Pencil Pushers Have Gone 3 Years Without a Raise

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, CITY MANAGER Troy Schulte presented his proposed budget to the City Council members on Tuesday.  His $1.3 billion proposal includes a lot of cutbacks in several city services, but the one measure that has raised eyebrows is his suggestion to lay off 105 firefighters.  He told the Kansas City Star, as Kansas City’s economy remains stubbornly sluggish, firefighters should no longer be untouchable. "We have to make strategic reductions in public safety," he said.

City Manager Schulte  (K.C. Star)

In a most absurd justification, he is also quoted by the Star:

His budget letter to (Mayor) James recommended reducing the Fire Department by 105 positions because fire calls have dropped by more than 60 percent in the past 10 years. He said he believes the reductions can be made without jeopardizing public safety.

So there you have it.  The number of firefighters and fire stations is to be determined by how many fires you get, not what you need when get a fire.  By his logic, all the firehouses will then be clustered around the high-activity neighborhoods leaving those slow residential areas to stand in the front yard and watch as their rare house fires consume all they own.  As for the airport… well, a hot-line phone box will do.  How often does a plane crash out there, anyway?

But as the late Ron Popeil used to say, Wait, there's more!  Again from The Star:

Those personnel cuts would help free up about $7.6 million — money that could go toward raises for other city employees. Many of them haven’t had a pay increase in three years.

No raise in three years, but at least they'll still have a job.  This is budgetary Russian roulette.

Note:   He earmarked $5 million for police raises and the balance for other management-level employees.

The City Council at its regular session today  (Wednesday) publicly reviewed the proposed budget.  The Local had exactly 105 firefighters in the council chambers this morning making their presence obvious.  KSHB-TV Ch. 41 had their video crew there too, and filed this report earlier today:

Local 42 President Mike Cambiano believes that this just might be some sort of dance and preening on the part othe city manager leading up to contract negotiations with the FF's that begin in April.  In addition, the fire chief was never consulted by the city manager on these proposed reductions.

Later this afternoon, following the above video report, Fire Chief Smokey Dyer addressed the Council.  The Star reported this afternoon:

Dyer told the city council’s Public Safety Committee that Chicago, Memphis, Louisville, Dallas and Houston are among major U.S. cities that require at least four firefighters per pumper, in compliance with national fire protection standards. That staffing allows two people in the first pumper on the scene to begin spraying water on a fire, while two others can begin attacking the fire within a building and rescuing any victims.

Chief Dyer  (KCUR)

Kansas City began increasing its firefighting ranks and staffed up its pumpers ten years ago to meet that standard. But City Manager Troy Schulte has recommended cutting 105 firefighters, saying the city has far fewer fires now and can save $7.5 million without compromising public safety.

Such a reduction would force deployment changes and reductions to the pumpers, Dyer said.

Mayor James will present his response to Schulte's plan tomorrow.  However one councilman didn't wait to voice his opinion:

Committee Chair John Sharp said the city made a conscious decision in 2001 to beef up its pumper staffing and he opposes any change. He said the fire department has to accept cuts like all other departments, but not this way.

“I can’t imagine a worse way to make cuts in the budget,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/08/3417307/fire-officials-warn-cutbacks-could.html#storylink=cpy

The City Council will approve whatever budget is decided on in late March for the fiscal year that begins on May 1.

Read the earlier referenced story from the Kansas City Star HERE.
Read a more in-depth report on the city manager's plans HERE.

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Save Money and Fight Fires (or something like that)

THE CITY OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, HAS DIRECTED the Fire Chief Laura Knapp to cut spending 10% over the next three years.  So she has come up with a plan that the City Council loves to hear.  So much so that yesterday morning (Tuesday) they unanimously approved the plan and gave her the go-ahead to start implementing it.

The city has 11 fire stations and Knapp plans to replace the fire engines in three of them with "Quick Response Vehicles" (QRV's), described by the fire department as "basically a Dodge chassis with a box on the back" for a 300-gallon water tank and compressed-air foam system.

This GRFD drawing looks an awful lot like THIS ONE:

SGVN photo

The selling points for this conversion are first of all, replacement costs of $873,000 for all three units compared to a comparable price for one real fire engine. 

Secondly, the QRV's will only carry two firefighters instead of the three or four currently riding on the real fire engines.  This will allow the department to operate with 12 fewer firefighters, music to a councilman's ears.  Twelve is the magic number because the SAFER grant that the FD received to fund 12 positions runs out in three years and apparently the city does not have plans to retain those slots.

