A sobering budget season has begun as the City of Long Beach attempts to balance its budget, following a $27.1 million shortfall to close out fiscal year 2026.
The City had to borrow money from four different reserve buckets to close out the year’s deficit and, on July 30, announced sweeping changes to avoid dipping into its reserves again.
Long Beach is facing an even larger $58.2 million deficit for the 2027 fiscal year. Most of this shortfall, according to City Manager Tom Modica, was caused by a dip in expected revenue, as well as higher service costs and a decrease in federal funding to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The City plans on reviewing all of its departments’ budgets during hearings at city council meetings over the next few weeks, following this schedule (subject to change):
- Aug. 18: Health and Human Services, Community Development and Police
- Aug. 25: Parks, Recreation and Marine, and Library, Arts and Culture
- Sept. 1: Public Works and Proposed Capital Improvement Plan
Long Beach has to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget before Sept. 13.
Fire Department’s Budget
For the Long Beach Fire Department, officials had to locate $11.1 million in cuts and presented that plan to the City Council on Tuesday.
Long Beach’s Fire Department had a budget of about $200 million going into this year, a 4.7% increase compared to 2025.
The city has 18 fire stations, 10 paramedic ambulances, nine paramedic fire engines, seven fire engines, five basic life support ambulances, four fire trucks and one peak load paramedic ambulance. There are also 22 lifeguard towers and six fire and rescue boats within the fire department.
“Removing one resource does not affect only one station or one neighborhood, it changes how the entire system must reposition, adapt and support emergency calls throughout the whole city,” said Fire Department Chief Dennis Buchanan.
Last year, the department received 67,203 calls for various services, including emergency medical services, fire emergencies, public assistance or basic life support. Buchanan said 80% of these calls required multiple units to respond due to their level of complexity. The majority of those calls, 85%, were emergency medical service calls, while 11% were fire services and 4% required public assistance.
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Proposed Cuts
Proposed changes from the Fire Department included the following:
- Allocating $2.17 million from Measure A funds to convert fire engine 17 from an overtime model to a full-time model and add 12 full-time firefighters.
- Reducing $3.88 million by eliminating fire engine 14 in East Long Beach and letting go of 12 full-time firefighters. This engine responded to roughly 2,000 incidents in 2025.
- Reducing $3.82 million by eliminating another fire engine, but rotating the closures throughout the City so not only one station suffers. However, this will result in the loss of another 12 full-time workers, who are currently slated for restoration as part of the mayor’s budget recommendations.
- Reducing $753,985 by converting a fire engine to an overtime model, resulting in the loss of 12 full-time fire sworn positions and the creation of 1,407 overtime shifts to be filled.
- Reducing $448,540 by firing 4.5 professional staff clerical full-time positions assigned to the department’s front desk, accounting and recruitment teams.
- Reducing $1.94 million by cutting five administrative positions assigned to recruitment, community services, in-service training and more.
- Transfer $729,991 (the cost of one fire captain and one firefighter paramedic) to the Office of Special Events and Filming. These positions are already working under that office day-to-day, but are being proposed to be funded by the Special Advertising and Promotional Fund.
To raise revenue, the Fire Department will align its ambulance transport fees with the county’s. This change is expected to give the department $323,786. The department will also increase its contract with the Port of Long Beach by $2.7 million.
“I want to be candid with the city council, reducing fire engines and transitioning a fire engine to an overtime model will reduce the number of units and personnel immediately available for some fire and emergency incidents,” Buchanan said. “These are not reductions the department would recommend under ordinary circumstances. They are measures developed in response to the seriousness of the City’s fiscal challenge.”
Multiple residents and councilmembers objected to the idea and possible impacts of removing fire engine 14. Modica said his team would review other options and return to the city council with solutions later in the month.
Anticipated Impacts
Chief Buchanan reviewed a few ways these cuts will impact the emergency field, the department and the community. He said that by eliminating a fire engine, the remaining engines will have to share the load of an additional 2,200 calls for service.
There will likely be less fire department presence at community events, since more people will be needed to respond to services. The department will now essentially have no front desk, and calls will be answered via a remote receptionist system.
Remaining Challenges
Despite these budget cuts, the Fire Department still faces numerous challenges, some of which were brought up last year.
The Captain David Rosa Regional Training Center still does not have an appropriate bathroom and locker room space for women employees and fire recruits. These employees have been using a temporary trailer bathroom and locker rooms.
The department has also been facing funding reductions from the Department of Homeland Security, as well as spending limitations on apparatus, equipment and training funding.
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