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City be awarded a SAFER grant. He said that letters of support from elected officials at the local, state and <br />congressional levels were included in the application packet and the City would be notified in three months <br />whether its application was funded. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy called for council questions and comments. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap6 clarified that the CCIGR did not approve the budget; it approved the grant application and <br />assumed from the budget deliberations that the Budget Committee was supportive. He thanked the chief for <br />a good plan that accomplishes the council's goal and asked why Fleet Board approval was an element of <br />procuring an additional engine. Chief Tallon said that all fire apparatus was in the Fleet Services budget <br />and the department needed to propose acquisitions and reserve status designation. He said that the <br />acquisition had been approved. City Manager Taylor added that all City vehicles were managed through <br />Fleet Services. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap6 referred to a drop in the Valley River Station's response reliability rate after redeployment of the <br />engine to Santa Clara and asked if there was a plan to increase that rate. Chief Tallon said the goal was to <br />restore the formerly high level of service and monthly measurements and reports would begin in January <br />2006. He expected the response rate to be restored the first month of operations. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor asked why a national recruitment had been conducted for City employees. Chief Tallon <br />explained that was typical for firefighter and police officer recruitments. He said those employees were <br />highly sought after and there was not a sufficient pool of local eligible candidates for firefighter positions <br />because of the extensive education and credential requirements. He said the recruitment also addressed the <br />City's goal to improve hiring of minorities and females into those jobs and a larger applicant pool was <br />necessary to achieve that. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor commented that there was a large number of unemployed people in the city and wondered if the <br />City was letting people know about training opportunities. Chief Tallon replied that the department <br />presented information at high schools, the University of Oregon, Lane Community College (LCC) and other <br />institutions on career days, made ride-alongs available and continually looked for ways to increase those <br />efforts to inform people about the significant schooling and preparation required of applicants. City <br />Manager Taylor said the City had been working with LCC to explore ways to encourage high school <br />students to consider fire service as a career. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy related a conversation she had with Ed Coleman regarding City efforts to reach out to high <br />school students in the minority community to encourage careers in public safety. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling thanked the chief for the action plan. He reiterated that the fire equipment rotated from reserve <br />to front line status was in good condition and the Valley River Station was getting a high quality engine. <br />Chief Tallon thanked the council, the City management team and the community on behalf of the department <br />for having some of the best facilities, equipment and support for training. He noted that it was preferable to <br />acquire new engines gradually instead of buying many at once to avoid having to replace all of them at the <br />same time. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly asked what was done differently in the recent recruitment to achieve diversity in hiring. Chief <br />Tallon replied that recruitment was done in partnership with Human Resources, which managed the process. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 2005 Page 2 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />