PS COMMITTEE #2 April 29, 2021 Revised Worksession MEMORANDUM April 26, 2021 TO
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PS COMMITTEE #2 April 29, 2021 Revised Worksession M E M O R A N D U M April 26, 2021 TO: Public Safety Committee FROM: Susan J. Farag, Legislative Analyst SUBJECT: Worksession: FY22 Operating Budget and FY21-26 CIP Amendments Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) PURPOSE: Vote on Recommendations for Council’s Consideration Those expected for this worksession: Chief Scott Goldstein, MCFRS Dominic Del Pozzo, Division Chief, MCFRS Rachel Silberman, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Budget Summary • There are no proposed service cuts in the FY22 Recommended Operating Budget. • There are 10 new Paramedic Training Positions that help address understaffing. • There are one new Paramedic Chase Car and one new Daywork Ambulance to enhance EMS Service Delivery. • The Fire Department audit will be split into two studies, one for operations and one for racial equity and social justice, at a total cost of $200,000. • The Executive’s March 15 amendments to the Capital Improvements Program has minor adjustments to several projects. Overview For FY22, the County Executive recommends total expenditures of $232,685,066 for MCFRS, a 3.5% increase from the FY21 Approved Budget of 224,995,408. FY20 FY21 FY22 CE % Change Actual Approved Recommended FY21-22 Expenditures by fund Fire Tax District $244,508,043 $224,869,427 $232,685,066 3.5% Grant Fund $3,355,713 $125,981 $0 -100.0% TOTAL Expenditures $247,863,756 $224,995,408 $232,685,066 3.4% Positions: Full-time 1317 1318 1,327 0.7% Part-time 0 0 0 -- TOTAL Positions 1317 1318 1327 0.7% TOTAL FTEs 1318.26 1319.26 1,328.26 0.7% The FY20 County Executive’s recommendation is a net increase of $7,815,639. This net increase stems from the following changes with service impacts: FY22 Changes with Service Impacts Add 10 Paramedic Training Positions $763,277 Add Daywork Ambulance to Enhance EMS Transport Capacty $641,496 Add Paramedic Chase Car to improve ALS Service Delivery $637,193 Add MCFRS Audit for RESJ and Resource Deployment $200,000 Continue Cell Phone Deployment on all Apparatus $137,000 NET SERVICE IMPACT ADJUSTMENT TOTAL: $2,378,966 2 as well as from the following identified same service adjustments: Identified Same Service Adjustments Increase Cost: FY21 Compensation Adjustment $3,720,272 Increase Cost: Retirement Adjustment $1,817,352 Increase Cost: FY22 Compensation Adjustment $1,729,521 Increase Cost: Insurance Coverage $391,000 Increase Cost: Shift SAFER Grant Costs to Fire Fund $242,536 Increase Cost: Length of Service Awards Program $88,000 Increase Cost: Recruit Class Adjustments $40,000 Increase Cost: Station Alerting Maintenance $35,000 Increase Cost: FROMS Contract $22,035 Total Increases: $8,085,461 Decrease Cost: Print and Mail Adjustment ($255) Decrease Cost: Motor Pool Adjustment ($67,900) Decrease Cost: Company Officer Leadership Academy ($80,000) Decrease Cost: IT Restructure ($120,000) Decrease Cost: Officer Training Courses ($140,000) Decrease Cost: Civilianize Facility Maintenance ($190,000) Decrease Cost: Elimination One-Time Items Approved in FY21 ($726,400) Decrease Cost: Annualization of FY21 Personnel Costs ($1,324,488) Replace: Shift Final SAFER Grant to Fire Fund ($125,981) Total Decreases: ($2,648,788) NET SAME SERVICES ADJUSTMENT TOTAL: $5,436,673 FY22 Expenditure Issues Addressing Structural Deficiencies MCFRS has had structural overtime cost overruns since FY17. As the Committee knows, much of this overtime is caused by insufficient staffing. Additionally, projected overtime has not been accurately budgeted for the past several years. While FY16 only realized a $1.9 million overtime cost overrun, beginning in FY17, these overruns have exceeded the budgeted amount by about 37% on average. Overtime Overruns (in $ millions) Fiscal Year Budgeted Overtime Actual Overtime Difference FY22 $18.7 FY21 $18.3 $17.0 ($1.3) FY20 $18.3 $23.7 $5.4 FY19 $16.2 $18.4 $2.2 FY18 $16.2 $24.2 $8.0 FY17 $15.9 $24.6 $8.7 FY16 $15.6 $17.5 $1.9 FY15 $16.4 $17.1 $0.7 FY14 $16.4 $17.4 $1.0 *through March 27, 2021 3 The following chart illustrates the different categories of overtime pay in FY21. About 78% of the overtime is for field operations, and another 10% is for the Training Academy (instructors and students). While the use of overtime is both fiscally and operationally prudent in many circumstances, particularly in public safety operations that require 24/7 staffing, there is an appropriate balance between sufficient staffing and strategic overtime use. The Committee has been briefed on the 2018 CountyStat Net Annual Work Hour Update, which determined that the Department needed an additional 180 career Firefighter positions to achieve minimum staffing requirements without the use of overtime. Recent steps taken to address these deficiencies: The CE’s FY20 Recommended Operating Budget sought to reduce stressors on the structural overtime deficit by adding 20 additional Firefighter positions. Further, the