As readers likely know, during the budget amendment process Tuesday night the Assembly added $200,000 to prepare for a 2011 police academy but declined to add a like amount for a 2011 fire academy. Yours truly once again found himself as the “swing” vote on these two items as five of my colleagues voted for both academies and five voted no on both while I vote for the police academy and against the fire academy. Since then I’ve heard from a few folks wondering why.
Despite their similarities, there’s at least one significant difference between requirements for new police officers and firemen and it relates to state standards. A new police officer has to meet criteria set by the Alaska Police Standards Council, which requires said officer to attend either the Trooper academy in Sitka or one of APD’s academies, while a new firefighter simply has to meet the requirements of his or her department (though in Anchorage those requirements are quite stringent).
Brief aside: if you have to go somewhere for training Sitka would be a great spot, what a beautiful place!
The upshot of this is that a cop who wants to transfer from, say, Boise, still has to attend an academy while a firefighter from Boise would not. (However, as you might guess, a cop transferring from Bethel wouldn’t have to go through an academy because they’d already be APSC certified.) The need to replace retiring police officers necessitates a police academy in 2011, something everyone seems to recognize, and adding $200,000 to this year’s budget kick-starts the process which means those new officers will be on the street that much earlier.
Returning to the fire side, I’m told that prior to the past 10 years Anchorage generally didn’t conduct fire academies, instead hiring only those who’d already received firefighter and/or EMT training. That meant prospective firefighters often came from volunteer departments (like Chugiak and Girdwood) or paid for training through something like a University of Alaska program, then received some on-the-job training to get them up to AFD standards. My understanding is that this changed during the Wuerch administration for two reasons:
Today there is near-universal recognition that AFD’s growth spurt is concluded, or at least paused, and Chief Hall has repeatedly said vacancies can be filled in a manner substantially similar to that used in the past (though it appears to be getting a rather slow start due to some legal issues associated with reason number two, above). Meanwhile, at least a couple firefighters within the department do not share Chief Hall’s view and think an academy is the only reasonable answer, which made this a tough call. In the end, I decided it was reasonable to allow the chief to try his method. If it doesn’t appear to be working by this fall then we can look at adding a 2011 academy as we build next year’s budget.
Regards,
Patrick
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Thanks for taking the time to explain your vote. I suspected it had been well thought out.
Comment: c.j. boehle – 30. April 2010 @ 1:57 pm
I was hired by AFD in 1985 and can tell you that there has never been a hiring occasion during the last 25 years that we did not have an academy.
-We have changed our prequalification standards much like what is being suggested now, but we have always had an academy.
-Past prequalification standards changes were deemed discriminatory and trying it again will not change that.
-Short term savings in retirement medical costs resulted in a mass retirement exodus that ultimately cost taxpayers far more in hiring and training new firefighters and paramedics than was saved by the change.
-The City is about to see another exodus by some of it’s newest Firefighters because of short tem savings realized by the latest retirement system. The City has a lot invested in these 5 year employees and some of them are shopping themselves around to other Departments just like Boise.
-Another correction; a Firefighter from Boise (for example) could not just hire on here without a State of Alaska Firefighter Certificate and he/she would still go through our academy.
– The past “growth spurt” for our Department was the direct result of the failure to hire for almost 5 years. Apparatus and Station closures during that period caused the Fire Department to become so gaunt that this City almost lost it’s favorable ISO rating which would have cost taxpayers in the 100’s of thousands of dollars in higher insurance premiums.
-Anchorage has one of the finest fire departments in the Nation and it doesn’t pay to cut the testing and new hire training standards that we have in place now for the sake of short term “savings” because it simply does not save money.
Comment: Bill Green – 30. April 2010 @ 9:08 pm
The growth at AFD was due in part of 12 years of neglect by Mayors Fink and Mystrom. Mayor Wuerch was left no choice but to hire, hire, hire. The other part of the equation is the growth Anchorage experienced. Five years ago our ISO rating improved to a 2(one being the best) If they came back today we might have some issues. Mr Green is correct that anyone applying here must have a state of Alaska FF certification. 90 percent of of what came out of Chief Hall’s mouth at the assembly meeting was BS. Instead of speaking his mind and providing the truth he let the puppet masters on the 8th floor control what he says. In fiture why don’t we ask all FD questions to Vakalis, Frasca or Crawford. It would save the Chief the humiliation. CHief hall has an obligation to the people of ANchorage and the men and women of the FD. I hope he figures this out
Comment: FF – 01. May 2010 @ 7:40 am
Pat
We don’t expect you to know all the nuances of the fire department, but certainly we expect that you and other Assembly members must realize that there is no magic fairy that can sprinkle pixie dust to instantly create new firefighters. You have to at least recognize that there is a fixed cost to getting the initial application process completed. It is not free to administer the written test, hold the physical examination, pay proctors to grade oral interviews, have outside agencies grade behavioral situational tests, and finally have medical, psychological, and background tests done on potential recruits. There is a cost to that. Let’s just say it’s around $200,000.
The variable cost in the budget is how you choose to run the academy, whether that be the “old” way of doing things pre-2001, the way we have been doing it for the past 9 years, or another option that we haven’t considered.
The money the Assembly voted down last Tuesday night, to the best of my understanding, would have went toward paying those initial fixed costs that we are going to eventually incur when we hire.
Contrary to some Assembly members belief, this is not a plan to “grow” the Anchorage Fire Department. This is a plan to replace the 30+ members who have left since the last Academy was held in 2007.
Almost a year ago, Mayor Sullivan’s own transition team’s fire department report even said that hiring new fire fighters was “too soon, too late.” So far, nothing has changed. Getting the ball rolling on a 2011 Academy will not prevent massive overtime in 2010, but by not acting soon, new recruits won’t walk into a firehouse ready to work until late in 2011. We’re already down to the point that we were calling in 6 overtimes to fill some shifts back in February! That’s unheard of in the 9 years I’ve been here. And that’s nothing compared to what will happen during the summer, when most people opt to take their time off. Add in long term injuries, retirements, sick call-ins, family leave, etc, we may be calling in 10 people a day just to maintain minimum staffing levels. If the Mayor and the Assembly wish to keep all apparatus open, overtime is their only option. And to make matters worse, the overtime costs for 2011 will be even higher! And as much as our wives enjoy when we make extra money, the time away from family, the sleep deprivation, exposure to toxins, overall wear and tear on the body, doesn’t necessarily make it worthwhile.
You want an idea to solve this problem? The City needs to get some vision and plan to hire about 12 people annually. Whether you want to do that every year, or hire 25 people every two years, something needs to be done. Otherwise you go through a cycle of feast or famine…hiring huge numbers that sustain you for a couple years until there is a massive retirement that forces you to through this crisis again. Plug it into our budget so we don’t fight this stupid battle year after year.
AFD has already lost safety officers, numerous 40 hour positions, and reduced our specialty team capabilities in an effort to pinch pennies. But like it or not, it’s going to cost some amount of money to hire new firefighters.
Comment: Eric Tuott – 01. May 2010 @ 9:48 am