Hiring freeze part of plan to get fire district through hard times

A hiring freeze and increasing contingency funds are two of more than 90 recommendations in a plan to stabilize the East Fork Fire & Paramedic Districts' budget over the next 18 months.

Setting aside more money for reserve, contingency, and emergency funding was one of the main focuses in the plan. The districts will be increasing their reserve capacity in the paramedic district by $100,000 to a fund balance of $350,000.

The contingency fund will be taken to its state-allowed maximum of 3 percent of total operational costs, while the districts established a goal of $850,000 in its emergency fund. The current fund balance is $770,000.

The fund is used to pay fire suppression costs in the event of a major urban interface fire, such as the 1996 Autumn Hills Fire or the 2007 Sleeping Elephant Fire.

Major changes in federal wildland firefighting policy and the application of cost share agreements have put a financial burden on local governments to fund fire suppression cost in the urban interface.

"This plan is designated to reinforce the districts' financial status and brace for the financial impacts, which may result from the 2009 Legislature, and for further economic downturns, contract negotiations, and other unforeseen expenses," Districts Chief Tod Carlini said.

"A significant change in demographic composition, a lack of truly affordable housing, a depressed area job market, and increased training requirements, are all impacting the districts' ability to recruit and retain volunteer personnel," Carlini said. "The decline of volunteer firefighting personnel on a national level is about 3 to 4 percent per year. Over a 5-year period, the East Fork Fire and Paramedic Districts have seen an approximate drop in volunteer personnel of about 40 percent or 8 percent per year during that same time period."

The plan also places a hiring freeze on new line personnel for at least a year and postpones the hiring of a fuels management position until January 2010, unless the position can be funded with federal grants. Personnel costs for the districts now account for more than 62 percent of the total operational budget.

The district will also be developing and implementing a minimum staffing policy and a vacation use policy, designed to slow overtime expenditures. While the districts still boast a viable volunteer program, the districts will still need to continue to expand its paid personnel roster over the next several year, Carlini said.

A portion of the budget plan addresses the recruitment of volunteers, expanding opportunities for volunteers in support roles and encourages some volunteer stations to consider areas of response specialization, such as water tender support, truck operations, and incident rehabilitation as examples.

Carlini said some stations have already begun to embrace station specialization. Genoa Volunteer Fire Chief, Bill Hutchison has for several years advocated water tender operations as a specialty for Station 3 in Genoa.

Station 7 Volunteer Chief, Bob Spellberg in the Gardnerville Ranchos is working to establish his personnel abilities to staff and respond the districts primary ladder truck. In southern Douglas County, the district is relocating a larger water tender to Fire Station 5 in Topaz Lake to allow that station to specialize in water tender operations as well.

The plan was approved by Douglas County commissioners sitting as the district's board of directors. It focused on 15 areas and made more than 90 recommendations. Several recommendations establish policy for the development of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Other areas addressed, included solicitation of proposals for the districts' property and liability insurances. One of the single largest expenditures made on an annual basis is liability and property insurance. All other outside service agreements and contracts will be reviewed, Carlini said.

Restrictions were also recommended and approved on capital purchase and acquisitions. Those included restricting apparatus purchases for 18 months with the exception of an ambulance in September. The districts will continue to pursue the purchase of more than $100,000 in radio equipment necessary to meet federal requirements on narrow band frequencies, but more importantly to increase firefighter safety by assuring better and standardized communications devices.

The districts will also continue to pursue apparatus refurbishments as necessary and will also aggressively pursue both state and federal grants as they become available.

In the past 10 years, the districts received more than $1.5 million in grants.