Item 2: Functional Consolidation of Fire Departments

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ATTACHMENT A Administrative Services – Currently, each city’s fire department provides its own financial, planning, logistical, payroll, information technology, and general administrative support. Pro- posed changes in some of these functions are described below. During Phase I functional consolidation, staff analysis envisions an Administrative and Support Services Chief overseeing a number of program managers administering combined offices. An Administrative Services Bureau Manager would be among those reporting to the Administrative and Support Services Chief, and this manager would have responsibility for combined ambul- ance billing and FireMed services. A Senior Office Supervisor would coordinate line-level clerical support and serve as backup to the department’s Executive Assistant. An existing Management Analyst could be assigned at half-time or more to support a larger Logistics operation (see below). Most central office sup- port functions would be housed – along with the Office of the Chief – at the Eugene Emergency nd Services Center (ESC) at 2 & Chambers. Future vacancy of a Deputy Chief position projected for FY 12 would permit the reorganization of Administrative, Support and Logistics functions into an “all civilian” division and further streamlining of services under a Continuous Process Improvement model. This model is pro- jected to result in further reductions resulting from productivity enhancements and not filling certain vacancies due to normal personnel attrition. Office of the Chief – Springfield’s Chief Murphy has announced his retirement effective this coming July 1. Until that date, he would serve in tandem with Chief Groves as an Executive Chief responsible for Fire Marshal, ambulance and business and administrative functions. Upon Chief Murphy’s retirement, Chief Groves would serve as Chief of the consolidated department. This would eliminate the need for Springfield Fire & Life Safety to hire a new Chief of Depart- ment, resulting in an ongoing annual savings currently at $157,952. The Springfield Planning Chief, who currently also serves as the city’s Emergency Manager, would become the Emergency Management & Community Relations Chief, supervising the ex- isting Eugene Public Information Officer, until the voluntary departure of any Deputy Chief, at which time all Deputy Chief functions would be re-evaluated for the purpose of eliminating one Deputy Chief position, creating additional annual ongoing savings currently at $147,468. As of July 2010, if a decision is made to proceed with merger through an intergovernmental agreement, we are proposing that the department be overseen by a joint Fire Governance Board consisting of mayors and councilors and/or their appointees and the two City Managers (or their designees) as ex officio members. The Fire & EMS Chief would be a member of the Executive Management Teams of both cities. Ambulance Billing and FireMed – Joint billing staffs (9 FTE in Springfield, 4 FTE in Eugene) would share office space in Springfield. At the present time, the Eugene staff handles billing on- ly for Eugene Fire & EMS, while the Springfield staff handles that department’s billing services and also provides services under contract to 19 other ambulance providers in the state. (The 5 ATTACHMENT 1