Transcript
Automatically generated transcript. It may contain errors and includes testimony in languages other than English that is not individually marked up for assistive technology.
Loretta Smith
Keelan, this is Loretta Smith.
I am online.
Rebecca Dobert
Good morning, Councilor Smith.
Elizabeth Perez
We can hear you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Rebecca Dobert
Um, and this is Rebecca.
Uh, Wendy is in chambers and she'll hear you when they unmute the room.
I'll let her know you're there.
Perfect.
Jamie Dunphy
Good morning.
Now calling to order this, uh, work session of the Portland City Council.
It is 9:30 on Tuesday, May 5th, Cinco de Mayo.
Good morning, everybody.
Dan Ryan
Good morning.
Jamie Dunphy
So colleagues, today we're scheduled for the first of 2 work sessions on bureaus within the Public Safety Service Area.
We'll be hearing from the Bureau of Emergency Communications, the Bureau of Emergency Management, and Portland Fire and Rescue.
Contrary to how these work sessions have gone so far, Public Safety staff will be presenting all 3 bureaus together and then taking joint questions.
Hopefully this means no bureaus will get left behind today.
We will return to hear the remainder of the Public Safety bureaus and programs on May 13th.
I'd also like to acknowledge that we heard word this morning that Deputy City Administrator Bob Casi will be leaving the city on May 18th.
DCA Casi, I don't anticipate asking you any further questions about this matter in a public forum, but I want to thank you for your service and many years of service to this city.
You do incredibly good work, and I'm immensely proud and grateful for your commitment.
Dan Ryan
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
To begin the session, the Community Safety— Community and Public Safety Committee Chair Councilor Novick would like to make an introduction before we pass things over to the DCA.
Councilor Novick.
Steve Novick
Thank you, Mr. President.
2 things.
One, I'm a bit afraid that when the message goes out that we're not cutting any sworn officers and we're not closing any fire stations, then some of you might get the idea that cuts we're making to public safety Thank you.
I think it's really important for us to be honest with the public about what the impact of cuts are.
And one thing that I want to be careful of in particular is saying, well, somebody else is going to pick it up, because we all know everybody's busy and there'll be some things that just aren't picked up and others that if they are picked up, they won't be done as quickly or as well.
So I really encourage you to be as frank and depressing as is appropriate about what the impact of all these cuts are.
Um, also, I have to say something.
City Administrator Lee, if— by the way, I repeat what the council president has said about how grateful we are for all Bob Cazey has done for years and years.
But City Administrator Lee, your email this morning said that you are going to take over as acting, uh, Deputy City Administrator for Public Safety.
I strongly urge you to reconsider that.
I frankly think that I don't think you have time.
And there's at least one person and probably more who all of us trust who I think would be an obvious interim person.
So I just ask you to please reconsider that.
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Novick.
DCA Causie, please take it away.
Bob Causie
Thank you.
Good morning, Council President, Vice President, Mayor, City Administrator, and Council.
I'm Bob Causie, Deputy City Administrator for the Public Safety Service Area.
Next slide.
We have 2 work sessions, as was mentioned earlier, today and the next one on May 13th.
Today's presentation and discussion will focus on the Bureau of Emergency Communications, Bureau of Emergency Management, and Portland Fire and Rescue.
The upcoming work session will include the DCA's Office, Community Safety, and Portland Police Bureau.
Next slide.
The proposed $611 million budget includes 2,250 staff across the entirety of the service area.
And next slide.
Next slide.
Oh, thank you.
Here's a high-level org chart of the service area showing emergency communications, emergency management, fire and rescue, police, and community safety.
Portland Street Response, Ceasefire, and the Office of Violence Prevention are all housed within community safety.
The Office of Violence Prevention houses the Safe Blocks and Rose City self-defense programs.
Over the course of this discussion and the one on May 13th, we'll dive deeper into these bureaus and programs.
And to get through the entire presentation, I ask that you please hold questions, if at all possible, until the end.
We will have plenty of time after the presentation.
Next slide.
The vision of Public Safety Service Area is a safe Portland for all.
And our primary focus throughout this budget process is preserving core emergency response capabilities such as 911, fire, police, and emergency management, while preserving continuity of priority programs throughout the service area.
These priority programs include alternative response and prevention.
Next slide.
As we begin this conversation, I wanted to spotlight something.
In my office, I have a collage of these statements, which are snippets of mission statements from the Public Safety Service Area bureaus and programs.
In my opinion, these statements show the intentions of the caring and dedicated professionals who work in their respective bureaus.
Build a more family-friendly city.
Create a safer community.
Proactive.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Bob Causie
And holistic harm reduction.
