AN ORGANIZATIONAL
AND MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT
OF THE
RAINBOW CITY, ALABAMA,
FIRE DEPARTMENT
July 2005
Condrey and Associates, Inc.
PO Box 7907
Athens, Georgia 30604-7907
www.condrey-consulting.com
Table of
contents
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 1
ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW............................................................................................... 1
Organizational
Structure..................................................................................................... 1
Staffing and
Overtime Expense ......................................................................................... 2
Fair Labor Standards Act Compliance............................................................................... 3
PERFORMANCE AND BENCHMARKING ANALYSIS.................................................... 6
Staffing
Comparison........................................................................................................... 7
Expenditure
Comparison.................................................................................................... 8
Service
Comparison............................................................................................................ 8
Conclusion And
Recommendations................................................................................... 9
SUMMARY
Appendix A: Peer Group 1................................................................................................ 2
Appendix B:
Performance Measurement Terminology....................................................... 2
Appendix C: Fire
Department Characteristics – FY 2003 to FY 2005.............................. 2
Appendix D: Peer
Group 2 Comparison............................................................................. 2
Appendix E:
National Comparison..................................................................................... 2
At
the request of the City of Rainbow City, Condrey and Associates, Inc. entered
into a contract with the city to conduct an organizational and management
assessment of the Rainbow City Fire Department. The objectives of the study
included:
1. Reviewing
the organizational structure and overall management of the Rainbow City Fire Department;
2.
Conducting an FLSA and overtime
application review and assessment;
3.
Providing
on-site subject matter experts to achieve 1 and 2 above;
4. Conducting
a benchmarking analysis of the department’s operations; and
5.
Providing
a written report outlining findings and recommendations.
In
April 2005, representatives of Condrey and Associates met with Rainbow City officials for information exchange,
delivery of employee position questionnaires, and preparation of a tentative
work schedule. In May 2005, Condrey and
Associates conducted on-site interviews with fire personnel, city officials,
and city staff members including the City Clerk and Payroll Clerk. Additionally, Condrey and Associates
collected and analyzed information concerning
the operation of comparable fire
departments on a state and national basis.
It should be noted that all Rainbow
City personnel conducted
themselves in a professional and courteous manner, and were helpful in the
information gathering process for this study.
The current
organizational structure of the Fire Department includes a Fire Chief, Fire
Marshal (at the time of report preparation, the Acting Fire Chief), three
Assistant Chiefs, six Station Captains, three Lieutenants, and nine
Firefighters. The current structure appears appropriate at present; however,
the City may wish to consider phasing out the position of Lieutenant through
attrition and replacing it with the position of Firefighter II. Additionally, the City may wish to consider
adopting National Firefighter Professional Qualifications (NFPQ) guidelines
allowing for a career ladder (rank in person rather than in position) for
entry-level firefighters to move to the position of Firefighter II based on
individual development objectives. Phasing out the position of Lieutenant and
replacing it with the career ladder position of Firefighter II will flatten the
department’s organizational structure, reducing the fire officer supervision
ratio from 14:9 to 11:12 and bringing the Department closer to state and
national norms concerning rank structure (see Table I).
Staffing
and Overtime Expense
The
fire department currently maintains a minimum staffing of seven (7) personnel
per shift for a total of twenty-one (21) positions. In order to maintain this staffing level,
off-duty personnel are required to work in place of any on-duty absences
resulting from time off for sick leave, vacation leave and other reasons. For the past fiscal year, the Fire Department
experienced $258,683 in overtime pay with a total of 22 employees in the
department. This expense is 23% of all
personnel expenditures for the department and represents a department average
overtime expenditure of $12,318 per eligible employee. For the same period, the Rainbow City Police
Department experienced $247,760 in overtime pay; 18% of payroll with a total of
33 department employees ($7,742 average per eligible employee). It is interesting to note, that after
overtime expense is added to base pay, the Acting Fire Chief was the fifth
lowest paid employee of the Rainbow City Fire Department for the fiscal year
ended September 30, 2004.
