Merced adds money to firefighter overtime budget, eases off brownouts

With an OK from city leaders, Merced Fire Department officials expect to all but eliminate brownouts, a policy in place since 2012 that sometimes left the department short-staffed to save overtime dollars.

The department stopped using regular brownouts in mid-March, Fire Chief Shawn Henry confirmed Tuesday, after the city added $110,000 to the overtime budget through June. Henry said that amount is an estimate of how much overtime pay might be necessary through the end of the fiscal year.

“I think it’s great for the safety of our crews, and it’s also great for the citizens,” he said. “This is just a good thing because it’s going to be able to provide more manpower.”

The department also recently hired a firefighter, who is undergoing training. The extra crew member should also help the department avoid brownouts, he said.

Under the brownout policy, the department sometimes left one engine at the 16th Street station without a crew rather than spend overtime dollars to staff it.

Henry has said having one engine unstaffed stretched the department when it was responding to two calls at the same time during a brownout. Firefighters said they were in jeopardy of not getting to an emergency or fire in under six minutes, which is the industry standard.

The council will have to make a decision on overtime dollars for the coming fiscal year if it wants to continue to keep the department fully staffed. The council continues to conduct budget talks and could have the plans laid out by summer.

City Manager John Bramble said the money to pay out more overtime was in the budget this year because the city saved money by not filling staff openings for a time.

The Merced City Council did not need to vote on the matter, though council members have voiced support for ending brownouts.

Bramble noted the increase in the overtime budget will help reduce how often brownouts are necessary, but they could still be used. “I don’t know that you can completely do away with them,” he said. “It should reduce (brownouts) substantially.”

City staff continues to look at the cost to reduce brownouts as much as possible for the next fiscal year, but current numbers were not available.

An estimate presented last year by the interim fire chief may give some idea of what the city is facing. To hire five more firefighters, last year’s estimate said, would cost $571,577, compared with the cost to bump up the overtime budget for the fiscal year with an estimated $242,827.

Councilman Mike Murphy said he expects to do what’s necessary in the next fiscal year to avoid brownouts.

“Our next fiscal year, starting on July 1, is the first one in a long time where we’re really seeing a noticeable improvement in our budget,” he said. “As part of that, we expect to be able to continue this – a full-strength Fire Department.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Merced adds money to firefighter overtime budget, eases off brownouts."