SR-07-28-2015-3UCity Council Report
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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
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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
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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.
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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)
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Reference:
Resolution No. 10900
(CCS)