By FireRescue1 Staff
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The firefighters of Kansas City demonstrated their frustrations about the mayor in an organized protest.
FOX4 KC reported that the firefighters were led to protest against Mayor Mark Holland after his repeated public statements about cutting the fire department, according to Local 64 Firefighter’s Union official and fire Captain Robert Wing.
“[Holland said] there are too many fire trucks, there are too many firefighters and there are too many fire stations in this community, and we`re going to right size the fire department,” Captain Wing said. “The mayor over the last period of months if not year has been out beating us up in the community. He did it as late as last week and we`ve heard enough.”
Mayor Holland made a statement to the media while the demonstration took place.
“The protest organized today by fire union leadership, is a display of political theater. The union’s leadership has made false claims about the Unified Governments process, in order to stir up fear ahead of the November 7th mayoral election,” Holland said.
Holland added that statements that have been made are all based on a study that found some areas of the city had too many fire stations, while others did not have enough. He said a taskforce has been created to follow up on the study.
“This [demonstration] surprises me because the union is actively participating in a taskforce that includes the fire command staff and the administration,” Holland said. “This taskforce is charged with determining how best to realign our fire coverage in response to shifting population densities.”