A.G. Gancarski
Today, Jacksonville begins three days of departmental budget review for the Transition Process with Sam Mousa. We will be live blogging each session. This Fire and Rescue session is the first of many.
8:33 a.m.: Thus begins an hour and a half of Fire and Rescue with Sam Mousa and Marty Senterfitt, representing the Fire Department.
8:40: Mousa is asking detailed questions on staffing and other issues. No fireworks as of yet.
8:47: Mousa has questions about “miscellaneous services” going up. Answers will be provided later on.
8:49: Mousa is offering critiques on the unreadability of the “Ambulance Services” revenues. “I’ve got my glasses on and I still can’t read this.”
8:51: Indigent Services writeoff has gone up $5M in recent years. There are problems with “getting everything in the right place” for precise accounting. This is another one “they’ll have to come back to.”
8:55: 55 firefighters will not be funded as of February of next year; they were subject to federal grant. There is a mechanism to fill 30 by replacement; The 30 were “unfunded vacancies.” Mousa: “we don’t got to pick up any of them… we’re not under any grant requirement to keep these people on.” Senterfitt: “we can phase them out through attrition.” Senterfitt thinks he can make the numbers work. The disconnect between the transition side and Fire and Rescue has a “Who’s on First” quality; the presentation from F & R is not clear to the committee. Senterfitt: “the consequence is you have 55 less people on the street.”
9:04: Mousa: “I’ve been hearing from the council where they wanted unfunded pension liability separated into its own account.” Apparently, this is hard to do, as it is a “manual process” on the “back end” that requires a calculation for everyone city wide.
9:10: An extended discussion of accounting for pension liability. If the estimate is low on the departmental level, the city gets a bill in December.
9:13: Mousa: “Angela, I want to get a bit more organized here.” He’s looking for explanation of why costs went up in various parts of the budget.
Terminal leave went up. Sellback and Rollback went up, because overtime is now being sold back, as Senterfitt forced a policy to reduce overtime. Over the last several years, overtime costs have been cut almost in half, and now employees are selling the time back.
9:20: Pension numbers do not reflect Tuesday’s pension deal. “If the board approves it, it becomes law,” says Mousa. He seems to believe they should reflect the new framework.
9:24: Group Life Insurance is up 32%. Workers Comp is increased, because of administrative costs out of the “heart and hypertension” category for first responders.
9:33: An extended, opaque discussion of vehicle procurement. Apparently, the money requisitioned in one year goes to the previous year’s vehicles. Mousa has questions about the amortization schedule. Mousa wonders if cash for the vehicle replacement fund is the “right strategy.” This gets back to his comments last week regarding the MAB budget process stringency. This apparently is a mechanism to generate cash that is reliant, to some degree, on the Banking Fund. Mousa is not thrilled with this.
9:38: “That’s a hell of a jump there, guys.” Attributed to pension, vehicles, and personnel. Looking at this in macroeconomic framework, we can see the effects of the decline of the dollar’s purchasing power.
9:43: On to “enhancements.” Mousa looks at the page: “Oh my gosh.” Replacement vehicles, two new rescue units at $1.52M, additional Safer Grant funding positions (~$2.1M), more communication positions, 911 staffing, 3 auditing/collections/tech positions, and so on.
Mousa is firing questions at Senterfitt: “I thought you said these would be handled by attrition.”
“We need to be clear on something. I was asking for informational purposes whether we need to keep these people. I thought the answer was no.”
An animated discussion between Mousa and Senterfitt on attrition.
9:48: Questions regarding sending a fire truck and a rescue unit to “every single heart attack call” from committee member. Senterfitt wants to change model, but legal and liability issues have been impediment. “It’s getting the quickest help to them, followed by the appropriate help.” Risk management issues are serious here. One missed call could wipe out the savings.
9:54: Senterfitt talking about the unfunded positions, and the federal grant funded positions. “However, the grant was designed to do this, because the federal government knew we were facing cuts…. now the grant’s running out,” so either we fund them or reduce staff levels.
9:56: 6 people in zoning/inspection for new construction plan review in General Fund. Mousa is incredulous; Senterfitt counters that they are working overtime right now. Mousa: “please doublecheck and get back to me.”
9:57: This has been intense. Mousa wants Senterfitt to “try to refine these numbers.” Senterfitt: “As we look over these budgets, I’m very proud of what my team has done” in refining the business model. “We have been shrinking the fire side, growing the rescue side,” which is proof, he says, of the team “running more efficient and effective.”
