SANFORD, Maine — City councilors in Sanford removed the fire marshal position from the approved city budget in a 4-2 vote on Tuesday.
The move was met with disagreement from the fire department, who said the Maine State Fire Marshal would not do an adequate job.
The councilors approved the addition of two new hire positions for paramedic staff for the fire department, after originally removing them from the budget.
Councilors also allocated half of the funds they would normally use to pay the fire marshal to pay for training in the marshal's absence.
This isn't the first time councilors tried to remove the position, which is taking up $120,000 of the city budget. They tried to do so in 2019 but the fire department was able to keep the position filled.
"I was completely blindsided," Interim Fire Chief Rick Smith said when removing the fire marshal was proposed this spring. "There was no discussion with me as the fire chief about eliminating the fire marshal position."
Smith said there have been no complaints about the fire marshal's role during his tenure with the fire department, and a local fire marshal can perform duties much faster than the Maine State Fire Marshal could.
"I feel left in the dark. I think any time you want to make a dramatic position, you want to talk to members of the department," Smith said. "I'm very confused, I have a lot of questions that aren't being answered."
Mayor Becky Brink said the discussion to remove the fire marshal has been going on for a year.
"We've been working on this for months now... If we can't, then the funds aren't there," Brink told NEWS CENTER Maine in a phone call.
At last week's city council meeting when Brink spoke about the removal of the fire marshal, she said she did not want to remove positions from the fire department.
"I do not feel comfortable removing them from the budget... I found out most of their calls are for medical," Brink said.
Interim Chief Smith said around 74 percent of their calls are for medical.
Now the department will be able to hire two new paramedics to fulfill that need. In 2015, the city agreed to add two new positions to the fire department every year the budget is in good standing. After these two positions, the city needs to add two more during the next budget cycle to fulfill the need.
But for now, the fire marshal is out of the job. A total of $60,000 is going toward the department to train staff on the duties the marshal would have done. This is half of the total dollar amount that would go to the marshal.
Other duties done by the marshal will go to the state.