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Regular City Council Meeting <br />August 28, 2003 <br />Page 2 <br />they have an overtime budget for $280,000.00 and they hire an additional <br />firefighter, it is going to cost approximately $40,000.00 total city expense. If <br />six firefighters were hired that is $240,000.00 and you deduct $240,000.00 <br />from $280,000.00 and we would save that much, but it does not necessarily <br />work out even dollars for even dollars. He said they would still have to <br />maintain an overtime budget no matter how many firefighters were hired. Each <br />firefighter is due their time off and there is a certain amount of scheduled time <br />off that they have got to have. There are injury and sick leaves and there are <br />different things that need to be considered. <br />Chief Grooms asked Council to look at the back four pages of the booklet. He <br />had asked his Training Officer to research absenteeism with sick leave and <br />injury leave for the last three fiscal years starting with 2000-2001. The result <br />were these four pages. Absenteeism has drastically gone up. In the year 2000- <br />2001 (page 16) there were only 65 absences. These were days that were <br />counted over three shifts. The number for 2001-2002 almost doubled at 129 <br />absences. The present fiscal year is at 251 total shifts and the year is not <br />complete. That proves that from year to year you can have injuries and <br />sickness which may or may not occur in the next year. <br />Chief Grooms said they need more firefighters. He said he would like to see <br />four firefighters per apparatus to operate more effectively and safely. Safety is <br />above everything else but he understands that there is a financial concern that <br />needs to be considered. <br />Chief Grooms said he included the Rank Restructure Plan and he tried to detail <br />that as much as possible and the bottom line of that plan is on page 5. Table <br />I that defines the plan and that is using calculations based on the number of <br />firefighters that we have now actually it is one more because he completed this <br />research using a full staff. Chief Grooms asked the Council to look at <br />paragraph 6 which gives the estimated projected average for the automatic <br />overtime including the new firefighters and that would be $53,847.00. He said <br />the rank reconstruction plan starts on page 9. Chief Grooms said our current <br />