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21 Agreement Consensus PlanningCITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM BRIEFING SHEET Submittal Date: Originating Department: Presented By: Agenda Item No.: 11/06/08 Council Date: City Manager Kevin Caxruth; Ronnie Grooms 27. 11/10/08 RECOMMENDED MOTION: Not an action item. POLICY ISSUE(S): Council information BACKGROUND: At the beginning of the FY 2008-2009 budget process, the City Manager asked the Fire Department to examine the feasibility of temporarily vacating Starion 2 and reassigning those fire fighters so that we could get staff the remaining apparatus with the recommend and department requested level of four fire fighters. Four person staffing is the most efficient fire suppression work unit, allows us to meet the "two in, two out" rule to effect building entry and rescues, enables the Fire Department to utilize the required National Incident Management System at an incident, and otherwise improves safety for our employees and citizens. With the current four station alignment we are unable to staff our apparatus with four personnel and in fact most units are staffed with two fite fighters. The net effect of the two pexson companies is that our response time is not an accurate reflection of our ability to really fight a fire. In other words, even though an engine may respond in a few short minutes, they are effecrively unable to do anything until the second engine arrives so our effective response time is actually much longer. Station 2 will not be closed but rather the two Paris EMS units will continue to utilize the facility just as they do now. Please see the accompanying memo from Chief Grooms for a more detailed explanation. BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: EXHIBITS: Grooms October 23, 2008, memo ACTION: BUDGET INFO: ❑ Financial Report ❑ Minute Order Expense $ E Department Report ❑ Resolution Budgeted Amt. $ ❑ Presentation ❑ Ordinance Y7'D Actual $ ❑ Public Hearing ❑ Other Acct. Name Acct. Number FISCAL NOTES: REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY: Z Administration Z City Clerk ❑ Communiry Development ❑ EMS/IT ❑ Finance Z Fire ❑ Municipal Court ❑ Legal ❑ Library ❑ Police ❑ Eng./Public Works ❑ Utilities City of Paris . UC1U3'76 Revised 2/04/08 ~ _T. Memo T0: Kevin Carruth, City Manager From: Ronnie Grooms, Fire Chief Date: October 23, 2008 Subject: Station and Staffing Realignment The exodus of personnel, employee and community safety, our capability in providing service, and the other issues my Staff Officers and I discussed with you back in May (during our pre-budget meetings) have not changed. Unfortunately the City could not, at least in some way, assist us in addressing these issues during this past budget. Nevertheless, we are where we are and these concerns and issues still haunt us. First, as we stated in our meeting this morning, the Fire Department has lost a total of 34 firefighters since July of 2004. This represents an overall turnover rate that exceeds 66%. As we also emphasized to you, 13 of those firefighters who left, did so specifically to reduce the stress in their life and for better benefits and salaries in other fire departments; constituting more than a 25% turnover rate just to other city fire departments. In essence, we have been forced to replace seasoned veterans with an accumulative 516 years of experience and tenure with raw recruits with less than 26 years of experience and tenure. Second, when a shift is at full staffing, it employees 16 firefighters with a minimum staffing of 12 firefighters, with at least 2 firefighters scheduled off-duty to accommodate leave allowances. Unfortunately for several years now, we have not been at full staffing as the rate of firefighter exodus has exceeded our ability to rehire, but we are continuing to work to fill those positions. Currently, the engine companies at Stations 2, 3, and 4 are staffed with 2 firefighters while Station No. 1 has 2 people assigned to Rescue-1, 3 people assigned to Engine-l, and the Deputy Chief. There are occasions, when at full staffing capacity, we may have a couple of firefighters above the 12 minimal. On those occasions we assign them to substation duty so as to increase the engine company staffing. We would be most remiss if we do not do all within our power to provide for the SAFETY of our employees and the community and address these issues. Therefore, in order to provide the most optimum opportunity for protecting and properly training these young and inexperienced recruits while still providing for the SAFETY of our community, we propose implementing the following Temporary Station and Staffing Realignment Plan: 1. All FD personnel from Fire Station No. 2 will be removed and reassigned to the other remaining (3) stations. 2. Fire Response District 2 will be split between Fire Response Districts 1 and 4(Paris Dispatch will receive new Fire Response District maps). 3. Engine-2 will be relocated to Fire Station No. 1. 4. Our Probationary Firefighters (PF's) will be equally reassigned so as to maximize safety and training capabilities. . (10037i _ . , . T. . . T 5. Personnel from Engine-1 will be utilized to cover necessary duties/responses when Rescue-1, Ladder-1, and/or Brush-1 are needed. Implementation of this plan is vitally important so that we can do all we can to ensure everyday that, "Everybody goes home". To help us accomplish this daily task, we must do whatever is necessary and wrthin our power to: • Improve the overall conditions for safety (i.e., supervision, staffing, PF's, etc.), 0 Compensate for the mandated staffing reductions of the past, • Compensate for the City's failure to help us retain qualified and trained personnel, • Stem the continued exodus of tenured and experienced veterans, • Improve the confidence and trust within the ranks of the PFD, • Improve the overall morale of the PFD. Other benefits to this plan also include: • To help us comply with the basic NFPA recommendation of at least (4) persons to each Engine Company as validated by various accredited staffing studies (e.g., the 1984 Dallas Study which proved that a(4) person Engine Company is the most efficient). • To help us to improve our capacity to properly supervise our employees. This is especially important due to the fact, as stated above, that we now have so many new and inexperienced firefighters. • To help us improve the overall safety and effectiveness of operations. • To enhance our efforts in complying with the state mandated 2IN2 OUT law and NIMS (National Incident Management System) requirements that the City of Paris has officially adopted. Our rationale for temporarily moving out of Fire Station No. 2 includes: • Station No. 1 is our primary station which houses administration and training. • St-3 services the bulk of the industry, is too isolated, has a larger service district, and would have the most negative impact. • Historically, E-1, E-3, and E-4, individually, respond to more calls than E-2. We fully expect there may be those who will question our reasoning and purpose, especially by citizens living within the old Fire Response District 2. However, we feel we have no choice smce firefighter and citizen safety must take precedence. We recognize that splitting this district between Stations 1 and 4 may well impact the initial apparatus response time to some areas within the district; however, the effective response time is more important. The first on-scene engine company will be able to implement immediate offensive and aggressive mitigation efforts with a complete complement of personnel instead of having to wait for successive responders. This provides for improved mitigation capability. We believe, once we have been able to provide the rationale behind our decisions and our citizens actually see how the new system provides for better effectiveness, efficiency, and safety, they will wholeheartedly support our efforts. As stated above, this is only a temporary plan as we absolutely affirm that the current (4) station alignment is still vital for the overall optimum provision of service and safety to the City of Paris. However, we are compelled to regroup in order to protect our own. Should the City choose to fund the additional (18) firefighters necessary to do so, we would move back into Fire Station No. 2. Page 2 of 2 ~ 0U(l372 r_ - _T.