Reduce crime and the fear of crime.
All communities protected.
Compassionate and trauma-informed.
Readiness, response, resilience.
And effective and timely.
These statements demonstrate a vision for our city that we see, care, And connect with our neighbors and enjoy a city with clean streets and safe places.
This is all encapsulated in the Public Safety Service Area vision, a safe Portland for all.
Next slide.
And this slide demonstrates the budgets over the past few years in comparison with this proposed budget, showing the service area funded at $620 million.
This includes $319.5 million for PPB, $216.2 million for Portland Fire, $39.6 million for BOEC, $37.3 million for the Office of the DCA, including Community Safety Programs, and $7.6 million for PBEM.
The DCA office is unique in that it houses community safety programs such as Portland Street Response, Office of Violence Prevention, and Ceasefire.
One task that I would like to see happen in the future is that these programs be moved from the DCA's office into a standalone bureau to further tie these programs into the fabric of public safety.
Next slide.
And now I'll hand it off to Interim BOEC Director Steve Maudsley to kick things off with BOEC.
Steve Novick
Thank you, DCA.
Steve Maudsley
Good morning, Council.
I'm Steve Maudsley, Interim Director of the Bureau of Emergency Communications.
BOEC's mission is straightforward.
It's to work collaboratively with our community and public safety partners to ensure effective and timely 911 call answering and dispatching.
In the next year, BOEC has a $39.6 million proposed budget and 163.9 proposed staff.
Next slide, please.
This is an overview of all changes to the bureau's budget, including additions, Reductions and realignments.
Specifics are described in upcoming slides, but I want to highlight the BART serves all of Multnomah County and receives cost-share revenue from local jurisdictions as well as 911 phone tax in-state shared revenue.
The blended cost allocation means that ongoing reductions are seen in both general fund and other funds.
The other funds reduction line shows positive because it is a net of revenue increases and reductions.
Next slide.
Over 80% of BOEC staff are call taker dispatcher positions.
The current service level FTE includes 8 limited-term positions that are being extended through BOEC's training pipeline.
Next slide, please.
While we're facing reductions, we are intentionally preserving key workflows that support our core mission.
First, we're maintaining our 911 trainee pipeline.
Which allows us to hire ahead of anticipated attrition and sustain staffing over the year.
Building on that, and in alignment with our recent International Emergency Medical Dispatch accreditation, we are preserving our quality assurance and improvement program.
This serves as the foundation for achieving accreditation across all our disciplines.
At the same time, we remain committed to equitable access to 911, particularly for community members who are limited English proficiency or those with varying abilities.
Operationally, we're maintaining targeted overtime focused specifically on our highest call volume months and surge events to ensure responsiveness when demand is greatest.
In support of timely service across all community— communities and partner jurisdictions in Multnomah County, we're also maintaining staffing in BOEC's Public Records and Research Department.
And finally, we're preserving our outreach program, which continues to strengthen relationships through consistent engagement at monthly events.
Next slide, please.
We're facing a reduction in contracted security of $325,000.
As the hub of countywide emergency communications, we require secure conditions.
For the past 2 years, BOEC has funded security for the campus, including BOEC, PBIM, and BTS.
In addition to security personnel, we do have additional security measures in place, including camera access to the entire facility, Expanded exterior lighting, 24/7 supervisors on duty with camera access, and mandatory secure badge access.
Next slide, please.
We're facing a reduction in training, travel, and continuing education by $381,000.
The training required to maintain certifications will continue.
Supplemental learning and industry engagement keeps us informed on best practices and provides professional growth and development opportunities and advancement opportunities that support employee retention.
Ensuring a focus on call answering during the summer, we'll conduct— we will conduct required training in the fall and winter months as more of our call takers certify later this year.
Next slide, please.
We're facing a reduction in operational overtime by $422,000.
This is used to do a few things: maintain minimum staffing due to absences, Next slide, please.
We're facing a reduction of 2 call taker dispatcher positions throughout the certification process.
To preserve operational overtime in the peak summer months, we would reduce overtime primarily in the fall and winter.
Next slide, please.
We're facing a reduction of 2 call taker dispatcher positions by $285,000, which reduces our capacity to hire academy trainees into permanent positions.
Positions pending attrition.
Doing so could impact call answer times, which in concert with the trainee pipeline help us stay ahead of anticipated attrition.
If we reduce these 2 permanent positions, which account for 1.5% of our total operational FTE, we will have 126 positions left.
Next slide, please.
We're facing a reduction in one of 2 assistant operations manager positions by $234,000.
Which is one of 7 non-represented positions at the bureau.
