FIREFIGHTER STAFFING, FUNDING...SAFETY AND SURVIVAL

Index

Latest Current Report
What's Been Happening
Do - Do Not
Thoughts In Print
Definitions
Brownout Casualties
They're Watching
I Can't Believe Someone Really Said That
Cumulative Report
What We Are Doing

 

 

January 2012 Report

Click Here to Download Report

 

 

Since we have started this Staffing page, we have seen:

 

Round 1 (FY2008/2009) – Concessions to avoid cuts,

 

Round 2 (FY2009/2010) – Concessions and Brownouts,

 

Round 3 (FY2010/2011) – Nothing left to concede, more brownouts, and services cuts

 

Round 4 (FY2011/2012) - Nothing left to concede, more brownouts, more services cuts, consolidations and mergers

 

Round 5 (FY2012/2013) - Nothing left to concede, more brownouts, more services cuts, consolidations, mergers, and regionalization

 

 

What’s Next? – Stay tuned and keep an eye on Canada

 

 

Please take a look at the information for your area or department and take a moment to bring us up to date for the next Report.  Staffing@firefighterclosecalls.com

 

Multi year summary report coming shortly.

 

Note the article from the January 2011 issue of “GOVERNING” by Jonathan Walters and read what policy makers are thinking and saying!

 

Do rotating “Brownouts” serve the public’s safety and “share” the risk?  Read what’s happened in San Diego.

 

“Despite the cuts, the fire district says service won't be affected,”  Look at what tax payers, politicians, and the media are saying.

 

Also, check out the latest “Amazing Quotes” – The things public policy makers are saying to people.

 

 

 

 

The Financial Crisis of 2008-201?

 

"STAFFING & RESOURCES: DOING AN ALREADY DIFFICULT JOB WITHOUT THEM?"

 

 

Cuts in the Fire Service

 

        

 

 

 

Reductions in Resources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neglect

 

 

What’s Been Happening?

 

Since the January Report, there was a period of time, as expected, when the budget cutting of fire departments almost paused from its peak intensity in the last months of 2009, until the next approaching wave this coming July 1^st.  Even TSL reader email contributions all but stopped.  (Do you recall sending any updates, lately?)  Taking advantage of the lull between the storms, we embarked on two projects.

 

1 – From the many comments that the budgetary crisis did not begin with the recent economic crash, but in fact, has been draining some fire departments since 2000, we researched the American Fire Services archives and brought out the cuts, closures, and staff reductions for the last ten years.  Noted also is the Staffing page has reported only on the departments for which you submitted information.  Again, we scoured the archives to include those departments that we had not heard about.  The bad news? – It was a huge task.  The good news? – We finished three months early.  The results? – Considerably more career fire departments are in trouble than initially reported.

 

2 – Analyze and summarize what has happened due to budget cuts in the past year.  It is evident that fire departments are being targeted nationwide.  The primary objectives are contracts, salaries, and benefit packages.  The secondary losses, coming directly from reduced staffing, are losses of stations and companies.  Small and mid-size city fire departments are being hit the hardest.  Massachusetts and Michigan lead the losses.  A more detailed comparison is being researched.  In reviewing hundreds of fire department reduction articles, it is clear that municipal officials, both elected and appointed, are resolved and determined to redefine public funded fire suppression.  For the most part, resistance by the fire service community has been ineffective.  We offer a few of the most common Do’s and Don’ts.

 

DO

 

Document your services to the community.

Document your successful operations and programs.

Document your prevention and education activities.

Document your community presence at every opportunity.

Document the assets, the jobs, and the tax base, that you are preserving.

Talk about company availability.

Treat the public with professionalism, kindness, and courtesy.

When they need you, they are not usually having a good day.  Remember, you may have been to dozens of fires, hundreds of wrecks, and thousands of sick calls, but must people are experiencing their first and only one, and it is tragic for them.

Remember that your mostly secure job has been funded by the taxes of others who may have recently lost their own jobs.

 

DO NOT

 

Overemphasize response time.

They are not listening.  Most people long to live and vacation in settings where response do not matter as much.

Talk about reaching medical calls in three minutes every time.

They know about having to wait for hours in hospital emergency rooms, doctors offices, and clinics.

Brownout stations or companies.

If you don’t need them 24/7/365 – you don’t need them.

Implement rotational brownouts.

Don’t tell them that a company isn’t needed, but that by rotating closures; you can’t prioritize which ones you don’t need.  You are actually telling them that you don’t need any from the rotation schedule.  Russian roulette has 5 blanks and one bullet – you see the bullet, they see the blanks.

Abuse sick time.

The media is watching.

Do anything that you would not do in front of your parents.

Acts of stupidity, recklessness, and criminal arrests make great headlines.

Inflate your run statistics.

Non duty responses will be scrutinized.

Play the “Buildings will burn and people will die” game.

All fires left alone will go out by themselves eventually and the sick will either get better or worse.  You know it – they know it.  Talk about what you do for them – not what will happen to them.

 

This report’s updates are in three sections.  New and updated information is listed first.  Consequences of fire department budget cuts are listed next and cumulative information is listed last.  It is there so that you can use it for ideas when you are defending your department against cuts.  Please take a moment to review and update the fire departments that you know about and send us the information.  If you are forwarding a print article, please send the article rather than just the link.  Staffing@firefighterclosecalls.com  We are in this together.

 

 

 

Making Smart Choices in Bad Economies

by Ed Mund

 

Times are tough. What’s a public system to do?

 

As public budgets continue to shrink, how can EMS leaders make smart but tough choices that keep their doors open and let them keep serving the public? A report by well-known consultants Fitch & Associates, Making Smart Choices About Fire and Emergency Medical Services in a Difficult Economy, looks at problems being faced by emergency services managers and presents a variety of solutions that are working for some.

 

In many communities, public safety funding makes up as much as two-thirds of the municipal budget. In today’s economy, where real estate values have dropped significantly, budgets that rely on property taxes have been impacted dramatically. When community leaders slash budgets in response, emergency managers are left to determine how to save money without costing lives.

