The Oak Park Village Board voiced support for an ordinance authorizing salaries and benefits for six new Oak Park firefighters and paramedics not previously included in the pending 2026 village budget.
The “over hire ordinance” had been recommended by village staff and the village finance committee to allow the village to hire six new firefighters in addition to the department’s budgeted staff. The measure comes after two recent studies of the department concluded current staffing levels are driving high overtime costs and widespread stress among Oak Park first responders.
“Our goal here is to properly support all staff, and all departments and to make sure that they have the resources they need to do their jobs safely,” said Village President Vicki Scaman. “We’re recognizing the strain that can fall on our public safety personnel.”
Over hire ordinances, which allow the village to hire staff without creating additional permanent positions, are an important tool to fund public safety efforts, Oak Park Human Resources Director Kira Tchang told the board at its meeting Nov. 18.
“The village over the past eight or nine years has adopted over hire ordinances with some regularity with the intent of being able to ensure public safety staffing levels are met without needing to add additional positions permanently to the budget,” Tchang said. “The benefit of this is that it avoids increasing the levy prematurely or unnecessarily and it creates a pilot environment where in real time the village can assess the impact to service delivery, how the additional firefighters are supporting safety across the village.”
The over-hiring would be paid for in part through overtime savings, Tchang said.
Trustees said the over hire period will allow the village to see the impact that the additional firefighters will have on the fire department’s overtime costs and performance.
“Being able to have a solution that gives us an opportunity to assess where we’re at now looking into the future, I think is the best we could really hope for,” said Trustee Chibuike Enyia. “It gives us time, without necessarily going into that levy.”
The board did not vote on the measure in specific, but it will be included in the 2026 budget the board votes on in December. Salaries and benefits for the firefighters had been included among the unfunded budget requests in the 2026 fiscal year budget village trustees reviewed at the meeting.
“Short-term unfunded requests for fiscal year 2026 include six Firefighter/Paramedics at $684,570, based upon $114,095 for entry level salary and fringe benefits,” village staff wrote in the budget document.
The decision follows board discussion from earlier in the fall concerning a staffing crunch at OPFD, as two sperate studies of the fire department reported that low staffing levels are putting heavy strain on firefighters and command staff.
Oak Park’s village government commissioned consultant Baker Tilly to study its fire department, with the group publishing its report in September shortly after the labor union for Oak Park’s firefighters released a study it had commissioned on its own.
Baker Tilly’s survey found that well over 90% of Oak Park firefighters feel that the department’s staffing levels leave them overworked and impact their safety on the job.
“The survey highlights the dedication and professionalism of staff who are well-trained and have access to professional development opportunities,” the report said. “However, the survey results suggest the department is facing significant challenges related to leadership, staffing, adequate apparatus, and resource allocation. Respondents expressed a need for more proactive leadership from the department administration and consistently conveyed concerns about being understaffed and overworked, given the high call volume and the amount of overtime they were working. The survey suggests that these concerns are taking a toll on morale.”
Nearly 70% of survey respondents also said that the department’s staffing levels sometimes delay fire department response times, according to the report.
The union’s study recommended that Oak Park hire 9 new firefighters to deal with the crunch. That added staffing, the union’s report said, would bring Oak Park closer to 4 firefighters per fire apparatus, up from a current level of only 3 firefighters.
“This will help ensure that when you or your family call 911, the right number of trained firefighters arrive quickly and ready to protect lives and property,” the study concluded.
According to both reports, OPFD responded to more calls for service in 2024 than it had in any year since at least 2019.