Report to City Council

1
Report to City Council

• Friday, March 7th, 1130 a.m.
• City Council Chambers
• By
• 2008 Citizen Review Committee

2
Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• CONCLUSIONS
• DISCUSSIONS
• RECOMMENDATIONS
• FINDINGS/DISCOVERIES/QUESTIONS
• FFD CITIZENS REVIEW COMMITTEE
• ATTACHMENTS

3
INTRODUCTION

• For the purposes of this report resident and/or
  tax payer is considered to be the City of
  Fairbanks residents and/or tax payers. Sources
  included city budgets, personal communications,
  annual reports, incident reports, internet
  searches, industry publications, news articles,
  union contracts, job vacancy announcements and
  personal interviews.

4
CONCLUSIONS

• Yes, Property owners shoulder more than their
  share
• Current fees do not cover full cost of service
  provided
• Current fees are substantially under-recovered
• FFD is currently operating efficiently, costs are
  within Industry Norms
• FFD personnel costs are within industry norms.
• FFD staffing is not excessive
• Gifts (grants) funded new Fire Station
  Equipment
• The City experiences a daytime population surge
• Non-emergency needs are met by ambulance calls
• Volunteer or partial Volunteer FD is not
  sustainable
• Cost Causer should be the Cost Payer
• Fire Training Center is not a cash drain
• EMS demand has increased, 3 per year for the
  last 5 years
• Life Saving versus Fire Suppression
• Cost Shifting is forcing bigger burden on FFD
• Further analysis required

5
DISCUSSIONS

• Yes, Property owners shoulder more than their
  share
• Current fees do not cover full cost of service
  provided

6
Fire Service Comparison
By Community
A
7
DISCUSSIONS

• Yes, Property owners shoulder more than their
  share
• Current fees do not cover full cost of service
  provided
• Current fees are substantially under-recovered

8
Calls by Incident Type
Seventy-Five (75) percent of calls were
EMS/Ambulance calls. This number excludes all
Rescue Motor Vehicle Accidents, which may have
also involved injuries requiring EMS services.
B
9
DISCUSSIONS

• Yes, Property owners shoulder more than their
  share
• Current fees do not cover full cost of service
  provided
• Current fees are substantially under-recovered
• FFD is currently efficient, costs are within
  Industry Norms

10
Fire Service Comparison
By Community
A
11
DISCUSSIONS

• FFD personnel costs are within industry norms.

12
The 56 Hour Work Week Explained
C
13
Wages Benefit Comparison by Community
D
14
DISCUSSIONS

• FFD personnel costs are within industry norms.
• FFD staffing is not excessive

15
DISCUSSIONS

• FFD personnel costs are within industry norms.
• FFD staffing is not excessive
• Gifts (grants) funded new Fire Station Equipment

16
FFD Grant Summary
2003-2007
F
17
DISCUSSIONS

• FFD personnel costs are within industry norms.
• FFD staffing is not excessive
• Gifts (grants) funded new Fire Station
  Equipment
• The City experiences a daytime population surge

18
Calls by Time of Day
G
19
Patients by Residence
H
20
DISCUSSIONS

• Non-emergency needs are met by ambulance calls
• Volunteer or partial Volunteer FD is not
  sustainable
• Cost Causer should be the Cost Payer
• Fire Training Center is not a cash drain
• EMS demand has increased, 3 per year

21
DISCUSSIONS

• Life Saving versus Fire Suppression
• Cost Shifting is forcing bigger burden on FFD
• Further analysis required

22
RECOMMENDATIONS

• SHORT TERM
• Raise Ambulance fees to increase cost recovery
• Create Ambulance fee discount for City Taxpayers
• Add fee for multiple vehicles responding to
  accident or residential fire
• Raise Ambulance mileage fee, to cover costs

23
RECOMMENDATIONS

• MID-TERM
• Staff succession planning
• Recurring monitoring of industry cost recovery
  practices
• Evaluate other fees to recover cost of services
• Non-emergency service providers can reduce call
  volume
• Explore collaborations with churches, nonprofits
  agencies for welfare checks and other
  non-emergency calls
• Create staffing plan to address increased demands
  of growing community

24
RECOMMENDATIONS

• LONG-TERM
• Shop Rate charged by Public Works is too low
• Encourage private industry to develop service
  alternatives
• Conduct extensive cost-of-service analysis

25
FINDINGS-DISCOVERIES- QUESTIONS
This section of the report is dedicated to things
learned during the many hundreds of volunteer
hours by the FFD Citizen Review Committee. These
items were of interest to individual committee
members and/or could be of interest to the
general public. These topics might be worthy of
further consideration, but deemed to be off-topic
to our immediate objectives.

