The city of Youngstown says it is moving forward with a plan to brown out fire stations after the fire department's overtime budget has been wiped out.

Finance Director Kyle Miasek told the city council finance committee Monday night, through the first five months of 2020, $116,000 has been spent on non-holiday overtime. The fire department's budget for 2020 was $110,000.

"We have now used up our entire budget and given all the of the circumstances that we are going to be addressing going forward with income tax shortfall, with other revenue declines, we believe and in the administration, that we are going to begin browning out fire stations as a way of dealing with living within the means of the budget," Miasek said.

While COVID-19 played a role with five firefighters testing positive and Station No. 1 getting quarantined, the majority of the overtime is due to call-offs, which are up 78% from the first five months of 2019. So far, there have been 303 call-offs in 2020, compared to 170 in 2019.

"If you go back and look in the details, you are going to see instead of just seeing firefighters calling off, the more senior firefighters who are our captains, our lieutenants, even our battalion chiefs who are choosing, for unforeseen reasons, to call the department during their scheduled day to work and are calling off," Miasek said.

Miasek also said that the number of calls to the department is down 14%.

"It's really worrisome that our call-offs have grown, our run numbers are down, and our overtime has completely exhausted the budget that was put in place by council," Miasek said.

Both Fire Chief Barry Finley and Mayor Tito Brown told the finance committee that the administration has no other options, and they are working on a plan to brown out stations.

"I surely can't take any more out of the budget I have, this is just something I got to do and the sooner that we do it, the better to save money," Finley said.

"Like any other department does, when those monies are gone, then you have to take responsibility within that department, and so these are the options, and I take the Chief's recommendations, and this is the issue we have to deal with," Brown said.

When asked if any federal money is coming in that might help with payroll or overtime, Miasek said they are hopeful, but so far, nothing is concrete.

The firefighters union has said in the past that browning out stations is a safety risk and is against the move.