10/16/2001 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 10/16/2001 firefighters union at that time. He strongly supports firefighters, and he strongly supports firefighter unions, especially the fact that we do need a staff that's professional and we don't need to contract out. Unfortunately, Council at that time didn't see fit to put it on the ballot. The thing that concerns him is that over the yeazs, the position of firefighter has changed. Twenty years ago, firefighters were not responding to every automobile accident as they do now. Consequently, those figures aze going to pump up. In his eyes, the issue is not necessarily an administrative issue solely, but is also a councilmanic issue as charters in other cities have minimum staffing numbers for police and fire departments. Council needs to sit down and determine whether they need to up or create a position in the charter or in legislation that will decry a minimum staffing standard, which then needs to be adhered to. If it's a matter of public negotiations of how things are going to be stared administratively, those aze probably best left behind closed doors. But he heard the firefighters asking both Council and the administration to work together to improve the situation. In his mind, it would probably require looking at the charter and seeing if perhaps the minimum standard is being met or whether it should be increased or even put in place. Safety Director Jenkins said the safety forces aze a vital link to our safety and security in the community, in the state, in the nation. That's evidenced, and our hearts go out to everybody in the fire service that lost people in New York. But the biggest realization for Americans today is that it is not the cradle we thought it was, and things aze popping up everyday. People in America aze concerned. They're on the edge of their seat waiting for the next shoe to drop, and the firefighters aze at the pinnacle of resolving that. With regard to other plans president Boatman asked about, other plans aze how will we implement and how will we fund. The firefighters stepped forwazd tonight. Other plans may be a police plan--they would like increased staffing. There could be other divisions of the city that would like increased staffing. However, we all fall back to about a $23 million general fund that has to be shared. He met with the Fire Department in July of 2000 and named a number of variables related to staffing of the Fire Department: annexation, increased territory to cover; OSHA law, two in and two out; the number of runs per year; the daytime population caused by the influx of people at our corporate center, hotels, high-rises; our ratio of firefighters to population and firefighters to structures and making comparatives to other cities; assisted living buildings which seem to have a predominance of increased runs; the mean age and the median age of our firefighters on staff; ISO ratings, which are insurance ratings that set our rates for insurance in the city; the age and type of structures that we have; the history/evolution of our Fire Departmenrt with increased staffings in 19?5, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988, 1990 and 2001; NFPA 1710; the industrial parkway and increased industrialization of the west end. There are a number of factors that go into this, so it's no simple solution. He does have some compazatives on other cities that he will share with Council. But he thinks the best thing is for a discussion at Safety Committee or meeting of Council and the administration because it is an issue that does not have a simple answer. 10