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Sacramento Firefighters: Revenue Solutions for the 2012 Deficit

Investing in the Fire Departments service delivery with innovative new solutions and expansion will benet City residents more than nding more ways to cut services. Building on current Sacramento emergency medical services can improve response times, patient quality of care and customer service to the City.
New Solutions What can the Fire Department do to increase revenue? New ideas details ways to improve service delivery and increase revenue to offset costs Page 2

Fire Department Growth Has the Fire Department been able to keep pace with the Citys growth over the last 30 years? Page 4

Fire Department Costs How efciently does the Fire Department currently operate? Page 5

Concessions How much have Sacramento Fireghters already given to nd solutions to the budget decits in recent years? Page 6

Response Times How well does Sacramento deliver its service to our residents? Do re station response times meet national standards? Page 8

Four Person Stafng Stafng cuts continue to be proposed by City Management. Are they really cost effective? Are the risks to our residents worth it? Page 9

SFD Fire Based EMS Solution

Continued growth in our emergency medical response and transport will fund the future. The medical industry continues to expand. Our Fire Based EMS transport system offers the City its best opportunity to grow, capture revenue and create partnerships in the booming health care industry.
Increase EMS fees to match surrounding transport agency rates
Currently the City of Sacramento has not increased fees to match those of our both public and private surrounding agencies. An increase of only $100 per transport would generate millions to provide funds for the additional employees and medic units to place in service. An increase of $100 would still be considerably less than surrounding transport agencies. An increase in medic units and size of our program would satisfy Proposition 26 requirements for fee increases.

The addition of three or more ambulances to our system

Currently the Sacramento Fire Department loses 4800 transports. This equates to almost $2.5 million annually to outside agencies. Adding three or more ambulances to our current system could capture 80% or more of those transports. On average, a Sacramento Fire Department ambulance captures over $1 million per year in revenue. Decrease overall ambulance response, improve service to our residents and reduce workload of our current overloaded system.

REVENUE: $2 to $4 million to offset expansion costs

REVENUE: $3 million or more from new revenue

SFD Revenue since 1990

$30 $25 in millions $20 $15 $10 $5 $0

28 22 17 4
2001 2005 2011 2012

1
1990

3
1996

Include AB 678 Revenue in Budget Projections for 2012 / 2013

Avoid Layoffs, Maintain SAFER Grant and Provide Quality Service

The AB 678 law states Expanding the that an eligible Sacramento Fire provider will receive Department ambulance supplemental Medi-Cal reimbursement, in program will provide the new revenue necessary addition to the rate of payment that the provider to eliminate budget reductions. would otherwise receive, for Medi-Cal ground No layoffs will allow the continued use of SAFER emergency medical transportation grant funds to keep an additional 27 Fireghters. services. (Passed 78-0 on September 6, 2011.) Additional revenues can fund future 2013/2014 Sacramento is an eligible provider and will SAFER grant labor costs receive retroactive pay of $4 - $6 million and supplemental annual payments of $2 - $3 million. Additional ambulances mean additional reghters on the street to decrease response Target start date: October 2012 times, increase customer service and deliver quality care to our residents.

REVENUE: $6 to $8 million in 2012

Provide additional jobs for residents that will boost economic activity in Sacramento.

Increasing EMS Fees and adding additional ambulances will increase the Sacramento Fire Departments revenue by millions of dollars annually. The AB678 revenue will arrive this scal year and should be included in budget projections for the re department. The Sacramento Fire Departments established system provides a great opportunity to expand services and job opportunities to our residents through the expanding health care industry

The Sacramento Fire Department funding has failed to keep pace with City growth and development.
Fire Department Population Served
435,189 457,889 501,068 516,167

334,783

367,100

Sacramentos population, area, hazards and responsibilities have increased annually. The population has doubled since the late 1970s yet there are less Fire Companies in the City.

19 85

19 90

19 95

20 00

20 05

Fire Department Call Volume

54904 44823 32448 57602 64749

68994

20 10

The Fire Departments calls for service have increased dramatically. The number has doubled since 1985 but SFD has fewer resources today.

