AGENDA CAPTION:
Title
Consider approval of Resolution 2018-65R, approving an amendment of the current Meet and Confer Agreement between the San Marcos Professional Firefighters Association Local #3963 and City of San Marcos to provide for the establishment of the Fire Marshal’s Office within the Fire Department and authorize the Fire Chief to hire a Fire Marshal from outside the Department’s classified service; and declaring an effective date.
Body
Meeting date: May 1, 2018
Department: Fire Department, Chief Les Stephens, Fire Chief
Amount & Source of Funding
Funds Required: $42,000-$72,000 for full- year worth of salary
Account Number: Budget Amendment will be brought back May 15, 2018
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Background Information:
In most cities, the Fire Marshal directly reports to the Fire Chief as a member of the Fire Department. Currently, the Fire Marshal directly reports to the Neighborhood Services Director and the City has two dedicated positions dedicated to this function. The City for some time has wanted to reassign this position to directly report to the Fire Department. In order to accomplish this, the Meet and Confer agreement needs to be amended in order to address the hiring procedures for the Fire Marshal position.
Under the proposed amendment, the Fire Chief will have the ability to hire an experienced Fire Marshal from outside of the department and that position will not be considered as a civil service position. His ability to hire from outside the City will stay in place until May 1, 2023. After this time period, the City should have civil service fire personnel trained to a level whereby an in-house fire personnel will be able to step into the Fire Marshal function on behalf of the City.
The San Marcos Professional Firefighter’s Association is in agreement with the proposed language and have ratified this agreement through a vote of their association.
In February of 2018, the two fire marshal positions resigned from the City of San Marcos. The City has recently hired a very experienced Interim Fire Marshal to step in while we try to hire a full-time position. This Interim Fire Marshal is interested in the full-time position once this amendment is approved. He has performed a full review of what resources are needed to address this function properly within the City of San Marcos. We have evaluated that analysis and recommend that 4 dedicated positions be allocated to the Fire Marshal function. We have those positions available in the City staffing tables and are recommending they be reallocated to the Fire Marshal function. The salary impact to adjusting the functional responsibilities of the associated personnel would run between $42,000 and $72,000 depending on the salaries necessary to hire an experienced Fire Marshal. The next step if this amendment were approved, the City would bring back a budget amendment to adjust the staffing personnel for which the net effect will be 0 but the salary impact will be included with a range between $42,000 and $72,000. A white paper discussing the proposed functions of the Fire Marshal personnel is included as an attachment to this agenda item. Many of these functions are not being performed due to an inadequate number of personnel.
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Recommendation:
City staff recommends the approval of the Fire Meet and Confer Amendment.