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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem A: Update/Fire Station 9EUGENE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Work Session: Council Priority Issue - Restore Engine Crew to Valley River Fire Station Meeting Date: June 22, 2005 Agenda Item Number: A Department: Fire and Emergency Medical Services Staff Contact: Tom Tallon www. cl. eugene, or. us Contact Telephone Number: 682-7115 ISSUE STATEMENT One of the City Council's current priority issues is to restore an engine crew to the Valley River Fire Station. This work session will focus on the Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department's plans to address that issue. The issue status and future steps are provided in the attached report from the department. The council and Budget Committee have been involved in authorizing this plan, which calls for the service to be restored effective January 1, 2006. BACKGROUND In 2002, recognizing an increasing number of incorporated City parcels in the Santa Clara area of the community, the City of Eugene made the decision to establish a City fire service presence (and emergency medical first response capability) in that area. With additional funds unavailable, the Fire and EMS Department made the decision to reassign Fire Engine 9 from the Valley River Fire Station to temporary quarters in Santa Clara, with the hope and intent to restore an engine crew to the Valley River station in the future. RELATED CITY POLICIES City Council Priority Issue: Re-staff the Valley River fire engine and resume neighborhood-based fire suppression, rescue, and EMS first response in the Valley River area. This item also addresses the council's previously stated goal of a safe community. COUNCIL OPTIONS Not applicable; information and discussion only. CITY MANAGER'S RECOMMENDATION Not applicable. L:\CMO\2005 Council Agendas\M050622\S050622A. doc SUGGESTED MOTION Not applicable. ATTACHMENTS A. Fire and EMS Departmem Report on Council Priority Issue B. Engine 9 Staffing Timelines Chart FOR MORE INFORMATION Staff Contact: Tom Tallon, Fire and EMS Chief Telephone: 682-7115 Staff E-Mail: tom.j.tallon~ci.eugene.or.us L:\CMO\2005 Council Agendas\M050622\S050622A. doc ATTACHMENT A CITY COUNCIL PRIORITY ISSUE: One of the current Council Priority Issues is to re-staff the Valley River fire engine and resume neighborhood based fire suppression, rescue and EMS first response in the Valley River area. Back,qround: In June of 2002, the Eugene Fire & EMS Department was asked to begin providing fire suppression, rescue and EMS first response to Eugene residents living in the Santa Clara area. With no new funding available to provide this new level of service, the department elected to relocate the Valley River Station's Engine 9 and its staffing to a new temporary facility located in the Santa Clara community. This move was made because of the prolonged response times required to serve the Santa Clara area from existing Eugene fire stations. Although the move was necessary, the relocating of Engine 9 resulted in a negative impact to the Valley River area as well as the Sheldon area which relies on Engine 9 for backup. Plannin,q Horizon and Focus: · Acquire the needed funding, both start up and on-going staffing and operation. Timeline: FY06 Budget process. · Hire and train 12 new firefighters to backfill for Engine 9 as well as additional firefighters to fill vacancies created through normal attrition. This will be accomplished through one hiring process that produces two separate recruit firefighter classes. Timeline: Recruit Class #6 (first group) - Academy starting date: 6-24-05, E9 in service date: 1-05-06 (estimate) Recruit Class #7 (second group) - Academy starting date: 1-05-06 · Promote three captains and three engineers to fill out the needed staffing. Timeline: E9 in-service from existing promotional lists. · Procure an additional engine to be assigned to the station when it is opened. Timeline: Pending approval by Fleet Board of proposed plan and receipt of replacement apparatus by the fourth quarter of FY06 as detailed below. Strate,qic Priority Outcomes: Response reliability is the probability that the resources assigned to a territory will be available to respond from within that territory when an emergency occurs in that area. Response reliability would be 100% if every company were available in its station when a fire or emergency call is received. In reality, there are times when a call is received when the first-due company is out of area or unavailable. This requires that a later-due company, in the pre-determined response order, be assigned. If the later-due company is too far away, the call cannot be handed within the desired travel time. Prior to the redeployment of Valley River Fire Engine to Santa Clara, the Valley River area's response reliability was at 93.90% (7-01 to 6-02). After redeployment, with only an ambulance stationed at the Valley River Station, response reliability for that area dropped to 54.53% (7-03 to 6-04). At the same time, the response reliability for the Sheldon Station and Downtown Station, which absorbed some of this call volume, dropped from 86.42% to 84.29% and 94.36% to 88.78%, respectively. Two outcomes are sought by re-staffing Engine 9 at the Valley River Station: · Improve overall response times throughout the service area. · Increase response reliability throughout the service area with significant improvement in the Valley River neighborhood. Improvement in these two measures and the associated service delivered to the public should be recognized upon the re-staffing of Engine 9. Progress to Date: A recruit firefighter process has been planned, posted and the selection process is well under way. From this process the department will develop a list from which two training classes will be hired as explained under "action plan" below. In addition, a plan has been developed by the department and is being presented to the Fleet Board that calls for the retention of an additional fire apparatus that is scheduled to be replaced in FY06. By retaining this piece of equipment targeted for surplus, the department will have the resources to place a fire engine at the Valley River Fire Station in accordance with this plan. Action Plan: The department has developed a cost estimate and timeline for re-staffing the Valley River engine as well as filling vacancies caused by normal attrition. The lead depart- ment representative for building the finance package is Julie Lindsey, Fire & EMS Department Finance Manager. Currently the department has just completed a firefighter recruitment and selection process to develop a list of qualified candidates. The first group has already been given job offers. The FY06 cost for re-staffing Engine 9 in January 2006 is $1,100,000, with ongoing costs in FY07 projected to be $1.5 million. Hiring to fill vacancies caused by attrition is a part of the department's ongoing operation and is built into the baseline budget. No further action is needed to fill these positions. The lead department representatives for hiring, training, and promotion are Training Chief Randy DeWitt and Deputy Fire & EMS Chief Randy Groves. Lead HRRS representative will be Recruitment and Selection Manager Lynn Stimson. As previously noted, the department has also developed an apparatus procurement plan for the Valley River Station that involves retaining an engine targeted for replacement. This will add to the department's current fleet without the need to immediately purchase a new fire engine which could cost between $350,000 and $400,000. The lead department representative for this task is Jeff Narin, Logistics Manager. Resource Needs: Funding for the re-staffing package, estimated at $1,100,000 will cover the additional personnel costs incurred during the last half of FY06. The ongoing cost is projected to be $1.5 million in FY07. Monitorin,q & Evaluation: The effectiveness of re-staffing the Valley River engine will be monitored and evaluated using three measures: · The department's overall "response time" at the 80th percentile. · The department's overall "response reliability," which measures the percentage of time the first-due response resource is available to respond to an emergency occurring in its assigned response area. · The department's response reliability in the Valley River area.