Chief Knapp projects a total savings of $21 million over the next 15 years once the plan goes into effect.

The Grand Rapids Press tells us:

Knapp hopes they will help the fire department maintain existing service levels in the face of coming staffing cuts.

About 89 percent of current fire-service calls are handled by a single unit, Knapp said. The "quick-response" units could handle those calls, she said.

"We need to better align our resources with these single-unit calls to ensure our performance is maintained (as we reduce firefighters to cut costs)," Knapp said. "Right now we don’t have a lot of flexibility in our deployment. The (‘quick-response vehicle’) is the answer for our current rigid operational system."

The firefighters themselves aren't convinced yet that fewer fire engines and fewer FF's will translate into "maintaining existing service levels."  William Smith, president of the Local tells the GR Press,  "If they’re rolled out, we’ll do what we’re told to do. There’s a question of how effective they’ll be."

WZZM-TV filed this brief video report:

Full report in the Grand Rapids Press HERE.
Local President Smith speaks more about their skepticism HERE.

Firegeezer notes:  These things became popular back in the great recession of the late 1970's.  Back then they were called "mini-pumpers" and were introduced with the same promises we're hearing from Grand Rapids.  Several dozens of fire departments jumped into the concept, but within three years they were all back to Plan A.  Why do people think it will magically start working now?  Or is this just a gimmick to get the budgeteers to turn their focus onto another agency?

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Ruminations on outcome based research

Spent time as a first-line supervisor on a haz-mat rescue company, when being a "glo worm" was new and cool.

The first response with the rescue was weird. A box alarm dispatch to a mid-rise senior facility was sending four engines, two trucks, an ems unit and the rescue … and my crew was S-L-O-W-L-Y walking to the rig.

Was this a test for the new officer?

Welcome to the Toast Patrol

The chauffer explained that they ran this address two to four times a day. The first due company is a few blocks away.

On almost every incident the first engine is returning the box alarm assignment within a few minutes.

It would be the first of hundreds of times the rescue would pull out into traffic, with me wailing the 2QB and stuttering the air horns. We drove the length of the shopping center parking lot next to the fire station before going in service.

Pretty dumb – why not just send the first engine and truck?

Apparently, we used to … until a 1+1 dispatch during a severe winter storm became a two alarm fire with rescue of an occupant in the fire apartment.

Looking at the details

The mid-rise facility was constructed in 1973, before fire sprinkers were required by the code to be installed within the apartments.

Built in an "in-field" property, truck company access to the rear of the building is tight.

The facility has almost 300 bedrooms.

A smoke detector is mounted in the kitchen, near the refridgerator. Every extra crispy toast and overbrewed teapot generated an alarm … breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Lean Manufacturing Model

Dylan Scott, writing in the February 2012 issue of Governing magazine, described the application of best practices by Patricia Gabow, MD, to improving Denver Health operations.

The lean manufacturing model is based on five principles, according to the Lean Enterprise Institute:

1. Identify the value of the product for the customer
2. Map the process for creating the product and eliminate elements without value
3. Create a flow for the value-creating steps
4. Let customers pull value from that flow
5. Begin the process again and seek perfection.

Put more simply, it’s about eliminating wasteful actions. Anything that doesn’t add value for the ultimate customer is considered wasteful. “The philosophy is that waste is disrespectful to humanity because it squanders scarce resources, and waste is disrespectful to individuals because it asks them to do work with no value,” Gabow says. “We’ve added that waste is disrespectful to our patients because it asks them to endure processes with no value.”

Denver Health Becomes Profitable After Using Toyota As A Template

It it valuable to send seven fire companies two to four times a day for extra-crispy toast?

Wonder what the cost comparison and risk analysis would be if we placed a fire-rescue person at the facility to immediately respond to activated fire alarms? Maybe an ems credentialed responder with AED?

An example from Denver Health Medical Center:

Lean also inspired a restructuring of the Denver Health Medical Center’s rapid response system for patients who go into cardiac arrest. At most hospitals, a dedicated team is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for rapid response, and temporarily assume care of those patients from their primary nurses and doctors.

But in applying the lean principles, the medical center’s staff recognized an opportunity to cut costs while ensuring continuity of care. A regular assessment schedule was established for nurses to monitor their patients, and criteria were developed for nurses to determine if a patient was at risk. Then a specific protocol was outlined for staff to follow if a nurse made that determination, providing guidelines for moving up the chain of command if the immediate attending physician is not available or the patient’s condition did not improve.

