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Regular City Council Meeting <br />August 19, 2003 <br />Page 4 <br />going from 5% to 6%. That additional cost and the city's match will be <br />amortized over 25 years, based on an actuarial study and if everything stays the <br />same, that contribution made by the city will decrease a little every year until <br />25 years is up. <br />Councilman Bell asked if there is a way to get the overtime down as it has <br />already exceeded the budget. Councilman Bell asked if they add firefighters, <br />would that help? Chief Grooms advised that adding firefighters would help <br />reduce the overtime. Chief Grooms explained that he has been hit pretty hard <br />this past fiscal year. He said he had two firefighters out on injury leave and one <br />has been out for an extended time and the other one will probably not be back <br />by until the first of the year and he has other men off and when he has extended <br />absences the only way he can cover for those men is through overtime. <br />Chief Grooms asked the Council to go to page 9 of his handout, which showed <br />a brief overview of the overtime. He explained that they have to have <br />minimum staffing on duty each day in order to offer the required service. In <br />order to do that, they have 18 firefighters per shift except for one shift and that <br />is the one firefighter who was not replaced, but the minimum staffing on the <br />two shifts that are at 18 is 15. So, that allows them to have three people off. <br />Last year with the possibility and threat of firefighters leaving the department, <br />they reduced the number of employees who could be regularly scheduled off on <br />any given shift from three firefighters to two firefighters. Chief Grooms said <br />he tried to address their staffing in a nonfinancial way as best as he could. <br />When you couple that with people being off on injury leave, sick leave, along <br />with training, they still have to fill those positions. He advised that he has <br />requested $280,000.00 to cover the overtime cost and certainly additional <br />firefighters would reduce that. <br />Councilman Bell requested in the next few days that Chief Grooms come <br />forward with a proposal on how much to reduce the overtime and use that slack <br />money in the budget for additional firefighters, over and above the one that Mr. <br />Malone has already placed in the budget. <br />