East Lansing firefighters don't groan when they get called in to do some extra work.
They actually like it.
Lt. Ken Lehto said his crew relishes the opportunity to help put down a fire, so they don't mind lending a hand when a nearby city or township calls for assistance.
For Lehto, responding to calls outside city limits is just "part of the gig," but the practice has become a hot political issue as Lansing works to balance an $11 million budget deficit.
The fire departments of Lansing, East Lansing and DeWitt, and Meridian, Delta, Delhi and Lansing townships have an agreement to provide each other with assistance when needed.
A similar mutual aid agreement exists among area police departments.
But as one means of generating much-needed revenue for Lansing, Mayor Virg Bernero has proposed charging neighboring municipalities when the city's police and fire departments respond to outside calls.
"We're under extraordinary financial constraints, and we can't continue doing things the way we've been doing them," said Randy Hannan, a spokesman for Bernero. "The mayor's opinion … is that we are a de facto insurance policy for our neighbors."
Lansing offers a variety of specialty equipment and services, such as hazmat and SWAT teams and can't afford to continue "subsidizing" other area communities, Hannan said.
Because the Lansing Fire Department has more manpower than East Lansing, its firefighters generally provide help more often than they ask for it, Lehto said.
Rather than charging for those services, Bernero would prefer to see progress made on regionalizing police and fire protection, Hannan said, adding that those talks are already well under way in local fire departments.
"There's been fairly extensive dialogue, to the point where there's some fairly specific proposals on the table," he said.
East Lansing Mayor Sam Singh agreed that local communities need to explore the possibility of consolidating some services.
"Having that conversation about how we can work together, how we can save taxpayers dollars, makes a lot of sense," Singh said.
But Singh doesn't think attaching a cost to aid is the solution.
In response to Bernero's proposal, the East Lansing City Council is being asked tonight to approve a resolution stating that the city will continue to honor the existing agreements — and isn't interested in charging for its services.
"We were getting a lot of questions from surrounding communities as well as our own constituents," Singh said. "We wanted to reaffirm our commitment to the signed mutual aid agreements."
To local police and firefighters, making that commitment doesn't seem to be much of an issue.
"It's never a burden for any of the departments," said East Lansing police Lt. Kim Johnson.
Most of East Lansing's aid requests are for ambulance runs, Lehto said.
Meridian Township sets aside two of its four ambulances to assist East Lansing on football weekends, Meridian Township Fire Chief Fred Cowper said — 80 percent of the calls his department receives are for emergency medic services.
Cowper called the existing mutual aid agreements "outstanding" and a benefit to all the communities involved.
Meridian calls in outside help almost any time it has to fight a fire, Cowper said, because the department doesn't have enough staff on duty to handle it safely themselves.
"Most fire departments in the area are very short staffed," said Lehto, who on Monday had only the minimum 12 firefighters on duty at East Lansing Central Fire Station, 1700 Abbott Road.
Police don't require mutual aid frequently, Johnson said, and generally use the help for civil disturbances and major crimes.
"It's important to have these mutual aid agreements on file because you never know when you're going to need them," he said.
Bob Darrow can be reached at darrowro@msu.edu.
