Fire Department Overtime Large Part of City's Budget Woes

The city is facing a $1.5 million budget shortfall and no one knows exactly what to do about it. In addition to reduced sales and property taxes over the past three years, Fire Department overtime looms large as one culprit of the city’s fiscal mess, laid out with precision by Susan Mahoney, Petaluma’s interim finance director at Monday’s City Council meeting.

The fire department’s overtime is estimated to exceed $1.1 million by the end of June, largely because four vacancies in the department mean firefighters are working extra hours to meet the required staffing levels, said Fire Chief Larry Anderson.

“Most of the guys and gals are frankly burned out,” Anderson said. “We’re working them to death. We’re in position at times when they are ordered back to work and they don’t have a choice, if they don’t come in they could be terminated.”

One idea that was floated at Monday night’s meeting was reducing minimum staffing levels at the department, currently set to 14, including a firefighter paramedic, engineer and captain have to be on standby at any given time.

Councilman Mike Healy suggested that the number could be reduced to 13, if certain conditions were met, such as sprinklers installed in all downtown businesses. Another idea Healy proposed was to outsource ambulance transport to out of town hospitals to a private company, which would keep more paramedics in town to respond to Petaluma emergencies.

“I have no axe to grind with the fire department,” Healy said. “I have a great deal of respect for the importance of their mission…but this is a discussion we need to be having,” adding that he urged City Manager John Brown to renew talks with the firefighters’ union about the issue.

Anderson said the downtown sprinkler program was years from being fully implemented, in part because a large diameter water supply line on Petaluma Boulevard first needed to be installed, but has not been budgeted for.

“Any time a sprinkler goes off, it will hold a small fire in check, but it still requires a full first alarm response,” Anderson said, conceding that sprinklers did help mitigate fire damage and allowed fire engines to return to service quicker.

Asked about the possibility of using a private ambulance company to transport patients to hospitals beyond city limits, Anderson said that would require altering what’s known as an Exclusive Operating Area (EOA), an agreement between the city and the county on emergency services.

“If you start trying to change the scope of the services, you can become disqualified by state or county from being the exclusive operator of that area,” Anderson said. “If we violate the terms of the EOA, the services could be put up for bid for a private company and result in a loss of $20 millions over 10 years to the city.”

Councilwoman Tiffany Renee agreed that the city needed to restart discussions with the firefighters’ union about how to deal with both the overtime and the increase in call volume, which averages about 100 a week.

“We are seeing greater demands on our paramedics on the calls for service and some of that is due in part to the county’s cutbacks in certain services,” Renee said. “The city needs to look at those questions in terms of how we are going to meet those needs.”

Martin Learn, president of Firefighters' Local 1415, said the union was looking forward to sitting down with city officials to discuss the issue, but that it was important not to vilify public safety employees in the process.

"It’s a real popular thing right now to take shots at public safety, but our staffing is actually below what it needs to be," Learn said. "I understand that it’s expensive to have a certain number of firefighters, but it’s going to be more expensive if you drop that number and a big incident comes and we can’t take care of it."

Even though minimum staffing levels are widely used by fire departments, they are controversial because some view them as placing an unnecessary burden on salary costs to a city. There is also no law mandating the number of firefighters on duty at any given time, only a recommendation from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) that takes into account the call volume to dispatchers, the city’s population and distances.

There are an average of 40-50 structure fires a year, although firefighters also respond to medical calls, wildfires, traffic accidents and other emergencies.

And while no department has ever been sued for not following minimum staffing levels, Anderson says there is still a “potential for liability. “It’s a concern, especially with government being such a target in these difficult times.”

Another concern is that if there are fewer firefighters, the department will not be able to meet its response standard, which is to arrive within four minutes of a call 90 percent of the time. Currently, Petaluma firefighters respond within four minutes only 78 percent of the time, Anderson said.

Meanwhile, the Fire Department is working hard to fill vacancies and says overtime will be significantly reduced just as soon as those positions are filled. But they’ve had a hard time recruiting, despite a starting salary of $70,000 for firefighters and $77,000 for engineers/paramedics.

In Novato, for example, firefighter salaries start at $88,000, making Petaluma look less appealing, Anderson said.

"The city is facing unbelievable financial hardship and a lot of people are working hard to keep doing the services," Anderson said. "Where do the cuts come from? That’s a tough question. We are trying to balance an essential service against best practices and a national standard and how we deliver fire protection. There are no easy answers."