Staffing options include cross-training police
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Staffing at the Presque Isle Fire Department was the focus of a City Council workshop at City Hall Monday night.
Councilors have been discussing reducing the number of firefighters per shift from four to three for the better part of the past eight months. That discussion continued Monday, with City Manager Jim Bennett offering options he and Deputy City Manager Martin Puckett and Fire Chief Darrell White put together to provide data on how each choice would impact the city and citizens. Bennett said the workshop was for discussion only and that no decision would be made on staffing until the Aug. 6 meeting at the earliest.
“We tried to break down decisions based on two reports we’ve received to date to try to simplify it. This captures the majority of the decision-making,” said Bennett, describing a four-page handout graphing the options.
Topics discussed included: how to increase volunteer firefighter membership, how to reduce costs and how to mitigate response time from a call company, per diem coverage of vacations and the like, how to deal with layoffs and when they might occur, the status of the student firefighter program and the creation of a substation for use by volunteers.
Bennett said in one report, response time for full-time vs. volunteer was brought up.
“It’s virtually impossible for call company personnel to respond as quickly as full-time. We’ve come up with four strategies to mitigate: housing (volunteers) at or near the station, employing the student program which would only be good for the school year, building a substation which would be fairly significant in cost and take about 18 months to implement and … some type of reward program which would be lower cost,” said Bennett.
Council Chair Emily Smith suggested another mitigation option.
“Another idea thrown out before was to maybe try to cross-train police officers, if some officer would entertain that. It seems if we could try to work together more, work as one unit. Police are already on duty. They could have gear in the trunk and usually are one of the first on scene,” said Smith.
Bennett said he’s dealt with that in the past in previous positions he’s held and it’s been his experience that “they don’t usually like to do both.”
“It didn’t really work that well. A few years after I left it went back to separate fire and police chiefs,” said Bennett, although he agreed to discuss it with both departments. “I can run it up the flagpole. Even full-time guys had issues. It’s not to say it may not work here, but my experience — nationally it has not done well.”
Councilor Peter Hallowell said, “I’m not in favor of cross-training police with fire, any more than I am of cross-training lawyers (with firefighters).”
Councilor Bruce Sargent questioned whether White could serve as the fourth person during the day, should the decision be made to drop to a three-person crew. Bennett said as long as the chief was there, that might be a possibility. White noted that he does respond to some calls when necessary when on duty during the day but that oftentimes he’s away from the office attending meetings, including sessions with FEMA.
The group discussed the number of structure fires the department has responded to in the past couple of years. Hallowell noted there’d been 81 toned structure fires over the past two years. Bennett noted that that figure did not include all calls received by the PIFD.
“If a call comes in as something else and firefighters then find smoke upon arrival — it wasn’t initially toned out,” said Bennett.
“It may have been handled as a still call and didn’t get put down as a structure fire and wasn’t toned in. For example, smoke in an attic. The guys might investigate and find something else but be able to put it out,” said White.
Smith suggested to save money perhaps the city could do some type of “citizen training” to educate the public on how to handle the smaller incidents rather than rely on the fire department.
“For the amount of money we’d save, we could teach people more,” said Smith.
Councilor Dick Engels said, “The thing Council needs to do is provide safety for citizens. It’s one of my top priorities. We have budget concerns. Police changes I approved because of the chief’s recommendations,” said Engels. “But response time based on the data Martin provided — fire doubles every three minutes, leading to more danger to firefighters and citizens.”
Engels noted that OSHA’s two-in, two-out rule can’t be changed and that he was “against going from four to three per shift.”
“Hiring per diem to fill open shifts and summer hires to cut down on OT makes sense. We have a small pool of volunteers, about 21,” said Engels. “We’re being penny wise and pound foolish. I stick by that. I haven’t heard anything to change my mind. We’re looking to make changes at the risk of citizens.”
Sargent raised the question of why a full-time department was necessary when several of the full-timers live in communities with volunteer departments.
Sargent said the decision needed to be based on what the city could afford and not “just a push back by firefighters and the union.”
“There are ways. There are all-volunteer departments in surrounding communities. A lot of singles could come in, sleep here at night, go to work at 6 a.m. and be paid a stipend,” said Sargent.
Bennett said one of the problems is the city doesn’t have money to pay stipends. Another problem would be the labor issue of displacing a full-time person with a stipend position.
Deputy Chair Randy Smith asked when doing investigations, if two people have to go out. White said on any type of investigation, four are sent because “you truly don’t know what you have until you get there. We go prepared for two-in, two-out.”
Councilors discussed volunteer training and the possibility of creating a substation to provide volunteers with a place to call their own, which might in turn increase interest in volunteering. White said one of the biggest problems is the time commitment required to become a fully-trained firefighter. He noted that of the 21 volunteers, only 12 are certified to enter a building. Should the decision be made to drop to three per shift, to enter a building firefighters would have to wait until a fourth person certified to enter a building was on scene, unless a life is at stake.
Sargent said it was a budgetary matter and suggested holding off on any decisions until councilors got a look at next year’s proposed budget. Engels said there were other options councilors could consider rather than cutting fire and police.
“There a lot of things the city does. Fire and police are needed and nice to have. Privatizing solid waste — could put out to bid. The rec department, library and gifts made to organizations are all nice if we can afford them. I agree with Bruce, we can’t raise taxes either,” said Engels.
Bennett recommended councilors set up a meeting with local legislators to discuss revenue sharing and how Augusta’s handling of the program has negatively impacted municipalities. He indicated that had the state not made the $300,000 cut to Presque Isle’s portion of revenue sharing, there would likely be no need to discuss cutting staffing at the PIFD.
Councilors agreed to continue the discussion at next Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall. For more information, call 760-2785.
