05-11-11 Council Workshop Minutes

Home Browse Search

MINUTES CITY COUNCIL MAY 11, 2011 Intent Call; and False Alarm & False Call. The Chief noted the significant loss that occurred as a result of the Canabury Square fire in 2010. The Chief reported that the when the Unweave The Weave project got underway, Little Canada Fire Department began working with the Vadnais Heights Fire Department in responding to freeway calls in order to maximize response times. The Department also began working with the Roseville Fire Department in responding to calls on Rice Street given the Rice Street bridge reconstruction. The Chief then provided an explanation of the auto aid and mutual aid agreements that the Little Canada Fire Department has with adjacent cities, noting the 2010 statistics outlined in his report. The auto aid system decreases the response time for a chief officer to arrive on the scene which is helpful in structure fires and daytime calls. Blesener noted that about 32% of the department's calls are false alarms or false calls. The Chief replied that that is correct. 2010 ACTUAL First Assistant Chief Steve Morelan reviewed in detail 2010 actual OPERATING operating expenses of the Fire Department. He noted that the 2010 EXPENSES Budget amount was $275,964.33, and actual expenses were $343,207.53, $67,243.20 over budget. However, $14,313.84 was the expense associated with outfitting the new truck that was purchased in 2009, and $66,954.78 was for the remodeling of the Fire Station office area, the co detector program, and the monument sign at the station. These expenses were outside the budget and paid for by the Fire Department. Therefore, the end result is that the Department was approximately $14,000 under budget for 2010. The Assistant Chief then highlighted the various line items that showed significant differences from the budgeted amount. With regard to the variance for Workers Compensation Insurance, the City Administrator reported that he will be working the LMCIT relative to their rate structure for Work Comp hoping for some improvement in these rates. With regard to costs associated with telephone and internet service, the Administrator reported that the City is looking to join Roseville's system and the Fire Department will also be looking at this system. It is hoped that going to Roseville's IP telephony system will save some dollars. Blesener asked how the 2011 year -to -date actual is tracking with the budget. The Assistant Chief noted that the Department's expenses do not come in evenly over the course of the year, so there is no way to determine if expenses are on track with the budget. It was noted that there have been approximately 60 fire calls so far this year. 2