19 85

19 90

19 95

20 00

20 05

Ratio of Suppression Firefighters to Population

3914 4301 5011

20 10

2700

2960

3715

3815

The ratio of daily residents to on duty reghters has steadily climbed every year. More cuts this year would leave us with one reghter working for every 5011 residents of Sacramento. This number doesnt include the over 100,000 workers who travel to Sacramento daily.

85

90

95

00

05

10

19

19

19

20

20

20

PHS PHS 2.1.5 Timing of Services. The City shall ensure that the development of re facilities and delivery of services keeps pace with the development and growth of the City. !
4

20

12

- City of Sacramento 2030 General Plan

Nullam arcu leo, facilisis ut

The Sacramento Fire Department continues to provide service at a low cost for City residents.
Costs for re department services are $187 per resident. Overtime costs per sworn FTE are $14,647, some of the lowest of comparable agencies. SFDs overtime costs equal 8.1% of FD budget. Again, one of the lowest. SFD revenue continues to rise from almost zero to nearly $22 million in 2011 and a projected $28 million in 2012. Sacramento Fire Department revenue is the 2nd highest in the General Fund.
FD Budget Per Capita
$300 $225 $150 $75 Long Beach Roseville Sac Metro Fresno Anaheim Oakland Sac City $0 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 Long Beach Roseville Sac Metro Oakland Fresno 28 22 17 15.0 7.5 Long Beach Roseville Sac Metro Oakland Sac City Fresno 0 0 0.5 1985 1990 1.8 1995 2012 0

OT Costs per Sworn FTE

OT Costs as % of FD Budget
15.00 11.25 7.50 3.75

FD Revenue by Year
30.0 22.5

2000

2005

2010

Sac City

Sacramento Fireghters continue to lead the way by nding new and innovative solutions to the Great Recession.
Fireghters in the City of Sacramento will contribute 6% of their salaries to their retirements. The reghters covered by the agreement also will delay a 5% raise that was due in 2008 ! ! ! - Sacramento Bee August 8, 2011

Despite having the lowest salary schedule amongst comparable agencies, Sacramento reghters have continued a deferral of a 5% COLA due in July 2009 and agreed to pay 6% of their PERS contribution in July 2011. The results: $3 million dollars in savings this calendar year from deferring the raise. $3.5 million savings is realized annually by Sacramento Fireghters leading the way in Pension reform. Millions of more savings since July 2009 with pay concessions, SAFER grant concessions, service cut reductions and brownouts.

An independent study in 2010 of the hourly wages of City employees found that:
83% of all represented City employees hourly wage is higher than the hourly wage of a Top Step Base Salary Fireghter EMT 72% of all represented City employees hourly wage is higher than that hourly wage of a Top Step Base Salary Fireghter Paramedic

An independent study of Sacramento Bee data in March 2011 examined reghter and police ofcer pay throughout the state. Some of the ndings include:
Annually, Sacramento reghters earn $24,000 less than the California state average. Sacramento reghters rank near the bottom of their contract comparable cities (only Fresno is lower) Sacramento reghters rank near the bottom of their regional comparable agency salaries (only West Sacramento is lower)

A recent study completed by Management Partners Group in May 2012 found that Sacramento Fireghters remain near the bottom of their comparable pay scales. With the exception of the Battalion Chief rank, every other re department rank had the lowest salary amount of all the cities used in the survey.
Salaries for Battalion Chiefs
$12,000 $9,000 $6,000 $3,000 Long Beach Roseville Sac Metro San Jose Oakland Fresno Median $0 Sac City $10,000 $7,500 $5,000 $2,500 Long Beach Sac Metro San Jose Roseville Oakland Median Fresno Roseville $0 Sac City Sac City

Salaries for Captains

Salaries for Engineers

$9,000 $6,750 $4,500 $2,250 Long Beach Sac Metro Roseville San Jose Oakland Fresno Median $0 Sac City $6,000 $4,500 $3,000 $1,500

