Loading...
SR-07-28-2015-3UCity Council Report �e ®rH nr�uaca, City Council Regular Meeting: July 28, 2015 Agenda Item:,I -U To: Mayor and City Council From: Dennis Downs, Interim Fire Chief, Fire Department Subject: Resolution authorizing Fire Department personnel to be compensated portal - to- portal for providing local government Fire assistance to the State of California and Federal Fire Agencies. Recommended Action Staff recommends that City Council adopt the attached resolution identifying the terms and conditions for the Fire Department's mutual aid responses when staff is away from their official duty station and assigned to an emergency incident requested through the state's mutual aid system. Executive Summary The City of Santa Monica (City), as a Mutual Aid provider through the California Fire Service and Rescue Emergency Mutual Aid System, receives requests to dispatch personnel and emergency apparatus under the terms of the California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA) to local, state, or federal emergencies throughout California and the country. This resolution seeks to memorialize the compensation practices of the City to ensure full cost reimbursement under the CFAA Agreement. Background Per 2015 State of California, Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) requirements, all California fire agencies are required to submit a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or Governing Body Resolution, which notes that each respective department compensates employees for all hours worked from the time of response initiation to the return to home base including travel time. This is known in the industry as compensating the employee from "portal -to- portal ". Personnel are to be compensated according to the MOU, Personnel Rules and Regulations, and /or other personnel compensation policies of their workplace. Salaried or exempt employees require verification through a MOU or similar document that denotes these positions are `1no >P also subject to compensation beyond straight time. If the agency has an enabling document, such as a MOU between labor and management which shows employees are paid portal -to- portal, a copy of that document must be on file with Cal OES to ensure payments are reimbursed. As a Mutual Aid provider through the California Fire Service and Rescue Emergency Mutual Aid System, the City of Santa Monica may be called upon to dispatch personnel and /or emergency apparatus to incidents throughout California and the country in the event of a local, state, or federal emergency. Once dispatched, the terms of mutual aid reimbursement are governed by a negotiated reimbursement mechanism called the California Fire Assistance Agreement. The California Fire Assistance Agreement is agreed upon by and between Cal OES, the State of California, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), Federal Fire Agencies, and local agencies. Discussion The City has historically compensated employees that respond to Mutual Aid requests on a portal -to- portal basis, defined as the time of response initiation to the return to home base. These employees include the CFAA classifications of suppression /safety (firefighters and paramedics) and non - suppression (administration and overhead) personnel. In addition to personnel, the City has historically received reimbursement for dispatched emergency apparatus on a portal -to- portal basis. Partner agencies have recently completed a five -year review of the CFAA and executed a revised agreement effective January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2019. One of the negotiated changes is how the reimbursement for personnel and emergency apparatus is calculated. Under the previous agreement for mutual aid responses, reimbursement for personnel and emergency apparatus response that exceeded 12 hours was calculated based on the entire time of commitment, beginning at the time of initial dispatch from home base 2 of 4 to the time of return to home base. Under the revised agreement, the reimbursement would be based on actual time worked at the incident unless the responding agency files a MOU or governing board resolution indicating that it is the agency's practice to compensate employees for all hours worked. As the City responds to one to seven mutual aid incidents annually, the proposed change would significantly impact reimbursement. To avoid a reduction in the reimbursement rate, the City must memorialize the historic practice of compensating fire response personnel on a portal -to- portal basis for mutual aid emergency response to incidents. Staff proposes memorializing the practice through the attached resolution. In addition, because this practice is not expressly addressed in the current MOU, a side letter agreement will be entered into with the appropriate bargaining units to reflect this longstanding practice. Upon adoption, the resolution, along with the applicable MOUs and side letter agreements, will be officially filed with Cal OES Fire and Rescue Division to cover any future incident responses. Without an approved resolution, incident responses would continue to be paid by the City portal -to- portal, but the City would not be reimbursed the full amount from Cal OES. The resolution ensures that the City will be reimbursed on a portal -to- portal basis, thus the full amount of mutual aid service through Cal OES. Each annual reimbursement will vary based on actual hours of mutual aid deployment; current year -to -date reimbursement from recent deployments is approximately $100,000. The attached resolution fulfills Cal OES requirements to receive allowable reimbursements by the State for City expenses related to mutual aid emergency assignments. Without the approved resolution, the City will no longer be reimbursed for the full costs of providing these services nor fully receive the allowable amounts reimbursable by Cal OES. 3of4 Financial Impacts and Budget Actions There is no immediate financial impact or budget action necessary as a result of the recommended action. Prepared By: Terese Toomey, Principal Administrative Analyst Approved Forwarded to Council Dennis J. Ans, Interim Fire C117411612015 Elaine M Polachek, Asst. City Malt OM15 Attachments: A. CFAA Resolution - Portal to Portal - 07 28 15 (DOCX) Ell ne i . Reference: Resolution No. 10900 (CCS)