City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: JUNE 17, 2015
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of an Update on Hiring of Firefighters for Engine 210 and Request for Release of Contingent Reserve Funding for Overhires.
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ISSUE: Overhire update and staffing of Engine 210
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
(1) Receive a presentation from the Fire Department on the status of the hiring process, and
(2) Designate the $1,295,000 in FY 2016 contingent reserves be released to the FY 2016 Fire Department Operating Budget for employing 20 overhires for the purpose of staffing Engine 210 as soon as feasible.
BACKGROUND: As part of the FY 2016 budget discussions, City Council allocated $1,295,000 to contingent reserves and requested staff to propose options on how to best staff Engine 210 as soon as feasible and return to Council with a hiring plan that could be implemented in FY 2016.
Fire Department staff provided a presentation to City Council on October 28, 2014, outlining the Fire Chief's long-term vision for the Department. In this briefing, the Chief outlined that his proposed plan was to move towards having all medic positions in the Fire Department eventually become cross-trained firefighters. As outlined in the presentation, this change would allow for staffing Engine 210 without adding additional full time employees.
As part of this long-term cross-training proposal, the Department also outlined that all 73 single-role medic positions need to be cross-trained before the full benefits of the system, including staffing Engine 210 within existing positions, can be realized. Staffing Engine 210 will take four positions per shift for three shifts for a total of 12 positions plus a relief factor when one or more of these 12 positions takes...
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