01/06/2013 - City Council Finance CommitteeFINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2013
1:30 -3 P.M.
CONFERENCE ROOM 2AB
AGENDA
I. AGENDA ADOPTION
II. SAFER GRANT
III. OTHER BUSINESS
IV. ADJOURNMENT
Agenda Memo
January 6, 2014 Finance Committee Meeting
II. AUTHORIZE STAFF TO ACCEPT A SAFER GRANT TO HIRE
FOUR FIREFIGHTERS AND ONE FIRE CAPTAIN IN THE
AMOUNT OF $871,111
FACTS:
• At the August 20th, 2013 City Council Meeting Council authorized staff to apply
for a SAFER grant for weekday firefighter coverage.
o Our proposal was to hire four full -time firefighters and one fire captain for
weekday coverage. This is part of the fire departments overall strategic
plan for 2012 -2020.
■ Weekdays is the busiest call volume time for the fire
department, but hardest time period to staff with traditional
volunteer fire staffing.
• The proposed weekday full -time fire staff would still be augmented with
traditional volunteer staffing as needed.
■ The intent at this point is that weeknights and weekends would
still be staffed with volunteer staffing.
• The SAFER grant pays for 100% of wages and benefits for the two years.
■ There is no requirement of the grant to staff these positions
after the grant period.
• Estimated total annual cost of the four firefighter positions for wages and
benefits is $324,924 per year and $87,669.63 per year for the one Captains
position.
SAFER stands for "Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response ", it is a
federal grant administered by FEMA.
Staff was notified on November 29th that we are being offered a SAFER grant in
the amount of $871,111 over a two year period.
• The city has 30 days from the November 29th offer date to accept the
grant. The city has been offered one 30 day extension to accept the grant,
but we must decide by January 28th if the city will accept. There will be no
additional extensions offered.
• The city has 90 days from the date of offer to advertise for the positions
and have the new staffing on board. This date works out to February 27tH,
2014.
There is an opportunity at the end of the two year grant cycle
for the city to ask for an amendment to our grant to use any
unspent grant dollars from a delay of hiring, but this is not
guaranteed.
Human Relations Manger Lori Peterson has prepared an
aggressive hiring schedule of 90 days from time of Council
approval to move forward.
• SAFER grant funding for 2013 -14 is approximately $340 million dollars
nationally with only 15% of that amount dedicated for hiring new full -time
firefighters.
• As of November 29th, Eagan was one of only fourteen cities nationally to
be offered a SAFER grant
• SAFER is mostly dedicated to rehiring firefighters that have been laid off
and preventing planned layoffs of current full -time firefighters.
• Our request for hiring new full -time firefighters was one of the highest
ranked requests in this category. This is based on population served, size
of coverage area, call volume, ability to meet minimum NFPA national
standards and current staffing levels.
History of request:
• The Eagan Fire Department has long maintained one of the largest paid -on -call or
volunteer fire departments in the State of Minnesota. As we celebrate our 50th
year of service we are facing a staffing challenge that is similar to many volunteer
departments in the nation. We are losing volunteer firefighters at a concerning
rate.
• For the past five years (2009 -2013) Eagan has had an average of 14
firefighters leave the department each year.
• From 2003 -2013 we had 137 firefighters resign from our department. This
is over 100% of our average staffing of 100 volunteer firefighters.
• Over the past 5 years (2009 -2013) the city has hired 54 volunteer
firefighters and had 70 volunteers leave the department.
• The Fire Departments greatest staffing challenge for volunteer firefighters is
weekday coverage when our call volume peaks and our staffing are at its lowest.
• Approximately 56% of our calls occur during day hours, yet only 20% of
our volunteers are available as day responders.
• The proposed SAFER grant firefighters would cover 8 hours of each
weekday to help cover the most critical hours.
• The fire department has a very active recruitment committee that has been very
creative in finding applicants for our annual recruitment class. Typically there are
only a handful of volunteer applicants that are available for weekday coverage.
o This has created a challenge to staff weekday response.
