Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Emergency! Call in the Consultants!

By Sallie Satterthwaite
SallieS@Juno.com

Last week's front-page story by Citizen reporter John Munford could hardly make it any plainer: Peachtree City Fire Department needs additional staffing, and has needed it ever since the current administration moved into City Hall.

A comment was made at the recent City Council Retreat that the fire department's hiring request would cost citizens more in increased taxes than they'd save in lower insurance premiums.

Hang the increased capability it would give the department to serve Peachtree City. Just focus on the money.

The department is, reluctantly, willing to settle for hiring and equipping nine firefighters in the upcoming fiscal year. This would give each of the three 24-hour shifts an additional three firefighters, bringing the total on-shift personnel to 15 ­ and wouldupgrade our ISO rating from Class 4 to Class 3, which could result in lower insurance premiums for most Peachtree City homeowners.
"Staffing is more than just attaining ISO Class 3 which is a property and insurance issue," Fire Chief Stony Lohr has said. "It is safety for citizens and safety for firefighters, and effectiveness, and meeting standards, and better ability to respond to larger emergencies, and reducing liability."

Yet the city denied the chief's request.

Even if three more firefighters per shift are added, the department still would not meet national standards for responding to one fire call and one EMS call simultaneously.

I use cautious words like "could" and "most" because there are too many variables to say flatly that everyone would get a cut in insurance premiums, but the range for moving from Class 4 to Class 3 averages an 8 percent saving.

I won't write it all out ­ it's beyond confusing to number-challenged people like me ­ but I'll give you the bottom line. A homeowner with a house worth $200,000 would pay roughly 8 percent less on his $800 insurance costs, or $64.

Six firefighters and three captains, with equipment, would cost a total of $549,380, or an additional 0.404 mills per year. (One mill generates an annual $1,359,191 for the city.) That $200,000 house has an assessed property value of 40%, or $80,000, and its taxes would rise about $32.32.

The homeowner saves a net $31.68 per year.

Think about that for a moment. To the owner of a $200,000 house, $31.68 a year is pocket change. The money is not the point. A properly staffed and equipped emergency crew is the point.

About five years ago, the department launched a program to achieve national accreditation. We had new people in the department who brought with them the kind of expertise it would take for PCFD to be one of three nationally accredited fire departments in Georgia.

Fire Chief Gerald Reed's long illness and absence from the office slowed the process somewhat. After he died, more time was lost in reorganizing the department. And at about the time we began going aggressively after accreditation again, the new denizens of City Hall slowed that quest to a crawl.

Had those difficult times not come together when they did, there's no doubt we'd have enough personnel now, plus at least one of the two new fire stations we need, and for sure, a Class 3 ISO rating.

Instead, we're still where we were three years ago, and about to bring in a consultant. Ironically, this one will be welcomed by Lohr and his people; they know they may actually fair better by having a third party tell City Hall what the department already knows about itself.

Let's talk about consultants. Through city spokesperson Betsy Tyler, Paul Salvatore, the city's finance guy, says the city has always supplemented our payrolled work force by hiring "outside" help on an ad hoc basis. "We can gain efficiency by hiring temporary help that is well versed and experienced in dealing with special projects on a regular basis, rather than pulling busy staff away from their regular duties," Betsy said.

She continued by listing "a few things that we have paid consultants for recently," most of them last year. They include a storm water utility consultant (due to state mandate), an Information Technology consultant (evaluating computer networks due to departmental reorganization and recent security threat concerns), a fleet consultant because of a possible capital investment in garage facilities, plus "people we regularly consult with regarding insurance and pension matters."

That list ran to more than $102,500. I can see why new technology, like a computer system, would be worthy of hiring temporary assistance, and a pension/insurance consultant should generate enough savings to be worthwhile.

But it is not true to say that we have always supplemented the staff with outside consultants. I don't recall its happening when I was on city council, and I don't recall that it was routine during the years I covered various governmental meetings.

The Airport Authority did engage a fellow ­ maybe still does ­ whose raison d'etre was to secure FAA money for runways and such. He most certainly generated a return in the millions of dollars.

Frances Meaders, city clerk from about 1973 to 1995, said her recollections are a lot like mine. "In thinking back I know we used them quite a bit in purchasing computers and software but then not too many of us knew anything about computers," she said. She also remembers that the Georgia Municipal Association gave us legal advice as we developed our ordinances and pay scales.

"I think probably we used consultants for building projects like City Hall and the amphitheater, but until about 20 years ago we relied on GMA, University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, etc. for mostly free data and help." She added, "I just heard Stony [Lohr, the Fire Chief] speak at Rotary and wondered why we needed to pay $30,000 to consultants when it is already known what is needed. That money could go toward personnel."