The Austin firefighters union said Tuesday it will hold a vote of no confidence in the fire chief this week, accusing him of preventing crews from being deployed ahead of historic flooding that killed over 100 people in Kerr County.
Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Firefighters Association, said questions about deployment came in on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of potential flooding. The department didn't deploy firefighters until after the Guadalupe River surged early Friday.
"Our guys sat on their asses while they're hearing people [are] dying," Nicks said Monday.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement Tuesday he found it "disappointing" that the union would make this allegation amid recovery efforts and that he was "committed to listening and working with both the Chief and the Fire Association."
Mayor Kirk Watson echoed that support, saying he believed the AFA "shouldn't be politicizing this horrible loss."
In an interview with KUT News on Tuesday, Chief Joel Baker said he had "not seen any evidence" of any request ahead of the flooding — only the formal request when the floods hit.
"I'm not aware of any requests coming in on the 2nd and 3rd," he said. "I have not seen any documentation of any informal requests. ... I'm not saying an informal request did not come in. I'm just saying I'm not aware of who within the organization received [one]."
Nicks said the informal requests weren't honored because of an internal cost-saving policy to not respond to emergency service requests until the end of the fiscal year.
KUT News obtained a June 6 advisory from Division Chief Andre Jordan that told senior staff "AFD has suspended deployments" because of a budget shortfall. On top of that, he wrote, the state has "something like $800,000 in outstanding reimbursements" that haven't been paid to the city.
"The City wants to make sure this money is reimbursed before the end of the fiscal year, and does not want to be in a situation where additional money is expended on deployments and is not recouped before the end of the fiscal year," the advisory said.
Nicks said Baker's decision was "made to save money when there's actually no money to be saved." He argued the state commonly and consistently reimburses departments for costs associated with disaster response.
Nicks called for Baker's resignation and said union members will vote this week on whether he should continue to lead the department. Union leadership drafted a no-confidence resolution Tuesday evening. AFA will open online voting Wednesday. It will close Friday afternoon.
Nicks said he expects most firefighters will say they don't support Baker.
"You cannot have a fire chief who ignores the community, [and] allows people to die," he said. "We are in the perfect position, better than anybody to deploy resources and really make a difference. We would have saved lives that were lost."
Baker confirmed to KUT News that he told executive staff in early June to hold off on deployments for the rest of the fiscal year, but that he didn't intend for that policy to be a full stop on any deployment whatsoever.
"Words matter," he said. "What it should have said is handle it on a case-by-case [basis], and we didn't. That's on me as the leader of this organization."
But ultimately, Baker said, the formal requests for assistance on Friday morning were honored, and AFD deployed three rescue swimmers to help rescue efforts in Kerrville that afternoon.
Baker added that the department also had to respond to floods in the Austin area. AFD deployed two crews to respond to floods near Sandy Creek outside Leander. All told, flooding killed at least 14 people in the Austin area over the weekend.
"I was not sure as the fire chief how big of an impact this weather-related event was going to have on the city and the citizens of Austin," he said. "It's important as the fire chief that I have resources available to provide the support to those areas in Austin as well as Travis County as well as Williamson County."
The vote will be largely symbolic, but it comes ahead of a fraught couple of weeks for both the union and the department. The union is entering the final stretch of labor contract negotiations with the city, and the department is entering budget season.
