Councilmembers name it as a priority at budget workshop Monday
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
At the City of Elkhorn Finance and Judicial Committee’s budget workshop Oct. 24, members of the full council agreed fire and EMS staffing should be a priority in the coming year’s budget.
With City Administrator Sam Tapson saying previously that the money to fund step one of a multi-tiered plan to bring staffing at the city’s emergency services department up to par is available through the city’s vehicle replacement fund, Alderman Hoss Rehberg said he feels like there might be better areas to trim from to fund staffing.
Rehberg noted several items, including a $49,000 increase in budgeting for the recreation department and an additional $25,000 for administration, things he said he doesn’t see as necessities. Rehberg also noted $98,000 in capital improvements, including $27,500 for a website update and $20,500 for parks and recreation.
“My personal opinion as an alderman, I look at public safety as being pretty important right now,” he said. “Are those things that can wait and that money could go towards fire and EMS? That’s just a couple of my questions and food for thought.”
Later on in the meeting, Alderman Tom Myrin asked how much the city needed to fund a contract for staffing at the department.
With the department looking to increase staff by four people, the total cost of staffing would be about $296,000, according to Fire Chief Rod Smith. With the city’s portion of the bill accounting for 53 percent, the other 47 percent funded by surrounding municipalities the city provides fire and EMS services too, it would cost the city about $156,000.
Rehberg said, as a council, they need to look at the budget closely, determine what they can afford to spend on staffing. From there, he said Smith and City of Elkhorn Finance Director James Heilman approach Paratech to see what they can offer for the funds available.
“I don’t know that we’re going to be able to find all the money,” he said. “I believe it’s important to provide a better level of service and obviously we’ve had an issue here … we need to get some more staff for them.”
Later on during general budget discussion, Mayor Howie Reynolds asked whether or not the idea of staffing four additional people was a recommendation.
Tapson said moving forward, the consensus of opinion is for phase one to be implemented in 2017. Come the next time the committee meets in November, he said either he or Heilman would provide councilmembers with several suggested options of how to meet those demands.
“I’ve already said that it is possible,” Tapson said. “We may not agree on the source of the funds, I’m suggesting it comes from the vehicle replacement fund, it could come from the closing of (tax incremental district) 3, but there are discretionary dollars that could be reassigned.”
Rehberg said looking at staffing, he wants to make sure that it is clear what the city’s portion of the project would cost, noting that looking at the full cost isn’t what the city needs to look at.
Alderman Scott McClory said even if the city were to increase staffing by one or two people, it’d still be more than the one person available now.
“So, let’s all be clear that anything we’re doing is a step in the right direction,” he said. “Maybe we can’t do a full-blown phase one with four extra people. Maybe we get two more people, but anything is better than one, which is what you have right now and that clearly is not working.”
Smith said from an operational standpoint and looking at rules and regulations, it’s also important to remember that for an engine to leave the station they need at minimum three people.
“That’s what we’re after right now,” Smith said. “Those three will supplement us on the EMS side also, so it’s a win for both sides. But we can’t lose site that we need three people to get an engine out the door.
“There’s no guarantee right now, to be honest with you, that we’re going to get three people to run an engine out the door.”
Smith added that with the shift stipend program approved earlier this year, there are still funds available there as well.
Smith said with a potential of 552 shifts in the third-quarter alone, only 355 were filled, accounting for 65 percent of the shifts. Additionally, he noted 32 percent of the time, there was only one person who volunteered for a specific shift.
“I think we need to keep that in place, but there should be some money available there from that program to put towards the staffing end of it,” he said. “But to predict that dollar, I can’t do that.”
