From a Feb. 8th article in the Daily Herald...

... proposed budget cuts include the elimination of one front-line company in the city’s fire department.

That cut comes as the result of losing the service contract with the former St. Charles Countryside Fire Protection District, as the district recently voted to start its own fire department.

Fire Chief Patrick Mullen confirmed in an interview that the elimination of the company will not result in the closing of any firehouse or the elimination of any firefighting positions. Mullen said he does expect a reduction in firefighter overtime.

It also is likely that the city will not open up testing for new hires in the police or fire departments. The city currently tests to create a hiring list every two years. City officials now expect to extend that to three or four years.

The city also has plans to eliminate the employee tuition reimbursement program and reduce the base salary structure of city employees.

Here are some articles, published in 2006 and 2007 regarding American Emergency Services.

This is an excellent article written by an attorney in Urbana, IL in response to a newspaper article that blamed firefighter pensions for a local tax increase.  This attorney does an excellent job explaining how pension underfunding started... and who is to blame.