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Tarpon Commission wants Fire Department staffing plan

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BY MARK SCHANTZ

SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF

Published: August 16, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - City Commission members want a status report on staffing levels at the Fire Department.

At their meeting Tuesday night commissioners asked interim City Manager Mark LeCouris to have a report responding to complaints that Fire Department personnel are under stress as a result of understaffing at the department by their next meeting, Aug. 19.

In recent days LeCouris, who still holds the title of chief of police, has said he was planning to add one firefighter to the department's ranks in the next fiscal year. Given the projected state of the city's finance in its 2009 fiscal year, LeCouris told commissioners, it might not be able to afford hiring any more than that.

He has also said the department is adequately staffed to handle fires in a safe manner with assistance from neighboring fire departments.

Tuesday night Commissioner Peter Dalacos said he was taken aback by Fire Department staffing reports Fire Chief Steve Moreno has written since 2005. The reports warned the Fire Department is dangerously undermanned.

Moreno's 2005 report to then-City Manager Ellen Posivach, for example, stated, "We are currently very deficient in fire training, pre-incident planning, fire hydrant and water system testing and leadership training."

When arriving at the scene of a fire, firefighters cannot go inside a burning building to fight the blaze or rescue someone until backup arrives from another department, a June 2006 report states.

National fire safety rules dictate that at least four firefighters must be on the scene of a fire before a burning building can be entered, with two inside and two outside the structure. Moreno has said it takes from 7 to 12 minutes for backup units necessary to allow firefighters to enter a burning building to arrive from outside the city from units such as Palm Harbor Fire Rescue and East Lake Fire and Rescue.

Last week Moreno said the staffing issues he wrote about in the reports are still a problem. Tuesday night, Commissioner Susan Slattery said the Fire Department should hire from three to four fighters to allow one firefighter to be added to each shift.

Each additional firefighter would cost the city an additional $80,000 a year, according to Arie Walker, the finance director. The Fire Department's budget for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, was $4.937 million.

Mayor Beverley Billiris said protecting the public safety should be the commission's focus. She suggested tapping the city's financial reserves to pay for additional firefighters.

LeCouris, however, reminded commissioners the city had to borrow $1 million from reserves to balance its budget this fiscal year. With a slow economy and changes to the state's property tax system continuing to reduce city revenue, it may have to dig even deeper next fiscal year to make ends meet, he warned.

Despite the warning, Billiris said she needs to have LeCouris and Moreno restore her "comfort level" regarding the Fire Department's ability to protect the public. The city has adequate financial reserves if more money needs to be spent on the Fire Department, she said.

Commissioner Chris Alahouzos said the wants the manager to come back with an action plan on how the Fire Department can be brought up to an acceptable level of service. To meet national standards on staffing the Fire Department would have to add 15 firefighters, Moreno has said. At present the department has 30 firefighters.

By contrast, Palm Harbor Fire Rescue has 54 frontline firefighters. At about $10 million, however, its budget for fiscal 2008 was roughly twice as large as that of the Tarpon Springs Fire Department budget.

A "reality check" is needed to determine if the commission needs to address the reported Fire Department personnel shortages so firefighters can operate effectively and are not exhausted and stressed, Commissioner Robin Saenger said.

Last week Moreno said the Fire Department is operating with the bare minimum of front-line firefighting personnel but is able to do its job with assistance from neighboring departments. He added, however, staffing shortages have reduced firefighter training and fire safety inspections.

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