Councilors seek to reward Fire Dept for...wait for it...saving money!

[DowntownNow]

Been away too long, had to jump on and get my fix but police angle is covered so...

Printed in today's Tulsa World

Fire budget reward pushed
by: P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
1/12/2010 4:17:52 AM

Four city councilors want Mayor Dewey Bartlett to consider giving the Fire Department financial credit against the current budget cut request because it previously identified long-term savings.

When then-Mayor Kathy Taylor asked departments for cost savings last year, "the Fire Department took the initiative to exhaustively examine their budget and find creative alternatives," states a council letter sent Friday to Bartlett.

"This is in stark contrast to other departments, where requests to find savings met resistance and silence," states the letter, signed by Councilors G.T. Bynum, Bill Christiansen, Chris Trail and Maria Barnes.

Bynum said Monday that the Fire Department took a proactive approach when it had the time to do it, "rather than, like the other departments, waiting until we're stuck in this last-minute budget crisis."

The letter says the restructuring of the Fire Department would result in savings of $1.96 million in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1; $2.5 million in fiscal year 2011 and $2.8 million in fiscal year 2012.

The department identified these savings before Bartlett requested proposals from each department for budget cuts of 2.2 percent and 4.4 percent.

Plummeting sales-tax revenue is forcing the city to cut $10 million, or 4.4 percent, from each department — just to balance the budget for this fiscal year. The Fire Department's share of the cut is $2.5 million.

Bynum said he had assumed that the savings that Fire Chief Allen LaCroix found had been credited toward the department when the new proposals for cuts were requested.

When he learned that they weren't, Bynum said, "I found that really troublesome, because here you have a department that went out when it didn't have to and found savings, and those savings are being ignored."

Bartlett said Monday that the councilors are "right on the money."

He said Taylor told him of how LaCroix, his management group and the firefighters union created a three-year plan that results in savings and efficiencies.

"I certainly recognized that in the environment we're seeing now, it's that type of attitude and capability that I'm so grateful to see," he said.

"The Fire Department is to be pointed toward as the example."

Bartlett said he could not commit to honoring the councilors' request but that he is having the Finance Department analyze it.

"With that being said and all things being equal, obviously the Fire Department's willingness to reorganize will be rewarded in the future," he said.

"Something good will happen to it."

LaCroix said the three-year restructuring plan came from a review of services that the department provides now compared with what it did in the past.

He said 70 percent of the Fire Department's responses are for emergency medical services, "but we are staffed for responding to fires."

He said he moved top managers to emergency medical service, which was understaffed.

The department had been sending four people and a fire engine that cost $400,000 to medical emergencies that needed only a two-person response, he said.

Smaller vehicles are now sent on such calls.

LaCroix said his goal is to have five stations that house both crews for larger engines and teams for smaller vehicles.

The plan also calls for abolishing 15 captain's positions over three years.

LaCroix said the restructuring plan would free about $2 million from the general fund and $2 million in capital funds each year.

Bynum said that to ignore the Fire Department's savings and "then turn around and ask them to make the same cut as everyone else when they already took their hit — it disincentivizes a department to look for savings when they don't have to."

The Police Department's response to a request that it find cuts has been that the city needs a dedicated funding source for the police force with "no discussions on where savings could be found, and that is frustrating," he said.

With the focus on public safety, "we're lumping police and fire together in one pot, but the approaches the departments have taken to address the crisis are very different," he said.

Okay...wait...

WHAT!? Why should they get any kind of credit for doing a job they should have been doing all along? Being fiscally conservative is the inherent responsibility of any civil service employee when utilizing taxpayer dollars.

These four are looking like bigger idiots every day.

To simplify the matter even more...this exercise simply demonstrates what many have said for years.  That there are costly inefficiencies and redundant positions for top heavy management in the department bleeding its budget dry, with them crying for more and more every year.  

Think of the cost savings that could have been realized if the department had been acting in this fashion all along, we possibly could have avoided the fiscal mess we are in now.

[RecycleMichael]

I respectfully disagree. Each department was asked to find ways to drastically cut their budget and every department did but one. Why should future cuts not take this into consideration?

[sgrizzle]

I have to agree with the councilors. If you cut out 3.5% because you know bad economy is coming, and then they say "it's time for across the board cuts of 4.4% for every department" you are treating the fire department unfairly, because you are basically saying they have to lose 7.9% in one year whereas everyone else only cuts 4.4%. The cuts should be based on the original projected budgets for this fiscal year, not off the new lowered budget numbers.

[Jason]

The fire departments "change" to using the smaller vehicles with 2 man crews, was a great idea. Here's the catch. They still send an engine or ladder with that smaller vehicle! So in reality, they are sending more people and more vehicles. Now i am not an accountant or an expert at math but it does not seem possible that they could save money that way... Just a thought. Oh ya, if they dont actually get dispatched, the engine and ladder crews are "self-dispatching" without direction to help out the smaller vehicles... Shooting themselves in the foot dont you think?!?!?!

[YoungTulsan]

The fire departments "change" to using the smaller vehicles with 2 man crews, was a great idea. Here's the catch. They still send an engine or ladder with that smaller vehicle! So in reality, they are sending more people and more vehicles. Now i am not an accountant or an expert at math but it does not seem possible that they could save money that way... Just a thought. Oh ya, if they dont actually get dispatched, the engine and ladder crews are "self-dispatching" without direction to help out the smaller vehicles... Shooting themselves in the foot dont you think?!?!?!

The smaller vehicles make perfect sense for the vast majority of their calls which are non-fire.  Responding to irate customers at McDonalds and people who want a cab ride doesn't require a 12-ton fire engine on the scene does it?