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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March 25,2019 Page 13 ry College is not far off as far as closing their program. He thought a lot of the in- terest from young people getting into the field is declining. Chief O'Neill stated even Allina, which is their medical transportation provider, has gone to the extreme of putting on a class where Allina is paying somebody to go to school to become an EMT or paramedic because there are not enough EMT's or paramedics to keep Allina's rigs on the street. The entire safety arena is seeing fewer and fewer people. Chief O'Neill stated the Fire Department does not pay enough to make it be a fi- nancial incentive for the fire fighter to be here and with the changes to PERA as the retirement benefit, the financial benefit of long-term retirement is not there any longer. The Fire Department does not currently provide any of the part-time staff with a benefit structure. He stated it is kind of a tough cycle right now and Roseville is not the only department facing it. Chief O'Neill continued his presentation with the Fire Department's average emergency response times and call types. Dr. Burnette, Assistant Medical Director with Regions Hospital and Roseville's Medical Director, was at the meeting and discussed the medical operations of a fire department. Councilmember Etten asked if there was a reason why the Roseville Police De- partment couldn't serve as a part of that extra response because the Police De- partment is receiving some medical training or does the Police Department do that. Chief O'Neill stated the model of the Police Department has changed in the last decade. Going back to 2008, the Police Department was responding to all medi- cals with the Fire Department because prior to that,the Police Department was the only medical response ahead of the ambulance at that point. Over the years and as their workload has increased, less and less often is the Police Department re- sponding to the average medical with the Fire Department. Councilmember Etten asked why the Fire Department could not move from the basic life support to advanced life support. Chief O'Neill stated the number one problem would be consistency. He thought there were four medics currently dispersed throughout the crews so some days, the Fire Department would be able to provide medic level care and some days, the Fire Department would not be able to provide it. He indicated the Fire Depart- ment was hoping to do that sometime in the future and does have the support of Regions EMS to move in that direction.