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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 4.4 - 1414 Fire Services 5-Year Evaluation Page 1 of 8 STAFF REPORT CITY COUNCIL DATE: May 2, 2017 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers FROM: Christopher L. Foss, City Manager SUBJECT: Alameda County Fire Department Five-Year Evaluation on Fire Services Prepared by: David Rocha, Fire Chief; H. Wetherford, Asst. to the CM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The City Council will receive a five-year evaluation report on fire services provided by the Alameda County Fire Department. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Receive the report. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact to receiving this information. DESCRIPTION: Pursuant to the Fire and Emergency Response Services Agreement between the City and the Alameda County Fire District (ACFD), the City and ACFD agreed to jointly prepare an evaluation of services provided to the City every five (5) years and present the evaluation to the City Council by June 30th of every fifth year. The current Agreement has a term of 20 years which commenced on July 1, 2012 and expires on June 30, 2032. ACFD has provide d the City with a high level of service since 1993, and this report will summarize and highlight certain agreement areas over the past five-year period. QUALITY OF SERVICES PROVIDED STATION LOCATION AND STAFFING: Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD) operates three fire stations within the City limits. Station 16 is located on 7494 Donohue Drive and operates one engine company with three firefighters. Station 17 is located at 6200 Madigan Road and houses one engine company and one truck company with th ree Page 2 of 8 personnel on each apparatus. Station 18 is located at 4800 Fallon Road and operates one engine company with three personnel. ACFD utilizes a constant staffing model as a department standard; this means that the appropriate numbers of personnel are available to fill all positions at each station on a daily basis. Each engine and truck company within the City of Dublin is capable of providing paramedic level services. All ACFD apparatus have a minimum of one paramedic and two emergency medical technic ians. There is a minimum of four paramedics assigned to the City of Dublin at all times. In addition to the staffing on each apparatus from Stations 16, 17 and 18, the City of Dublin receives automatic aid from San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District (SRVFPD) Engine 39, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, and the full depth of resources of ACFD’s 34 companies. These resources are built into designated responses and are also utilized on an as-needed basis. Response units are utilized to ensure that the closest resources are responding in adequate numbers and that established standards of coverage are maintained within the City. RESPONSE TIMES: ACFD has met or exceeded the contract requirement for emergency response times for each of the last five fiscal years. The response time standard requires that the first fire unit arrive on scene within five minutes or less 90% of the time. From July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2016, the first responding ACFD unit arrived on the scene, for all emergencies within five minutes or less 91% of the time. EMERGENCY RESPONSE TIMES Fiscal Year All Emergency Calls <5-minute response All Calls <5-minute response 2011-2012 92% 91% 2012-2013 91% 90% 2013-2014 91% 90% 2014-2015 91% 90% 2015-2016 92% 90% ACFD met or exceeded the response time standard of two engines and one truck on scene for first alarm assignments within 10 minutes of dispatch 90% of the time. For first alarm fires, ACFD did not meet the full first alarm standard in FY 2011-2012. These response times represent calls where each apparatus arrived on scene and the incident was confirmed at the specified location. Page 3 of 8 FIRST ALARM RESPONSE TIMES Fiscal Year First Alarms <10 minutes First Alarms >10 minutes Percentage 2011-2012 21 3 87% 2012-2013 24 1 96% 2013-2014 54 2 96% 2014-2015 32 2 94% 2015-2016 48 1 97% ADEQUACY OF SERVICES PROVIDED A. Fire Protection/Response Services EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE: ACFD provides a minimum of one paramedic on all fire apparatus in the City of Dublin at all times. To date, the response times to Emergency Medical Service (EMS) calls within the City have exceeded the County EMS contractual requirement of 10 minutes or less 90% of the time. In addition, ACFD provides medical oversight and a comprehensive quality improvement program as required in the City’s First Responder Advance Life Support (FRALS) Agreement. ACFD has been in compliance with all applicable county and state data and certification/licensure requirements. