- Crescent Springs approved an additional $120K for the Crescent Springs/Villa Hills Fire Department Monday after a contentious City Council meeting.
- The allocation was aimed at covering expenses related to overtime costs and other unexpected expenses.
- An even split emerged between the Council, and the mayor was forced to exercise his power to break legislative ties several times throughout the meeting.
The Crescent Springs City Council has approved an additional $120,000 for the Crescent Springs/Villa Hills Fire Department after a contentious meeting Monday night that contained multiple tie-breaking votes from Mayor Mike Daugherty.
The conflict arose after the fire department requested an additional budget allocation from the city to cover purportedly unexpected overtime and other costs in the face of increased service demand.
City Administrator Mike Daly laid out the rationale for the increased allocation at the City Council’s caucus meeting in early March: “13.6% increase in calls for service year over year, the rising operational maintenance cost, the staffing overtime needs and the delayed delivery of prior year equipment.”
The Department is somewhat peculiar in that it covers (and is supported by) both Villa Hills and Crescent Springs; the cities don’t have their own individual departments. Members of each community govern the department through a board of appointees. The department also provides services to the unincorporated county.
The department saw an increase of 106 calls since 2024, according it’s 2025 annual report. Ambulance and EMS calls increased by 66. Actual fire responses increased by 163, and 2025 marked the first civilian fire death in the department’s service area since 2007. The death occurred in Crescent Springs and was the first fire death in the city since the department’s founding.
Most of the expenses, Chief Jeff Wendt told LINK nky on Monday before the meeting, were slated to cover part-time staff who had clocked overtime hours within the last fiscal year.
An even split emerged on the city council. Three Members, Jeff Smith, Jeannine Bell Smith and Don Kiely, opposed the additional allocation, whereas members Bob Mueller, Carol McGowan and Mark Wurtenberger were in favor of it. Daugherty tended to side with the latter group. Voices and hackles between the factions were raised throughout the meeting, and Daugherty had to bang his gavel at one point to calm the room down.
The Department’s critics expressed worries about ballooning costs, a lack of government transparency and what they argued was the department’s circumvention of established procedure, specifically by hiring three full-time staff without getting a vote from the council.
Jeff Smith characterized giving the allocation as “rewarding the Crescent/Villa Fire Authority, rather than disciplining them for their breach of contract. So, I’m just thinking that they should have followed the proper channels when they hired.”
Wendt himself argued that hiring full-time firefighters would be more cost effective in the long term than relying on part-timers, especially when those part-timers were clocking overtime.
“What we’re trying to do is increase our full-time staff to make it more reliable,” Wendt told LINK nky.
When Wendt spoke with LINK nky on Monday, he said the department currently had 11 full-time employees, 53 part-time employees and nine volunteers. Wendt said he tried to have seven firefighters available at any given time.
Members of the community, both for and against the department, spoke at the meeting. Notably, several members of the department’s governing board spoke out in favor of the allocation. Current Board Chair Sue Cassidy even presented a spreadsheet showing how the money would be spent, something the critics of the department had been inquiring about throughout the meeting.
“This is how long we’ve been talking about this,” Cassidy said. “I’m happy to leave this copy again with (the council), but this was presented to the council at the January caucus meeting of this year,” Cassidy said.
There were legal ambiguities around whether or not the chief could hire full-time firefighters without the council’s approval. Jeff Smith cited a municipal order that required council approval, but Wendt pointed to the contract the department had with the city, which he argued made the department functionally autonomous, essentially an independent contractor that operated on its own. Both sides accused the other of breaching contract.
At one point McGowan asked City Attorney Mike Baker to weigh in. He demurred at first but later gave a somewhat noncommittal assessment.
“What you’ve heard tonight are varying versions of the same documents, of which reasonable minds can differ,” Baker said. “I’m not the judge and I’m not the jury, and I don’t want anyone in this room to believe that is the remedy because courtrooms, frankly, will make everybody in this room lose – they’re expensive.”
“But what has emerged tonight is that there is a difference of opinion, and I think both sides make valid points for what it’s worth. But to conclude, one way or the other, that there’s been a breach, it’s illegal, I certainly believe is premature,” he continued.
In addition to the budget allocation, the council was set to vote on a municipal order that would retroactively approve the hiring of the three full-time firefighters and mandate additional full-time hires be approved through the council budgeting process, which requires two readings and a vote like any ordinance.
Multiple attempts by the department’s critics to amend the order were voted down with a tie-breaking vote from the mayor. Both the municipal order and the budget reallocation itself were eventually approved with the mayor’s tie-breaking vote.