WHEN THE CONTROLLER'S report that came out in April recommended some low-volume fire stations be closed, the firefighters and their allies – as well the residents of targeted neighborhoods – went on the offensive with visceral, high-profile concerns about the city's safety.

And within days Mayor Gavin Newsom and Chief Joanne Hayes-White announced there would be no station closures, period.

Yet he still had a $307 million budget deficit to close. And an expected retirement boom of 100 to 150 firefighters this year threatened to drive up overtime costs if all 42 stations were to remain staffed.

"For the city to do everything they are doing today would have cost us another $20 million," Newsom's budget director, Ben Rosenfield, told the Bay Guardian.

So when the budget came out June 1, it trimmed 94 positions by not replacing retirees and included a vague and slightly confusing discussion under the heading of "Controlling Overtime Costs," some of which – such as creating more flexible scheduling – required union approval the city didn't end up winning at the bargaining table.

But most important, Newsom ordered a cap on the overtime allowed on any given day.

"When I looked at it, there were no sacred cows," Newsom told us in a June 15 interview. "We're looking at brownouts. We're looking at a lot of things that were recommended in the reports, in the controllers' report. Yet we're not going to close fire stations."

Brownouts? What are brownouts? The term never appears in Newsom's budget, even though it's the key to making the fire department's budget balance.

It turns out brownouts are pretty much the same thing as station closures, only they're temporary. That is, if anyone calls in sick, goes on vacation, or has training or other duties, rather than bringing someone in on overtime pay, as it does now, the department will just take certain equipment or stations out of operation for the day. And the likeliest targets are the same low-volume stations identified in the controller's report.

"They are effectively browning out equipment, or not using equipment, in the same ways that we identified," Pat Stevenson, who authored the controller's report, told us.

It's the same strategy Oakland employed last year when the threat of station closures sparked a similar political firestorm. It's good politics but not necessarily good policy, because you end up spending money on stations and equipment that you don't use very often.

"If you closed a station," Stevenson said, "you could save the cost of maintaining those stations."

Hayes-White – who steadfastly opposes any closures – said brownouts are different because she will try to target equipment at stations with multiple units, or when an entire station is browned out, she will place an ambulance there for medical calls.

But firefighter-paramedic Michael Creedon considers it a disingenuous tactic. "It's a daily station closure instead of a permanent one," he told us. "You either need the station or you don't. This is like Russian roulette."

STJ