Under
the current staffing arrangement, if an Assistant Fire Chief is off duty for an
assigned shift, another Assistant Fire Chief is called in to work that shift at
an overtime rate. In such instances,
Condrey and Associates recommends having one Captain function as the Officer in
charge for that shift and calling back a firefighter in order to maintain the
minimum staffing level in the department. Condrey and Associates also
recommends that the Department retain certified fire personnel from other
departments that will be willing to work vacant shifts as necessary. These part-time personnel would only be
compensated for the time they work with the City; this compensation would be at
a regular rather than an overtime rate. An alternative to employing part-time
personnel and regular employees on an overtime basis is to place all fire
personnel on a rotating, paid on-call basis, and only call these personnel in
to work if necessitated by a significant incident (assuring the City will meet
OSHA safety standards). Any combination
of these three staffing alternatives should significantly reduce department overtime
expense.
Rainbow City
currently compensates all employees of the Fire Department, except for the
acting Fire Chief, with overtime pay on a weekly basis. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act,
certified fire personnel qualify for the 207k partial exemption. Under this provision, the work period may be
extended up to a maximum of 28 days for the entire work cycle. Our recommendation is to pay any overtime
worked by certified fire department personnel, who are non-exempt under FLSA,
on a 28-day work cycle. Rainbow City
would continue to pay the normal hourly rate of pay each weekly pay period and
would only pay overtime every 4th pay period (at the end of the
28-day work cycle). The maximum number
of hours worked before being paid overtime is 212 hours in a 28-day work
cycle. Under the current work schedule
of 24 hours on duty and 48 hours off duty,
fire personnel will work either 216 hours (with four hours overtime)
during the 28-day work cycle, or 240 hours (with 28 hours overtime) during the
28-day work cycle. There will be two
shifts on the 216-hour schedule, and one shift on the 240-hour work schedule in
each 28-day cycle.
All employees of the
Fire Department currently receive 156 hours per year of overtime pay in their
“regular” work schedule. By changing
fire personnel to the 28-day pay cycle, the maximum overtime hours to be paid
for their “regular” work schedule is 148 hours.
If fire personnel take leave (vacation or sick) during the 28-day work
cycle, the law allows the employee to be paid at straight time rate instead of
at the overtime hourly rate, thereby reducing the threshold of the overtime
rate.
Changing to a 28-day pay cycle should allow for a departmental overtime
savings of over $25,000 per year.
After
reviewing the City’s current FLSA designations for the Fire Department, it
appears that the position of Assistant Fire Chief may be exempt under overtime
provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The City Attorney (in conjunction with a
labor attorney specializing in Fair Labor Standards Act compliance)
should review this position for a final determination of
exemption status. The current job description for the position
of Assistant Chief includes the following functions that fall into the Executive
Exempt category:
· Commands one of the three (3)
platoons of fire suppression personnel and the two (2) fire stations.
·
Responds
to emergencies and assumes command, coordinates and supervises the emergency
operations of all companies involved in fire suppression, rescue, and other
emergencies.
·
Coordinates
the activities of a platoon in order to maintain and support the operation of
department equipment, apparatus, and plant facilities so as to insure
operational readiness and longevity.
·
Plans
and coordinates the effective use of human resources in an effort to help meet
departmental objectives and goals.
·
Insures
that departmental policies, procedures, rules and regulations are implemented
and maintained.
·
Participates
in selection, disciplinary action, and other conclusive personnel actions.
·
Participates
in planning, organizing, training, fiscal management and the administration of
employee relations and the Equal Employment Opportunity policies of the
department.
·
Plans,
organizes, and prepares special reports or projects as required by the Fire
Chief.
·
Coordinates
and approves leave of assigned personnel in order to insure that adequate
minimum staffing levels are maintained.
·
Performs
other management functions as directed by the Fire Chief.
