we were awarded a $7.5 million grant. there be a marine based programs to support prepared this for the 13th. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. supervisor chiu: 512 again move back to the topic of overtime, which we have discussed before. how confident do you feel that the overtime no. you are budgeting for is something you will be able to stay within? >> at this point we will continue to work with the mayor's budget office. every year we have delivered on budget. which we are proud of. not an easy thing to do, but

obviously necessary. this year we overspent on overtime, but we had reduction in salaries. within the own budget -- within our own budget we were able to manage that. place the budget into overtime to be able to balance that. i understand we were putting limitations on that. whether or not we need to look at before finalizing, we do see that our staffing is challenging for us. these targets are a bit of a moving target for us. particularly using concessions from our members. we have certain target projections, but they are just

that, projections. we will continue to do our best and live within the budget. supervisor chiu: when we had this conversation that the gao committee by proposed reducing the capital in which your employees need to get a waiver from the department of human resources from 30% to 20%. i am curious if there are other measures that we could help you with in terms of controlling overtime costs. >> because we have mandatory staffing, 30% move down to 20%, it would be the same amount of overtime expended. so, it would be spreading the overtime dollars out, not saving the overtime dollars.

i am not sure if that answers your question. supervisor chu: what would help us to save those dollars? >> we are trying to make sure that we have strict controls on stet -- sixth time and other time that we are looking at, including workers' comp, which we are monitoring closely because of minimum staffing that we have, we are mandating to have a certain amount of firefighters and paramedics working every day. we are challenged with agreements and staffing levels, processes passed by the voters a few years back related to minimum staffing. one of the things we had discussion about was over time, saving money in some ways, but

personally i feel we are getting to the point where we may need to bring in more members at higher concentrations, which is a difficult discussion to have that this point. we are not budgeted to have that class coming in. at some point we may need to have that conversation and it will depend on what happens when they retire sooner than planned. if we start to see that and the count drops too much we might need to look at possibly reducing overtime, but it is something we are simply analyzing at this point. supervisor chiu: thank you. supervisor chu: 4 typical apartments it seems we would want to bring down the cost of overtime, but if we did that and substituted it with straight

positions, we might have higher costs than overtime. we need to look carefully at that analysis. supervisor kim: one of the issues that the budget and legislative analyst's report brought was the topic of assigning staff during regularly scheduled hours to provide services rather than over time. what were your thoughts on that? it seemed to make sense to me. >> it was one of the policy recommendations that had come up before. our position was the same. it really is a hallmark program for the city and i believe that success was due to the training and the ability and capacity of members to be in front of the classroom with skills and abilities to train.

our fire fighters to a great job but they do not have the desire or ability to be in front of the group to provide education. we feel that every dollar is well spent, even in an economy like this. it surrounds using on duty staff. if someone is not able to present or it is not in the job description, necessarily, to be an educator or impart information, second we could have operational impact if we are relying on members working at stations to pull them here and there to train the public. it is not something we are currently set up to do. we believe that if you have support from the people you have trained that part of the reason that people keep coming back in those programs is the quality of instruction.

the enthusiasm of the instructors. that has been the foundation of the program. supervisor kim: what would be the challenge of having them -- having folks that are good at public presentations doing it during their normal -- >> removing them from their traditional stations and running and print -- engines and trucks short, if you will? there is a dual role that would trigger bargaining. it is not something that is part of their normal scope of duties as a firefighter. in working in the fire stations the recommendation is that they would participate in the training. supervisor kim: thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: this is by

to sound outlandish, but i know a lot of smaller areas have a volunteer fire departments. do we have such a program? is there a way without a violation of union rules where people can actually be listed somehow if they have a desire to be trained? i know that that might seem a bit out there but i have family members who are volunteer fire department members. they love what they do and they are but that it. i was furious. >> referring to them as trainers? supervisor mirkarimi: just curious. i'd think depthnurt -- i'd think thatnur nurt is great. but is there anything beyond the normal strategy or those needed times? >> we do have a fire reserve

program that convenes every thursday evening. we have approximately between 45 and 50 active members that we train to assist us on fire, ground, set an alarm or greater. coming out in the exteriors firefighting operations. including just being there for the paid professional firefighters to assist. obviously they are not trained to fight fires or go into burning buildings. in terms of the roadway to the community and training, we do consider them trainees, if you will. they have day jobs and so forth, the voting themselves 19 per week, thursday evening. it would be a stretch to assume that they might be able to be a part of it.