• Potential of delayed response
• Industry cost shifting has resulted increases in
  the non-recoverable costs
• Why do we pay them to sleep? Payment is for the
  instant availability, to be on-scene fully
  equipped within four minutes. Payment for that
  standby time is required by federal law.
• Nationally sold Life-Alert mechanism calls arrive
  _at_ dispatch on a non-911 line. This can cause
  delayed response time, since calls incoming to
  911 are served prior to those arriving on the
  non-emergency line.
• Of 41 FFD staff, 4 are city residents and
  taxpayers.
• Firefighting industry often involve paid
  volunteer positions
• Firefighting industry hires only the best of the
  best.
• Many outlying Volunteer Fire Departments benefit
  from FFD training
• FNSB gives a 10,000 tax deduction for volunteer
  firefighters home property tax
• FNSB EMS members get discount on ambulance
  (non-resident rate)

26
FFD CITIZENS REVIEW COMMITTEE
The committee coming together from diverse
perspectives, studied many varied sources, to
resolve disputes, clarify rumors and come to a
consensus to benefit the citizens of Fairbanks.
The volumes of documents collected and studied
are not all presented here.

• Vivian Stiver local business owner and serves on
  Fairbanks City Council Phone [phone],
  arcticbnb_at_mosquitonet.com
• Michael Supkis is Chief of Police Fire at FAI
  and been in firefighting for 30 years. Phone
  474-2539, mike.supkis_at_alaska.gov
• Michael Dukes local Radio/TV talk show host
  political commentator. Phone [phone],
  michael.dukes_at_nnbradio.com
• Cathy Persinger has a background in cost
  accounting and currently works for United Way.
  Phone [phone], cathyp_at_alaska.net
• John Brown Retired Business Agent for Operators
  local 302 Phone [phone], jbrown302_at_hotmail.com
• Lee DeSpain former City Firefighter and business
  owner Phone [phone]
• Advisors Chief Warren Cummings, Ernie Misewicz,
  Firefighters Union Reps

27
ATTACHMENTS

• Cost per Transport, from p.2 FFD Ambulance
  Service Cost Study July 2005
• 2007 Calls by Incident Type
• Fire service comparisons by community
• Explain 56 hour week
• Wages Benefit comparisons by community
• Firefighting, Crtical timeline Cascade of
  Events
• FFD Grant Summary, 2003-2007
• 2007 Runs by Time of Day
• 2007 Patients by Residence
• Comparative Ambulance costs by Community

28
Fire Service Comparison
By Community
A
29
Calls by Incident Type
Seventy-Five (75) percent of calls were
EMS/Ambulance calls. This number excludes all
Rescue Motor Vehicle Accidents, which may have
also involved injuries requiring EMS services.
B
30
The 56 Hour Work Week Explained
C
31
Wages Benefit Comparison by Community
D
32
Cascade of Events
What happens when a 911 call occurs?
Emergency Occurs
911 call received at PD Dispatch
911 transfer from police to fire
911 call received at Fire Dispatch
Objective Dispatch call within 90 seconds, 90
of the time Result 78 (structure fires and
cardiac arrest calls only)
Objective Arrive in 4 minutes or less, 90 of
the time Result 70
Firefighters arrive on scene and mitigate incident
Emergency units assigned dispatched
Firefighters turnout and prepare to respond
Objective Respond within 90 seconds, 90 of the
time Result 72
If a medical emergency Did an Advanced Life
Support Paramedic arrive on scene within 8
minutes?Result 90
If a fire emergency Did 15 fire fighters arrive
on scene within 8 minutes? Result 47
End Outcome Reduce human property Loss from
Fire
End Outcome Improve outcome for sick, injured,
trapped and endangered victims
E
33
FFD Grant Summary
2003-2007
F
34
Calls by Time of Day
G
35
Patients by Residence
H
36
Comparative Ambulance Costs by Community
I