 

According to the authors of the report—Fitch’s Joseph J. “Jay” Fitch, PhD, and Michael Ragone and the RedFlash Group’s Keith Griffiths, who produced it for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)—this financial squeeze will not end any time soon. They cite U.S. Fire Administration officials who say that even once the economy rebounds, it will take 1–3 years for municipalities to see increased revenues. Fire-rescue agencies can expect a 3–5-year wait before seeing their budgets increase.

 

A public agency’s sheer size and exposure in the public eye make it an easy target for cuts. One easy and often-used technique is across-the-board cuts that affect every municipal department. The intent is to “share the pain” by treating everyone the same. But not every unit of government has the same mandates and measures to define success. This means across-the-board cuts are liable to have unintended consequences because the budget “fix” has not been thoroughly thought through. A more accurate process is to have serious policy discussions that take into account what the community really values, then prepare budgets accordingly.

 

Personnel costs are often a high percentage of agencies’ budgets, as well as municipalities’ overall expenses. An example in the report cites that public pensions represent 20% of Los Angeles’ budget costs. One way cities are lowering these costs is by moving from defined benefit plans to more 401(k)-style defined contributions plans. Another money-saving technique is a tiered system where new hires earn fewer benefits initially, but their benefits increase with tenure.

 

Attempts to maximize payroll dollars include the ongoing debate over whether it is cheaper to pay overtime and work existing employees more hours, or hire additional responders to save overtime costs. According to the report, the general rule says that if it costs more than 50% of pay to hire and provide benefits to new employees, then it is cheaper to pay overtime to current staff. However, strongly held beliefs and traditions also come into play when trying to decide how to proceed, which makes the overtime-vs.-new-hire decision process unique to each agency considering it.

 

Some agencies explore using alternative service delivery methods to achieve more (or at least maintain) with less money. But Fitch cautions EMS managers to keep the medicine in mind when looking into solutions that affect response capabilities. “Decisions on how to respond need to be based on sound medical evidence,” Fitch says. He notes that response time targets need to reflect how they affect outcomes, not necessarily just some arbitrary performance standard.

 

The report’s authors cite two different concepts that are finding success. In suburban Portland, OR, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue runs ALS-equipped and -staffed engines and uses a private third party for transports. The department deploys peak-demand engine companies or rescue response vehicles to answer calls and maintain response times during busy periods.

 

The San Jose, CA, Fire Department has devised a resource management strategy called dynamic deployment to minimize the impacts on service of shutting down fire companies. They faced some upfront costs for software, communications personnel and ongoing data gathering and analysis, but officials expect to reduce service-level impacts to the most critical calls.

 

Several other communities are using different means of triaging calls at their dispatch centers and offering callers alternatives such as nurse-assist lines or appointments with and transportation to clinics. Costs are lowered, risk is reduced from fewer emergency runs, and resources remain in service for true emergencies.

 

The report offers good advice on patient transports for EMS managers trying to decide if ending transports by contracting with third parties would be better. Fitch says this process can be complicated because most requests for proposals only ask applicants what they can do. This makes it hard to evaluate competitors. According to Fitch, a more objective procurement process will clarify the agency’s service expectations and ask applicants how they can meet them. RFPs written in this fashion will result in responses that can be objectively compared based on how well applicants meet the designated standards.

 

Fitch says the bottom line to any decisions that affect response-to-service requests is unique to every agency. “Whatever is decided has to work for that agency based on its mission, staffing, attitudes and local needs,” he says.

 

 

An ISO Rating Process Primer

Grand Rapids Press

 

“Insurers alone decide on what rates they will charge and what insurance markets to do business in,” said ISO spokeswoman Jessica Riccardi in an e-mail. “As such, ISO cannot speculate on how a fire classification change will affect local property insurance premiums.”

 

If a fire breaks out in your home or apartment, how soon will firefighters arrive? How quickly can they put out the blaze?

 

The answer depends on where you live, the time of the day and if there’s a fire hydrant nearby.

 

Most homeowners don’t think about it much. But the insurance companies have a pretty good idea.

 

How they calculate the risks depend on the insurance company and their assessment of your community’s fire protection.

 

Many insurers rely on the Insurance Service Office (ISO) “Fire Suppression Rating Schedule” that rates protection in each community.

 

It’s produced by ISO, a private company that sells the information to the insurance industry.

 

Based on a 1-10 scale, ratings are assigned to each community on the basis of three community factors. More about that later.

 

The city of Grand Rapids carries West Michigan’s highest and best ISO rating at 3, thanks to its full-time staffing in all 11 stations scattered strategically throughout the city.

 

Other cities with full-time departments such as Holland and Kentwood carry a 4 rating. Communities with a blend of full-time and “paid-on-call” firefighters typically are given ratings from 5 to 7.

 

Areas with no access to fire hydrants and reliance on all “paid-on-call” staff tend to be assigned a 9.

 

The panhandle region of Wyoming has been assigned a 10 ever since the city closed the fire station serving that area in 2004.

 

Although the city has arranged for “automatic aid” to the panhandle from Grandville fire department, the 10 rating still reflects the neighborhood’s distance from the nearest Wyoming fire station.

 

ISO bases its ratings on periodic visits to fire departments, where evaluators assess manpower, level of training, equipment, availability of water and dispatching capabilities.

 

Fifty percent of the rating is based on the department itself, 40 percent is based on the availability of water and 10 percent is based on a community’s dispatching service, according to ISO.

 

There are no statewide standards for the level of fire protection in a community, State Fire Marshal Ronald Farr said.

 

“It’s a local decision,” said Farr, a former Kalamazoo Township fire chief who took the job two years ago. “They have to do a risk assessment for their community and determine the type of protection they want to provide.”

 

For some sparsely populated communities, the high cost of protection out-weighs the risk.

 

Advocates of improved protection argue that a lower rating means lower homeowner’s insurance premiums that offset the higher tax rates that property owners pay to achieve the higher ratings.

 

ISO officials avoid the argument and declined to comment for this article. “Insurers alone decide on what rates they will charge and what insurance markets to do business in,” said ISO spokeswoman Jessica Riccardi in an e-mail. “As such, ISO cannot speculate on how a fire classification change will affect local property insurance premiums.”

 

But on its website, ISO argues the classifications do make a difference.

 

“On average, per $1,000 of insured property, communities in the worst classification had homeowner fire losses more than twice as high as communities in the best classification,” the website said.