many of them have gone through the program of training. there is an excellent core of people that we can rely on. in the event of a large-scale emergency especially. supervisor mirkarimi: 5 was thinking to myself, do we have firefighters that live outside of the state of california? >> yes, we do. supervisor mirkarimi: how many? >> 35% live in the city. the remaining bulk live within the state and bay area. but off of the top of my head i would say that we have under 20 that do not live in the state. it is a bone of contention with me and my understanding from the city attorney's office -- fox supervisor mirkarimi: it is

not many. >> is an interesting -- we hear a lot about firefighting within the city. it is nice to have a blend of people that are not in the city. many of the new orleans firefighters and police officers had to deal with their own devastation. in some ways it was ok because we made sure that we cells and called for procedures that made sense. supervisor mirkarimi: but i think it is part of the larger conversation about overtime. accessibility. how are we able to deploy in rapid time once those people on their shift mission are here for their normal schedules and are under anticipated emergency needs? >> i can tell you that in 1989

we had a very sophisticated recall procedure where there were 150 people that came in within a 3 hour window. usually it is not a problem. they were trained to already have a plan for their family and when they were needed, they implemented part of it -- implemented part of the need for that. we went on to have a reserve corps for the day following the emergency. supervisor chu: following up on the topic of overtime, this is not just specific to the fire department. we half a number of departments that have gone beyond overtime budget. i know that the fire department should get credit. even though your overtime budget has exceeded the amount

budgeted, you have actually made it whole within your budget. i do appreciate that. is there an opportunity to have the controllers office looked at the balance between overtime and straight time? i know that we picked up on the topic as we received department budgets before. take a look at our top 10 departments that have seen exceeding over time so that we can evaluate whether we are appropriately budgeting. is that something that the comptroller's office can help us to work >> yes, we are working on the actual overtime during the current year as compared to the actual budget. we will be making a

recommendation to the extent that we believe there should be transfers of money from the cellar redline to the overtime line. supervisor chu: it is definitely more transparent to the public. i think that that would be an improvement in this budget process. so, i know that we had heard from the chief. you have not yet talked about budget analysts recommendations. >> that there were six recommendations made by the budget analysts. i can walk you through the first four. the first item, the $35,695, that when we would agree to. items #4, 5, and six on the

second page, the utility's and training materials supplies with 20,000 on taxes licenses and permits. budget analysts had recommended just over $1 million. at this point they agreed to 115,000. items #2 and 3, roughly $962,000, they will require more discussion with the budget analyst regarding how we subject staffing and methodology that we use. we feel that we would not be able to balance our budget without proposing 610,000 over

time. $351,000 in premium pay. i would ask that we come before you next week for some resolution on those items. and then the other item, the policy issue brought up by supervisor camper, they are proposing to reduce, which we would strongly disagree with. supervisor chu: thank you, chief. let's go to the budget analyst. >> regarding the point about the 4.14% increase, the supervisor is absolutely correct. there is an increase in this budget and the mayor sent over a budget that was sent to the board of supervisors and it was declared to be balanced on the basis of the 9 million or whenever it was around the

givebacks that the firefighters might give back. it is a complete the separate issue, as we see it. a problem that must be resolved by the mayor's office if the budget is not balanced. i want to emphasize that if the committee accepted our cuts, it is a complete the separate issue. i want to call to your attention what we disagree with. page 27 of our report. let me read to you about the overtime. supervisors, there is some question about the statement that it is less expensive if we use over time. it is, to a point, but it is not completely clear in that regard. what we say in that overtime is

we recommend that you cut it. we say that it has increased by $3.2 million. here is the key. with the addition of 36 new firefighters, this recommendation would still allow for the committee's consideration a cut of 610,000, which still allows a budget increase of $2.6 million in overtime in fiscal year 0 11/12. in that recommendation, supervisors, we have considered the fact upset the fire department exceeded its budget over time by about $6 million. you are correct that they

