The D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department came up short nearly $1 million in the last fiscal year and faces another $7.5 million gap in fiscal 2009 largely because of overtime costs that the agency is struggling to control.
Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed redirecting $325,000 from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and another $600,000 from the School Modernization Fund to FEMS to cover overtime shortfalls. Officials say school improvement projects will not be cut.
FEMS Chief Dan Rubin told a D.C. Council committee Friday that the agency has reduced the number of vacant paramedic/firefighter slots from more than 250 to about 100 in the 18 months he has been in charge.
The agency, Rubin said, just started a national recruiting drive for experienced paramedics and firefighters — D.C. personnel are required to be trained in both disciplines — and the city is extending a $7,000 signing bonus to attract the most desirable candidates. Rookie firefighters earn about $45,000 to start.
“All in all,” Rubin said, “I think we’re getting much better control of overtime.”
But the expense continues to be a problem for the roughly 2,200-member department with an annual budget of $175 million. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi is projecting FEMS may overrun its 2009 allocation by between $4 million and $7.5 million, at least half because of overtime.
At-large D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee, said the department has always struggled to meet staffing requirements, often suffering vacancies in the triple digits.
“They don’t have the discipline to get control over overtime,” Mendelson said. “Hiring has got to be part of the plan.”
Overtime is because of a “large combination of factors,” Rubin said, from training to sick time to “fire watch,” which department spokesman Alan Etter explained as fire inspectors standing guard at a location, typically a school, to prevent a blaze.
Mendelson also questioned why Fenty proposed lopping $1 million from the fire department’s 2009 budget to help close a $131 million shortfall, while simultaneously reprogramming money from other agencies to cover overtime needs.