This position co-leads and mentors the operations supervisor team, oversees policy and procedure updates, and coordinates operational changes with emergency responder agencies.
Reducing this position increases workload on the existing manager, reduces responsiveness to service delivery questions, and limits mentoring and employee relations opportunities.
Next slide, please.
We are limiting additional reductions by partially implementing the cost allocation change by $1 million.
You may recall that BOEC has an intergovernmental agreement with communities and public safety jurisdictions across Multnomah County.
The IGA was established in 1995, followed by 2 cost allocation changes in 2000 and 2005.
In October of last year, the BOEC User Board approved a change to the cost allocation model that shifts how jurisdictions receiving BOEC services contribute to BOEC's budget, and this is accounted for in the other funds slide of the budget summary slide.
Next slide, please.
A budget note in fiscal year '22 allowed BOEC to keep our underspend in a training pipeline subfund that allowed the bureau to overhire trainees while we work to return to full staffing.
The pipeline allows for capacity to hold consistent recruitments throughout the year, as we continue improving 911 call answering times, which are measured against a national standard from the National Emergency Number Association, NENA.
While we would like to— this— while we would like this funding to eventually be ongoing, this package continues the one-time use for this year projected underspend from fiscal year '26 in the amount of $1.1 million to extend the training pipeline for one more year, reducing the need for additional general fund resources.
Dan Ryan
Second.
Steve Maudsley
Next slide, please.
Here's a snapshot of our staffing forecast that shows our progress over the last couple of years.
We've increased from 90 911-certified employees in July of 2023 to 113 today, with many more in training.
We expect to hire 2 academies in this fiscal year with continued use of our training pipeline.
Next slide, please.
This slide shows you the impacts of fully certified staffing on lowering operational overtime.
Overtime is tied to staffing and leave usage, which can fluctuate over time.
We've seen a positive trend with our certifications helping reduce operational overtime.
As we adjust to reductions over the next year, we expect to maintain our call answering performance and the reduced need for operational overtime, which is down 56% from fiscal year '23.
Now I'll hand off to Director Perez.
Elizabeth Perez
Good morning.
Elizabeth Perez, for the record, Interim Director of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
PBEM promotes readiness, coordinates response, and builds resilience for Portland.
We develop and implement strategic planning, programs, and policies to continually advance the city's mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities.
The bureau currently has 4 program areas: Community resilience and planning, operations, administration, and regional preparedness via the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization, or RDPO.
Next slide, please.
This is an overview of all the changes to the bureau's budget, including additions, reductions, and realignments.
The proposed budget for the bureau is $4.9 million, which includes about $500,000 in one-time funding.
This is a total ongoing reduction of about $11.3 million.
Olivia Clark
Thank you.
Elizabeth Perez
In the other funds column, you'll see the $2.7 million that is federally funded grants and partner funding to the RDPO.
This is a separately governed organization housed in the bureau.
PBEM contributes funding to the RDPO on behalf of the city to maintain its member status.
Next slide, please.
This is an overview of all the changes to the bureau's position counts, including additions, reductions, and realignments.
PBEM is—.
Councilor Herbold.
Comprised of 19 FTE.
6.5 Staff the RDPO and 11.5 staff the bureau.
Note that about a third of the 19 staff do not work on Portland-specific programs.
Next slide.
So what are we preserving?
We're preserving our core work, um, community resilience and planning, operations and administration, as well as the RDPO.
When I started in February, the bureau had 6 vacancies.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Elizabeth Perez
We created a staffing plan to ensure the bureau mission— we could meet the bureau mission and reduce reliance on contract work.
So I feel really privileged to say that we're hiring.
We are currently in the process of hiring 2 planners, which we were given in this year's budget, so thank you.
And we're also hiring an operations manager and of course the director.
In resilience programming, we will strengthen our mitigation work, complete required plans, and reestablish the continuity of operations capabilities and implement a crisis information management system.
The Neighborhood Emergency Teams, or NET, and COAD, Community Organizations Active in Disasters program, continue their great work.
The NET and COAD— we have about 1,700 active NET volunteers.
As far as we know, this is the largest in the country.
Our volunteers staff 136 events last year, and that's about a value of $1.1 million to Portland taxpayers in 2025.
We have about 350 new volunteers that graduate annually, and we have about 3,600 applicants waiting to be trained.
And then we have 100 community-based organizations preparing their communities for disasters.
So we're really proud of that work.
In operations, we're bolstering our Emergency Operations Center program by upgrading the technology, implementing a citywide incident management team and creating a better schedule for our training and exercise plans.
We'll continue our duty officer program, which is 24/7, 365 incident monitoring for the city.
