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Special City Council Meeting Monday, May 27,2015 Page 14 O'Neill retires, if he saw someone from current staff replacing a battalion chief and training that person into a higher level of specialized training while still su- pervising. Chief O'Neill clarified that the Battalion Chiefs would still be available to help with their specialized skills and performing their duties. Chief O'Neill noted it was his hope to promote from inside the organization if possible, since skills had been developed over the years and time and money invested in that training. Chief O'Neill advised that it was not the intent to lose the current workload per- formed by battalion chiefs, but to simply move that expertise to the streets and would be in addition to their normal work load; and also that inspections would continue depending on and according to call volumes. At the request of Councilmember McGehee, Chief O'Neill confirmed that these three positions would provide day and night shift coverage versus only having mostly daytime coverage under the current structure. While this transition toward full-time has only been in force for 60-70 days so far, Councilmember McGehee questioned if the next phase going into 2016 and re- ducing the number of volunteers (part time) and increasing full-time staff would be more cost effective. Chief O'Neill responded affirmatively, noting this was what made it a budget neutral transition by reducing part-time firefighters, it offset the increase in full- time firefighters. Chief O'Neill noted there had not been a lot of turnover, typi- cally 4-6 firefighters/year, but in the future, he anticipated a larger loss of part- time firefighters since the department was older and would experience a signifi- cant number of retirements over the next few years. Chief O'Neill advised that there was no intent to fill any of those part-time positions with those retirements. Councilmember Laliberte questioned if there were other retirements anticipated other than the Chief position that needed succession planning as well. Chief O'Neill responded that the structure had been positioned to address supervi- sory roles coming up in the future, with his anticipation that a battalion chief could move into the Assistant Chief position, as that position moved into the Chief's role, allowing for a much more stable department by increasing that full- time base versus having a part-time base. Chief O'Neill noted that other firefight- ers had other careers and were not interested in full-time positions beyond this role. At the request of Councilmember Laliberte, Chief O'Neill noted that he anticipat- ed some additional costs in 2016 due to IFF union coming on board and related contractual items, even though it had been built into the 2016 budget, and depend- ing on the final determination and recommendation of the City Manager.