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESPONSE: ACFD maintains a fully functioning hazardous materials team. The team is equipped and trained to handle a variety of hazardous materials incidents including radiological and biological incidents. The team is classified Type I as defined by the California Office of Emergency Services. It responds and functions from specifically equipped hazardous materials response units. ACFD is part of the Alameda County Mutual Aid Plan, which insures the appropriate response to incidents that would otherwise overwhelm the fire resources in Dublin/ACFD. B. Fire Prevention Services FIRE PREVENTION SERVICES: Staffing for the City of Dublin Fire Prevention Bureau consists of one Deputy Fire Marshal, one Fire Code Compliance Officer, and one Senior Office Assistant II (City of Dublin position). The on-site Deputy Fire Marshal provides coordination of daily activities for Fire Prevention personnel assigned to the City. The Fire Marshal is also available to attend planning and development meetings as needed and provides oversight for the ACFD Fire Prevention activities. Page 4 of 8 Fire Investigation – ACFD provides fire investigation services to determine origin and cause. Fire Investigators are called by operational personnel when the need arises. Occupancy Inspections – Fire Prevention personnel perform all required inspections relating to construction, fire operational permits and the self - inspection program. Fire companies perform the required mandated inspections for public schools and multi-family housing. Fire prevention Bureau Investigations & Inspections Fiscal Year Investigations Inspections 2011-2012 1 3,189 2012-2013 1 3,757 2013-2014 0 2,163 2014-2015 6 3,796 2015-2016 2 4,330 Plan Submittal Review – The City’s Community Development Department reported that plans for new construction and tenant improvements have been submitted and reviewed within the established City standards. In addition, the Fire Prevention Bureau has reviewed planning department referrals for plan development, tract map, parcel map and conceptual designs. Development Inspection – Development inspections are performed at a number of stages during the development process. Fire Prevention personnel inspect the water supply, fire sprinklers, hydrants and alarm systems prior to issuing a temporary or f inal certificate of occupancy by the Building Department. Fire Prevention Revenue Fiscal Year Construction Revenue Permit Revenue 2011-2012 $279,151 $56,554 2012-2013 $434,374 $72,765 2013-2014 $412,159 $103,320 2014-2015 $617,760 $102,013 2015-2016 $656,180 $103,456 Fireworks Administration – Fire Prevention personnel administer the permitting of annual fireworks booths throughout the City. Individual booths are inspected prior to opening and throughout the sales period as needed. Each site is inspected following the 4th of July to assure proper cleanup of all related materials has taken place so a refund of deposits can be approved. Page 5 of 8 Firework Booths Fiscal Year # of Booths 2011-2012 14 2012-2013 15 2013-2014 16 2014-2015 17 2015-2016 14* *A small number of groups applied for firework booths in 2015 -2016, and some of the groups teamed together so the number of booths decreased. Weed Abatement – Abatement notices are sent out annually in March to notify individuals of the need for vegetation ab atement on their property. Owners who do not notify the Fire Prevention Bureau of compliance within the established time frame will have their property inspected to determine compliance. Individuals not in compliance are sent a notice of violation advising them that a contractor may abate the property and that they are responsible for the associated costs. Fire Prevention Fees and Miscellaneous – The Fire Prevention Bureau performs business license application inspections for all new businesses. Inspections occur any time a new business locates within the City or changes operations that requires a new license. The inspections result in the business being added to the permitted occupancies list or put into the self-inspection program. The self -inspection program is organized through the business license application process and requires an on -site fire inspection every three years. C. Community Educations: The Alameda County Fire Department Public Education Assistant coordinates community relations and public education requests and services. The individual works out of the Fire Administration Office. There are a variety of education and training programs provided to the City of Dublin. The following is a brief list of the programs offered:  Station Tours and Apparatus Visits  Personnel Emergency Preparedness (PEP) Presentations  Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training  Community CPR (Hands-Only CPR)  Career Day Speakers  Public Information Notifications via Social Media & AC Alert  Dublin High School’s Every 15 Minutes  Updating of City of Dublin website (ACFD pages)  Community Festival/Fair Participation COST OF SERVICES The ACFD annual budget submission to the City has followed the internal time lines and deadlines established by the City. The annual bu dget submission (both Page 6 of 8 narrative and budget data) is prepared in a format that corresponds to the City’s budget document. Fire Staff and City Staff have worked cooperatively during each year’s budget development process to ensure that all questions and iss ues are resolved to the satisfaction of the City. The chart below summarizes the ACFD contract and budget variance over the last contract period. ACFD Contract Budget Versus Actual for the Last Contract Period COST ANALYSIS: The Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD) realizes the importance to the City of Dublin of ensuring services are being delivered in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible. To demonstrate the value of the contract for service between the City of Dublin and the ACFD, a comparison to another agency for cost per FTE and cost per company is provided in the following two tables using FY 2016-2017 adopted