Houston Fire Department FY27 Budget Workshop – May 18, 2026
Houston Fire Department FY27 Proposed Budget Workshop
On May 18, 2026, the Houston City Council held a budget workshop to review the Houston Fire Department (HFD) proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget. Fire Chief Tom Munoz and finance director Marchelle McHenry presented the $718 million budget, a 2% decrease ($13.2 million) from the FY26 adopted budget. The presentation covered expenditures, revenue, performance measures, and strategic initiatives to reduce overtime, recruit and retain firefighters, and improve response times. Councilmembers asked detailed questions about overtime projections, arbitration costs, staffing levels, ambulance fees, and the escalator clause. Public speakers offered suggestions on hydrant testing, timekeeping practices, and ambulance supplies.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar items were presented.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Doug Smith praised HFD's ISO rating and accreditation, suggesting billboards to inform the public about lower insurance rates. He asked about hydrant testing criteria, manual timekeeping practices (later clarified by Chief Munoz that HFD uses a computer system, not handwritten cards), ambulance fee collection vs. billing, differences between executive and administrative services, peak-time ambulance units (clarified as additional units), and a discrepancy in the budget book between overtime funding and FTE counts.
- Laura Gallier noted that the city auditor had mentioned manual time cards for both fire and police (Chief Munoz stated HFD does not use handwritten time cards). She asked about ambulance supplies (learning that HFD supplies them, with NARCAN from the health department's opioid abatement program), whether HFD paramedic trainees are on payroll (yes, during 14-month paramedic school at community college), and questioned the expense of firefighters shopping with a fire truck at HEB, suggesting a more efficient method.
Discussion Items
- Budget Overview: Chief Munoz presented slides showing 90% of HFD's budget dedicated to public safety, with a $13.2 million decrease from FY26 due to reduced classified overtime offset by increases in base pay and benefits. Key initiatives included recruiting/retaining firefighters, delivering life safety programs, and equipping first responders for mental health situations.
- Overtime Reduction: The decrease in overtime (140,000 hours less April-to-April compared to prior year) was attributed to higher morale, more cadet graduates, and policy changes (rank-for-rank overtime). Chief Munoz stated that minimum staffing of 849 per shift is critical for firefighter safety.
- Recruitment and Retention: Between 2017-2023, about 900 cadets graduated; under the current administration (FY25-26), 600 graduated, with 340 expected in FY27. Attrition turned from negative to positive (net +250). Units out of service dropped 91% (from 983 to 84). Paramedic staffing increased from 25 to 150. A “fast track” program for certified firefighters saw a 91% graduation rate.
- Performance Measures: Slides showed response times (e.g., chest pain calls at 13 min 49 sec), total incidents targeting 320,000 (down from ~328,000), and community risk reduction programs like the Consumer Needs Team identifying high-utilization addresses.
- Arbitration Settlement: Councilmember Alvarado asked about an additional $10-12 million in back pay from arbitration. Chief Munoz believed it was already included in the budget but offered to provide exact numbers.
- Base Pay and Escalator: Three percent base pay increase is per contract. The escalator (additional increase tied to revenue) is still being negotiated; Chief Munoz confirmed it is not yet accounted for in the proposed budget and would be self-funded through added revenue.
- Ambulance Fees: Fees increase annually by inflation; HFD's fees are lower than other cities. Revenue projections rely on Digitech billing forecasts, though actual collections have exceeded projections by $21 million.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the workshop was informational.
- Councilmembers submitted written questions and requested follow-up answers on staffing projections, overtime savings, hydrant testing, manual time cards (HFD clarified it uses a computer system), ambulance supplies, and the arbitration back pay amount.
- The meeting adjourned with the next day's schedule: controller's trends report, libraries at 10 a.m., and HPD at 11 a.m.
- Performance measures and recruitment successes were highlighted as evidence of progress toward reducing overtime and improving service.
