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Tribune & Georgian
Friday, July 19,2013
Fire
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occurrence during his four
years with the department.
Pete Koerner came to
CCFR after serving about 12
years at the Fulton County
Fire Department near At
lanta and teaching classes at
the Georgia Fire Academy in
Forsyth. He moved to Cam
den County in 1997, opened
a business and was hired by
CCFR in 2009. He resigned
this year.
During his time at the de
partment, Koerner said, he
noticed that supervisors
began canceling, ignoring or
downgrading repair requests
with ever-increasing fre
quency.
“At one point at my sta
tion there were probably 20
overdue work orders,” he
said.
Eventually, the practice of
postponing work on trucks
began to unnerve many fire
fighters who worried about
the vehicles’ safety, he said.
“On numerous occasions,
I would go out to those
trucks and they wouldn’t
start,” Koerner said.
When asked about these
incidents, Gailey acknowl
edged that the department
has had maintenance issues
in the past but said leaders
are now working to correct
them. A comprehensive
overview of the fleet has
been conducted, he said, and
CCFR is now investing in
part replacements versus
quick fixes.
Gailey has also taken a
more aggressive stance on
preventative maintenance,
he said.
“I definitely have much
more confidence (in the
fleet) now than I did a few
months ago,” he said.
The age of CCFR’s vehi
cle fleet means more repairs
have been required in recent
years, Gailey said. This
made it difficult to coordi
nate maintenance while also
ensuring that each of the
county’s nine fire stations al
ways had a functioning truck
to respond to 911 calls.
CCFR has just two backup
fire engines that can stand in
while primary trucks are
being repaired. If three or
more engines break down
and are forced to be taken
out of service, whole fire dis
tricts are each covered by
one tanker — a truck prima
rily designed to shuttle water
to fire engines.
And though Camden
County’s tanker shuttle sys
tem is almost legendary —
the county is the largest in
the nation to achieve an ISO
rating of four using this sys
tem — it is dependent upon
having engines at fire scenes.
“You may have more
breakdowns than backup
(trucks),” Gailey said, adding
CCFR is now investing two
to three times more money
in repairs than in recent
years. “I think the numbers
would show the commit
ment. We’ve got a little ways
to go, but we’re getting
there.”
The bulk of the mainte
nance is being performed by
Jacksonville, Fla.-based Auto
Masters Fleet Services Inc.,
which has been sending re
pair trucks and personnel to
county fire stations regularly
for several weeks.
County finance director
Mike Fender said this ap
pears to be working well.
Once needed repairs are
completed, the county
should spend about $20,000
per year with Auto Masters
in fleet maintenance.
Prior to the company’s in
volvement, the department
spent about $63,000 per year
sending fire trucks to other
companies in Jacksonville for
repairs. Between 2011 and
2013, CCFR spent nearly
$200,000 using this practice.
Fender and Gailey said
they are pleased with the
level of service Auto Masters
is providing for the price.
Both seem optimistic about
the contract’s benefits in the
future.
New fire vehicles are also
on the horizon. In March,
voters countywide approved
the next installment of $pe-
cial Purpose Local Option
$ales Tax ($PLO$T), which
will soon pay for three new
fire engines and the refur
bishment or purchase of two
ambulances, Gailey said.
According to Fender,
about $530,000 is tentatively
budgeted for the ambu
lances, and $3 million will go
toward the engines as well as
other equipment purchases.
In addition, the board of
commissioners approved in
February the purchase of
two new tankers using
$360,000 from CCFR’s
budget and the county’s cap
ital improvement fund.
Those trucks should be de
livered in $eptember, Fender
said.
“We can’t afford to not
have the reliability we need
to have,” Gailey said. “I
think we’re getting there.”
Administrative vehicles
Fire engines, tankers and
ambulances are not the only
trucks that cost taxpayers.
The department’s top
four officials — Gailey,
training division officer
Robbi King, administrative
division officer Charles
Lowther and operations di
vision officer Mark Lain —
all drive Chevrolet Tahoe
$UVs purchased and main
tained by the department.
These four vehicles differ
from other fire department
administrative trucks pri
marily in their look and ex
pense. While $t. Marys and
Kingsland chiefs drive
bright red, clearly marked
pickups and $UVs with ex
terior emergency lights, the
county’s four Tahoes — two
black and two gold — are
outfitted with interior lights
and radios that are invisible
from outside the cars. They
are also relatively un
marked, save for softball
sized CCFR stickers affixed
to the sides of each vehicle.
Gailey said it cost $3,000
apiece to install the interior
light packages and radios, a
total cost of $12,000. He
said he decided to forego
stickering each vehicle
more prominently because
he wanted to save the $500-
per-truck cost. The admin
vehicles respond to calls less
frequently than others,
making them less of a prior
ity.