• Eagan is authorized a staffing of 150 paid -on -call firefighters who are assigned to
one of five fire stations. However, as is the case in many cities across the Nation,
the ability to recruit and retain these qualified firefighters gets more challenging
each year. As families struggle to make ends meet and to support personal
activities many paid -on -call firefighters no longer have the ability to devote the
time needed to be successful and safe in the fire service.
• The highest staffing level for Eagan Fire ever was 120 in 2008, which lasted only
a few months. The fire department usually has an average of approximatley100
volunteer firefighters with the majority being available weeknights and weekends.
o The fire department currently has a total of 20 paid -on -call da firefighters
on paper. Out of the 20, several are unemployed firefighters hoping to find
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daytime employment which would change their availability with our fire
department as day responders. An additional three day responders are
within a year of planning to leave our department. And of the twenty day
firefighters, the vast majority work afternoon shifts at their regular jobs
and are not available for Eagan calls after 1pm.
o As of the end of December 2013, the fire department is at the lowest level
staffing we have seen in over 20 years. We are at 90 firefighters plus 3
Battalion Chiefs.
• Due to this weekday coverage concern, In 2011 Eagan started a pilot Duty Crew
program that allows up to 3 of our paid -on -call firefighters to sign up for Duty
Crew shifts on weekdays from 8am -noon or noon -4pm for a hourly rate of
$11 /hour.
o Due to staffing issues (only have a pool of 20 available paid -on -call
firefighters to staff from) we often operate with less than three firefighters
and the afternoon shift varies from 1 -2 duty crew members. This number
is not enough for even a defensive fire attack response.
• There are several NFPA standards that all fire departments should follow:
o NFPA 1720 states that we should have 15 firefighters on scene within 9
minutes on fire page.
• During weekdays, Eagan simply cannot meet this standard.
• Our first fire engine on scene to a structure fire is averaging
9minutes and thirty seconds and often we are arriving with
minimal crew size.
o Fire departments should have a minimum of four firefighters on scene
before initial interior firefighting operations are initiated.
■ By adding these five full -time positions, it will help Eagan
meet these standards for weekday coverage.
Eagan also has 4.5 full -time fire administrative staff that when available can
respond to significant calls.
o The admin staff includes Fire Chief, (2) Deputy Chief's, Fire Inspector
and a part-time Fire Prevention Specialist. All are certified firefighters but
have their full -time responsibilities to take care of in addition to
responding to all fire /rescue calls.
Weekdays we are averaging 4 -5 firefighters per call which includes our admin
staff responding, compared to night /weekend calls we average 11 paid -on -call
firefighters per call.
With our firefighter turnover, many of our day available firefighters are very
inexperienced and we have very few day available officers to provide the
necessary leadership during emergency calls. Without the addition of a daytime
Captain position we cannot ensure that we have a qualified and confident
Company Officer available that is aware of the identity, location and activity of
each member of an assigned fire company per NFPA Standards.
Impact:
With the successful approval of this grant the fire department would hire one
Captain and four firefighters to work week days.
o This would allow us to have an experienced fire company officer on -shift
along with four experienced firefighters that would help us ensure to meet
the NFPA minimum staffing guidelines of 2 firefighters in a structure,
with 2 firefighters out of the structure and arrival within the NFPA
standards.
This full -time staff would still be augmented by the 20 existing paid -on -call day
firefighters, a limited volunteer Duty Crew as available and our auto /mutual aid
firefighters when available (currently many of our neighboring volunteer
departments experience the same weekday staffing shortage as we do).
When not responding to emergency rescue and fire calls, the new full -time
firefighter day positions would also:
1. Would be trained Fire Inspectors to help assist our one Fire Inspector with
additional inspections of facilities in our community which will help our
future ISO rating and help reduce risk in our community. (50% of their
time)
2. Would assist with fire prevention and community outreach which mostly
occurs weekdays (30 % of their time)
3. Respond to additional medical calls that we currently cannot respond to
due to lack of staffing. (10% of their time dedicated to call response)
4. Assist with maintenance and preparation of emergency equipment,
stations and apparatus. ( 10% of their time)
■ Currently many of the above duties are completed by full -time
fire management staff. Having the full -time firefighters
perform these functions will free up management to manage.
