2020 City of Shakopee Budget

85

Budget Impact: The fire department goes well beyond its mission of providing cost effective, efficient, and state-of-the-art fire and rescue protection for citizens and businesses within our fire district. The department is consistently praised and receives high marks from citizens and citizen surveys and does so while maintaining a fiscally responsible budget. The fire department manages two fire stations and a fleet of 21 vehicles. We still utilize primarily paid-on-call firefighters to complete services supported by eight full-time staff. Recruitment and retention are still a major issue – we’re budgeted for 46 paid-on-call firefighters and currently have 45. In 2019, we hired five paid-on-call firefighters and will likely be losing the same number due to planned retirements and/or voluntary resignations. The fire department hasn’t increased paid-on-call staff since the opening of the 2nd fire station (station 1) in 1998 and full-time staff has only increased by one since 2013. During this same time period, the fire district population has increased from approximately 38,000 to nearly 50,000 and fire calls have gone from under 600 to over 1,000 projected in 2019. Additional staffing will be needed soon in order to maintain an acceptable level of service. The fire department has historically trained its own firefighters. That continues today but with a much greater emphasis on qualified and certified trainers and better record-keeping. In 2018, a full-time Assistant Fire Chief was hired to oversee all firefighter training. This is a valuable addition for the fire department and for the City to not only have highly trained firefighters but ensuring that the training provided and received is up to today’s standards. Besides the full-time Assistant Chief and Captain, the department uses mostly paid-on-call staff as instructors to complete firefighter training. Plan reviews and inspections are a large part of the operations of the fire department. In 2018, 179 fire permits were issued; up from 141 in 2017. Fire permits include open burning, fire alarm, fire sprinkler systems, special hazard fire systems, kitchen hood and kitchen suppression systems, tent, event, and fireworks sales and shows. We are on track for about the same number of fire permits in 2019. All of which require plan review and approval, and most require multiple inspections before a permit can be finalized. The fire department also inspects all commercial buildings prior to occupancy, nearly 100 in 2018, to ensure there are no fire or life safety hazards. The department utilizes full- time staff for all plan reviews and inspections. Fire prevention and public education are also an extremely valuable function of the fire department and we have seen this area grow over the last five years more than any other area. In 2018, the fire department performed over 100 public education activities or events which reached over 4,000 adults and 8,000 children. We’re on track for even higher numbers in 2019. The importance of public education and fire prevention cannot be overstated. By preventing the emergency from happening in the first place, the community is a much safer place. The department utilizes both full-time and paid-on-call staff to complete public education. The fire department continually seeks grants and donations to support our budget. In 2018, we received approximately $10,000 for training reimbursement from the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education (MBFTE), a $10,000 donation from the Rahr Malting Corporation towards the purchase of new rescue air bags, and a $2,600 grant from FM Global towards the purchase of pre-fire planning software. In 2019, the fire department has received nearly $87,000 in training reimbursement from the MBFTE and approximately $15,000 from the International Paper Foundation towards the purchase of water rescue equipment. The department actively seeks grants and donations in order to preserve fiscal accountability. Since 2012, the Shakopee Fire Department Relief Association has not required any monetary support from the City toward the paid-on-call firefighter pension fund. We anticipate this to continue with the bylaw changes that were approved by Council in 2017.

EMPLOYEES

PERCENT OF GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES

8

8

8

7

Fire 9.5%

Actual 2017 Actual 2018 Budget 2019 Budget 2020

Number of Employees (FTEs)