- Department directors re-configure to keep vital services in-tact
- Fire Dept. considers self inspections, fees on fall assists at care centers
- Planning says that they need more inspectors, time
- Police hoping to expand civilian workforce
Modern Tech Makes Self Fire Inspections a Possibility
Though the city attorney expressed some doubt at the proposal, the Fire Chief and Fire Marshal proposed a new self inspection program for businesses at last week’s budget workshop.
They said currently, there are businesses in San Angelo that are sometimes going three or four years between inspections due to staffing limitations. Chief Patrick Brody said that the program would allow some low-occupancy businesses to complete inspections themselves through online coordination with the department.
Business owners would upload photos and videos to prove that fire extinguishers are fully charged and exit signs are functioning, removing some of the burden from the Fire Marshal’s office.
According to the officials, this would follow an initial fire marshal inspection, with in-person inspections every three years.
Fall Assists at Local Care Facilities
Residents of San Angelo are able to call for assistance if they fall and cannot get up, at no charge, the fire chief said, noting that the fall assist program yields around 1,000 calls a year.
Theres only one problem. As the program currently exists, the overwhelming majority of these fall assist calls are coming from care facilities and nursing homes, accounting for roughly 75 percent of all calls, or about 800-plus each year.
Chief Brody told attendees the job of helping nursing home residents with falls was traditionally a job performed by the facility’s staff, but since this program was introduced, the facilities have come to depend on EMS for this service, likely for safety and liability reasons.
It has become a financial sore spot.
The chief proposes doing what other similarly sized departments around the state have done, imposing a $200 fee on each fall assist response for residents in local facilities, to be billed to the facility, allowing them to continue providing this service free of charge for those with nobody to help them up.
According to Chief Brody, other departments charge anywhere from $400 to $800 for the service, but said that Longview FD is charging $200, which seems appropriate, noting that the San Angelo FD is nearly identical to Longview’s.
Lastly, the department would like to create a “Public Safety Grant Specialist” position, dedicated to writing and requesting state and federal grants, something currently done by firehouse staff.
Chief Brody said he believes the department is leaving money on the table by not being able to dedicate more time to the task, noting that the position would pay for itself quickly.
Planning Says Inspectors Face Troubling Time Crunch
According to Planning director Aaron Vannoy, 10,522 code inspections were conducted in 2025, which works out to around 6.8 inspections a day for each inspector.
Code dictates that these building inspections should ideally take no less than 60 minutes to complete, to make sure everything is in order, but Vannoy said that is not a very realistic estimate.
Besides the natural hang ups that might arise, inspectors also spend time a good amount of time each day communicating with contractors to bring everything up to code.
With travel and other considerations, this means that inspectors are often rushing from one site to the next, and inspections are done in around half the required time.
Vannoy worries that this will lead to things being missed during inspections, which defeats the purpose, and lead to burnout and loss of staff in the future, as inspectors often have to work through lunch to meet deadlines.
(It also means inspectors usually lack the time to participate in city sponsored trainings.)
Their proposal to remedy this situation involves consolidating the department to open up more communication and, hopefully, cut back on the downtime where inspectors are waiting on feedback.
They would also like to hire more inspectors.
Police Dept. Seeks to Expand Civilian Workforce
Police Chief Travis Griffith wants to expand civilian jobs within the department, which he believes will ultimately save the city in overtime costs and help avoid officer burnout at the same time.
Partnerships with Howard College have alleviated some need from police academy and training and has saved an estimated $100,000 from police academy costs.
Currently, graduating from the police academy gets you 18 credit-hours toward an associate’s degree, with Griffith adding “ideally sworn in officers would be getting their associate’s degree at the same time,” which he said will improve overall department function.
He also said that overtime for the department is “really high,” and they hope to decrease this in the future, adding that morale and service delivery has suffered as a result.
Griffith told attendees that some jobs within the department have been transitioned from uniformed officers, eliminating one administrative sergeant position, and having one public information officer instead of two, therefore getting more officers on the street. But these are temporary measures, he said.
