4.1. SR 08-09-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Duty officers will continue to receive hourly pay for any incident responses during their shift in accordance with the City's adopted pay schedule and with the FLSA. Full-Time Staff Outside of normal business hours, I expect the fire chief to rotate through duty officer "shifts" with the officers. It is important, however, that the burden not be placed on any one (or two) individual(s), such as the fire chief. Similar to the police administration taking to the streets for a shift, it is nonetheless important for senior staff in the fire service to do the same. Integrating the fire chief into the process will allow fox some cost savings since it is a salary position. Cost/Benefit The total anticipated yearly cost of the program is X23,500 which will be allocated as part time pay in the fire administration budget. The actual cost of the program is expected to be lower depending on the number of shifts full-time salafied employees (i.e. Fire Chief) take. The compensation to the paid on-call officers for the duty officer program will be considered on-call pay and careful consideration is and will be given to ensure that the City does not violate FLSA requirements (i.e. requiring the payment of minimum wage). While difficult to quantify, there are a number of added benefits to the duty officer program, including: less wear and tear on large, expensive apparatus; less liability and exposure with multiple units responding with lights/sirens if the call can be downgraded by the duty officer; decrease in fuel usage by better resource management/response; and less strain on personnel with increasing call volume if responses can be modified. With a more formal duty officer program in place, the department officers will be evaluating the possibility of modifying the dispatch parameters to specify what calls can be handled by the duty officer alone (eliminating the need to dispatch the entire fire department). These changes will need to be assessed once the program is in place in coordination with the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office which handles the department's dispatching. This will result in direct cost savings to the Ciry. Conclusion Thank you for taking the time to review and consider this important program. I realize that many of the concepts and details are difficult to convey in writing. I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have at the upcoming budget work session ox please feel free to contact me any time at (763) 635-1105.