Meeting Transcript
We'll get started. Very sorry, Chief, and everyone here for the lengthy workshop before, but very grateful to have Houston Fire Department Chief Tom Munoz and Marchelle McHenry here to present the FY27 proposed budget. So Chief, you may begin. Before I start, I want to just recognize the command staff behind me who's been doing an amazing job, Rochelle and her finance team. Just I think I think with what we've done, great accomplishments, so couldn't be done without them. But I want to thank uh everyone here. Uh uh. Great, and also I want to recognize former council member Sue Lovell out there. I see you. Great to see you. Uh just uh we're gonna jump to page two on the on the slides. Uh, just want to give you the table of contents that we'll be talking about today. Strategic alignment, the expenditures by fund, uh by program, program details, revenue highlights, and of course, revenue by fund and revenue by program and the appendix. Going on to page three. Um, this slide shows our budget alignment with the mayor's priorities. The majority of our budget, 90 percent is dedicated to public safety, and 10% to government networks. A few key initiatives this year includes recruiting and retaining qualified firefighters, which you'll be able to the numbers that we show are are we very proud of those numbers, delivering life safety programs to the public that effectively reduces uh the identified community risks and promotes safe neighborhoods, and again, equipment our first responders with uh skills to better address mental health situations and safety training for enhanced incident safety. Going to uh slide four. This is going to be our expenditures uh by fund. So fire is fully funded by general fund dollars. The change from the current fiscal year uh 26 budget to fiscal year 27 proposed budget is a decrease of 13.2 million or two percent. The decrease in overall expected spending levels are largely due to the decrease in classified overtime and increases in classified base and related French benefits and increases in restricted accounts. We are still focusing on increasing the number of firefighters and paramedics, an effort that includes retention and new recruitment, including this budget are base pay for civilians and classified personnel, as well as continued funding for health and pension and special and other pays. Next slide, please. So now you'll see the expenditure by fund graph. This slide is a graph depicting our changes in annual expenditures. Uh pay increases for classified members, provisions for the holiday buyback provisions for special and other pays, and expended retirement options and budget for uh the prior clothing voucher allowances. Next slide, please. Personnel versus non-personnel. This slide shows of the percentage of our personnel versus non-personnel expenditures, then further breaks down the non-personnel expenditures into supplies, services, and restricted accounts. Of HFD's 718 million dollar fiscal year 27 proposed budget, 88% or it's $628 million is committed to personal expenditures with 98% of the budget dedicated to classified personnel expenditures and two percent to uh personnel expenditures. The remaining of the 12% or 90.4 million of our budget is comprised of supplies, services, and restricted accounts. Next slide, please. Expenditure by program. Fiscal year 27 has six programs in our outcome-based uh budgeting structure. These programs are emergency response and rescue, community fire prevention and risk reduction, firefighter health and safety, executive services, administrative services, and debt service and interfund trust. So the largest decrease that you're going to see is emergency response and rescue program, a decrease of 16.3. This is our largest program, both in terms of budget and FTEs. The 16.3 million dollar reduction is a net set of several figures that includes a 14.8 million increase in classified base pay and related French benefits, offset against a reduction of 28.1 million in overtime and related French benefits and decrease of 2.7 million. Included in this program is funding for the drugs and medical chemical supplies carried on ambulances, firefighter equipment, and clear and gear cleaning, as well as tuition for paramedics. But I want to emphasize in this decrease that it's the we're not going to impact firefighter safety. That's going to be a huge priority for us, as well as more importantly, the citizens of the city of Houston. So right now you'll be seeing in front of on coming slides what we've done our part to reduce the overtime based to what we're doing. Our staff is doing in the back, along with all the the attrition rate that we've beaten. So I'll be more explaining that at more at length. Is approximately uh 1.8 million dollars or 5%. The largest change in program is again uh classified overtime of 1.7 that we'll be utilizing. The executive services is decreasing by uh 304,000 or 4%. This program includes the salary French benefits uh of all HFD executive staff, personnel and per and uh in the professional standards office and the PIO office. The the change in the program is attributed to reduction in classified overtime of 228,000 and along with benefits.
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