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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFIN 2020-02-24 Item 1D - Handout Distributed at Meeting - 2/24/20 Staff MemorandumCity of Tukwila Allan Ekberg, Mayor INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM TO: Tukwila City Council FROM: Jay C. Wittwer, Fire Chief BY: Jay C. Wittwer, Fire Chief CC: Allan Ekberg, Mayor and David Cline, City Administrator DATE: 02/24/2020 SUBJECT: Adjustments made to Fire Department Budget for 2020 ISSUE The Fire Department has made changes to expenditures for the 2020 budget year. An outline of the efforts made during the first two months of the year will be outlined in this memo. BACKGROUND The Fire Department manages the annual budget through a process that ensures that the core services are realized. The core services include minimum staffing per shift at 13 personnel. The other core services include fire prevention and fire investigation services. These core services provide a level of safety to the community. The City Council approves all department budgets within the city of Tukwila. The Finance Department leads the efforts in developing each of these budgets and each of the department directors assist with details of the individual budgets. The Mayor is responsible for the operations of the overall services provided to the community and that the city as a whole is to remain within the adoptive budget for each year. The Fire Department Administrative Team has committed to remain within the adoptive budget for 2020. In the past ten years the Fire Department has required a budget amendment that increases that adopted budget each year. There have been reasons for these increases, however most years have been centered on Salaries/Benefits and Overtime. DISCUSSION The Fire Department has adopted the following changes to the 2020 Budget Educatinq the Command Staff and all Officers: The Fire Department Administrative Staff has traditionally managed the budget for the Fire Department. Efforts have been made to include the Command Staff every month to discuss, educate and empower the Battalion Chiefs to manage budgets. Shift Budgets: in December of 2019 schedules were developed and shared with each of the shift Battalion Chiefs. Each shift is expected to remain within the budget set for 2020. The Battalion Chiefs are to review budgets with the captains and all crews. On January 10, 2020 an all officers meeting was held to educate the officers on the budget and to provide clear expectations concerning accountability of the budget. The Mayor and City Administrator attended this meeting. A video was recorded and shared with all Fire Department personnel shortly after the meeting. INFORMATIONAL MEMO Fire Prevention: is expected to remain within the budget set for 2020. Efforts have been made in the past year to bring efficiencies within that office and to address services that have not met the needs of the community. Vacant positions: Two support staff positions have not been filled, one in each of the following divisions; Emergency Management and Fire Prevention. These two positions became vacant during 2019. The savings from these un-filled positions are cost saving measures, however service levels have been affected within the Emergency Management Division and Fire Prevention Division. Consulting Services: Habile and Prothman are two consulting services brought into this process. Habile is the vendor selected to meet one of the provisos of the City Council. Prothman provided a fire service professional (Marcus Kragness) to review and advise the Fire Chief regarding best practices within the fire service. Training expenditures: Boat Program Training_ for past ten years the Fire Department has provided training to a select group of boat operators within department. With the current status of the boat program within the city, all training has been suspended. Most of this training was done on duty with no overtime costs incurred however, there has been a small amount of overtime from time to time during the past ten years. For the budget year 2020 no boat training will be conducted. Rescue Team Training: all rescue type overtime incurred training has been suspended. There is rescue training that is provided through the training consortium. This training is conducted to on duty personnel only, no overtime is incurred. In the past up to $50,000.00 has been spent on rescue team training, most of this was off duty overtime expenditures. The goal is to have zero dollars spent on rescue training during 2020. Mandatory Training: All mandatory training is being identified and cataloged. This includes the following; WAC 296-305, JATC, Blue -card, Peer Support, vehicle operators and health/safety. These types of training are required either by National, State or Local Standards. Much of this training is conducted on duty, however there are cases where overtime costs are needed to provide this training. All other training has been suspended, noted above. Staffing Software tracking: The Fire Department has placed a new staffing management software program into service during 2019. Starting January 1, 2020 all regular and overtime entries are coded in a manner that provides the ability to track all staffing costs in detail. FINANCIAL IMPACT With these changes to the Fire Department budget tracking and adjustment efforts, the overall goal is to better track costs and to bring the ending fund balance for the Fire Department 2020 budget within the adopted budget as approved by the City Council. If a budget amendment is needed before the end of this year, these tracking efforts will bring clarity to the City Council concerning the status of service levels and the Fire Department Budget. RECOMMENDATION This is for information only, no recommendation offered. 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