Albemarle’s police chief and fire chief explain why they need additional funds

Spending on public safety is the second-largest category of spending in Albemarle County totaling a project $78.3 million in fiscal year 2026. Of that amount, 42 percent goes to the Albemarle County Police Department and another 42 percent goes to the Albemarle Fire Rescue.

The rest goes to the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail (7 percent) and the Emergency Communications Center (7 percent) with the remaining two percent to other agencies.

Both Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston and Police Chief Sean Reeves were on hand at the March 10 work session to explain why they need additional funds. The majority of the proposed four cent increase in the real property tax rate increase would go to public safety.

Reeves has asked for an additional six officers to add two officers per shift and to increase response teams.

“There are several occasions where we’re at our minimum staffing levels right now based on our rotating schedules and how we are deploying our resources,” Reeves said. “Those six officers, they’re going to be specifically identified for patrol, not the specialty divisions, not special operations, not investigations or any other function. It is purely for patrol.”

Andy Bowman, the county’s assistant financial officer, added that the department will also receive additional funding for vehicle replacement, new equipment, and training.

Eggleston went next and began with a description of how the Fire Rescue system is set up.

“Our system is made up of 14 fire stations, fire rescue stations,” Eggleston said. “Six of them are fully staffed with career staff and there’s a legend there to show you which ones are. Six of them are a mix of career and volunteer staff and then two of them are fully staffed by volunteer staff.”

The goal for Fire Rescue response is to arrive on scene within eight minutes in the urban areas, 90 percent of the time and 21 minutes in the rural areas 90 percent of the time.

To increase response times and guarantee constant coverage throughout the county, Albemarle has been hiring additional firefighters with initial payments covered by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As with the police department, calls for service have been increasing with a 21 percent increase since 2019.

“What’s unusual is that their call types are increasing across the board, including fires, which is not necessarily a good thing,” Eggleston said. “Some communities, the fires are declining. We’re seeing an increase across the board.”

Eggleston said climate change has meant there are more weather-related calls, something he has testified before the U.S. Congress to point out. He also testified along with other fire safety professionals to explain the importance of the federal grant.

“We just got through working Capitol Hill to ensure that our federal legislators know how important these are to our locality because that paid for people to go to training for three years and then to be deployed,” Eggleston said. “We have $12.7 million in federal funds to jump start these folks. But what’s happening now with those grants starting to age out. So we have to pick up those expenditures which is a huge driver in this FY26 budget.”

Eggleston said the alternative would be to let the new personnel go, but that would reduce response teams. He also said the additional investment has meant Albemarle no longer pays the City of Charlottesville for additional coverage. Instead there is a mutual aid agreement but at no cost to the county.

Before you go: This is another story about Albemarle County’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2026 and one of the biggest drivers in County Executive Jeffrey Richardson’s proposal of devoting 80 percent of a four cent increase in the real estate tax rate to public safety. That’s a key detail and one that I felt deserved a full story rather being added on to the previous one. This and the previous one were both in the March 19, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. And as soon as I hit publish I have to begin putting the podcast and radio version together!