Council Turns Up the Heat on Fire Commissioner Fred Wheeler at Budget Hearing

DETROIT (WJBK) - Tough decisions are being made in the City of Detroit. Wednesday, city council members held budget hearings on police, fire and EMS, and they turned up the heat on the city's interim fire commissioner.

"We have to cut this budget some way," said Detroit City Councilmember Brenda Jones. "I'm not happy with the answers that we haven't been given."

Detroit City Council members were frustrated and disappointed after a budget hearing on the fire department and EMS.

Council members asked many of the same questions FOX 2 has been asking for months about staffing, slow response times, broken EMS rigs and how long it takes to fix them.

FOX 2's Charlie LeDuff reports Commissioner Wheeler has more questions to answer.  More than broken trucks and deadly response times, there's also the question of the money.  Click on the second video in the player above to watch his story.

"Some of the vehicles don't have the proper staff on them," said Councilmember JoAnn Watson.

"I don't have one letter from an employee on my desk attesting to that," said interim Detroit Fire Commissioner Fred Wheeler.

When the hearing ended, Wheeler didn't want to answer our questions, either, but he did say council members will get all the information they're looking for.

"In terms of whether or not we were prepared today, certainly we were," Wheeler said.

"I would beg to differ," said City Councilmember Andre Spivey.

He was also upset EMS Chief Jerald James was not present. James told FOX 2 by phone the interim fire commissioner instructed him not to attend.

Wednesday afternoon, it was Police Chief Ralph Godbee's turn. He told the council he would have to lay off 150 officers if his budget was cut by 10-percent unless officers agreed to a pay cut.

Mayor Dave Bing's budget plan does call for concessions from city's 48 unions. Without them, he says the city could be taken over by an emergency financial manager.

"I pray not. I don't want one. We don't need one," Spivey told us.

Of course, the city is facing a nearly $200-million deficit. The city council has until May 24 to submit its plan to the mayor. The budget must be finalized by the end of June.