KCK’s fire union casts no confidence vote against department, county leadership
The union representing firefighters in Kansas City, Kansas, has lost faith in the city’s fire chief and Wyandotte County’s administrator, it announced in a statement Monday.
Union members cast a vote of no confidence in Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department Chief Dennis Rubin and County Administrator David Johnston earlier this month, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 64.
“These actions reflect the collective position of our membership following ongoing concerns related to leadership, decision-making, and the overall impact on operations and safety within our department,” Local 64 wrote in a social media statement.
Local 64 said decisions made by county and fire department leadership have put firefighters’ and the community’s safety at risk.
The union said KCKFD has: repeatedly violated its agreement with the union, not meaningfully participated in the grievance process and retaliated against members “including discipline without cause and wrongful termination.” Also, the union alleges that the department and the Unified Government has mismanaged funds in a way that has created unsafe working conditions.
“Despite consistent efforts by Local 64 to engage in good-faith dialogue and offer practical, solution-oriented proposals — particularly over the past 16 months, these concerns have been met with continued resistance from County and Fire Department leadership,” according to the union.
In response to the letter, Rubin told The Star that the department hasn’t violated terms of its contract with the union, but rather that union members are dissatisfied with terms that they signed on for. He said members have specifically been frustrated with the overtime pay that the Unified Government reduced among first responders during 2025 budget cuts following a freeze on property taxes.
And although county commissioners opted to collect increased property tax revenues in 2026, new revenues were not enough to pay firefighters more in overtime this year, Rubin said.
In light of the no confidence vote, KCKFD will continue cooperating and working professionally with its union, Rubin said. And although he’d like to increase overtime pay for firefighters, the funding isn’t currently there, he said.
And, he added, decisions to direct specific funding to the department, or to collect new property tax revenues is above his pay grade.
Response times, aging buildings
The vote comes after years of discussion between the department and union on how to best address dated facilities and resources as demand for service increases across the county. Local 64 and KCKFD have differed on how to address those concerns.
Last year, Local 64 said it wanted to see overhaul renovations and rebuilds at 18 KCKFD facilities and a new training center. KCKFD instead proposed a 10-year, three-phase plan that would address some but not all of those concerns.
During presentations to commissioners, both the union and department told commissioners last year that KCKFD fell short of national response time standards, meaning most units were not arriving to a scene within four minutes. The department has a more than 100 square-mile coverage area and serves more than 150,000 residents.
Both delayed response times and 2025 budget cuts posed threats to public safety, they said at the time. Many of its buildings are old, and are largely in what the union and department have called “poor” and “deplorable” conditions.
