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In a plan meant to reduce overtime in the remaining fiscal year, the Prince George's County Fire and EMS Department ceased using overtime money to bring extra career staff on duty when firefighters or paramedics use sick leave or furlough days this month.

It's a plan that's left municipal officials worried that service to their residents will suffer. But department officials said by transferring career staff to other stations that need manpower and asking volunteer departments to fill shifts left vacant money will be saved and service will not be compromised.

"Even in the short term removal of fire suppression service is scary," said Bowie Mayor G. Frederick Robinson. "I can't expect the volunteer people to take unexpected leave from their offices and work to fill in for these guys."

On June 17, the first day the plan was in effect, Bowie volunteer chief Lee Havens said two career firefighters were pulled from Bowie Station 19 and transferred elsewhere in the county leaving only two assigned to the ambulance on duty. Havens said two volunteers took time off their full time jobs to fill shifts at the station and another two came from Laurel Volunteer Rescue Station 49 to be able to cover the vacant slots.

"They called us at 11 last night and left us eight hours notice," Havens said on June 18. "How do I get notice out to people in the middle of the night?"

Cheverly Mayor Julia Mosley said the transfer of career staff out of Tuxedo-Cheverly Station 22 on such short notice was unacceptable.

"[In the county] we have had struggles with our schools and our crime but one thing our county has always had that was superior was our rescue services," she said. "The county is now playing Russian Roulette with firefighters' lives. They are banking on not having a problem when there is no coverage."

The transfers of career staff and increased reliance on unpaid volunteers is meant to keep the department's overtime budget down, said fire department spokesman Maj. Derrick Lea. Overtime pay this year is expected to hit $6.5 million for the department, approximately $500,000 over budget. Over the last 10 years the department has only come in under budget on overtime one year, according to a report by the county Office of Audits and Investigations. Most years it overspent the budget by at least $4 million.

Over the last several days overtime costs have reached an extreme due to a combination of furlough days, vacation requests and sick leave, Lea said, citing Saturday as an example when overtime costs reached $30,000. Currently the department spends an average of $12,000 to $13,000 daily on overtime.

"In order for us to make the budget we are going to have to get numbers down to $3,000 [in overtime] daily," he said.

Last fall while facing a then $57 million budget deficit, the county ordered 5,900 employees to take 10 days of unpaid leave to save the county about $20 million in the fiscal year.

Across the county, approximately 20 career firefighters were transferred from five stations June 17 and assigned elsewhere, Lea said. Similar numbers of career firefighters are expected to be pulled and reassigned daily from different stations through July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year. By that time, Lea said a more permanent plan to reduce overtime should be in place.

"We've been saying for awhile that we would be pulling out of certain stations," Lea said of volunteer leaders' criticism they were not given enough notice. "This is not indefinite and is not going to be an every day event at each station."

Robinson worries the problems will extend beyond this fiscal year.

"The underlying problem is pretty clear and that is this is a significant staffing issue," he said. "I find it hard to believe there is not a lower priority funding issue in the county that could be reevaluated instead."

At Station 7 in Riverdale where all four career staff scheduled for the day June 17 were temporarily transferred elsewhere to fill open slots. President Stephen Laphier said volunteers were given only seven hours notice but were able to pull together staffing to plug the hole in Riverdale. Ideally he'd like to see 24-hours notice given to volunteer leaders to prepare for staffing issues.

The career and volunteer firefighters work as a combined force, with members from both groups working together to staff most stations in the county. Volunteers around the county say relations had begun to improve between the career and volunteer departments when Jones took over command in February. Before that, rifts had formed over department bans on volunteer fundraising efforts and ambulance billing instituted by the county department.

But the sudden cuts and rotations have left some questioning the intentions of the county department, said Jay Tucker, president of the Marlboro Volunteer Fire Department.

"If we are one fire department as the fire chief says we are, then the career side knew and the volunteers didn't. And that doesn't sound like one department to me," Tucker said.

Marlboro Station 20 had no career staff after 3 p.m. June 17 as they were transferred elsewhere. Tucker said he called several volunteers back from the Ocean City convention to cover the station and was able to secure five volunteers.

"We have never had an issue where the volunteers have not shown up," Tucker said. "It's never been a problem and it never will as along as we are communicating."