 

“On average, across the country, the cost of fire losses for homeowners policies in communities graded Class 9 is 65 percent higher than in communities graded Class 5.”

 

The difference is greater when commercial property is considered, according to the website. Communities in the worst category had fire losses more than three times as high as communities in the best categories.

 

Some large insurance companies, such as State Farm and Auto-Owners, say they base premiums on their own calculations.

 

“We use our own database of claims experience as a substitute for ISO” said State Farm spokeswoman Angie Rinock. “Because we’re the largest homeowners insurance company in the nation, we have big enough database to be able to do that.”

 

Andy Flanagan, a spokesman for Auto-Owners, downplayed ISO in his company’s rate-setting policies.

 

“The exposure to loss from other insured perils may also change (a premium), both up and down, based on a company’s loss experience,” Flanagan said in an e-mail.

 

A survey of homeowner insurance rates by the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation also raised questions about the role ISO ratings play in setting insurance premiums.

 

For example, the survey indicated many insurers charged identical rates for homes in Clare, rated a 7, as 3-rated Grand Rapids.

 

On the other hand, Flint and Lansing, both rated 3, saw several insurers charge higher rates than Grand Rapids.

 

Nonetheless, fire departments and community leaders pay attention to their ISO ratings.

 

Grandville Mayor James Buck recently urged citizens to call their insurance agents after ISO upgraded the city’s classification from a 5 to a 4.

 

Fire Chief Mike May said Grandville earned the new rating, effective July 1, because of improved dispatch and communication, training documentation, automatic aid agreements with Wyoming and a strong water supply.

 

“Always ask about discounts,” said Lori Conarton, communications director for the Insurance Institute of Michigan.

 

Many insurers offer discounts for nonsmokers, newer homes, homes with sprinkler systems and hard-wired smoke detectors, Conarton said. Rates also can vary based on the amount and type of coverage and the level of deductibles.

 

“It’s very competitive here in Michigan,” Conarton said. “We have hundreds of companies that operate here and each one operates a little differently, based on their own loss experiences.”

 

 

Firefighters Feel the Squeeze of Shrinking Budgets

 

In small and large cities alike, firefighters have gone from heroes to budget bait.

 

BY: Jonathan Walters | January 2011 Governing

 

As a matter of political gospel -- and survival -- firefighters are sacrosanct. No matter the depths of a municipality’s budget crisis, neither the firefighters’ ranks, pay nor benefits are touchable. There are no reductions in force for firefighters. And yet, in cities all across the country, that’s exactly what has been happening. The men and women in red are becoming as vulnerable to budget cuts as other municipal employees.

 

The new landscape has clearly been shaped by the brutal fiscal conditions in localities. In an era of such severe economic uncertainty, high-level municipal officials -- elected and otherwise -- have not been shy about portraying firefighters as a group that has vacuumed up more than its fair share of municipal resources -- whether it’s for salaries, equipment and firehouses, or for some of the most generous retirement packages offered by local governments today.

 

But other factors have contributed to the new view, and one is a question of efficacy. There’s a growing discussion about whether -- in a world with fewer fires and more emergency medical-related incidents and automobile accidents -- firefighters are deploying resources to maximum effect.

 

The Cost-Efficiency of Firefighters

 

Right now, the cost of paying a firefighter is foremost on city officials’ minds. Take San Jose, Calif. Over the past decade, the cost of firefighter wages and benefits in the big California city has increased 100 percent, while city revenues have only risen by 20 percent, according to Michelle McGurk, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office. The average firefighter, she says, now costs the city more than $180,000 per year. Moreover, the highest-paid employees in San Jose aren’t high-level city managers -- or even the city manager -- but upper-level members of the city fire service. Firefighters with 30 years of service can retire as early as age 50, with 90 percent of their salary.

 

That was just the beginning of the tough line that the San Jose mayor’s office took when it handed out pink slips to 49 firefighters last fall, a decision that the city laid directly at the feet of the San Jose firefighter’s union, Local 230. “Let me be very clear,” McGurk says, “we didn’t have to lay off firefighters. It was the decision of Local 230. They could have come through with concessions.”

 

With an open contract -- the firefighter union’s collective bargaining agreement expired in June 2009 -- the city asked Local 230, along with all other city unions with open contracts, to give back roughly 10 percent in wage and benefit concessions in a deal that would have saved the 49 firefighter positions. But Local 230 summarily rejected the idea, arguing that the city wasn’t in as bad fiscal shape as it claimed and that firefighters were being asked to bear more than their fair share of cuts.

 

Painting firefighters as something of a pampered class -- well paid with retirement packages that would be the envy of anyone in either the private or public sectors -- would have been unheard of just a few years ago. Today, it’s a widespread practice. Having spent a decade on a post-9/11 pedestal, the profession has been on the receiving end of more stringent scrutiny. Government officials and the public they represent appear to be taking a much harder look at exactly what they are buying when asked to spend bigger and bigger bucks on firefighters, firefighting equipment and emergency response.

 

In cities where firefighter layoffs haven’t occurred, it has frequently been due to concessions wrung from unions -- despite unions’ reputation as tough negotiators. But it’s not that the unions have caved in easily to city demands. In Jacksonville, Fla., for instance, the firefighters’ union at first rejected a contract calling for a two-year, 2 percent pay cut, and that for the first time ever required single firefighters with no dependents to contribute to their health insurance. In the face of rejection, the city promptly followed through on its threat to lay off 15 firefighters, a messy process that involved bumping another two dozen active firefighters to lower-level jobs.

 

The move was the culmination of several years of tough budgets for Jacksonville, says Misty Skipper, a city spokeswoman. In a city looking at escalating employee costs of 20 percent in the next five years, it means that every employee in government must sacrifice. It’s part of a new reality. “In the past, our public safety sectors -- police and fire -- have essentially been held harmless,” Skipper says. “This year we knew the gap couldn’t be addressed just through nonpublic safety areas.”

 

In the face of layoffs, the Jacksonville firefighters’ union capitulated. Besides the 2 percent pay cut, single firefighters without dependents will now contribute 5 percent to their health-care coverage. While the 15 laid-off firefighters were reinstated with the recent ratification of the firefighters’ contract, the city will still eliminate 15 fire and rescue positions through attrition.

