10-13-25 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — OCTOBER 13, 2025 6 Assistant Chief of Operations/Emergency Manager Sather said he did some calculations on the economics. He said the first quarter is about 15,000 man hours. A $4.00 increase equals about $245,000 for wages, plus all the taxes on top of that. Chief Boehlke said they aren't losing part-time people to other departments or because they don't like it. They still have an attractive work schedule and they pay very fairly. There is a broad mix of people who want to work with them. The ones they are losing are lost to change of life or unable to provide these hours or moving outside the zone. Councilmember Monson appreciates the calculations. She is throwing out ideas that may be ways to solve the problem that isn't three FTEs. Councilmember Holden said once a firefighter is on for six or seven years, they stay on until ten years to reach that pension benchmark. Assistant Chief of Operations/Emergency Manager Sather said when people are hired, ten years is a long ways away before they an touch the pension. They would get 25% after ten years. The people that are at the 20- or 25-year mark are staying for the full pension. The pension is a retention tool, much more than it is a recruitment tool. Councilmember Rousseau is in favor of the three FTEs. She understands having a part-time job on top of a full-time job plus having children who have activities. She understands the need to have that stability for them with acquiring people. She also recognizes that about 40% of the budget is coming from Public Safety including LJFD and Ramsey County Sheriffs Office (RCSO). Residents tend to think it's the City Council spending that money. They don't understand it's going to these other departments. She would like a better understanding of what the overlapping calls look like. Is one a broken finger and the other a serious car accident? Or is something on fire? There is a variance and it would be helpful to see that broken down. Assistant Chief Rausch said he can expand on the medical pre -arrival system. His previous career was operations manager at the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center. He said Ramsey County has great dispatchers. Pro QA is the medical pre -arrival system that they use to categorize calls is not an exact science. A caller may be frantic. They are trying to determine if there are any life -threatening events based on asking canned questions. He has walked into calls that were categorized as Alpha or Bravo level medicals that were life threatening emergencies. The classification the call gets depends completely on the information provided by the caller. He has also been dispatched to Delta or Charlie level medicals where it seems like something serious is happening, based on caller information, and there wasn't truly a life threat in that moment. He said Alina's response times have slowed. If LJFD doesn't respond, they're waiting even longer for a response. Mayor Grant outlined that they originally requested six FTEs. After a contentious meeting it was reduced to three in one year and three in the next. Cities don't like large spikes in cost. He wondered if they have considered two in 2026, two in 2027 and two in 2028. Is it due to the expediency? Is it more expensive to train two rather than three? Chief Boehlke said they are just looking at the three FTEs in 2026. There hasn't been a commitment to 2027. They are saying that is ideally how to space them out. The firefighters