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Fire Service Committee July 15, 1999 Page 6 them to keep them safe. Each station is capable of accommodating six man staffing per shift. The station floor plan we are proposing is slightly less than 6000 square feet, having a living area of 2263 square feet and would adequately house up to six fire persons and provide for their needs as far as sleeping, dining, preparing to go on runs, as well as accommodating some training needs. Also, we are proposing a truck bay of 3120 square feet, which would provide three pull- through truck bays of single stack design which would be fifty feet long inside housing one truck to a bay. There would also be other miscellaneous square footage for lawnmowers, small equipment, etc. With porches, the total square footage for the floor plan recommended would total 5935 square feet, and this might be modified by the architect. Staff feels that this floor plan is very adequate for these two substations and will accommodate female officers, would accommodate an engine company of up to four men, which currently we only staff three, would accommodate a grass rig or other minor apparatus, would accommodate the possibility of housing EMS in the future. This plan also accommodates another aerial, if needed, which might be particularly relevant in the southeast location. It was pointed out that we are supposed to have an aerial within two and one half miles of any structure designated to need it - one three or more stories. Currently, we make do with one aerial. The layout of the stations is flexible and should serve for a number of years. City Manager Malone suggested that the Fire Service Committee focus on station floor plans, asking Gene Anderson, Finance Director, to review Fair Labor concerns about EMS. Mr. Anderson explained how we pay fire and EMS personnel. He explained that while all other employees are paid on a seven day work period, forty hours, with anything over that being overtime, (unless they are salaried), the fire and EMS personnel are paid under the 7K provision of the FLSA, which gives them a twenty eight day cycle, instead of a seven day cycle. He said that by stretching that from seven days to twenty -eight days, you are more likely to be able to reduce your overtime hours because anytime they are not actually on the job, or on vacation, sick, or holiday time, it reduces the likelihood that they are going to draw overtime during that time period. So, to rephrase it a different way, within twenty -eight days, fire and EMS personnel have to work more than two hundred and twelve hours before they draw any overtime pay. Looking at it another way, they have to average over fifty -three hours a week. FLSA applies that to EMS under certain conditions, one, they have to be considered an integral part of the fire department, they have to have certain rescue type training related to fires, and they have to be regularly dispatched to fires. If they are not, Fire Service Committee July 15, 1999 Page 6