CITY COUNCIL: Report on Tentative Contract with Monterey Fire

Meeting Date: October 4, 2011
Prepared by: John Goss

City Council
Agenda Item Summary

Name: Receive report on tentative contract with Monterey Fire.

Description: The purpose of this report is to present the requested draft agreement for review and consideration by the City Council. It is important to obtain the Council’s thoughts and concerns to ensure that the agreement with the City of Monterey properly reflects and protects the interests of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Some of the major elements of the draft agreement are outlined including: basic service, term/termination clause, the method and conditions of payment, the cost of the service, how the ambulance fits into the larger picture, labor and employment issues, and the coordination of fire service.

Overall Cost: N/A

Staff Recommendation: Receive the report.

Important Considerations: There may be other provisions in the proposed draft agreement in which Council may have an interest or have questions. It is suggested that you review this report and the attached draft agreement and provide input on any issues you would like addressed. This will enable the new City Administrator to continue moving this project forward. The goal will be bring a final contract and possibly other
implementing documents at the November 1, 2011 Council meeting for consideration.

Decision Record: None

Reviewed by:

________________________________ _________________
John Goss, Interim City Administrator Date

TO: MAYOR McCLOUD AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: INTERIM CITY ADMINISTRATOR JOHN GOSS
SUBJECT: DRAFT AGREEMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF FIRE SERVICE
DATE: OCTOBER 4, 2011
_______________________________________________________________________
During the September 13, 2011, City Council meeting, Council considered various options for the provision of fire service in Carmel-by-the-Sea. After due deliberation, the Council adopted a motion which provided that:

• A fire unit (engine) should be maintained 24/7 at the Carmel-by-the-Sea Fire Station;
• A minimum of three career fire fighters/EMTs should be available for emergency response 24/7;
• The City should retain ownership of its buildings, engines, vehicles and other equipment;
• Carmel Fire should be fully merged with Monterey Fire, and that staff prepare a draft Agreement with the City of Monterey for Council consideration.

The purpose of this report is to present the requested draft agreement for review and consideration by the City Council. It is important to obtain the Council’s thoughts and concerns to ensure that the agreement with the City of Monterey properly reflects and protects the interests of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Some of the major elements of the draft agreement are outlined in the following paragraphs.

Basic Service. The draft agreement which is attached covers the basic service which will implement Council’s direction on September 13. This includes providing a Fire Captain, Engineer and Firefighter “each and every day” at the Carmel Fire Station. It also provides continuity of staffing, assuring that all current Carmel employees will be
assigned to the Carmel fire station for a period of not less than one year. It further provides that Monterey will train all of its fire safety personnel to the unique response characteristics of Carmel. In fact, this has been occurring for some time under the current contract. In addition, the agreement continues to provide that Monterey will provide Chief Fire Officer duty-chief coverage for the management of emergency incidents.

Basically, the agreement will provide fire service in Carmel-by-the-Sea similar to that currently provided. Monterey will also oversee emergency medical services including ambulance response as is currently the case. The agreement will provide administrative services including program planning and management, budgeting, training, procurement,
human resource support, and records management.

Term/Termination Clause. One of the questions raised at the September 13, 2011 meeting is whether the “escape clause” in the agreement was sufficient. First, the agreement provides that the agreement would be for four and one-half years, rather than five years. The initial term would be from January 1, 2012 through June 30, 2016, since the agreement will begin in mid-year. It also provides that upon the conclusion of the initial term, the agreement can be automatically extended for five years, unless either party gives written notice in the form of a Council Resolution of its intent to allow the agreement to lapse.

Permitting the agreement to lapse can occur if, no later than the preceding June 30 before the end of the term, written notice is given by either party of its intent to not renew the agreement. In addition, there is a another provision that the agreement can be terminated by either party at any time with 12 months notice in the form of a Council resolution. In either case, Carmel will retain its real property, buildings, equipment and apparatus. It should be noted, that in connection with this last provision (property retention) the City will be responsible for equipment repair, maintenance and replacement as it is now.

Method and Conditions of Payment. The agreement provides that by March 15 each year, a budget projection for the following fiscal year will be provided describing the total expected costs of providing Fire Service. Carmel will then pay 1/12 of that amount each month by the 15th of that month, subject to a penalty for late payment.

At the end of the fiscal year, a final calculation of the actual costs for providing fire service will be determined. If the actual costs are greater than the budget projection, Carmel will pay the difference between the actual and budgeted costs. If the actual costs are less than the budget projection, Monterey shall pay to Carmel the difference between the actual and budgeted costs. An interest rate factor will be applied to these payments starting from the beginning of the following fiscal year. In the case of Pacific Grove, thus far, money has been returned by Monterey at the end of each fiscal year.

Since the proposed agreement is scheduled to begin January 1, 2012, the initial phase of the agreement will be for six months from January 1, 2012 through June 30, 2012. At the end of the initial six month period, the budget will be provided and payments made annually as described above.

