Anne Arundel County Fire Chief Ron Blackwell said money and location are hamstringing his department?s efforts to recruit additional trained employees and cut down on overtime costs.
The fire department has racked up $8.8 million in overtime for fiscal 2006. Blackwell said specialized training for staff, annual leave and unfilled positions were responsible for the bulk of the expense.
“A lot of fire departments are hiring now, and that leaves us at a disadvantage in terms of salary and jurisdiction,” Blackwell told a County Council work session Tuesday. “Anne Arundel is not a preferred jurisdiction ? people want to live closer to where they work.”
In the past year, the department has spent $2 million for advanced life support training for new recruits, $3.4 million for annual leave and $3 million to compensate for vacancies in the department. Another $500,000 was spent for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and federally required urban-area security initiative training.
Blackwell said the department was talking to the union about ways to manage personal leave requests, especially during peak times. When a fourth shift is added in December, employees will also be required to schedule leave a year in advance.
The department has tried to beef up its ranks ahead of the addition of the fourth shift, but Deputy Chief Bob Ray said trained paramedics and pump operators, the people trained to drive the trucks, have been hard to come by. Ray said the department needs to hire about 110 people during the next two hiring periods to fully staff all shifts.
“I think we?re on track now,” he said. “The only difference is we didn?t attract as many paramedics as we hoped.”
Council Member Pamela Beidle said county auditor statistics revealed that 49 new recruits out of 125 hired over the last three years have left during training or before the end of their probation period.
“One of the things that has happened is it has gotten a lot more challenging,” Blackwell said. “It?s necessary to expect a lot more from our employees now.”