 

“Obviously, a pay cut is never good, especially when you’re already on the low end of the pay scale,” says Randy Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters. (Starting pay for fire and rescue personnel in Jacksonville is just more than $34,000, with additional pay available for medical training, firefighting-related educational advancement and longevity.) “But my members understood the economic times and responded.”

 

What irritates Wyse about the firefighter cuts -- over and beyond the sacrifice his members are making -- is that in his view, the city is spending millions to keep its professional football team, the Jaguars, happy, and to develop local amenities like a $600,000 riverwalk. Given that, Wyse thinks the city has the cash for luxuries while it squeezes public safety. He is inclined to label the city’s budget crisis “contrived.”

 

Even if city resources may be somewhat constrained, he says, “there’s no recession in demand for our services.” The number of fire and emergency medical services (EMS) calls is increasing every year. Firefighters are, he says, “becoming the first line in someone’s health care.”

 

Fire Departments Around the Country Feel Budget Restrictions

 

If Jacksonville -- a consolidated city/county government experiencing less budget pain than most large municipalities -- is forcing cuts to fire and rescue, it’s easy to predict what’s going on in the rest of the country. The litany of cuts, compromises, give backs and service reductions is astonishing.

 

In the wake of losing 23 firefighter positions in the summer of 2010 -- an almost 25 percent reduction in manpower -- Lowell, Mass., is now counting heavily on mutual aid from surrounding towns for fire suppression services. Firefighters in Muskegon, Mich., ratified a three-year contract that allows the use of more part-time firefighters. In Baltimore, firefighters were given the option of taking five to eight furlough days or risk losing 100 positions. In Elgin, Ill., a Chicago suburb, firefighters agreed to a “no raise, no layoff” contract for 2011 that also reduced its minimum staffing level from 36 to 34, saving the city a reported $750,000 a year.

 

In Newark, N.J., firefighters joined in a court challenge at the end of last year to contest a city budget that called for laying off hundreds of municipal employees, including two dozen firefighters. San Diego instituted a “rolling brownout” system, whereby certain firehouses are temporarily closed -- an initiative that takes more than one-tenth of the city’s fire and rescue complement off the street each day, saving the city nearly $12 million per year. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently unveiled a plan to significantly reduce municipal manpower -- a plan that includes closing some fire stations at night. He is also embracing a proposal by the New York Fire Department to charge motorists up to $490 to respond to accidents and car fires.

 

“It’s one of the most challenging times I’ve ever seen,” says Tom Wieczorek, former city manager for Ionia, Mich., and now director of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Center for Public Safety Management. In the past, police and fire support staff might have gotten cut, Wieczorek says, but usually front-line police and fire were kept whole. “We’re now seeing communities that have been cutting budgets for the past eight years,” he says, “but you can only cut parks and recreation so much.” Given that 40 to 80 percent of municipal budgets go to public safety, it was inevitable that cuts would eventually hit uniformed services.

 

One of the big questions right now is whether the fire service is actually learning anything amidst the constant threat of cuts, especially about smarter ways to deploy resources in an era of shrinking budgets and departments. While police departments, especially in larger cities, have embraced a more sophisticated and data-driven approach to the work they do -- allowing them to maintain relatively high performance levels -- there’s been less willingness on the fire service’s part to embrace data as a way to revamp how fire suppression, EMS and other calls are handled.

 

For the most part, firefighting is still based on geographically distributed, fixed stations staffed by a set number of personnel who stand by and wait to be dispatched when needed. For the fire service to continue to perform in these leaner times, Wieczorek says, it is now going to have to actively embrace change -- and that’s not something that comes easily to the fire service. “The old saying in the fire service,” Wieczorek says, “is ‘100 years of tradition unimpeded by progress.’”

 

One of the most significant and widely recognized changes in the fire and rescue service is that on average, most calls to fire departments now are for medical emergencies and not fires -- running about 80 percent EMS to 20 percent fire in most jurisdictions where the fire service handles both. At the same time, most calls are either false alarms or not particularly serious. Yet too few fire departments have adapted very well to these realities. For example, San Jose still sends an attack pumper with a full complement of four firefighters to all emergency medical calls.

 

Tying up four firefighters and a rig for what usually winds up being minor medical emergencies doesn’t make any sense, says Bruce Hoover, chief of the Fargo Fire Department in North Dakota. Fargo’s protocols used to mirror San Jose’s exactly. But now Fargo fire trucks only roll if “there’s bleeding, breathing complications or trauma,” Hoover says. “We now only respond for true medical emergencies, and that’s cut our run count back by 1,000 a year, and has kept apparatus and manpower in place for real emergencies.”

 

But asking tough questions about manpower and deployment is difficult for many municipal officials who don’t feel confident tangling with the community’s best and bravest. A way to do that, however, without going toe-to-toe with the fire service, Wieczorek says, is simply to ask departments for solid, up-to-date data on demand, along with what measurable results a city is getting for its fire service dollars.

 

What most municipalities will find when they start to ask good questions about budgets, deployment and service demands is that there aren’t many answers to those questions. “We are routinely called into communities to look at manpower and deployment,” Wieczorek says. “We find across the board in small and large jurisdictions that data is either nonexistent or totally wrong.”

 

What drives firefighting in the U.S., for the most part, is long-standing practice, not good, current information on what’s actually happening on the ground, including number of calls, response times, seriousness of the incident, geographical distribution and time of day, all measured in relation to the geometry of fire service manpower, equipment and deployment.

 

For example, in one jurisdiction that asked the ICMA to come in and do a thorough analysis of demand, resources and deployment, the ICMA team looked at the busiest five minutes the fire department had in a year. What did the team find? Even at its busiest moment of the year, the city still had seven idle units standing by ready to respond, with 28 available firefighters. Those are just the sorts of analyses -- in combination with the current budget crisis -- that have emboldened policymakers and budget writers to start asking tougher questions about what fire departments really need and how they do business -- and asking them to either hold the line on budgets or cut back.

 

Looking at both budgets and at more creative and data-driven ways to handle staffing and deployment are key. “Don’t get caught up in the hysteria trap of believing that if you pursue things like brownouts and budget cuts that children are going to die and senior citizens will burn up,” Wieczorek says. “That might happen, but only if we keep doing business in the same old ways.”

