Although, the merger still is in its infancy and the effect on the cities’ fire administration still is unknown, Talifarro and other city officials on both sides hope the idea will be a winning combination.

The ‘perfect storm’
The fire departments of Lansing, East Lansing, and Delta, Lansing, Delhi and Meridian townships currently are undergoing a study to determine if department consolidation for the municipalities would be more cost-efficient.

With this in mind, the idea of attempting administrative consolidation for the interim and asking Talifarro to replace Cochran made more sense than hiring a separate replacement, said Randy Hannan, spokesman for Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero.

Hannan said the fire departments of Lansing and East Lansing already have formed collaborations on some projects, but Talifarro’s experience during his time as interim fire chief for both cities could determine if shared fire services could make sense for the long run.

“It really created a perfect storm — a perfect opportunity to take the next step,” Hannan said. “This gives (Talifarro) the chance to take a ‘boots on the ground’ approach and take a look at whether one fire chief could run both departments.”

The shared fire chief position, which will increase Talifarro’s salary from $103,000 to $119,000, will have Talifarro splitting his time evenly between East Lansing and Lansing unless he needs to spend more time in one city on a case-by-case basis, East Lansing Interim City Manager George Lahanas said.

Under Talifarro’s approved contract, the city of Lansing will reimburse East Lansing for the hours Talifarro spends in the city.

The city of East Lansing is expected to save some money by implementing the change, but Lahanas said the savings were not the initial motive.

“It will have a modest cost savings, but that’s really not the reason that we’re doing this,” Lahanas said. “In this situation, it’s really to support the fire services study so that during the study period … Lansing can proceed with that without making any permanent changes to their administration.”

Lahanas said sharing a fire chief with Lansing will not directly affect fire response or emergency services in either city, as Talifarro will be in an administrative position and is not in active duty.
Budget shortfalls

Although Talifarro’s job change is more administrative in nature, East Lansing Finance Director Mary Haskell said future cuts to public safety positions are a looming possibility.

Times have been hard for many local governments across the state, and declining tax revenue and property values and cuts in state funding have had negative effects on all aspects of East Lansing’s budget, Haskell said.

Haskell said most of the changes to East Lansing’s budget have been internal up to this point, with minimal cuts to public services, but she believes the changing economic tides could force the city to begin cutting public safety positions in the next few years if the situation doesn’t improve.

“You want to provide — the citizens pay for the government (and) they deserve to get what they’re paying for — but at some point you can’t afford to do everything,” Haskell said. “I think we’re at those decision points right now as we go through this forecasting and budgeting.”

The Lansing Fire Department has not been so lucky. Hannan said 11 firefighter positions were cut last year, and the number of stations was reduced from nine to six during the past few years.

Talifarro said he was “not frightened” of the Lansing Fire Department’s budget situation and is hopeful both Lansing and East Lansing can keep public safety budgets above water.

“There’s only so much reduction we can do,” Talifarro said. “We’re trying our best, but it does become an issue.”

Haskell said more instances of shared services such as the shared fire chief position between cities and townships in greater Lansing are likely as budgetary issues continue to come up.

Further concerns
As Talifarro transitions into his new position, he’s already encountering other unexpected changes that come along with the job.

Some firefighters are slightly concerned more of these issues will pop up. In the East Lansing City Council’s Nov. 22, 2011, meeting, Gerald Rodabaugh, president of the local 1609 Firefighters Union, expressed concerns that Talifarro might not be able to split his time equally between East Lansing and the larger city of Lansing.

Although he anticipates some minor setbacks, Talifarro said he believes the situation will work smoothly.

“We’ve always been partners … I’m hopeful that we can we can cooperate effectively,” he said.