Email sent to Wilmington departments causes confusion, concern over funding

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — An email sent to department heads by Wilmington’s city manager this week causing some confusion about a loss of funding.  

On Facebook Tuesday, the Wilmington Professional Fire Fighters Association posted a call to action denouncing an apparent $646,000 funding cut to the department.  

The concern stems from an email sent by City Manager Tony Caudle, asking each department to take part in a hypothetical budget exercise.  

Caudle asked each department to prepare a report on how they would handle cuts to their funding—if they were implemented.  

In a later email obtained by WWAY, Fire Chief Steve Mason explained the exercise to staff, noting that it’s a common part of the budgeting process.  

“Our goal is to identify the best ways to meet the requirements of this exercise while minimizing the impact on our members, their safety, and our core delivery service,” Mason wrote in the email. 

Though that email also sparked concern among some firefighters including WPFFA President Jordan Pettid, who said the department is already dealing with staffing challenges.  

“We’re already operating at minimum staffing on a daily basis. It’s rare that we have anything but minimum staffing. Once in a while, we might have an extra person on the truck here or there,” Pettid explained. 

WWAY reached out to the city for comment. Caudle wrote in a statement: 

 “Every year, the city evaluates its delivery of services to determine what can be done better or more efficiently. This year we are following that very same process, with the goal of shifting more funding into employee wages across the board and especially in public safety and hard to fill positions. Every dollar we can save by creating efficiencies or trimming costs is a dollar we can invest in developing a better paid and more resilient workforce. 

I directed every department head across the board to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis of their budgets. These exercises are important acts of stewardship over the taxpayers’ money. That does not mean these exercises become part of the City Manager’s recommended budget, but they are essential to developing a good budget. 

There are no proposed cuts to any services at this time. There are also no free passes for any department when it comes to scrutinizing how we spend the taxpayers’ money, how we perform our jobs, and if we can do them better or more efficiently. That is the only way we can develop a strategic budget that addresses the challenges of inflation while positioning the city to recruit and retain a highly skilled workforce.” 

As city council creates a new budget over the next few months, Pettid hopes the budget will include an increase, or restructuring of the department’s budget to bring salaries in line with other municipalities.  

“Instead of being in the bottom 25% of the state with salaries, at least make it in the top 50% or closer to 75%. We got to keep up with inflation,” he said.