BERKELEY, Calif. -- A Berkeley City Council member said today there will be slower response times to fires in much of the city as a result of her colleagues' decision to ground one of the city's two fire truck companies during nighttime hours.

Council member Betty Olds, whose District 6 area includes part of the Berkeley hills, an area considered vulnerable to fires, said quick fire department response time "is very important to our district."

Olds said Districts 1 and 5 also will have slower response times due to the council's 6-2 vote Tuesday night to save $300,000 by placing a truck company out of service between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m, starting Nov. 8.

Olds and Kriss Worthington, who represents District 7, cast the only "no" votes.

Olds said she thinks the decision to ground the fire company was a "political" move by Mayor Tom Bates, City Manager Phil Kamlarz and the council majority to pressure the city's voters to approve a paramedic service tax on the November ballot.

City officials say that if the paramedic tax passes, they won't have to cut fire services in fiscal 2006, which starts next July 1.

"It's rather devious," Olds said.

She said Berkeley firefighters, who haven't taken a position on the paramedic tax, have told her they're being pressured by city officials to endorse the paramedic tax.

Bates' chief of staff, Cisco DeVries, said that when the City Council approved the city's fiscal 2005 budget on June 22, it authorized Kamlarz to achieve $300,000 in savings in the fire department's budget so firefighters would take cuts in their total pay package.

The cuts were to be equivalent to cuts that other city employee unions agreed to in order to help the city balance its budget.

Firefighters have refused to take a reduction in the salary increase they were awarded several years ago. Firefighters agreed in the recent past to contribute a portion of their pension costs, whereas other city employees have refused to contribute anything to their pension costs.

However, other city employees agreed earlier this year to take a smaller pay hike than the one they negotiated several years ago.

In a report to the City Council before Tuesday night's vote, Kamlarz said the fire department budget should be cut so it's in line with other city departments.

"It's a matter of maintaining good will with the other labor organizations and city employees, who have agreed to salary give-backs, for the council to take action," he said.

Kamlarz said fire management staff believes that reducing truck company coverage during nighttime hours will have the least impact on fire department operations.

But he admitted that during the planned shutdown, only one truck company will be staffed to cover the entire city, and for areas previously covered by the closed truck, response times for a truck will increase.

Kamlarz said mutual aid from nearby cities for a second truck can be used to combat a major fire, but he admitted that one nearby city, Richmond, may not be able to offer mutual aid at this time because of staffing cuts.