Cost of Service. The proposed cost of service on a fiscal year basis calculated by Monterey and submitted earlier this year, was $1,720,396. After further refinement and discussion, the 2011-12 estimate for Monterey Fire Service as reflected in Exhibit C is $1,713,828. The cost for the initial six month term, and the remainder of the 2011-12 fiscal year beginning January 1, 2012, is $873,179 also documented in Exhibit C.

Ambulance Service. Elsewhere on this Council agenda there are three resolutions which will start the process of moving the ambulance service provided by Carmel Regional Fire Ambulance (CRFA) to the City of Carmel effective January 1, 2012. The CRFA employees would become City employees at that time. With the merger with Monterey, the ambulance operation would become a division of the newly merged Fire Department.

So even though the ambulance employees will be City employees, operational oversight will be provided by the Monterey Fire Department, as is now the case. In terms of service and operations, there would be no change in ambulance service and operations, even with the Monterey merger and transfer of CRFA employees to the City.

During the initial six-month period of the Fire contract beginning January 1, 2012, additional analysis will be conducted by Monterey, Carmel and CRFA staff regarding the provision of ambulance service to the City. Monterey has agreed to provide interim operational oversight to CRFA at no cost to Carmel upon commencement of the fire service contract. After this initial period, Monterey will administer the ambulance service based on directions given by Carmel-by-the-Sea through a negotiated contract
amendment or through an additional contract for service. Carmel-by-the-Sea ambulance will continue the continuity of the pre-contract system and maintain the current staffing level of two paramedic/firefighters, or one paramedic/fighter and one firefighter/EMT, per shift.

It is important that Carmel-by-the-Sea maintain formal continuity of direction and control over the provision of ambulance service in order to preserve their “201” rights in providing this service.

Transfer of Employment. The agreement provides that existing Carmel firefighters will be hired as City of Monterey employees on the effective date of the agreement. This is contingent upon each Carmel fire fighter passing a Monterey pre-employment medical evaluation. (See Exhibit D)

There are only moderate differences in the compensation and benefit packages in the Carmel-by-the-Sea and Monterey compensation and benefits packages; however, the agreement ensures that no Carmel fire fighter will lose any compensation.

Also, there will be no layoffs or demotions of Carmel-by-the-Sea employees. This is because all of the Carmel position classifications are in-line with the Monterey position classifications and the nine Carmel positions of three fire captains, three fire engineers and three firefighters dovetail with the positions and staff assignments used by Monterey.

It should be noted that when Carmel-by-the-Sea fire safety employees become new employees of Monterey, that City (Monterey) will not assume any responsibility for PERS liabilities that these employees incurred during their employment by Carmel-by-the-Sea. This same provision was incorporated in the Pacific Grove and Monterey fire merger agreement.

Labor Agreements. When there is a change in compensation, benefits and working conditions, the California Government Code requires that employers meet and confer with recognized labor organizations. Officers of the affected labor organizations have worked cooperatively with each City to resolve issues concerning any impacts of the proposed agreements. Pertinent to Carmel-by-the-Sea firefighters there will be an agreement with Monterey regarding the initial position classification and related salary step, transfer of accumulated leave balances up to the maximum allowed by Monterey, maintenance of seniority for certain specified benefits, station assignments and vacation selection. It precludes layoff of any incumbent Carmel-by-the-Sea firefighters during the term of the agreement.

Regarding Carmel-by-the-Sea and the Carmel firefighters, an agreement has been reached to amend the current MOU. The term of the existing agreement would be extended from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2012. The 8.75% salary adjustment scheduled for January 1, 2011 would not be implemented.

Fire Prevention. A service provided by Monterey Fire is to coordinate the planning and development of fire prevention and safety education programs for schools, businesses, community associations, child-care providers and other members of the community. This service will be extended to Carmel-by-the-Sea under this agreement. Also as part of this service, fire safety inspections of all state-mandated occupancies and fire protection systems within Carmel can be provided as well as the review of all development and building plans to ensure compliance with all applicable fire and life
safety codes. All fees collected through this process will be retained by Carmel-by-the-Sea. There has been some interest, however, in retaining the current consultant used to conduct fire inspections and to review building plans from the fire code perspective.

Monterey Fire is receptive to continuing the provision of this service. In fact, Monterey uses the same consultant for some of this specialty work. The only stipulation is that the fire inspections and fire code reviews be coordinated with Monterey Fire and under their
supervision.

Conclusion. This report touches on some of the highlights of the proposed agreement for fire services. It is based on the agreement developed between Pacific Grove and Monterey. However, certain refinements have been made, which include:

• The proposed draft agreement clarifies that Carmel-by-the-Sea will have all of its buildings and equipment returned at “lapse” of the agreement in addition to exercise of the “termination” clause.
• The proposed draft agreement provides for the payment of interest from the end of the fiscal year in reconciling actual versus budgeted expenditures.
• The proposed draft agreement provides for ongoing discussion of issues related to service, operations, and labor relations at least annually but more frequently as requested by either party.

There may be other provisions in the proposed draft agreement in which Council may have an interest or have questions. It is suggested that you review this report and the attached draft agreement and provide input on any issues you would like addressed. This will enable the new City Administrator to continue moving this project forward. The goal
will be bring a final contract and possibly other implementing documents at the November Council meeting for consideration.