absorber, and i wanted to know that we consider the fact that overtime was exceeded. we are recommending a cut of $309,000 and the comptroller's office is projecting a surplus of $345,000 in 2011 -- 2010- 2011. our recommended reduction including mandatory fringe benefits still allow for sufficient funding in 11-12. the neighborhood of emergency response team for the city residents, programmed primarily

as an option for assigning staff through regular hours to provide the new services. we know that during those hours there is down time by firefighters. no question about. primarily through the use of the apartment over time during the work hours is a policy matter. we are suggesting a cut as a policy option and i would be happy to answer any questions. thank you -- supervisor chu: thank you for the explanation. if there are no other questions, would like to have the department work -- chief? go ahead. >> i would like to commit that we will continue to work with the budget analyst. if you believe that we are being

as efficient as we can, the one piece that is troubling to me is the state and that we have overspent in overtime karpothis, which we have, but the challenge for us outside of acknowledging that we have overspent, we have not been overspending because we were careless, but how can i come to you and say that i support for the reduction is? we do not see anything getting rosier in terms of staffing. it is a challenge for us. >> the department is getting 36 new officers this year, a factor we have considered in this recommendation. we believe that over time can be reduced.

supervisor chu: i do appreciate the conversation regarding the overtime component. there is a desire to work that out of hand with the help of the comptroller's office and the chief, i think we will come to a conclusion that we can all live with. one thing that i will say is that i am also concerned, if we are seeing in the current year budget a revised budget of $21 million in overtime dollars, we spend $26.9 million. it is a concern that even if we have an additional #people, what does that mean? i am concerned about that a bit. if i could ask mr. rose to take a look at perhaps other

alternatives for budget reduction in addition to the comptroller's office taking a look that over time? >> absolutely. supervisor chu: chief, thank you for keeping us abreast of the changes on mou. >> thank you very much. supervisor mirkarimi: i know that the department of emergency management has been waiting patiently. let's take them as our last apartment and then we will go on a break. >> madam share, committee members, department of executive emergency management as the

director of emergency management, as you know we have been at the health department for 16.5 years. i came into this role in january of this year. i have a wonderful staff and then quickly coming up to speed. i wanted to give you a quick overview of the department. emergency management consists of three divisions. including administration and support staff. serving as an immediate and vital link between the boat -- between the public and facilitating planning coordination between city department residences, businesses, and others for comparing mitigating and responding to emergency disasters.

so, really briefly, our emergency services division has four main components. it has emergency management, emergency medical service agencies that have the oversight of the free-hospital care. grants management for for a pair of this. the majority of this budget is grant funded and 23.5 in the department's division of emergency services and only comprises 4.2% of the overall budget. our emergency communication division has 185 fte's comprising 53% of our general fund budget. as you know, emergency

communication does 911 call information. we have also picked up sheriff's dispatcher over the last year. we do do data collection and sunshine requests related to 9/watt -- related to 911 calls. we have fielded about 18,000 calls in our 911 center. finally, the administration section is 40% of the budget comprising 30 fte's. 18 of those are i mean it area -- are in the it area.

through the computer aided this that system, we have support that ensures that we are able to respond to first responders and the public in a timely fashion. i know that chairwoman chu had asked about the five-year outlook of each department. looking outside of the year is we do not anticipate many changes. the majority of our funding, approximately 90% of it is general fund funding. actually, more than 90%. you are all aware that there used to be a fee that paid for the department of emergency management services. we no longer receive that feed and are relying primarily on the general fund. grant funding that we do receive pays for the department

of emergency services, for the most part, but the emergency communications side is paid for predominantly by the general fund. in the analysis of mr. roh's he states that we are 6% more than our original budget from fiscal year 10-11. the way that we calculate it, we are 2.8% less because there were two items calculated in there that if you pulled them out were less than the general fund, which is the update of our system that is very critical in our response effort coming to the end of its natural life. the system is no longer going to be supported and we must do upgrades as we are refurbishing

it. the department of technology, we have supported the efforts to upgrade that system, which is vital in terms of public response. people do not think about it and they see our men and women in blue and black on the streets and understand their role, but we are the invisible role behind what they do. even in the last week some of you may know that we have been hosting the conference at the hilton hotel downtown, the 50 annual youasee conference. my staff had not only done all of the planning for the conference, but they were doing the supervision and basically acting