Based
on information provided by the Acting Fire Chief and interviews with Department
personnel (conducted by a subject matter expert with significant experience in
fire operations and management), the following duties were confirmed as being
performed by the position of Assistant Fire Chief:
·
Commands a shift (includes both stations)
·
Frequently exercises discretion and independent
judgment
·
Supervises six (6) employees on each shift
·
Regularly utilizes supervisory authority
·
Makes hiring recommendations (discusses with
Fire Chief)
·
Makes termination recommendations (discusses
with Fire Chief)
·
Makes promotional recommendations (discusses
with Fire Chief)
·
Reviews
disciplinary actions taken by the Captain; recommends resolution to the Fire
Chief
·
Trains
subordinate employees
·
Responds
to employee grievances
·
Allocates
work among employees
·
Works
under the very general supervision of the Fire Chief
If
the City Attorney, in consultation with a labor attorney specializing in FLSA compliance, concur that the position
of Assistant Fire Chief is exempt from overtime provisions of the Fair Labor
Standards Act, the potential direct savings in overtime compensation based
on the previous year’s experience is approximately $50,000. This amount would be offset by the cost to
hire part-time personnel, call back other lower-ranked personnel, or to require
personnel to be placed on call and only called back to duty as needed.
As part of our review of the Rainbow
City Fire Department, we conducted a performance and benchmarking analysis of
Fire Department services. The benefits
of performance measures are widely recognized in the management literature. Performance measures provide a means of
defining program service levels both at the operating level and the strategic
level. Additionally, performance
measures can clarify expectations and provide a rational methodology to report
and track program accomplishments to managers, citizens, and policymakers.
Benchmarking is a management tool to
compare performance measures.
Benchmarking allows management and employees the opportunity to see the
results of their efforts. Managers can
identify service areas where they are performing well, can improve performance
in service areas where their performance is below that of comparable
jurisdictions, and have data to assist in decision making.
The benchmarking analysis for the
City of Rainbow City
utilizes three peer groups. Peer Group
1 provides a statewide comparison that includes all Alabama municipalities
participating in the Auburn University’s Center for Governmental Services
Alabama League of Municipalities 2004
Alabama Municipal Salary and Benefits Survey for Municipalities over 2000
Population (July 2004). Participants are shown in Appendix A. Peer Group 2 provides a local comparison
by utilizing municipal fire districts selected by the City of Rainbow City Acting Fire
Chief. Peer Group 2 includes
the cities of Attalla, Boaz, Gardendale, Guntersville, and Mountain Brook. Peer Group 3 provides a national
comparison by including participants in the International City County Manager’s
Association’s Center for Performance Measurement’s Eighth Annual Report (November 2004).
The benchmark comparison includes
measures at the organization level that demonstrate results (efficiency,
effectiveness, and equity); are limited; responds to multiple priorities; and
link to responsible programs. Data was
collected internally and externally.
Appendix B defines specific terminology used in the discussion.
Staffing
Comparison
The purpose of the City of Rainbow City Fire Department is to provide the best
combined fire and rescue services to the citizens and visitors of Rainbow City, Alabama,
at the most economical rate to the taxpayers.
To accomplish this purpose, the department has twenty-two (22) active
full-time positions. The total combined
budget for the Fire Department and the Fire Protection Fund for the 2005 Fiscal
Year is $1,508,894. The capital
expenditure budget for the department for the 2005 Fiscal Year is $368,052.
In order to
comparatively assess the city’s fire department staffing with other municipalities,
we measured the full-time equivalents (FTEs) as a factor of population. For example, the U.S. Department of Labor
uses a comparison of FTEs per 10,000 population. Thus, 22 employees for Rainbow City’s population of 8,428 equals 26.10
employees per 10,000 residents. This
rate compares to the U.S.
Department of Labor mean of 10.98 employees and the 23.68 select
comparison of local Alabama
city average of employees.
Specifically, the City of Rainbow City’s
26.10 rate compares with Attalla’s 27.3, Boaz’s 18.9, Gardendale’s 23.7,
Guntersville’s 31.1, Mountain Brook’s
30.1.
Table 1: Rainbow City Staffing Comparison to Multiple Peer Groups
|
|
Rainbow City
|
Mean
|
Median
|
|
FTEs per
10,000 population – U.S. Department of Labor
|
|
|
All Fire -
All Alabama
jurisdictions
|
26.10
|
10.98
|
NA
|
|
FTEs per
10,000 population – Alabama Comparison Peer Group
|
|
|
Assistant
Fire Chief (n=28)
|
3.55
|
2.34
|
1.27
|
|
|