An analysis by Denver Health staff found that the number of non-ICU cardiac arrest incidents decreased significantly following the implementation of the new procedures. And it bestowed rapid response responsibilities on staff members who were already working, rather than requiring an entirely separate team.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

This post dedicated to Technician Mark Baban, Rescue 401, B-shift. You left too soon.

No Chance to React

THE FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA (near Erie) FIRE CHIEF and Assistant Fire Chief were traveling to a training session at 7 pm Thursday evening when a car coming the opposite direction crossed the center of the roadway and struck them head-on.

David Flint  (WICU-TV)

The crash killed Chief David Flint and seriously injured Asst. Chief Sharon Petri.  The driver of the other car, Joshua Nickerson, 29, was treated for minor injuries and released.

The Erie Times-News adds:

Flint was taken to UPMC Hamot, where he was pronounced dead at 8:14 p.m. An autopsy conducted Friday determined that Flint died of blunt-force trauma to the trunk, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said.

WFXP-TV

Flint was not wearing a seat belt, state police said. A passenger in Flint's car, 40-year-old Sharon C. Petri, of Edinboro, also was unbelted, police said. Petri was taken from the accident scene to UPMC Hamot. She was listed in fair condition on Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Nickerson was taken to Hamot for treatment of moderate injuries. He was later released from the hospital. Nickerson was wearing a seat belt, police said.

Flint had been the fire chief for six years.

WJET-TV has more plus a good video report HERE.

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This Time Was a Record-Setter

A FORMER SOMERSET COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, VFD president was sentenced Tuesday after admitting that he had stolen $820,000 from his fire company.  Henry Swincinski, 61, was president of the Windber Volunteer Fire Company from 2002 through 2010 when he pilfered the funds using his authority to access the bank account.  He had been a member of the VFC for 35 years.

The Somerset Daily American reports:

Swincinski was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in Somerset County Jail followed by seven years of supervised probation for 56 counts of theft by deception, all third-degree felonies. He must perform 200 hours of community service when he is released. (He was also ordered to repay the FD $810,000 restitution…..ed.)

In February 2010 Paint Township police charged Swincinski with 974 counts in two cases that involved taking funds meant for the fire company and Northern EMS and putting them in his own pocket. The multiple charges were for the offenses of theft by deception, receiving stolen property and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received from 2002 through 2010.

When the department was suddenly not paying its bills, Swincinski blamed it on the "hard times" and told the members that they would have to hold more fundraisers and make more money.

The Windber Fire Company was organized in 1899.

Read the detailed report in the Daily American HERE.
Windber Fire Company WEBSITE.

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GPS smartphone app + ambucycles = immediate response

Among the high-minded discusion and topless protest at the World Economic Forum in Davos was a presentation by Eli Beer, Chief Coordinator of United Hatzalah (Rescue).

Creating a Network of Heros describes the process of empowering 1,700 volunteers in Israel to immediately respond to a life-threatening medical emergency.

United Hatzalah's ambucycles are a solution when ambulances that needs to arrive quickly to save lives are unable to travel through congested traffic.

The volunteers have an ambucycle with AED and first aid kit. They have a GPS application in their smart phone that displays the location of the emergency

From their website:

United Hatzalah of Israel is an independent non-profit fully volunteer Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Organization that assists in responding to medical emergencies throughout Israel.

The primary role of United Hatzalah volunteers – trained and certified as EMTs, Paramedics and MD’s – is to provide an immediate response within 2-4 minutes from the onset of an incident: establishing a life-saving bridge of medical care; transmitting vital information to control centers and once the local ambulance service arrives, working alongside its crew to enable a swift transfer to hospital. United Hatzalah's education department is an innovative leader in the fields of public health, safety and accident prevention training.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Godspeed to the members of the Pontiac, Michigan, Fire Department

April 23, 1883 – January 31, 2012

After nearly 180 years, "Pontiac Fire Department" will no longer be the name on the side to the engines or on the front of the Stations, but it will be the name that every pontiac fire fighter past and present will never forget because it is in our heart and soul.

Once a pontiac fire fighter always a pontiac fire fighter.

http://youtu.be/CL8MHzpSTPE

Pontiac Fire Department's Last Day

PONTIAC (WXYZ) – A lot of history hangs in the halls of Pontiac’s main fire station. Pictures showcase the brave men who risk their lives daily for their community.

Tuesday, a photographer documented the last day the building will be running as part of the Pontiac Fire Department.

Wednesday morning, the Waterford Fire Department will take over and respond to calls in the city of Pontiac. A decision made by an Emergency Manager to cut costs.

