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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Minutes 12-12-2000 SpecialAdopted Minutes Special City Council Meeting December 12, 2000 A Special Meeting of the Plymouth City Council was called to order by Mayor Tierney at 5:40 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 3400 Plymouth Boulevard, on December 12, 2000. CITY COUNCIL PRESENT: Mayor Tierney, Councilmembers Johnson, Harstad, Bildsoe, Slavik, Brown, and Black. ABSENT: None. STAFF PRESENT: City Manager Johnson, Assistant City Manager Ahrens, Community Development Director Hurlburt, Public Works Director Moore, Park and Recreation Director Blank, Finance Director Hahn, Public Safety Director Gerdes, and City Clerk Paulson. Mayor Tierney stated the purpose of the meeting is to discuss the Fire Service Task Force report. Assistant City Manager Ahrens stated she and Community Development Director Hurlburt served on the task force as co-chairs. She reported on the process utilized by the task force. She stated the task force was created to study and make recommendations on staffing concerns in the Fire Department. This included evaluating current and future risk to life and property, staffing needs, and provide recommendations for the 2001 budget. Community Development Director Hurlburt highlighted some of issues and options that were discussed by the task force which included: 1. Duty crew and fire department operations: Review amending program rules so firefighters could work more shifts, recruit City staff to work duty crew only, allow participants to live or work anywhere, expand to include 6 a.m.-9 a.m. shift, and consider expanding to full-time paid fire department. 2. Recommendations for operations: Investigate expanding mutual aid, reduce false alarms, and not expanding other services (i.e. primary medical response). 3. Recruitment: Try targeting group most likely to become firefighters, i.e. young individuals, renters, students, those who desire flexible, well -paying part-time jobs, enhance and promote benefits (pension, childcare, and tuition), and study additional benefits (housing). 4. Retention: Since time required is a major issue for retention, duty crew program should be a major benefit to address time concern, increase efficiency (i.e. training time, computers in stations), develop pay system rewarding performance and longevity, and recognition. Adopted City Council Minutes Special Meeting of December 12, 2000 Page 2 of 6 5. Hiring additional full-time staff: Continue to rely on paid -on-call firefighters, add full-time only to support operation of duty crew, and fire captain positions to staff duty crew and assist with supervision and training. She noted the cost of a full-time fire department would be approximately $1.6 million. Recommended additional administrative position in the Community Development Department, schedule to serve up to 15 hours/week (five shifts) on duty crew, and inspections of existing buildings, and fire pre -plans. 6. Utilizing of City employees to provide supplemental response: Recruitment of current firefighters for other City jobs, posting of City jobs at the fire stations, and review of FLSA issues for utilizing City employees to supplement fire responders. 7. Firefighter's pay: Annually review and adjust paid -on-call wages and benefits and provide a $1 per hour pay increase in 2001. 8. Pension benefits: The City assist in paying for actuarial studies for pension benefits that could be a positive incentive. 9. Worker compensation insurance benefits: The threat of injury could discourage retention and recruitment of firefighters, and the benefit only covers firefighters who earn a maximum of $58,506 per year. The City should pay for supplemental disability insurance. 10. Other benefits: Increase funding for tuition reimbursement and expand the number of approved childcare providers. 11. Construction of Fire Station No. 4: Postpone decision to construct a fourth fire station beyond the time frame of the current five year Capital Improvements Program. 12. Legislative initiatives: Pursue legislation to address firefighter shortages. 13. Other recommendations: Monthly reporting of key performance factors, consider impacts on emergency response in future request for speed humps, and encourage ISO to increase insurance rating from five to four. 14. Implementation schedule and budget impacts: Immediate and on-going recommendations for 2001-2004 and beyond. Budget impacts of $26,100 for 2000, 165,000 for 2001, and $225,000 for 2002. Councilmember Bildsoe thanked staff for all their hard work on this report. He stated regarding a full-time fire department, the Council never discussed this. He stated at this time, he is not personally advocating a full-time fire department. He stated hiring supplemental full-time fire fighters to assist the duty crew is not a step towards a full- time fire department. Mayor Tierney commented the cost of a full-time fire department is very prohibitive, and the City doesn't receive any type of aid to fund a full-time fire department. Councilmember Bildsoe stated there is an urgent need for recruitment of additional firefighters. He is concerned about increasing the restriction that firefighters have to Adopted City Council Minutes Special Meeting of December 12, 2000 Page 3 of 6 reside within five minutes of a fire station. He stated if the requirement is increased to five minutes, how would that affect the fire department's response time to a fire? Community Development Director Hurlburt replied when the duty crew is at the station, the recommendation was that those firefighters wouldn't have to reside within five minutes of the fire station. She added currently, there are enough firefighters to respond to overnight hours, but the day crew poses more of a problem. Councilmember Johnson stated in the report, it is recommended that the housing issue be discussed in 2001 with some type of implementation in 2003. She would prefer that the City be more aggressive with affordable housing issues and utilize the City's Housing and Redevelopment Authority. She questioned why this issue isn't being studied sooner. Community Development Director Hurlburt stated there are many other implementation strategies to be occurring in 2001, and the task force wanted to make sure the implementation schedule was manageable. She stated in addition, additional research needs to be conducted whether the City could offer assistance for public housing to City employees. Finance Director Hahn added another issue was that some of the existing firefighters were also concerned there could be some inequity in providing additional assistance to new firefighters when they received none. Councilmember Brown commented there needs to be continuous recruitment. He stated changing the work structure needs to be continually evaluated as well. Regarding structure, he asked at what point does the fire department report directly to the City Manager? Community Development Director Hurlburt stated this was not discussed, as it was not within the scope of what the task force was requested to study. City