And we recently hired for the alert and warning program, which is staff that ensures the city can provide timely notifications in emergencies using systems that send messages via modes like cell phone, radio, and TV.
And lastly, the RDPO helps the Portland metro area prepare for disasters by getting cities and agencies to work together and funding shared preparedness efforts.
Since 2003, the RDPO has channeled over $100 million in federal grants to the Portland region through the City of Portland.
At least $20 million of that went directly to improving Portland's own emergency preparedness.
However, federal funding for this program is becoming less predictable, so the RDPO is restructuring to run leaner, making sure it can fulfill its mission even if federal money dries up.
Many of you have seen the EMAP certification chart— that's the red, yellow, green— which indicates that Portland has many opportunities for growth.
So we'll continue to strengthen our critical functions with the intention of achieving that certification.
Rebecca Dobert
Next slide.
Elizabeth Perez
So stepping into the role 3 months ago, I did initial review of spending.
At the time, the bureau had 8 vehicles.
I've eliminated half of those vehicles, resulting in $51,000 of ongoing savings.
Ultimately, the impact here will translate into fewer funds for materials and services in the next year, which affects EOC activation and community resilience efforts.
Next slide.
And as I said previously, PBIM had 6 vacancies in January with the authority to create 2 more.
I worked with the team to review the critical positions that we need to hire to make sure we're executing on our critical functions.
We then prioritize the order in which to hire.
Thus far, we've hired 1 position and are in the process of hiring 3 more.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Elizabeth Perez
Which includes the director.
In this year's budget, again, we were given 2 planners and the reinstatement of a training and exercise position.
These are all positions we are going to maintain in the budget.
Next slide.
PBEM is reinvesting in its emergency management foundation with 2 connected funding items totaling $536,000.
A new crisis incident management system will give the bureaus One shared real-time view during emergencies.
Implementation is going to take a couple years, and we've started on the procurement process with BTS.
We've also started a work group with emergency managers across the city to make sure it's a success.
Another addition is a 1-year limited-term employee solely focused on strengthening the training and exercise program needed to improve preparedness.
This will help jumpstart the program and get it running smoothly.
And for those who recall, that's Green 13 is where we're trying to move the money over.
Together, these investments are going to restart the city's continuity of operations program, which has been on pause since 2023.
Better technology, better trained people, and a more coordinated city response will help us reach our intended mission.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today, and I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Chief Johnson.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you, Director Perez, and good morning, councilors.
For the record, my name is Lauren Johnson and I'm the fire chief at Portland Fire and Rescue.
I appreciate the opportunity that we have here today to go over our budget for the next fiscal year.
Portland Fire's mission is summarized first on this slide.
We exist to provide fire, medical, and all-hazards emergency response and to protect all of Portland with community health and fire prevention programs.
We use this mission every day to focus our actions, whether in my office or out in the field, and it guided us during budget development.
Next slide, please.
This slide is an overview of all changes to the bureau's budget, including additions, reductions, and realignments.
Specifics are described in upcoming slides.
The other funds that are shown in this slide reflect FPDNR reimbursements of retirement costs for sworn members, fire prevention service charges and fees, and grant funding for our CHAP program.
Next slide, please.
This is an overview of all changes to the bureau's position counts, including additions, reductions, and realignments.
Again, specifics are described in the upcoming slides.
It's important to note that 90% of fire staff are sworn responders, and the FTE count shown here includes 22 limited-term positions that are part of the CHAT program.
Next slide.
As we get into the next slides, it's critical to keep in mind what we're committed to preserving.
We are maintaining a fire engine or fire truck at every station for fire rescue.
Rescue and medical responses.
CHAT teams are staying, and we're continuing to do the work of providing an alternative to 4-person responses by engines and trucks.
And CHAT will also continue the mission associated with Health Share to provide emergency room and hospital diversion services aimed at ensuring that the people in Portland receive the right time of— type of responder and care in the city.
We are continuing to invest in staff that support the health and wellness of our firefighters.
We are committed to continuing to provide occupational, physical, and mental health oversight and guidance so that our members can receive timely care and connection to resources.
These programs also include screenings for job-related cancers and other illnesses that firefighters are at higher risk for.
This kind of preventative work is contributing toward a healthier workforce that is better prepared to serve the city for decades to come.
We are not cutting specialized responders, fire investigators, or fire inspectors.
These personnel are specialists who support wildfire, marine, and hazardous material responses.
They perform technical rescues and guide the development and sustainment of firewise communities.
These are already very small teams that are widely relied on as subject matter experts.
They attend community meetings, perform public education and code enforcement, and make scene responses daily.
