AGENDA #4a
BUDGET WORKING PAPER
TO: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
FROM: Daniel Jones, Fire Chief
SUBJECT: Firefighter Staffing Comparison Data
DATE: April 30, 2003
This report is intended to provide the compares information of Fire Department staffing levels and related information with other North Carolina municipalities.
BACKGROUND
During the March 26, 2003 Town Council budget forum a citizen spoke about Fire Department staffing, comparing Chapel Hill Fire Department staffing levels with other North Carolina communities. This material was originally presented to the Town Council in a report we prepared for the December 9, 2002 Council meeting that was a response to a citizen petition. We have updated that information in this report.
DISCUSSION
In the period since the early 1990s there have been several changes in the Fire Department’s operations staffing. In 1993 twelve positions were reallocated to the Fire Department budget. This was not an increase in personnel but only a replacement for the removal of twelve Public Safety Officer positions assigned to the Fire Department under the shared police/fire public safety system at that time.
From 1982 until 1999, there were no increases in the Fire Department operational staffing. One fire inspector position was added to deal with increased code enforcement work load in 1998. During the 1999-00 fiscal year the Town Council authorized the addition of six positions to fire operations to meet the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate to maintain two unassigned firefighters outside of a building fire to act as a safety backup team. These six firefighters serve on Squad-33, a quick-response rescue pumper utilized to ease response load on the large and expensive aerial truck. During fiscal years 2000/01 and 2001/02, twelve firefighters were added by the Town Council to staff the new Fire Station #5 near Southern Village. Although Fire Station #5 was opened primarily for protection of the new southern annexation areas, the overall fire protection of the town benefited by this improvement, because this station also assists with the coverage in neighborhoods south of McCauley Street, the Morgan Creek area and across the south University campus.
Despite these increases in Fire Department operational staffing over the last four years, Chapel Hill still appears low in its standard of coverage for fire protection staffing when compared to other similar sized North Carolina communities. In a comparison survey of ten communities ranging in population size from 24,500 to 65,000, Chapel Hill ranks last in firefighters to population ratio.
INFORMATION
In the attached chart we provide comparisons of the following North Carolina municipalities; Burlington, Chapel Hill, Concord, Gastonia, Greenville, Goldsboro, Hickory, Jacksonville, Kinston, Rocky Mount and Wilson. We present data that compares population and the number of firefighters, provides data on number of firefighters assigned to duty each day and numbers of fire and emergency calls. Other information included for comparison includes total property valuation, square miles covered and number of fire stations. All of the data was collected during April 2003 and represents the latest information each municipality had available. The information indicates that even with the addition of 18 personnel over the next four years that I have recommended, the Chapel Hill Fire Department would still only compare in the low end range of firefighter to population for the municipalities listed, and since other communities (and ours) will continue to grow may still not keep pace over that period.
ATTACHMENT