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Special City Council Meeting Thursday,July 18,2013 Page 2 and defer some things long-term for approximately fifteen (15) months versus immediate needs, which will be a positive for the department overall. Shared Services Chief O'Neill advised that since changes have recently corrected themselves in the fire protection industry, there was even less interest than before by other de- partments and/or communities in moving toward shared services or departments. Therefore, while the City of Roseville's Fire Department remained interested in pursuing those options, Chief O'Neill saw no impact to the 2014 budget. Staffing Chief O'Neill noted that staffing a fire department was always a challenge, and given the many additional changes experienced by the Roseville department since its establishment sixty-eight (68) years ago, including movement from a volunteer to paid, on-call staff, in addition to EMS services, it continued to be challenging. Chief O'Neill advised that this was a positive and negative for the department as it continued to evolve; however, with the changing world and people becoming busier with work and family commitments, interest from people in serving as a firefighter, due to the extensive time, training and commitment required, remained difficult. As the industry continues to change, Chief O'Neill noted that it takes 2- 3 years for a firefighter to receive educational certification training level, before they were able to perform the required job. Chief O'Neill reminded all that this was a part-time role, usually above and beyond their regular career or student sta- tus and required a three (3) year commitment from an individual. Chief O'Neill noted that this reduces the candidate pool for the department in the long-term, es- pecially making it difficult to cover daytime and weekend shifts. Chief O'Neill advised that the department currently has 5-6 firefighters who take those shifts; and worried that if they moved onto full-time careers or out of the immediate ar- ea, it would have a direct impact on the Roseville Fire Department. Chief O'Neill noted that firefighters remained the lowest paid positions in the City of Roseville, depending on their longevity and training, not serving to attract individuals in the long-term. Emergency Medical Service(EMS) Chief O'Neill opined that the EMS service provided to the community by the de- partment was of huge benefit to the City over the last six (6) years since inception. Chief O'Neill reviewed the purpose of this service in providing first responder re- sponses to stabilize a patient until Allina arrived to transport the patient. Chief O'Neill advised that the department or the City of Roseville received no revenue for this service, as billing revenue was only available for the transporter. There- fore, Chief O'Neill noted that the City provided life saving treatment without re- couping any revenues or receiving any funding. Chief O'Neill advised that there were few ways to change that situation other than making application for MSRB to return the PSA (service area) back; which had not been terribly successful in