Manager Johnson commented that as cities grow larger, there tends to be more departments/divisions that may report to the city manager. When this occurs, there could be several deputy city managers that would report to the city manager. Councilmember Harstad suggested this not be discussed this evening but rather at a future study session. He added the pension schedule concerns him in that firefighters couldn't collect on their pension until after 10 years of service. Community Development Director Hurlburt stated the task force did not discuss this issue. Finance Director Hahn added there are some proposals in the legislature to increase the amount vested which would assist in retaining long-term firefighters. Public Safety Director Gerdes noted that any changes made to the pension would require the Fire Relief Association to amend their by-laws. Adopted City Council Minutes Special Meeting of December 12, 2000 Page 4 of 6 Councilmember Bildsoe stated he doesn't view the task force's report to be a final report but rather an initial report. He stated it was mentioned that in six months the Council would conduct another study session which he totally supports. He suggested that basic statistics of the Fire Department be provided to the Council on a monthly basis. Community Development Director Hurlburt cautioned the Council on analyzing the data on a monthly basis because utilizing such a short time period may not provide a realistic report. Councilmember Bildsoe stated regarding the high number of false alarms, what is being recommended over the next year to correct or reduce that situation? Community Development Director Hurlburt replied the task force recommended that a new false alarm task force consider this issue. Councilmember Bildsoe suggested a report be provided to the Council within the next six months on this issue. Mayor Tierney indicated her support for another Council study session in five to six months to review the report again. Motion was made by Councilmember Black, and seconded by Councilmember Johnson, to extend the meeting until 7:30 p.m. With all members voting in favor but Tierney, the motion carried. John Gavin, a lieutenant with the Fire Department and treasurer of the Fire Relief Association, stated that firefighters have participated in this report. However, he personally found the process to be challenging in addressing the task force. Therefore, he only signed off on the staffing recommendations. He stated four out of the fire recommendations that appeared in the report were presented to the Council in April. He voiced his concern with the additional full-time personnel that would report to the Community Development Director other than the fire officer. He mentioned the day-to- day mechanical problems in the department, and he questioned why the City wouldn't hire a full-time firefighter/engineer (mechanical) to address these day-to-day problems with the equipment. He noted that the Fire Relief Association was never invited to participate in the study. He stated there is an expense to recruit and maintain personnel which the City should be responsible for. He stated some of the firefighters are career professional people, but he noted that the 10 -year vesting in the pension doesn't provide any incentive for possible firefighters. Susan Magy stated she has served on the Fire Department for six years. She feels that the Council has been provided an incomplete report as the majority of the report recommends that certain issues be studied further. She voiced her concern that the hiring of additional inspectors would be assisting the Community Development Department with code enforcement when there is a need for fire prevention work at schools. She requested that Adopted City Council Minutes Special Meeting of December 12, 2000 Page 5 of 6 any additional information that is prepared by the task force for the Council be provided to the firefighters in a more timely manner than when this report was given. Councilmember Johnson asked how the composition of the task force was determined when there seemed to be very few firefighters who served on the task force. City Manager Johnson stated it was his decision to create the task force and select its members. It was his goal to have representation from all the City departments that work closely with the Fire Department. He stated it was the goal to involve the firefighters, and he and the task force visited all fire stations. A majority of firefighters were in attendance at those meetings. The Fire Chief and Fire Administrative Officer served on the task force. Sandy Hewitt, 2800 Weston Lane North, asked if the current firefighters are in support of expanding the duty crew. She stated some of the reasons for firefighters quitting are burnout" related and the amount of time. She also questioned the fire inspector position that wasn't filled and expanding the duties to include code enforcement. Community Development Director Hurlburt stated one of the benefits of maintaining a duty crew is that it makes the firefighters' time commitment more predictable. She stated the task force discovered that there was a misunderstanding with the City Attorney for those individuals who desired to work additional time. She stated the duty crew has been in place for three years. However, many of the firefighters who left, left before the system was in place. Assistant City Manager Ahrens added that the duty crew is voluntary. Councilmember Johnson requested staff s opinion on the suggestion to hire a mechanical engineer to assist the Fire Department. Community Development Director Hurlburt stated that was discussed initially, however, there more pressing issues that needed to be discussed. She stated regarding the inspection positions, the City has had two full-time fire inspector positions that are knowledgeable about the entire fire code, and they inspect new construction. When one of the individuals relocated to another city, the city attempted to replace that individual. However, the City couldn't find someone that knew the fire code. Therefore, the job description was amended to also include plan review responsibilities. Councilmember Johnson repeated her question regarding issues surrounding the day-to- day maintenance of the fire equipment. Community Development Director Hurlburt stated that this was never conveyed to the task force that this was a problem with the Fire Department. Adopted City Council Minutes Special Meeting of December 12, 2000 Page 6 of 6 Gary Hendrickson, Hazardous Material Coordinator, requested that in the future, the Council conduct study sessions with the firefighters. Mayor Tierney requested that firefighters deliver their comments to the City Manager. The majority of the Council felt that another study session would be necessary to discuss the report. Motion was made by Councilmember Brown, and seconded by Councilmember Bildsoe, to conduct a study session at 5:30 p.m. on December 19 which would be prior to the Council's Regular Meeting. With all members voting in favor, the motion carried. Mayor Tierney declared the meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m.