Agenda Packets - 2019/07/01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Spring Lake Park —Blaine — Mounds View Memorandum To: City Administrators From: SBMFD Leadership Team Re: Public Fire Educator, Full-time Justification Statement Date: May 10, 2019 The transition of Mrs. Booker's position is due to several factors. The largest of which is due to Becky's verbal intent to retire in 2019. This retirement announcement provided command staff with an opportunity to analyze and strategize objectives for the future. It has been on the radar for several years to increase dedication of FTE time toward community risk reduction (i.e. fire prevention efforts). While we have reorganized full-time staff over the past several years, those shifts did not result in more FTE commitment to fire prevention. We would like to foremost point to our mission and vision statement. Both of which cite fire prevention and public education as the core of our organization — before suppression (firefighting) activities. Sticking to these principles is the primary reason we have been able to operate with our unique model. As you are well aware, we credit our low call volume, fire loss, and efficient model to the two - decade+ commitment to fire prevention. A model that many departments now reach out to us for advice and support in implementing. It is with regret that our prevention efforts have reached a plateau in recent years. Much of this is due to the following factors: • Increased population, commercial business development, requests for service, and demands of the fire department beyond prevention that require staff attention. None of these issues are going away and will likely increase as other essential services cannot be provided or are no longer available. We pride ourselves in being able to offer the most efficient, proactive and innovative solutions to fire prevention efforts — but are only able to do that with adequate staff support. In recent years, Mrs. Booker has not been able to keep up with the workload from years prior and newer demands/requests have gone unmet. • Additionally, we have hired numerous part-time staff over the years to fill the void in our fire prevention division. With bolstered effort and emphasis over the past 24 months, we have been unable to find suitable applicants to fill those types of positions. Fewer applicants are available during daytime hours when an increasing number of services are requested. Also, the hourly rate and pension opportunities are less desirable to applicants than they once were. We have decreased from 8 PT staff at one point to now 5 active educators. As part of a solution, we have changed our firefighter minimum requirements to include a portion of community risk reduction activities. However, we do this with extreme caution as they are already required to meet increasing demands on other avenues. We do not believe it effective to increase or shift firefighter requirements any more than we did in January 2019. Because we have been unable to fill part-time