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by Michael Monks
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Management Partners, the Cincinnati-based consulting firm contracted to audit each department within the City of Covington, admits that its recommendations about the Covington Fire Department do not refelct the best accepted practices in the industry. Instead, their suggestions are offered because in their estimation, "the current operations plan is not financially sustainable." Management Partners' team interviewed employees in the fire department as well as administrators at City Hall and members of the City Commission to glean information that led to its final report on how best to operate the department and its 119 employees, all but one of which is a sworn firefighter.
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The report notes, "The geographical configuration of Covington, long and narrow, and the winding and narrow roadway system makes it unusually expensive to meet travel time requirements for the initial attack phase of fire suppression. Given that Fire Department cost is approximately 33% of the non-debt service portion of the operating budget and the stagnating revenue base, it is clear that the current operations model is not sustainable."
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Because employee costs take up 95% of the fire department's $12 million budget, Management Partners offered recommendations on how best to eliminate personnel spending: Contract with a third-party vendor to provide emergency response (ambulance) services or remove EMS from the Fire Department and create a separate agency in the City; Close fire stations 1 & 2 (Robbins Street & Botany Hills) and combine them in a new firehouse; And then ultimately move toward a regional fire service operation.
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CONTRACTING AMBULANCE SERVICES
Management Partners claims that the City could possibly, but not definitely, save money by contracting with a third party provider of ambulance services as many municipalities across Kentucky do. The firm recommends that the City put together a request for proposals from possible contractors and it attempted to gain information from such a provider, Rural Metro Inc, which offers ambulance services in other cities in the state. Rural Metro would not offer a price estimate without detailed meetings with City officials but the report notes that if a company "could provide the current service quality level for less than a price of $1,500,000 (the City's cost in providing ambulance services each year) there would be an economic benefit."
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It continues, "The current number of four pumper companies for fire suppression purposes should remain in place since there would be a loss of six potential fire fighting personnel if the fire department no longer has EMS personnel to deploy." Contracting with a company to provide EMS would reduce the daily minimum staffing in the fire department from twenty-seven to twenty-one since three two-person ambulances would no longer be needed.
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Management Partners recommends the third party ambulance service as a first option but failing that, suggests the creation of a City-operated ambulance service outside the fire department in a move that they say would save nearly $500,000. The report notes, "The advantage of this plan is that since the ambulance crew would not be required to suppress fires, the City’s pension contribution would be reduced by over $9,000 per person. In addition, the shift schedule could be changed from a 24-hour tour to an eight-hour tour, allowing a reduction of ambulance crews on duty during the low demand hours each day."
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"The cost difference of nearly $500,000 is a result of having three fewer personnel due to flexible scheduling to match demand and the non-hazardous duty pension cost. This would maintain the current service quality level for most hours of the day but could result in longer travel times during the hours of 2 a.m. to 7 a.m."
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The report also notes that there may be difficulty in creating a separate department for EMS from a labor relations point of view, particularly if Covington firefighters do not transfer into it making it necessary to recruit from the outside. Additionally, the report offers, "The logistics of staffing if there are few transfers from current Covington firefighters could be time‐consuming and complicated. An incentive should be considered so that any current firefighter who does transfer would gain automatic preference to fill a vacancy in the fire department."
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SOUTH COVINGTON FIRE STATION SHOULD STAY OPEN FOR NOW
The firehouse in South Covington is the least utilized in the City averaging less than one run per day and Management Partners studied whether it should be closed in favor of automatic mutual aid agreements with the Cities of Taylor Mill and Independence. In the hypothetical scenario, the pumper housed in South Covington ("Company 5") would remain there and be used by the EMS crew to respond to fires.
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Management Partners concedes, however, that this move would increase the amount of time it takes for firefighters to reach the scene of an active blaze: "Pumper Company 5’s service area is closer to Taylor Mill and Independence Fire Districts than to other Covington fire stations. However, the Independence station cannot reach the majority of Pumper 5’s service area in the four minutes or less travel time currently achieved. The Taylor Mill station is a combined (career service and volunteer augmented) service. The Taylor Mill station has two-person staffing around the clock. However, the response protocol is that their company does not leave the station until four minutes after initial tones in order to allow volunteers time to reach the apparatus before it leaves the station. When this time is added to the travel time, most of the Pumper 5 service area would see response time standards significantly degraded from those currently achieved for initial attack. Travel time for sustained operations should not experience a detrimental impact since those resources would be drawn from Covington stations as is the case currently."
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Management Partners reports that in order for the plan to work Taylor Mill would have to change its protocol of waiting four minutes before leaving the firehouse. The report notes, "This alternative has the greatest impact on service quality of all options. Even with the optimum automatic aid agreement possible with current station locations and configurations there will be a degradation of initial attack standards compared to the current service level. Covington officials must be prepared to have a justification for this seeming disparity of service levels among Covington neighborhoods. And, over time, Covington would be subject to the impact of decisions made by Taylor Mill and Independence Fire District officials regarding plans and operations that are not the most favorable from Covington’s point of view. Taylor Mill and Independence Fire Districts could agree to the plan initially and then want to negotiate payment terms that could wind up being unfavorable for Covington, resulting in the need to backtrack."
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Ultimately, Management Partners concludes that this option would not be in the best interest of Covington and that instead the City should initiate discussions about creating a regional Fire & EMS operation across Northern Kentucky.
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REPLACE FIRE STATIONS 1 & 2 WITH NEW, COMBINED STATION
Management Partners recommends closing the Boatany Hills firehouse and the Fire Department's headquarters on Robbins Street and constructing a new facility. From the report: "Because a relocated station would provide better travel time coverage for pumper companies, it would not be a first priority to staff a fifth pumper during those occasions when the minimum staffing is exceeded due to low leave usage periods. If Covington continues to provide EMS through the Fire Department rather than an alternative model, an additional ambulance could be staffed since EMS has fivefold higher demand than fire runs. If Covington uses an alternative to the current EMS model, excess staffing could be placed on the reserve quint. Our research indicates that a new fire station should be a two-story 20,000 square foot building that would cost approximately $2.9 million to construct. We understand that Covington has already received a $300,000 grant to purchase the land. Options for funding the cost of construction are available to the City. Tax exempt municipal bonds with a 30-year life at 5% interest would require annual debt service of approximately $190,000 or about 17% of the annual cost of a pumper unit. Another alternative to explore would be for a private owner to construct a station and enter into a long-term lease agreement with Covington."
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Other recommendations:
-Make the positions of fire inspectors open to civillians instead of sworn firefighters. Currently the department uses captains to conduct fire inspections, but Management Partners concludes that hiring three civillians at $35,000/year with benefits worth $8,635/year would save the City $119,000.
-Develop a written training and monitoring protocol. The report notes, "The training program is not as robust as we have seen in other career departments. Training tools and programs are not state-of-the-art. The upside is that command staff recognizes the need for improving the programs and tools available for training.
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The firefighters also responded to an internal survey and you can see the results at the end of the full Management Partners report: Click Here (PDF)
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