Orleans Chief Talks Fire Department Overtime

ORLEANS – During the select board’s first public run through the proposed operating budget for the 2027 fiscal year, there was one line item that stood out for the board’s chair, Kevin Galligan.

Fire department overtime is budgeted at just over $1 million for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. That’s up from $987,000 this fiscal year and $884,434 for fiscal year 2025. 

The increases come two years after voters at a special town meeting in October 2023 approved a $1 million Proposition 2½ override to fund the creation of eight new firefighter positions within the department, which had been struggling to keep staffing afloat in the midst of rising annual call volumes. With the majority of those new positions staffed and on the road, Galligan asked why the department’s overtime budget continues to grow, and what can be done to bring it down.

“I’m not critical, but I think it’s good when one of us raises it just to say, ‘we really, really, really want you to get it down.’ Because it’s very costly,” Galligan said when reached by phone Feb. 13.

In an interview last week, Fire Chief Geof Deering said that seven of the eight new hires are working for the department, while an eighth is still due to go through fire academy training. The additional staff has greatly helped the department more adequately respond to calls and emergencies, Deering said.

“To have the first ambulance go out with three people and have three more people here to put a second ambulance on the road right away and roll out with three people, versus when they would roll out with one or two, that stress level for our staff has dropped.”

But having those additional positions does not necessarily mean they are always at the department’s disposal, Deering said. He said right now, there is one staffer that needs to go through fire academy training, while an additional two personnel are out on long-term medical leave. Under the terms of the fire union’s contract with the town, those hours are made up through overtime, Deering said.

“When you take three people out of the mix, even though we’re closer to having the right number of people on duty, it doesn’t take much to affect that,” he said.

There’s also department call volume, which continues to increase. According to statistics provided by Deering, the department responded to a total of 2,866 fire rescue calls in 2025, up from 2,812 calls in 2024, 2,507 in 2023 and 2,683 in 2022. 

Demand for emergency medical service transports are similarly up, according to department statistics. There were 1,250 EMS calls in 2025 compared to 1,174 in 2024, 1,095 in 2023 and 1,143 in 2022. Increased calls for mutual aid, in which the department is called to cover for emergencies in neighboring communities, are contributing to the increased calls for service.

Deering called trying to adequately staff shifts for unanticipated emergencies and calls for service an “inherent challenge” in fire operations.

“The town has been very willing to support public safety through different overrides to hire really good people, and that’s where some of that cost comes from,” he said. “We’re using the same people. We don’t hire additional staff in the summer. It’s the same people, they’re just working more.”

The department aims to keep any budgetary increases for overtime consistent with rises in salary costs in the department. Deering said the 29 percent increase for the new fiscal year is due in part to salary increases stipulated in the union’s most recent collective bargaining agreement with the town, which was finalized last year.

And while the department’s overtime is up, Deering said Orleans is not alone in grappling with the problem. He said his department is on par with other Cape departments in terms of what it is budgeting for overtime.

“It’s in line with many of our neighbors,” he said. “We’re probably in the middle range in terms of what our overtime budget is.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever fully eliminate overtime,” Deering said. “It’s too unpredictable, there’s too many variables. And we watch that dollar very carefully. Every week, we meet and look at where we are, how we’re spending it, where it was spent.”

The select board does not give the fire department a dollar amount in which to keep annual overtime under, a move that Galligan said would be “micromanaging” the department. But while the board would like to see overtime costs reduced, he said that he understands the challenges the department is facing when it comes to keeping those numbers down.

“The direction I’m seeing this going is to kind of get back to normal,” Galligan said. “We’ve supported the additional eight firefighters. Those need training. He also indicated just in the last five or six years, there’s been about 50 percent turnover. So I think he’s dealing with a number of items beyond his control. And overtime is the only way to backfill to cover the needs of the house.”

The eight firefighter positions created in 2023 were the most that the fire department’s current station can accommodate, but Deering said that number is still short of what the department needs to meet its full staffing complement. 

“Down the road maybe we’ll have to look at what the full number of staffing is, but right now we really can’t, because we don’t have the space.”

But plans for a new fire station that are currently underway could potentially afford the department the space it needs to create additional positions, which could help put a dent in its overtime budget.

The town has a purchase and sale agreement in place for property at 56 Eldredge Park Way, which would be used to site a new fire facility. Town meeting voters approved $4.5 million last year to prepare a design for a new building, and construction funding could be sought for the project at annual town meeting this May. With construction funding, the town could break ground on the new station in the summer of 2027. 

“With a new station built and he can have a normal day-to-day life, I think we’ll get there,” Galligan said of how a new station could influence the overtime numbers.