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Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, May 16, 2016 <br />Page 9 <br />training organization-wide, as it did with emergency management training. Chief <br />O'Neill reported that biggest part of the budget for this initiative involved the <br />contract with the ILC Company for the educational component, ongoing reporting <br />requirements, as well as following through to assist the city if or when it received <br />an OSHA audit, and was ongoing. Chief O'Neill advised that this had never been <br />a line-item budget before, but now for the first time, a preliminary budget of <br />$12,000 as has been historically expended was now specifically identified in the <br />General Fund. Chief O'Neill noted this would identify that actual expenditure, <br />similar to the allotment of emergency management, allowing staff to more clearly <br />show actual expenditures each year. <br />Specific to the ongoing transition to full-time firefighting and operating under the <br />new pilot program for multi jurisdictional response of the "closest available unit," <br />Councilmember Willmus asked if the city was seeing a shift in response tiines <br />under that new model and in operating with neighboring communities. <br />Chief O'Neill clarified that the pilot program had been authorized by the Rose- <br />ville City Council, but had yet to be started. Chief O'Neill advised that the hold- <br />up was on the dispatch side and coordinating all fire department and response <br />equipment locations through GPS, not available for all equipment, with Rose- <br />ville's units having that capability. With an anticipated launch in September or <br />October of 2016, Chief O'Neill advised that the response times would be careful- <br />ly monitored by each department and dispatch; with that data available next year. <br />At the request of Councilmember Etten, Chief O'Neill advised that the Fire De- <br />partment had no longer been hiring or training part-time firefighters for about five <br />years. As to where and how those remaining part-time firefighters remain, Chief <br />O'Neill advised that some continued to serve because they loved their firefighter <br />positions and serving their communities; others liked the part-time income and <br />had become used to it supplementing their regular jobs; and others were nearing <br />the end of their careers and trying to achieve vesting for their retirement goals. <br />Chief O'Neill noted that, as anticipated, the attrition rate continued to drop <br />through retirements mostly. <br />If the City continues to move to or moves faster than originally anticipated toward <br />the full-time firefighter model, Councilmember Etten questioned if some of those <br />remaining part-time firefighters would be cut off before they became fully vested. <br />Chief O'Neill assured that would not be the case at all; with the concept and in- <br />tent all along being to have people leave through attrition; and offering that the <br />city would not end the program from their side unless the reinaining part-time <br />firefighter positions continued to drag on a few decades from now. <br />