Salaries for Firefighters

Long Beach

Sac Metro

San Jose

Oakland

Median

Fresno

$0

The National Fire Protection Standard for re department response is a travel time of 4 minutes or less , 90% of the time.
The Sacramento Fire Department does not have a single re station district that is served in compliance with the 90% standard. Most districts fail to meet the standard even 70% of the time.
Apparatus Travel Time Performance Analysis
100 % Travel Time 4 min or less 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 30 56 57 60 Fire Station Districts

89 88 78 71 73 55

Travel time in 4:00 min or less 90% of the time

64 54

71 72

65

69 49

68 60 56

65 66 56 56

63 55

PHS 2.1.2 Response Time Standards. The City shall strive to maintain appropriate emergency response times to provide optimum re protection and emergency medical services to the community. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! - City of Sacramento 2030 General Plan

Four Person Stafng continues to be the most cost effective and efcient means to provide Fire service delivery to large metropolitan cities.
Moving to three person stafng will increase costs to City residents. To provide the same level of service, an estimated additional 6 to 8 re companies would need to be added with the following estimated costs:
Eight new Fire Station facilities would cost an estimated $40 million dollars to build Eight new Engines or other Fire apparatus would cost an estimated $4 million dollars Twenty-four new Engineers would increase payroll costs by $216,000 annually Twenty-four new Captains would increase payroll costs by $480,000 annually Total costs would be close to $50 million dollars up front and almost $1 million in increase labor costs annually.

The 2010 NIST Report on Residential Fire Ground Field Experiments found that four-person crews were able to complete essential reghting and rescue tasks in a residential setting 25% faster than three-person crews.
PHS 2.1.3 Stafng Standards. The City shall maintain optimum stafng levels for sworn, civilian, and support staff, in order to provide quality re protection and emergency medical services to the community. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
- City of Sacramento 2030 General Plan

Four Person Stafng is the National Standard

Emergency Medical Response
Most experts agree that four responders are the minimum required to provide ACLS to cardiac arrest victims. Recognizing this, the NFPA states that advanced life support (ALS) emergency response deployments shall include a minimum of two members trained at the emergency medical technician- paramedic (EMT-P) level and two members trained at the emergency medical technician- basic (EMT-B) level arriving on scene within the established response time. If re ghters responding within 4 minutes of receiving an alarm initiate CPR, the probability of patient survival quadruples, from 4.6% to 18.2%. If those same re ghters are equipped and trained to provide debrillation, the expected survival rate is ve times greater at 25.8% Finally, if those re ghters are trained and equipped as paramedics, the survival rate is increased to 34.3% - nearly a sevenfold increase. The American Heart Association calls for a minimum of four responders to administer proper Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS).

Fire Suppression
Only those structure res located within an area where a sufcient number of personnel arriving with appropriate apparatus at a common destination within 4 minutes will receive the equipment and personnel required to initiate safe and effective re suppression and rescue operations in accordance with OSHA and NFPA. The goal is to extinguish the re before it can ashover. Flashover is a critical stage of re growth for two reasons. First, no unprotected living thing in a room where ashover occurs will survive and the chance of saving lives drops dramatically. Second, ashover creates a huge jump in the rate of combustion, and a signicantly greater amount of water is needed to reduce the burning material below its ignition temperature. A post-ashover re burns hotter and moves faster, requires more resources for re attack, and compounds the problems of search and rescue, exposure protection, and containment. It warrants emphasizing that the ability of the Fire Department to assemble a sufcient number of reghters to initiate 2 In/2 Out re suppression and rescue activities occurs within 4 minutes. It is very likely that the rst-in company may arrive in signicantly less time than the second-in company. This lag time between the arrival of units is signicant in that if staffed with less than four re ghters, the initial arriving company is unable to perform re and rescue operations in accordance with the 2 In/2 Out regulation.

Over 90% of the sixty largest cities in the United States staff their Engine and Truck companies with 4 people or more.