City of Oak Creek
Meeting Date: July 6, 2004
Item No.: 14
Recommendation: That the Common Council concur with the recommendation of the Personnel Committee and approve the hiring of 3 fire fighters as provided for in the 2004 City of Oak Creek budget.
Background: The 2004 budget as approved provided for the hiring of 3 new fire fighters on July 1. The budget also projected paramedic revenue of $540,000. Due to changes in the funding formula for paramedics that revenue figure will not be met. Because of this change the department did not seek to hire the planned staff on July 1. We have been reviewing the budget status during the year to try to determine the best course of action. With the submission of the paramedic contract to Milwaukee County we now have enough information to project the budget status of this planned project.
This additional staffing is part of both a short-term and a long-term plan for department operations. The short-term need is to provide coverage when we send three existing staff to paramedic school from Sept, 2004 until May, 2005. By bringing the 3 new staff on-board we will eliminate the need to pay overtime to cover those positions while they are away at school. If coverage were done through overtime it would cost approximately $75,000 plus fringe benefits. Currently the department has 14 active paramedics. Based on current operations we would like to operate with a minimum of 15 paramedics. This number provides no cushion for long-term illness, injury or retirements. We have two existing paramedics who are eligible to retire and who can realistically be expected to retire in the near future. If we do not have students in this paramedic class the next class will not graduate until May of 2006
In the event that there is a delay in the start of the power plant, the interim change to 4-4-4 staffing would substantially eliminate the calling in of shift fill ins by returning to 4-3-4 when facing a shift fill-in.. We anticipate that we could reduce our budget allocation for shift fill-ins from 120 per year to 30 per year. This would save $60,000 plus fringes.
To complete the financial planning for the new hires the fire department agreed to attempt to reduce the overtime budget by an additional $17,000 (272,000). We are currently projecting overtime will be under that target.
It will be important to have a decision from the full Council and Mayor in July so that we can schedule the necessary medical exams and allow the persons to give two weeks notice to their current employers.
Fiscal Impact: These positions were provided for in the 2004 budget. The budgeted ALS revenue of $540,000 is projected to be $250,000. Offsetting this decrease are $71,000 in carryover ALS revenue from 2003, paid in 2004, BLS revenue of $125,000 above budget, and an EMS fund balance of $384,000. The net result is that the EMS fund is projected to finish 2004 with a positive balance of $290,000
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Prepared and Approved by:
Gerard R. Hammernik Fire Chief |
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Fiscal Review by:
Beverly A. Buretta, CMC City Clerk |
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