New details about budget woes that led to the controversial layoffs of about 25 percent of the El Mirage Fire Department are beginning to emerge after the recent resignation of embattled City Manager B.J. Cornwall.
Interim City Manager Rick Flaaen told The Republic this week that Cornwall’s decision to lay off six firefighters in August came after he discovered a nearly $190,000 budget shortfall.
Cornwall resigned last month under pressure from the City Council after he ignored a council directive to rehire the firefighters. He argued the city could not afford to keep them.
The budgeting mistake apparently occurred when staff miscalculated how much federal grant money the city would receive for hiring six additional firefighters in December, Flaaen said.
Then-Fire Chief Darrell Rezendes told The Republic in January that a five-year, $650,000 FEMA grant would pay at least 80 percent of the new firefighters’ salaries in 2010 and decrease a bit each year afterward. He has since retired.
By midsummer, staff realized they had made a mistake. The city would have to pay upward of $243,000 in the first year of the grant, far more than the $57,000 that had been budgeted, Flaaen said.
“Had these things been known, we would not have hired these firefighters,” he said, adding that the error could cost the city more than $1 million over five years.
Flaaen said he is undecided about whether to rehire the firefighters. A decision is expected later this fall.
If the firefighters are not rehired, El Mirage would be required to repay $117,000 in grant funds it has received.