fire services operating budget. Both comparisons demonstrate the benefits of contracting for service with the Alameda County Fire Department. Operating Budget # of FTE Cost per FTE City of Dublin $12,383,832 44 $281,451 City of Fremont $46,343,000 159 $291,465 Operating Budget # of Companies Cost per Company City of Dublin $12,383,832 4 $3,095,958 City of Fremont $46,343,000 13 $3,564,846 This assessment doesn’t consider the enhanced services provided by the ACFD that Fremont doesn’t offer. Enhanced services include a hazardous materials team, urban search and rescue company, bulldozer, water rescue and immediate access to any ACFD resources. The overall cost and resource benefit of the contract clearly demonstrates an advantage to the City of Dublin in contracting with the Alameda County Fire Department. The Alameda County Fire Department provides a unified response to emergency, centralized management of resources, reduction of duplication, “economies of scale” which improve cost containment, the ability to provide specialized services and retention of local control t hrough a well-structured contract. FY 2011-12 FY 2012-13 FY 2013-14 FY 2014-15 FY 2015-16 Budget $10,382,024 $10,760,428 $11,290,961 $11,645,055 $11,787,975 Actual $10,168,994 $10,544,874 $10,646,655 $11,406,449 $11,471,283 Variance ($213,030) ($215,554) ($644,306) ($238,606) ($316,692) Variance% -2.1% -2.0% -5.7% -2.0% -2.7% Page 7 of 8 REPORTS AND RECORDS: County Audit ̶ ACFD is audited on an annual basis by an independent financial auditor. Additionally, the Alameda County Auditor -Controller’s Office conducts periodic audits of ACFD’s specific operational and/or fiscal areas (i.e. fixed assets audit, payroll audit, etc.). City Staff has reviewed the most recent ACFD financial audit as part of the contract review. Fire Department Complaints ̶ All complaints received by the ACFD are forwarded to a Deputy Fire Chief. Each complaint is followed up on and documented by the Deputy Chief handling the complaint. During the term of this review, no formal complaints concerning the City of Dublin were received. It is ACFD policy that the City Manager would be fully informed about any complaints and subsequent remedies. ACFD Fire Advisory Commission ̶ The ACFD Fire Advisory Commission meets on a quarterly basis on the third Thursday of February, May, August and November. The City of Dublin holds a seat on the Commission. The Dublin City Council appoints the representative to the Commission. INVENTORY: In 1997, and after the dissolution of Dougherty Regional Fire Authority (DRFA), the City created a comprehensive inventory listing of those fixed asset s owned by the City of Dublin. Over the past 20-year period, the City has tracked the Fire Services inventory through the City’s Equipment Internal Service Schedule, the Fire Station Building Replacement Schedule and the City’s Fixed Asset System. ACFD has provided the City with complete inventories of each new apparatus purchased by the City. FACILITIES: Buildings and Real Property ̶ Fire Stations 16, 17 and 18 are owned and maintained by the City of Dublin and the City budgets annually for facility maintenance and capital projects. Day-to-day maintenance is handled by the City’s contract with the MCE Corporation through the Public Works Department. Apparatus and Equipment ̶ Apparatus and equipment within the City is owned by the City of Dublin. Maintenance of fire apparatus is provided by ACFD mechanics and billed to the City of Dublin. Payment of Services ̶ The existing contract language specifies that the Department will provide the City an expenditure breakdown and invoice for current services on a quarterly basis. Evidence of Insurance ̶ Staff has reviewed the evidence of insurance and self - insurance certificate that reflects the County of Alameda’s self -insured liability and workers’ compensation policy limits. Page 8 of 8 DISPATCH: The Alameda County Regional Emergency Communications Center (ACRECC), a nationally accredited and distinguished Center of Excellence, is managed by the ACFD and has served as the Alameda County regional fire and emergency services (EMS) dispatch center since 2002. In addition to the City of Dublin, the County EMS Agency, the Cities of Alameda, Livermore, Pleasanton, Fremont, and Camp Parks are also participants in ACRECC. Alameda County’s private ambulance provider, Paramedics Plus, is also dispatched out of ACRECC. Dispatching fire, EMS, and ambulance calls from the same center provides for better coordination and quicker response times to emergency incidents. The chart below summarizes the cost per call for each of the past five fiscal years. Fiscal Year Cost Per Call 2011-2012 $35.77 2012-2013 $35.45 2013-2014 $32.46 2014-2015 $32.86 2015-2016 $36.69 The cost per call for ACRECC is significantly lower than for comparable communication centers, which range from $40 to $60 per call. ACFD will continuously work on integrating other fire departments into ACRECC to ensure providing the City with high quality, cost-effective fire dispatch services, state of the art emergency medical dispatch and excellent customer service. The regional dispatch center provides the City of Dublin with high quality cost- effective fire dispatch services, state of the art emergency medical dispatch and excellent customer service. NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH: A copy of this Staff Report was provided to the Alameda County Fire Department. ATTACHMENTS: None.