Read more of Tara Edwards article HERE

History of the Pontiac Fire Department

http://youtu.be/noBc9aC-G-w

According to the agreement, the top 13 Pontiac firefighters will be granted the opportunity to take early retirement rather than working until their 25th year. The 44 remaining firefighters are eligible for employment with Waterford Township. The city of Pontiac will grant them one-time bonuses of up to $15,000.

Leslie Shepard (2012 January 4) Pontiac firefighters accept Waterford service pact. SpinalColumn

There were 57 Pontiac firefighters. Tara Edward's article today stated that 42 firefighters got jobs at Waterford.

In the FY 2009 – 2010 budget there were 103 approved positions, shrinking to 80 positions in the FY 2010 – 2011 budget. 22 of the 23 positions eliminated were firefighters.

In 2010 the city police department was disbanded, replaced with Oakland County sheriffs.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Volume 2, Issue 1, hits the intertubes

Dear Blue Card Subscribers:

Check out B Shifter’s latest installment at http://bshifter.com/SelectMagazines.aspx.

Our latest installment features Joe Starnes discussing flashover causes and prevention. Some firefighting friends from Oz talk about the Australian fire service—complete with a lessons-learned tale of communications gone wrong. Bruno introduces two new reader-response columns, and Vincent Dunn discusses fire-supression techniques in single-family residences. Lots of free downloads! Take a look!

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

A summer resort town grows up

A cryptic post in TheWatchDesk (TWD) indicates the end of an Eastern Shore tradition.

This is first post from 73fire74. TWD is more known for busting chops than breaking news, but ….

No announcement posted on the city's employment page. 

We posted last year's job annoucement on January 5. (Mark Brady, PGFD PIO, took this surf rescue picture while off-duty.)

Work at 'da Shore

The town has been growing, and the combined efforts of the volunteers and career fire-ems seem to result in significant growth of the department.

New station and new rigs

A new Station 5 replaced a garage-with-a-toilet in West Ocean City, dedicated in September 2011.

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Two KME Predator pumpers were delivered in December:

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New Engine 2 and Engine 1 (OC announcement).

These rigs join the 2009 KME's assigned to Engine 16 and Engine 4.

There also is a fireboat under construction, a first for the town.

Pretty cool!

Mike "Fossilmedic" Ward, a seasonal employee in 1974.

A "back in the day" reflection in  Beach Patrol First Responders (August 21. 2007)

Correction: The 2011 surf rescue picture was taken by PGFD PIO Mark Brady, picked up by WUSA9 for article. Thanks to Dave Statter for keeping me accurate! Other pictures from OCVFD website.

"What?  That's Not Allowed?"

THE ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF OF THE BRISTOL, Ohio, Fire Department was placed on paid administrative leave last Thursday night following allegations that he was spying on firefighters using the built-in webcams on FD computers.

Asst. Chief Steve Craiger was told at the end of his shift Thursday evening that he was being placed on leave and he was surprised and confused because he was not told why this was being done.  "I don't know what they're talking about. I haven't even been given that information," he said.

A. C. Craiger – Bristol FD website photo

The Warren Tribune-Chronicle reported yesterday:

Craiger, a firefighter with the department since 1982, was placed on administrative leave during an emergency trustees meeting Thursday. A statement was read at the trustees regular meeting Tuesday night to confirm the investigation. Trumbull County sheriff's deputies will see if criminal charges are warranted related to wiretapping, eavesdropping and any other privacy rights violations, according to trustees.

The statement read Tuesday night said the investigation began after complaints ''that fire department personnel believed their personal activities and conversations while working at the department were being subject to video and / or audio surveillance.''

Firefighters told the chief and trustees that they believed that cameras on fire department computers were configured to remotely video and or audio record departmental personnel without their knowledge.

Trustee Douglas Seemann, reading the prepared statement, said that Craiger was suspected, was placed on leave, and that pending the investigation, no further comments on the matter would be made.

Everyone in the department from the chief on down are completely surprised by this turn of events because Craiger was not only a popular co-worker, but he had accomplished many postive achievements for the department thoughout his career.

The Tribune Chronicle reviews Craigers record in the department in their detailed STORY HERE.

Firegeezer comments that while this appears on the surface to perhaps be unfounded, the Trustees are taking swift and certain actions, indicating that there is more to this story than is being told publicly.  I recall that about 10 or so years ago some school system that had purchased laptops for students to use had similarly jiggered the webcams to be remotely activated so that the school authorities could watch and listen to the students while they were in their homes.

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