At Miami-Dade County's fire department, there's a new chief in town, but he's not new to the responsibility.
Chief William "Shorty" Bryson may sound familiar because he once served as chief for the city of Miami, and now, as he takes the helm for Miami-Dade County, NBC Miami sat down with Bryson to talk about proposed budget cuts facing the department.
"When John Q. Public picks up the phone and says they need our emergency response, we have to be there,” Bryson said during an interview Monday.
With only two weeks on the job, Bryson knows he has his work cut out for him.
"Whether the fireboats will be staffed, how they will be staffed...A lot of people are looking at solutions to the riddles of how were going to do the budget, how are we going to keep service levels at least where they are, maybe improve and then how are we going to do it financially when we have to cut 26 million from our budget,” he said.
But can they really improve with those circumstances?
"If we surgically move some people to where they provide relief in operations, diminish overtime, we can do that," he said.
Earlier this year, former Fire Chief Herminio Lorenzo retired and just this month, interim fire chief Karls Paul-Noel stepped down saying "every year we are expected to do more with less."
Bryson, negotiating with his employee's labor union, is hearing similar concerns.
"Huge concerns, pay cuts, reduction in benefits. My huge concerns are providing the service that we need to," Bryson said. "I think we'll find some joint solutions together."
With the city of Miami going through similar budget woes, Bryson was asked his thoughts about Miami firefighters voting next month on whether to support a recall effort against Mayor Tomas Regalado. Bryson served as the chief of Miami’s fire department for nine years.
"I think it's a sign of the times when financial urgency is declared and imposed. It has a huge affect on the firefighters,” he said.
Now the new chief is working to balance those affects with the work that must go on.
