 3, 53 firefighters began training and the county will be hiring 150 uniformed firefighters this budget cycle. See the June 20 issue of the Greenbelt News Review.) “If the injunction is denied, it would simply be a matter of time until an emergency situation arises, and the public suffers an exacerbated injury due to the defendants’ lack of adequate staffing of the fire stations in question,” argued Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights and College Park, calling the consequences “drastic” and “dire,” and posing a “much greater risk of catastrophic injury” and “residents in greater danger of loss of life.”
In a joint public statement on Friday, the municipalities claimed the plan’s “reliance on volunteers to maintain service levels raises serious concerns about the ability to provide timely and effective emergency responses. Local fire stations have indicated that they cannot meet the coverage needs within the proposed time frame.” They also asserted their commitment to collaborate with the county government and fire chief and call for a task force, data transparency, support and incentives for volunteers and ongoing engagement.
The County’s Response
Meanwhile, in their response to the motion, Prince George’s County, the Prince George’s County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, Alsobrooks and Green argued the staffing reallocation is necessary for the health and safety of personnel mandated to work overtime. “In 2023, county firefighters were mandated to work a total of 45,601 hours of overtime, compared to 20,000 hours in 2021,” states the response. They argue the action is within the fire chief’s authority and “impacted areas would still be serviced quickly and efficiently by the other nearby fire stations.” The county counters the claim that they’re solving the staffing crisis with volunteers by arguing that coverage by volunteers “may not be necessary … given the minimal impact based on the study.” Prince George’s County Fire Department (PGFD) conducted an analysis using incident data from last year and “drive time analysis” from surrounding stations to identify the four stations that they claim will be minimally impacted “as there are other fire stations within a five-mile radius that would respond within eight minutes of a service call.”
“This strategic staffing reallocation is vital to combat fatigue and maintain the health and safety of our fire and EMS personnel while ensuring that our residents continue to receive the high level of emergency services,” Alsobrooks wrote in a June 28 letter to county residents announcing the staffing plan. The plan to reallocate career firefighters began in January 2024 “following a review and assessment of last summer’s performance and staff experiences and … driven by detailed data analysis,” wrote Alsobrooks. However, as the motion for the TRO argued, affected stations and communities were not informed until June 7.
The county faces a staffing shortage of 251 career firefighters, Alsobrooks noted in her letter, where she also stated that Prince George’s County will provide funding to hire 150 new firefighters in Fiscal Year 2025; the highest number of positions funded in an annual budget in 20 years. The county aims to staff 1,224 firefighters alongside their ongoing volunteer recruitment effort. Alsobrooks also states that the overtime was costing taxpayers over $30 million annually.
Statement from Fire Chief
On Sunday, June 30, career staff were removed from the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department (GVFD) and its Chief Thomas Ray announced, “Today starts a new chapter for the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department and the community that we serve ‒ as of 7 a.m., the career staff from the Prince George’s County Fire Department have been relocated to other stations around the county.” He thanked the career staff and wished them well and said their loss will leave “a tremendous coverage gap for our communities.”
“We have been fighting this decision for the safety of our community and we will continue to keep your safety at the forefront of this fight,” said Ray.
Next Steps
“We’re disappointed by the outcome,” Greenbelt City Manager Josué Salmerón told the News Review on Monday.
As the News Review reported on June 13, the city is seeking to acquire more defibrillators. Along with Berwyn Heights, they’re also discussing how they might incentivize volunteers, something Salmerón says the county opposes. In an official statement in response to questions from the News Review, the Prince George᾽s County Fire and EMS Department said it is “steadfast” in efforts to incentivize volunteerism and current incentives include a length of service award program (monthly cash award), life and accident insurance, death benefits, property tax credits and quarterly financial incentives to volunteer corporations.
Greenbelt City Council might also choose to pursue further legal action, including collecting response time data and evidence of harm caused by the decision. Though the county had previously said the response time would be eight minutes under their plan, twice Greenbelt’s current time (see the June 13 issue), during Monday’s hearing before the judge, they lengthened that estimate to “eight to 10 minutes.”
Through his statement Ray urged residents who call 911 and experience longer wait times not to take it out on the firefighters who “had nothing to do with the decisions that were made,” but to contact the county executive and the Prince George’s Fire Department Fire Chief with comments and concerns.
Matthew Neus and Randy Chow are students at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism interning with the Greenbelt News Review.