When asked whether he
believes the relatively un
marked vehicles make his
and his officers’ daily activ
ities less obvious to taxpay
ers, Gailey said the sticker
job is not something he tries
to hide behind.
“That’s the taxpayers’ ve
hicle,” he said.
Attrition rates
After Gailey took the
reins of CCFR in 2005, he
modified the department’s
hiring process. No matter
their experience level, new
hires were grouped into re
cruit classes and given eight
to 10 weeks of comprehen
sive training on everything
from department rules and
regulations to how to drive
the fire trucks.
$ince 2006, the county
has hired 105 recruits and
hosted nine classes. Of
those hires, 54 still work for
the department while 51
have left — a 48-percent at
trition rate. With $10,000-
$11,000 spent on training
and equipment for each re
cruit, the attrition rate has
meant a $561,000 loss.
Gailey said the county’s
human resources depart
ment is aware of CCFR’s at
trition situation and is
working on ways to improve
benefits, which will hope
fully turn new recruits into
career personnel. The past
three years, the fire depart
ment and the county have
been in financial survival
Tribune & Georgian file photo
Turnout gear hangs along a wall at a fire station. A former Camden County Fire Rescue em
ployee says delays in preventative maintenance have made some firefighters nervous about
the mechanical state of some fire trucks.
mode, he said, and now
things are starting to stabi
lize.
“What you can’t put a
number on is experience,”
Gailey said of retention ef
forts.
When asked whether a
more attractive retirement
plan, such as the 20-and-out
program offered by Kings
land Fire Rescue, might
keep firefighters employed
for the long run, Gailey said
he believes the county’s cur
rent plan offers more for his
employees.
Defined benefit plans are
failing across the country,
he said, adding one of the
downfalls of 20-and-out
plans is that an employee’s
beneficiaries do not con
tinue to receive funds if the
employee retires and then
dies. The county’s current
retirement plan continues
to pay beneficiaries even
after a retired employee’s
death.
When asked if he had a
message for current fire de
partment employees who
are discouraged by the
maintenance issues and at
trition rate, Gailey said he is
committed to improving.
He added that it is difficult
to explain to each and every
staff member just why deci
sions are made, but he feels
confident that they would
make the same decisions if
they were in his shoes.
Planning for the future
The Washington, D.C.-
based International
City/County Management
Association (ICMA) is the
firm conducting Camden’s
fire consolidation study.
This is the second report
that ICMA has prepared for
the county; the first was a
broad-based perspective on
CCFR’s operations. That
report was presented in Jan
uary.
ICMA project managers
recommended that CCFR
create strategic and risk
management plans, fill the
vacant fire marshal position
and consider consolidation
with city departments to cut
costs. The latter comment
led county and city officials
to commission the consoli
dation study.
When asked why strategic
and risk management plans
had not been completed,
Gailey said that he has since
started the department’s risk
management plan, which he
says must be in place before
a strategic plan can be cre
ated. A CCFR action plan,
much like a detailed time
line, was also presented to
the county board of com
missioners for approval.
Depending on ICMA’s
recommendation, these
plans could change com
pletely, Gailey said.
He added that the fire
marshal’s position is tenta
tively included in the
county’s next budget, pend
ing the ICMA results and
further staff discussions.
“We definitely need to
have that back and I think
we will,” he said.
Because the outcome of
the current study is un
known, Gailey said he has
been trying to prepare for
two or three potential sce
narios. Besides phone con
ferences with all
departments to confirm
portions of data and ironing
out last-minute details, the
study is complete and will
offer a cost-benefit analysis
of consolidation.
“I’m interested in seeing
it,” Gailey said. “I think
there’s always a better way
to do things.”
Getting better
The last two to three
years have been a “roller
coaster ride,” Gailey said. In
2011, a consultant’s sugges
tion that the county con
sider implementing an
inmates-to-firefighters pro
gram as a way to inexpen
sively boost personnel
numbers met with public
opposition and even made
international headlines —
though not for the reasons
employees wanted. The
plan was rejected and a vol
unteer recruitment program
was implemented instead.
This year, uncertainty has
been high since ICMA rec
ommended some degree of
consolidation during the
first study on CCFR’s oper
ation.
“I’d like to think that
things are better,” Gailey
said, adding he tries to en
courage his employees and
counsel them through the
“what ifs” surrounding the
department. “It doesn’t
change what they do day to
day.”
He also pointed to several
positive measures in which
CCFR is involved. In the
coming weeks, resident doc
tors from the University of
Florida’s Department of
Neurology will be observing
paramedics in the field, a re
quest that stemmed from
the high level of pre-hospi
tal care the department pro
vides.
“Those are the types of
things that I’d like to see
drive morale around here,”
Gailey said. “My goal is to
take every opportunity to
make it better. We’re going
to do the best we can with
what we have.”
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