Item A: Functional Consolidation of Fire Departments

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ATTACHMENT A It is important to carefully document financial conditions accurately as they currently exist in each department. This becomes the baseline for future evaluations. This is necessary to avoid attributing any costs for making future improvements to a consolidation or merger. These im- provements would be needed if the departments were to remain separate. Only costs that are a direct result of the merger are to be charged to the merger. It is equally important to document service levels as they currently exist prior to consolidation or merger as these become the baseline for judging whether services have improved following. Where major service level differences exist between cities, different service levels may either be maintained to avoid diluting or subsidizing one partner or “trade-offs” made between partners to adjust for differences. To proceed with Phase II and recommend a merged organization, there must be evidence that service levels have been maintained or improved while expenses have been reduced. Creation of a reasonably accurate 5-year estimated budget prior to this is not considered feasible. Equal weight must be given to identifying any costs that are a direct result of consolidation or merger and would not otherwise be needed for separate operations. These in turn, must be sub- tracted from future savings to create a “true bottom line.” Summary of Functional Area Findings Joint staff teams completed a review of 11 major functional areas to determine the potential for any combination of savings or improvements. Shift Operations – Little change is anticipated in the delivery of emergency response services as the Three Battalion System is already functioning successfully. Springfield’s Operations Chief position is currently vacant. There are no vacancies in Eugene’s Shift Operations management and Eugene has sufficient depth to assume responsibility for oversight of the combined system. By not filling a Deputy Chief vacancy projected for FY 12, this would save $147,468. During the functional consolidation in Phase I, firefighters would continue to work in their re- spective fire stations. Firefighters in the two cities are represented by two different union locals, and this would need to be resolved at some point in the future under a full merger. Any increase in pay that might result from merging labor forces would be accounted for as an expense of the merger and would need to be offset with savings to be considered viable. The same is true for union-represented non-firefighters. Eugene’s are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Springfield’s by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Firefighter staffing strength and fire station deployment would remain the same in the two com- munities. Ambulance service would not change as a result of the merger, although in the future the two jurisdictions’ Ambulance Service Areas (ASAs) could be combined into one, and at that time a re-evaluation of ambulance deployment may be appropriate, especially if the geographic area of Eugene’s ASA is reduced as is being considered for recommendation by the Ambulance Transport System Joint Elected Officials Task Force. It is also possible that some of the savings 3 ATTACHMENT 1