The addition of five full -time staff dedicated to firefighting will also have a
positive impact on our future ISO insurance rating. ISO has completely
redesigned their community review format for fire departments. An emphasis is
now heavily placed on fire inspections, fire prevention and fire public education.
Below is a summary of how these positions will positively impact our future ISO
review:
• Staffing: ISO counts volunteer firefighters on a 3tol ratio. In other words
every 3 volunteer firefighters count as one full -time firefighter.
■ So five full -time staff would equal 15 volunteers
• ISO now recognizes the importance of risk reduction through a formal fire
inspection program of existing buildings. Eagan currently only has one
fire inspector. Cities of Eagan's size typically operate with 3 -5 fire
inspectors.
■ Having the five full -time staff perform fire inspections of
existing facilities will improve our ISO review, reduce risk to
our community and eliminate future request to add full -time
fire inspectors.
M
o ISO also now gives points for an active fire prevention program. Eagan
has a .5 position that is dedicated to organizing and coordinating our fire
prevention program. To be successful this program needs staff to perform
the functions. This includes formal programs with our senior population,
safety training for youth and adult fire education awareness. Many of these
programs are requested weekdays.
• The full -time firefighters can assist the Fire Prevention
Specialist with our formal fire prevention programs.
• These programs fit well with the Cities proposed visioning of
Connecting and Engaging the Community.
• The addition of five full -time firefighters would help provide a stable, well trained
force to help ensure an efficient and effective response.
• Without this grant and the addition of these positions, it makes it difficult to
effectively and efficiently protect our community during weekday incidents.
Cost Avoidance:
If the SAFER Grant is approved there are several areas of the fire department is
suggesting to help off -set future costs associated with these positions:
They include:
1. Reducing the paid -on -call duty crew from (4) firefighters per week day to
(2) firefighters eight hours per weekday.
• Annual savings: $68,640
2. Reduce the number of volunteer firefighter positions.
• Currently Eagan is authorized 150 volunteer firefighter positions
and has been averaging approximately 100 volunteers.
• We would reduce the cap to 100 volunteers and probably would be
operating with between 80 -90 firefighters.
• Each firefighter with pension, fire /training pay, equipment
and annual testing equals approximately $10,000 annually.
• Less volunteer positions will equal smaller annual recruit classes.
This would result in budget reductions in:
• Physical testing for new recruits
• Psychological exams for new recruits
• Equipment and training for new recruits
Change type of apparatus needed and replaced.
• With these position the fire department would eliminate the
replacement of the REHAB truck planned for a 2013 CIP project
and instead Refurbish the truck for new use for the next 10 years.
• Savings in Fire Apparatus fund of $350,000
• We would also change the replacement of a large fire engine with a
mini -quick response truck better suited for smaller fire crew
response and better perceived by the public due to size of truck.
• Savings in Fire Apparatus fund of $350,000
5
4. Eliminate the need for potential future full -time fire inspectors.
• Without these positions two additional fire inspectors may have
been needed to help meet ISO and NFPA standards of performing
fire inspections of our existing apartments, restaurants, daycares,
foster homes, preschools, restaurants /bars, retail and
commercial /industrial buildings.
• Each position would cost $81,834 annually for salary and benefits.
Proiected Year Three Costs 2016:
4 FF + 1 Capt - salary /benefits
$450,000
Phis: annual training, turnout gear, etc
15,000
Less: duty crew reduction
(70,000)
Less: pension funding for 10 volunteer FF
(75,000)
Less: fire apparatus fund reduction
3( 0,000)
Estimated annual obligation
beginning 2016
$ 290,000
Summary:
The proposed limited full -time staffing along with the proposed fire station consolidation
plan, continuing to recruit /retain volunteers, and expanding the resident dorm program
lays the foundation for the fire department's vision to provide adequate staffing for the
next ten years.
The SAFER grant would provide a two year bridge to help build the foundation for this
10 year vision.
ATTACHMENTS: None
Cel