Executive added $2.184 million to the overtime budget to reflect the impact of several years of General Wage Adjustments. The Council approved both measures. In FY21, the Executive recommended adding 20 new Paramedic Training positions. Faced with an estimated $600 million tax revenue shortfall prompted by the COVID- 19 pandemic, the Council did not approve these new positions under its “continuity of services” budget framework. The FY22 Recommended Operating Budget includes 10 new Paramedic Training Positions for $763,277. These positions will help address backfill overtime that is used when Firefighters attend Paramedic Training. Paramedic Training classes typically range from 15-35 Firefighters each. OMB advises that 20 Paramedic Training positions would be the appropriate 4 number to address backfill overtime needs while Firefighters are in class; however, the number of training positions will be re-evaluated during the FY23 budget development. Adding these positions would help further address the original 180 Firefighter staffing shortage. Along with the 20 Firefighters added in FY20, approval of these positions would help reduce the staffing shortage to 150 Firefighters. The recommended budget also civilianizes a Facility Maintenance position for a savings of $190,000. This change un-lapses a civilian Program Manager 1 position to help provide facility maintenance management and coordination, allowing a Firefighter to return to the field. The MCFRS Facilities Section does include a Facilities and Equipment Maintenance Coordinator, but there is still an operational gap. Recently the Department has been receiving seven service tickets per day, of which, only a very small percentage can be handled by the Department of General Services (DGS). The vast majority must be addressed by MCFRS. Overtime General Wage Adjustment Issues: When salaries increase, as they do when employees receive general wage adjustments (GWAs), overtime costs increase as well. As mentioned above, in the past the CE has included the impact of GWAs in the overtime budget, but it has not been a standard practice. For example, the GWA for FY20 ($435,000) and FY21 ($280,000) have not been included in the FY22 overtime budget. (The GWA for FY22 is 1.5%, but is not effective until the last pay period, and has no impact on FY22 overtime.) Given the $18.7 million FY22 overtime budget, overtime cost overruns will be at least $715,000 from this cost element alone. Council staff remains concerned with all aspects of the structural overtime deficit. Part of the proposed audit (discussed below) will examine workload, overtime, staffing, and resource allocation. Council staff recommends following up on this issue once the audit results are released. Adding EMS Services The FY22 Recommended Operating Budget augments EMS services with a new Daywork Ambulance ($641,496) and a new Paramedic Chase Car ($637,193). MCFRS currently has a daily cot count of 42, which fluctuates between about 30 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance transport units and 11 Advance Life Support (ALS) paramedic transport units. Tying medical services to a cot is not always the most efficient mode of service delivery, since not every patient needs transport for further treatment. To provide more flexibility, MCFRS has a Paramedic on all engines, and has two full-time Paramedic Chase Cars (one at Station 25 in Aspen Hill and one at Wheaton Rescue Squad). In addition, there are two other Paramedic Chase cars that operate part-time including one at Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad at Rockville Station 3. The costs associated with the new Chase Car and Daywork Ambulance include both operating expenses and overtime; there are no FTEs associated with the additional services. Council staff agrees that the additional services are needed. Council staff is concerned this approach will contribute even more to the structural overtime deficit. While it may make sense to keep the Daywork Ambulance staffed solely with overtime so that it may be used in a more flexible manner, Council staff advises that staffing the Paramedic Chase car with new positions would be a more appropriate and accurate reflection of actual service delivery costs. To staff the 5 Chase Car appropriately, Council staff recommends swapping out proposed overtime expenditures and replacing it with 5 FTEs. Council staff will work with OMB to determine the cost difference. MCFRS Audit The recommended budget includes $200,000 for an audit that will examine both staffing and resource needs, as well as racial equity and social justice elements of MCFRS operations. Last September, the County Executive proposed audits for both the Police and Fire Departments. The Council approved $350,000 for the Police audit and community engagement efforts but voted to delay the MCFRS audit until FY22 when a scope of work was expected to be approved and to include the funding in the FY22 Operating Budget.1 The CE has included the $200,000 in the recommended budget and has split the audit into two separate studies.