 

 

Public Safety By Appointment

 

Late 2008, as the economic fantasy bubble burst, it became apparent that government revenues and the municipal budgeting process would be poorly suited for surviving the impending recession. Municipalities would be cutting services. Firefighter Close Calls decided to document this impact on municipal fire protection as it became evident that the magnitude of the cuts would rival the cuts of earlier generations and foreshadow a revolutionary change in public perception of how the fire service does business.

 

In the ensuing months, the municipal fire service has seen sizable decreases that can be generally categorized into three distinct areas. Changes have been made in compensation and benefit packages, reductions in staffing have been implemented, and stations and fire fighting units have been discontinued.

 

Changes in compensation packages have affected not only the fire service but all public sector employees and average working tax payers as well. Significantly, a large percentage of the fire service has secured their compensation and benefits by contractual agreements. In many cases, municipalities did not foresee the reduction of income and were trapped by long term contracts. Municipalities have frequently chosen to involve union labor to offer changes in benefits by forgoing or deferring general wage increases, expanding health insurance co-payments, rescinding promotional opportunities and eliminating overtime. Often these changes have been accepted as bitter-sweet – bitter as concessions of hard won benefits, and sweet for the saving of younger members livelihoods.

 

Deeper cuts took the form of employee layoffs.  Staffing reductions have appeared in several ways. Municipalities froze hiring and overtime, effectively limiting shift staffing to the number of employees that showed up to work each shift. Public perceptions of sick leave abuse lead to official and media audits of work attendance. Employee layoffs have resulted in unit staffing reductions.  Larger fire departments have managed to compensate by altering dispatch policies to send more units. Smaller departments that do not have broader resources or automatic aid agreements are simply deploying fewer staff. “Do more with less” and “Do the best you can with what you have” attitudes have capitalized on the fire service’s traditional “Can Do” culture.

 

The third method of cutting services has been to close units and stations. A common approach has been “brownouts.”  These are characterized as temporary eliminations of services to specific neighborhoods or areas, while simultaneously leaving others intact. Some municipalities, in a perception of fairness, have eliminated and restored services from one neighborhood to another, on a rotational basis. Permanent reductions of services have occurred where units and stations have been closed outright.  Yet, the job is still getting done.

 

Which fire departments are getting cut most severely and which ones are remaining intact?  Significantly, and perhaps obviously, these issues are affecting the career fire service. Very little in the way of reductions and cuts have been reported from the volunteer fire service. It is the cost of compensation that is driving reductions. In the time immediately following the September 11 murders, the fire service enjoyed a period of approval, adulation and support. The perception of heroes among working people was strong. As the economic recession has swelled the unemployment rate above 10%, public perception has altered.  The apparent security and benefits of fire service positions are no longer understood. The frequently used justification that “people will die”, is no longer threatening. Municipal leaders have even justified publishing brownout schedules in the belief that advance publicity will encourage people to be more careful.

 

“Response times will increase.”  This statement no longer impresses the average citizen. While the survivability of a person in cardiac arrest is directly documented to the time that CPR is initiated, the time for a fire to double in size has been reported variously from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. To the individual who calls 911, response time is always from too long to forever, regardless of how long it actually is. Station and unit closures increasing response times are less effective arguments when the public remembers units being closed to increase staffing on others, without protest from the fire service.

 

Police agencies can document crime rates increasing when fewer officers are deployed. Sanitation services can document increased vermin populations when garbage is allowed to accumulate.  School teachers can document declines in student grades when classroom sizes increase, but there is no correlation between the number of fires and how many stations are open. People will march and demonstrate when a fire house closes but seldom will they notice when a fire prevention office is eliminated. The work of the fire service has changed. There are fewer fires even as the population has exploded. Hazardous conditions and medical emergencies have grown, but the fire service still talks about fires. The fire service seldom demonstrates its abilities in front of huge crowds at big fires as often as it shows them to a few people at a time at motor vehicle crashes and medical emergencies.

 

Stand alone; isolated career municipalities have taken the greatest hits. City managers have made reductions based on perceptions of priorities and concepts of fairness to citizens and employees. Accusations of politics, retribution, and malice have been made. Departments lacking adequate staffing to begin with, are most easily cut, as the inadequacy is already present and only becomes more acute. Largely untouched are departments that serve regions or that participate in extensive automatic aid.  Their efficiencies of scale have already been proven.  In Fire & EMS departments, reductions are being made primarily on the fire side. EMS in general is not being cut. Some departments are shifting suppression personnel to EMS duties.

 

Physical resources are essentially unchanged. New stations continue to be constructed and major apparatus are still being purchased. In fact, some municipalities are stimulating their local economies by advancing their capital construction and station renovation projects. As the economy continues towards the bursting of the next bubble, the fire service needs to review the methods by which it expresses the relationship between the value of its services and the preservation of the community’s vital interests. It must extensively document the economic impact of its activities against the necessary expenses to achieve community goals. Citizen consumers must be continually educated of the services and benefits provided by the fire service for their hard earned taxed income.

 

 

 

 

Priorities ???

 

 

 

The Definition

 

Brownout = Rotating shift by shift closures

 

The Principle

 

The IAFF has taken the position that it's best to keep at least four firefighters on each apparatus and, if reductions are absolutely necessary, it's better to idle an apparatus or even temporarily close the station.  02/04/2010 Firehouse.com

 

The Playbook

 

Another I-Team discovers firefighters make overtime: Contract negotiating time when money is very tight and suddenly everyone realizes the fire department is way over its overtime budget. This has happened in jurisdiction after jurisdiction across the country since the economy went south. We have run a bunch of stories that fit the pattern. The script goes like this. Political leaders say the OT is busting their budgets and often someone leaks the details to a newspaper or TV station. The news media runs the story showing how firefighters are all the top money makers in town. Someone claims there is something fishy going on. The IAFF points out if you hire firefighters and fill all the vacant positions you can then spend less on overtime. Then there is usually the call to lower minimum staffing requirements. Some of that is now going on in a town near you…  Thanks to Dave Statter, Statter911.com

 

SAFER Grant

 

"Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response" Grant

 

 

Left Coast to Right Coast ! ! !

