During a Public Safety Committee budget presentation, Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said the department is proposing a 4.4% budget increase for Fiscal Year 2027, with most of the spending tied to personnel costs, emergency response capacity and fire prevention operations.
“Our fiscal year 27 budget focuses on operational maintenance, managing risk and our overall risk profile,” Augustin told the committee. “All of our enhancement requests address operational needs, overall risk management, improved emergency response capacity, the ever increasing call volume, special events, expanding services, and span of control.”
The proposed budget totals just over $81 million, with more than 81% allocated to personnel costs. The department currently has 213 full-time positions, including 175 sworn firefighters and 30 professional staff members.
Augustin said Pasadena currently has one of its lowest firefighter vacancy rates in roughly 15 years, but warned the department remains short on firefighter paramedics — a problem affecting fire agencies statewide.
“We’re currently overstaffed on the firefighter EMT level by 13 and we’re understaffed at the firefighter paramedic level by 12,” Augustin said. “Every fire department in the state is struggling with attracting and retaining paramedics.”
The department’s emergency medical service revenue has nearly doubled over the past six years, rising from about $6.5 million in Fiscal Year 2021 to more than $12 million currently, according to budget staff.
Officials also highlighted improvements in state-mandated fire inspections. Augustin said Pasadena was only 27% compliant with required inspections in 2021 but has now reached full compliance for all state-mandated inspections, including wildfire brush inspections.
Still, the chief said the department continues to struggle inspecting thousands of lower-risk commercial buildings and could potentially recover up to roughly $1 million annually through updated inspection fees and staffing changes.
Councilmember Justin Jones pressed officials about unstable grant funding for the city’s Pasadena Outreach Response Team (PORT) homelessness outreach team, which partners with firefighters and health workers to respond to unhoused residents in crisis.
“Every year I feel like I hear about, well, we may lose the grants and we may have to have layoffs on PORT,” Jones said. “I think PORT’s a very important team in our city.”
The department also promoted its “Prepared Pasadena” emergency readiness program, a condensed four-hour disaster preparedness class modeled after Community Emergency Response Team training.
Public commenters urged city leaders to prioritize fire funding, with one resident calling for a dedicated ballot measure focused solely on fire infrastructure and emergency response needs.
Pasadena Firefighters Association President Rafi Bitchakdjian said the union supports the chief’s budget proposal overall but requested additional funding for paramedic training programs because of the department’s staffing shortages.
The presentation also included discussion of long-term succession planning within the department. Augustin said senior staff members are being rotated through leadership assignments to prepare internal candidates for future promotions and indicated he would most likely retire sometime next year.
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