by ADELE UPHAUS
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Just three months into 2023, the King George County Department of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services has seen nine employees resign.
Chief David Moody communicated this information to the county human resources department, members of the Board of Supervisors, and Norm Risavi, part-time senior advisor to the Board, in a March 18 email obtained by the Advance through a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The email concerned the “abrupt” resignation of Jeffrey Gutknecht, a firefighter and paramedic.
“I received his resignation without any forewarning, and I do not know what has caused him to abruptly resign and not even provide a 2-week notice,” Moody wrote. “His sudden departure comes with a particular impact since he was one of our released Paramedics on his shift. We have been losing a lot of employees lately and many of them are experienced Firefighters and Advanced Life Support providers which takes years of tenure to obtain.”
Moody said the department has seen many resignations over the past 18 months, and provided a breakdown of current vacancies per each of the three 24-hour shifts.
There are six vacancies in shift A; five vacancies in shift B, with one additional employee working “light duty” due to shoulder surgery and another employee pulled to be an instructor at the Fire Academy; and six vacancies in shift C.
“We are funded at 19 per shift,” Moody wrote in the email. “Essentially, we are currently close to a majority of an entire shift down at present. Our minimum staffing level is 11 personnel [per shift]. However, not all our personnel are equally qualified or certified and this adds another layer of complexity to our staffing situation.”
Moody said there are 12 new hires currently attending the Fire Academy, but they will not be ready to start shift work until August.
Moody said that if there isn’t a concerted effort to come up with a plan for retaining existing fire and rescue personnel and recruiting new personnel, he is “afraid we are going to have to start shutting down stations on some days due to staffing shortages.”
In contrast, the Fredericksburg City Fire and Rescue Department currently has just one vacancy, Chief Mike Jones told the Advance on Tuesday. Like King George’s, the city’s fire department also operates with three 24-hour shifts, each staffed by 19 personnel.
The King George fire department has a total of 65 funded full-time positions and the Fredericksburg fire department has 66.
In addition to the resignations from the fire and rescue department, King George has seen a number of county government employees resign, including the assistant county attorney, human resources director, finance director and director of economic development.