 

 

 

 

 

Brownout Casualties

 

BROWNOUT-RELATED INCIDENTS

 

San Diego, CA  Union Tribune  February 7, 2011

 

• The Lincoln Park fire station had its engine sidelined Feb. 24 and a second vehicle was busy helping someone who had trouble breathing. That led a Southcrest engine to respond to a second emergency in the Lincoln Park area, which led a Golden Hill engine to respond to a pregnancy in Southcrest. Then the Southcrest engine, done with its previous emergency, had to respond to a heart-attack in Golden Hill. The engine didn’t get there until 10 minutes after the call, and the patient was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

• Sam Taylor, 83, was killed after a faulty space heater ignited a March 19 fire at his Golden Hill apartment. Normally, a fire engine would have arrived from the Golden Hill station three blocks away, but the engine was out of service that day. Instead, a fire engine in Barrio Logan two miles away showed up three minutes and 29 seconds later.

• Bentley Do, 2, choked on a gum ball and died July 20. City paramedics didn’t arrive at his Mira Mesa home until 9½ minutes after receiving the 911 call. A fire engine at the station a block from Bentley’s home was responding to a trauma call elsewhere that would normally have been handled by a different engine, which was out of service for the day as part of the brownout policy.

 

• An electrical malfunction sparked a Nov. 29 garage fire that eventually spread to a Clairemont home’s kitchen and attic causing $600,000 in damage. Three nearby fire engines were out of service for repairs while a fourth was browned out. The next closest engine in Bay Park didn’t arrive for nearly 10 minutes. A fire department report concluded “an increased loss to this dwelling was the result of the delay.”

 

There’s little debate that the city’s response to fire and medical emergencies has worsened under the brownouts, affecting an untold number of residents, but the numbers weren’t great to begin with.

 

For example, the nationally accepted standard for emergency personnel to arrive on scene within five minutes is 90 percent of the time. San Diego met that goal 55.5 percent of the time the year before the brownouts and fell to 53.6 percent after. That figure was as low as 50 percent in 2006.

 

Seven of the 13 brownout stations are below 50 percent, including a low of 24 percent in Rancho Peñasquitos.

 

The biggest roadblock to improving response times is a lack of resources, a problem well before brownouts. A past study indicated the city would need to add 22 fire stations to meet national standards.

 

A new study on the city’s fire services by Folsom-based Citygate Associates, one of the most respected fire-consulting firms in the country, is expected to be released Feb. 16. Several people who have been briefed on the initial results say the firm will recommend the city end brownouts and build up to 10 new stations.

 

 

Chief Reacts To Report On City Fire Coverage

 

Study Suggests Smaller Fire Crews To Help Shorten Response Times

 

San Diego, CA  Union Tribune February 16, 2011

 

SAN DIEGO -- Using two-man firefighter crews to shorten response times and cover more ground gained support among some San Diego city officials Wednesday.

 

Ten of the 19 neighborhoods are big enough to warrant their own fire station, while the remaining nine could be covered by two-man crews, one of whom would be a paramedic, according to the study.

 

The report recommended building 10 new fire stations -- at a cost of $100 million -- to fully cover the city and bring response times down. Frank DeClercq, who heads the firefighters union, said city officials should look for money to build two stations per year.

 

The chief said he liked the idea of what Citygate called "fast response units."  "We're looking at an innovative concept of smaller things called fast response squads -- two-person units filling those other nine gaps which are in the seams between fire stations and don't really justify a full fire station by themselves," said Mainar.

 

Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, a public safety committee member, issued a memo, urging the city to deploy two or three teams for a two-year trial period to see how they work.

 

The report urged improvements along:

Home Avenue, a major thoroughfare through City Heights

in Paradise Hills

in the College Area near San Diego State University

in Skyline

in Encanto

the west end of Governor Drive, near Regents Road, in the southern part of University City

 

According to city officials, there are currently 47 firehouses in San Diego, but 13 of them are under brown-outs.

 

We really needed a depth-of-analysis; when money does become available to us, where can we best apply it? My initial priority: Let's restore the eight brown-outs, Mainar responded.

 

Councilman Todd Gloria told 10News, "To try to fill that $11 million gap created by brown-outs, it's hard enough. To come up with $100 million to build 10 new stations to get the response we need will seem impossible without new revenue."

 

If we relax that standard by a minute, we can build 10 fire stations, he said

 

Mainar said he hopes to restore two of the browned-out stations to full service during fiscal 2012.

 

 

 

They’re Watching . . .

 

 

Trading the call of duty for a call of convenience

 

Boston, MA  Boston Globe  January 30, 2011

 

When a firefighter can’t make his shift, a colleague steps in, on condition the favor will be returned.

 

But there are scores of Boston firefighters whose shifts have been covered by others for weeks or months at a time, with no record they have ever reciprocated and worked off the debt.

 

A second form of shift-swapping abuse has a more tangible — and extremely costly — bottom line. Between January 2006 and last September, firefighters who had agreed to work shifts for others called in sick 29,000 times, forcing the department to pay millions in overtime to others to fill the shifts.

 

One firefighter who was given credit for working 269 shifts for others actually called in sick for 107 of those shifts.

 

In 2008, for example, the Globe reported that scores of firefighters were staying out on injured leave for extended periods, and that more than 100 firefighters were awarded higher disability pensions after claiming career-ending injuries occurred while they were filling in for superiors at higher pay rates. That practice led to federal indictments and changes to state pension laws.

 

What’s more, Fraser may have undercut his standing to demand tighter controls on swaps: Last March, he bowed to entreaties from <…> and others and rehired the firefighter. And Fraser said recently that the 2007 resignation erased <…>’s obligation to repay the 554 days he owed.

 

Settling debts privately The lack of accounting — and the absence of limits that other fire departments routinely impose on shift swaps — has nurtured a subterranean culture in which some firefighters pay cash to others to work their shifts, or repay the obligation by doing outside work like home renovation projects for their firehouse creditors, according to interviews with several firefighters, who asked that they not be identified by name.

 

One telltale sign that much of the debt has been settled privately: Fraser and Keating said not a single firefighter who is owed shifts has ever filed a complaint. Under-the-table cash payments would violate tax laws if the income is unreported.

