AgdaPkt 2018-07-23 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

8.A. - Page 16 FIRE ATTACHMENT B In order to avoid reductions to essential public safety services, the Fire Department recommends reducing three vacant Firefighter positions and new approaches to providing emergency preparedness services. The Recommended Budget reduces costs by $820,000. Currently, the Fire Department budget includes one Firefighter over minimum daily staffing on each of the three shifts. Funding for these three full time employees (FTE) was provided by San Carlos through the contract for Full Fire and Emergency Services. The purpose of having one FTE on each shift is to provide "Relief Staffing" for vacancies that occur on a daily basis, reducing the amount of overtime required to maintain minimum daily staffing levels, however, the positions have been vacant for several years. This means that the Department operates at a "Constant Staffing" level. Constant staffing occurs when there are only enough FTE to fill the minimum daily staffing requirements. Any daily vacancy that occurs requires overtime. The recently renewed and adopted five-year San Carlos contract takes effect on July 1, 2018 and eliminates these three positions. This allows the Fire Department to provide "Ladder Truck Services" to San Carlos for $400,000 in the first year with yearly increases scheduled through the life of the contract. As the three positions have been vacant for some time, eliminating the positions from the budget does not create a new impact on employees or the community. The Fire Department is also recommending a shared service approach to emergency preparedness to increase efficiency and reduce costs over time. The City's Emergency Preparedness Outreach Coordinator is responsible for multiple emergency preparedness activities, including supporting the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program and developing emergency operations plans for City staff, hazard mitigation plans, and coordinating City staff emergency training. The Recommended Budget proposes shifting management of the CERT program to a new position in the County's Office of Emergency Service. This approach would provide dedicated CERT program leadership for Redwood City and other communities in the County. The County currently provides occasional CERT training using the same curriculum as Redwood City; however, the County has expressed interest in dedicating staffing to strengthen the CERT program Countywide. The new position would focus solely on the CERT program, not the other job duties currently provided by the Emergency Preparedness Outreach Coordinator. City and County staff are finalizing the details of this approach with the intention of the new County position being created in the fall. The Recommended Budget would eliminate the EPOC position effective January 1. Staff has not established the exact cost but the proposal would be for Redwood City to pay 50% of the cost of this position. As CERT programs typically use the same curriculum from community to community, this approach creates opportunities for other agencies to join the partnership in the future, further reducing Redwood City's portion of the costs. The remaining duties of the current EPOC position, including emergency preparedness activities for City operations and staff, would be assigned to current City staff, augmented by periodic consultant help when needed.