 

Keating said the department is developing a system that will more effectively monitor swaps, but limiting the number of shifts any one firefighter can rack up could be difficult. In 1996, when shift-swapping became part of a contract dispute, an arbitrator ruled that the department could not impose a limit without negotiating it through collective bargaining.

 

Contractually, firefighters are supposed to work 16 shifts a month — half of them 10-hour daytime shifts and the other half 14-hour nighttime shifts. In many firehouses, however, they swap shifts so they work 10-hour and 14-hour shifts back-to-back, from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. That system, a boon to those with second jobs, allows firefighters to work eight 24-hour shifts a month.

 

Tyler said the swap system is an “administrative nightmare’’ for the department. District chiefs, he said, cannot be assured that firefighters who appear for duty are accustomed to working together, in an environment “where teamwork is very important.

 

Under department regulations, district chiefs are required to approve every swap in advance. But the department abandoned that practice several years ago, according to Keating.

 

Cost of calling in sick

 

The department’s inability to monitor personnel practices has been costly: For example, the department was unaware how many firefighters were calling in sick for the shifts they promised to cover until the Globe pointed out the numbers.

 

In the 56 months starting in January 2006, firefighters on tap to work for colleagues took sick days 29,401 times.

 

According to the records, 79 firefighters called in sick 50 times or more after they agreed to take someone else’s shift. Atop that list was <…>, who took sick days for 107 of the 269 shifts he was scheduled to fill in.

 

About half the time when someone is sick, the department has to bring someone in on overtime, at one-and-a-half times regular pay. That would put the cost to taxpayers for the shift-swapping sick calls at between $6 million and $8 million since 2006, according to a Globe calculation based on the department’s average overtime rates.

 

 

Nevada Official Wants Firefighter Sick Leave Probe

 

Clark County, NV  Las Vegas Sun  January 22, 2011

 

Months later, Sisolak offered what he called proof after the Fire Department adopted a policy in mid-2010 to slow overtime pay for sick leave: Instead of requiring three battalion chiefs to be on duty at all times, only two were required if a third called in sick.

 

If someone called in sick, no one else was being called in to make overtime wages.  Over a 12-week period, sick-leave use by battalion chiefs fell 80 percent compared with the same 12 weeks in 2009.

 

FBI Reviews Facts of Nevada Sick Leave Scandal

 

Clark County, NV  FOX 5  February 2, 2011

 

The union on Tuesday also released a copy of a flier titled "It's Not Your Time" that warns firefighters not to abuse the system.

 

Report Says Nev. Firefighters Planned Sick Time

 

Clark County, NV  FOX 5  February 15, 2011

 

One issue commissioners said they are worried about is that the majority of firefighters who may have abused sick leave have been in the department for 25 to 30 years and may try to retire early to avoid any repercussions.

 

The county said the sick time abuse cost the county about $7 million in 2009.

 

In 2010, county figures show, SEIU’s 5,700 members are on pace to take 4,500 hours of union leave, while the firefighters’ 754 members are on pace for 5,100 hours. For every 1,000 hours worked, firefighters would be taking 2.4 hours of leave versus 0.4 hours for SEIU members.

 

 

County considers seeking reimbursement over firefighter sick leave abuse

 

Clark County, NV  Las Vegas Sun  February 15, 2011

 

Who’re You Gonna Call ? ? ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing Quotes

 

Or

 

“I Can’t Believe Someone Really Said That”

 

This is a collection of quotations taken from published articles over the last 30 months.  All names have been redacted out.  In fairness, some quotes come from officials who “Get It.”  The rest will scare and anger you.  Look at what they are saying and go out and EDUCATE them!  Ignorance, Wisdom or Prophecy – You Decide

 

 

No city has ever required or expected their firefighters to kill themselves as part of the job

 

"We're going to do anything we can to save money," Mayor <…> said. "It's these firefighter’s millionaire pensions that have got us in trouble."

 

“We’re only going to save money if we quit sending $500,000 fire trucks to medical emergencies,” said during a recent budget discussion.

 

"I'm being asked not to eliminate services from the fire department.  Many in the department feel this is wrong; there have been discussions that this could harm <…>.  However, most firefighters don't live in <…>. The towns where they live, most don't have fire and EMS services,"

 

Mayor claimed firefighters "game the system" on overtime and sick pay.

 

Proponents of regionalization have this to say to people who like having their own hometown police force and firefighting department: Get over it. That is, unless you don't mind paying a premium for those services.

 

Despite the cuts, the fire district says service won't be affected

 

The annual fire losses are a tiny fraction of the fire department budget.  We could just pay the losses, close the fire department, and still come out ahead.

 

We need to prevent fires more than to extinguish fires.

 

"Every single community here would feel that pain some time," <… > said. "Each neighborhood will get to see if they're feeling lucky on a given day. That's the way it needs to be done."

Fire Chief Vows That Budget Cuts Won't Deplete Services

The Mayor also said that he does not think the City needs <number> firehouses. “I have never seen a firehouse put out a fire,” he said.

But if one of them had to be closed, <…> says he'd recommend shutting down a different one each week on a rotating basis -- something he calls "firehouse roulette."

Fire Chief insists that the layoffs and aging equipment don't mean that service will be reduced <…> said that he has been in departments with three times the manpower as <…>, but that manpower does not in itself prevent tragedy. “People will die no matter how many firefighters you have.”

 

Mayor – “The district has an obligation to the community to make cuts”

 

But if one of them <station> had to be closed, <…> says he'd recommend shutting down a different one each week on a rotating basis -- something he calls "firehouse roulette."

 

Mayor – “Everybody should feel the cuts across the board”

 

"Every single community here would feel that pain some time," he said. "Each neighborhood will get to see if they're feeling lucky on a given day. That's the way it needs to be done."

 

Councilman characterized the firefighters' contract as unaffordable.

 

Most politicians do not know what we do, when we do it. They do see however our 24 - 48 hour shifts, side jobs, firefighters driving high end vehicles and living well in this economic recession. We are not helping ourselves here.

 

“The contract for the firefighters is too generous for <…> to afford, especially in this economic downturn”

 

Fire Chief <…> insists equipment failures and staffing cuts are not affecting his department's ability to protect the city.  “We'll just have to work harder”

 

We will certainly have to lean on neighboring departments to help us

 

Interesting how Fire Departments go career, then cut staff, but do not revert to paid on call for safety, instead remaining fully career and understaffed

 

The question council members must answer <,…> is whether they can continue to pay for it. <fire protection>

 

Fire Chief – “The stations would be closed until better economic times when re-opening would be evaluated again.  <emphasis added>

 

<…> suggested two possible approaches to reducing overtime costs: "working short," or running three-man engines if the fourth scheduled worker is sick or on vacation, or switching from four to three crew members per engine permanently.

 

Brownouts result in fewer emergency responders, fewer responders mean longer response times, and longer response times carry a greater risk of injury or death.

 

Mayor says city can afford to cut firefighters more easily than police

 

Fire Chief defended the two-firefighter <Ladder staffing> policy

 

Mayor said cuts in the training budget will not hurt the quality of police and fire services.

 

The chief has assured us these suggestions for cuts came from the department heads, <…> said. "And the chief and they've assured us they don't think public safety will be compromised."

 

New equipment, faster response times, better training -- those were but a few of the benefits Mayor <…> said <…> Township residents began enjoying when the township's fire department merged with the <…> Fire Department last month.  You're getting the most appropriate, closest equipment able to respond throughout the city, said <…> Chief <…>. "Everybody is trained at the same level. Everybody's equipped at the same level of all the departments that have merged in."  There have been no layoffs, and firefighter salaries have not changed. Residents could also see up to $<…> in tax savings in the next year, <…> said.

 

“…research<ed> the savings and found that the city can save $4,500.00 per station in utilities. So for a mere $9,000.00, <is it> worth the increased response times and fuel consumption for these pieces of equipment to respond to their old area?”

 

“Because the fire department was able to incorporate a labor-intensive service by adding just four additional people, doesn't this suggest that the department was overstaffed before taking on the ambulance service”

 

Fire Chief – “When times were good and property values were high, we got fat.  Now that the money is not there, we are getting leaner."

 

Mayor said public safety is one of the most important services the city provides and the city owes it to taxpayers to investigate all other expenses before cutting that service.

 

Fire Chief <…>, who had been quoted as saying that cutting truck crews by 25 percent will work just fine, did not return our calls.

 

“We're facing a severe budget crisis <…> and there is a limited number of places to go to solve the problems and the most logical is public safety because they are the only department who haven't suffered in past years in the funding,"

 

Relied heavily upon statement from the Fire Chief who said the layoffs "will not endanger the health and safety of the township."

 

I am not at all comfortable with the prospect of reducing the scope or the size of our department, but it is the reality that we have

 

For people in that neighborhood, it's better response, <…> said of the impact of the new station. It also will give those homeowners better insurance rates.

 

Mayor insists that closing the fire station will have no effect on public safety.

 

Not only was <…>, the engine company from the fire station next door, on another run at the time of the fire at <…> Avenue that seriously injured Firefighter/Paramedic <…>, so was <…>, the second due engine. Third due <…>, from <…>, also wasn’t available because of the city’s policy to close fire companies each shift due to serious budget problems.

 

The mayor calls the cuts difficult but necessary after being unable to win concessions from the firefighters union.  Blame the employees for service reductions due to financial issues that are not their responsibility. 

 

There are "always at least two chiefs at a working fire," so <…>'s absence would have had no impact on how the emergency was handled.

 

Does anyone really believe we would not respond with what is needed? <…> asked. "Of course we would. This is about asking the firefighters to share in the sacrifice we are asking other workers." 

 

Fire Chief <…> said his department would do its best to continue to respond promptly to fire calls and efficiently put out fires, even if the layoffs occur as scheduled.

 

While that is commendable, it is only a part of the bigger picture of wages and compensation, he said. "This is no longer about returning to normal. It's about determining what the new normal will be."

 

For <…>, it's an opportunity to serve.  You get to help people every day -- there's no greater calling than helping others, he said.

 

Let's say there's one firefighter there, he's going to go into that structure and will die if necessary for that citizen.  Why stop at one fatality?

 

What it comes down to is that one man (firefighter) will be doing 25 percent more work" if the layoffs happen, the chief said.

 

Mayor insisted the (station) closing will not compromise public safety because there is a concentration of four other fire stations in a 1.6-mile radius.  "It is not some big deal," he said.

 

The town plans to keep the one-man ladder truck team <emphasis added>

 

Fire Chief repeatedly said the proposed cuts to the fire department will not affect safety.

 

<…> said it's impossible to say if the closure of station <…> played a factor in the <…> Street fire's outcome, or if trucks from the shuttered facility would have arrived before others.

 

"The biggest danger in station closures is response times citywide and that's occurring on a daily basis,"

 

The seven minute response time is reasonable, Mayor <…> said.

 

“The leadership of the Fire and EMS department does not feel the actions taken so far is jeopardizing public safety whatsoever”

 

Budget cuts have cost valuable minutes in some emergencies.  "That’s part of the sacrifice in order to meet the monetary budget. Time counts. The faster we can get to people in need, the more effective we can become."

 

Chief told news that fire protection in the city will not be compromised by the [station] closing.

 

Where these <…> companies are located, we'll be a minute, two minutes slower getting to an incident right by these stations

 

“Eliminating tactical depth from FD resources is like a professional baseball team with only one pitcher (no bull pen)”

 

The mayor added that the city would likely depend more heavily than ever on mutual aid from other departments to fight the worst fires

 

Instead of five minutes, emergency calls in closed station territory were nearly doubling.  "Six, seven, twelve, fourteen minutes that's significant when it’s a life or death situation," <…> says. Fire flashover usually occurs in about 4 and half minutes. It takes just four to six minutes for someone suffering a heart attack to have brain damage"

 

“These firefighters only have to work 70 to 90 days, so why can't they just show up when they are scheduled? They have a good job, they get paid to sleep (eight hours of a 24-hour shift), they have generous benefits and a great schedule.  It is time they leave Disney World and enter the real world."

 

The Fire Department believes it is more equitable to all citizens to rotate the closures among all <...> stations during this period.

 

These firefighters chose this profession.  You have to do whatever it takes.

 

But the deadly fire on Saturday "gave us a concrete example of the importance of protecting our public safety budget," <…> said in a <…> statement announcing his mid-year budget reductions. The budget has no Fire Department reductions

 

 

From Sea To Shining Sea