Next slide.
For a long time now, fire has not had a capital reserve fund entirely adequate for apparatus replacement.
Instead, we've relied on part of our annual operational funding to provide the required amount of funding for new apparatus.
The next several years will bring higher costs for a number of reasons.
One of note is that we have several apparatus that will be reaching end of life.
These were bought using a 2009 GO bond.
As this large batch ages, maintenance and repair costs increase.
We see this both in terms of parts and the additional hours that our mechanics need to put in to keep our equipment running.
The $1.2 million reduction is the equivalent of one engine that will not be purchased.
That means an existing engine will need to stay on the line for longer, which increases the chances of failure, larger costs, and longer downtimes.
Next slide, please.
This reduction involves our 2-person medical rescues.
We currently have 3 rescues that operate 24 hours a day.
The reduction to halftime, 12 hours, will be felt most in the areas where the rescues are assigned.
Specifically, these are Council Districts 1 and 3 in the Lentz, Mount Tabor, and Rockwood neighborhoods.
Decreasing the operating times for these units will increase response times and add to the burden of surrounding stations.
It's important to note that this is not a plan for layoffs.
All of our concepts involve reducing the number of firefighters who are working every day and using them to fill vacancies at fire stations that currently being covered by overtime.
Next slide.
The next reduction involves removing one fire engine from service, which means that the 4 firefighters who were assigned to that engine each day would be reassigned to fill in as staff at other stations.
Again, the cost savings here is happening by way of reducing overtime.
This will be done at a double company house, which has an engine that brings hoses and water to a fire and a truck that carries the big ladders and specialized rescue equipment to fires and other emergencies.
The end result will be a fire station that loses its engine and keeps its truck and goes from 8 firefighters down to 4.
As you know, we've made the decision for this to be Engine 22 in North Portland, Council District 2.
Next slide.
This cut reduces administrative— 2 administrative support positions.
One of which is vacant.
One of these positions is largely clerical.
It's focused on task work like ordering supplies, select monthly and annual reports, phone tree management, and other general office work that will be assigned to higher-level positions.
The second position is currently vacant.
It's an analyst position that would have been assigned specific duties associated with the bureau's strategic plan, maintaining and updating our inventory of agreements, with outside agency partners, reviewing dashboards for trends, and providing recommendations to leadership on specific focus areas.
Next slide.
CHAT is our community health program.
They provide follow-up medical services to overdose patients and connect them with longer-term resources, and they provide medical aftercare to clients that need extra support and access to social services.
Elizabeth Perez
Thank you.
Rebecca Dobert
This cut reduces CHAT's funding by $500,000.
$2 Million in one-time funding is expiring and is being replaced by $1.5 million that's coming from a congressional earmark to the city.
These changes will impact our ability to use CHAT as an alternative over sending a 4-person apparatus because the remaining funds come from grants that have specific mission requirements that we will need to continue.
This will increase the burden on fire engines, fire trucks, and our county EMS responder, AMR.
Another impact that is notable is the chance that our state partners will pull back because of a perceived change in commitment on the city's side.
This does result in the elimination of a sworn fire deputy chief and the program strategist.
Next slide.
This slide notes a change to our payout budget.
This decision was based on an analysis by our financial partners in the service area who have noted that there's a significant difference between our payout costs when there's a 27th pay period and when there is not.
About 70% of our separation payouts come during a 27th pay period lookback month.
And FY 26-27 does not have a 27th pay period, so we can afford to make this reduction for the upcoming year.
However, the next one will be in October 2027.
Eric Zimmerman
Next slide.
Rebecca Dobert
This slide shows the added amount that we expect to recover by increasing fire prevention fees.
This is really part of an ongoing effort to make sure that we're routinely looking at our peers and keeping in best practices when it comes to cost recovery and accounting for the dollars associated with doing this work.
The last major updates to our fee schedule were done in 2016, with only a few changes since then.
Next slide, please.
We're sharing this slide to show you how our staffing can change in big swings.
The reason why this is important is because separations can happen in big chunks and although we are hiring to counter the attrition, recruitment and training takes about 1 year, and it's difficult to get ahead of these retirement cliffs.
This forecast is something that we monitor constantly, and doing this allows us to try to keep pace and smooth out our staffing levels.
Next slide.
On the last slide, we noted that we plan to hire and train about 30 new firefighters next year.
This slide shows the relationship between the number of non-recruit firefighters and backfill overtime that we use to ensure full staffing every day.
As we move through next fiscal year and the firefighters that we've hired recently move from the training academy to the stations, we anticipate a reduction in our overtime costs.
However, we know that the 27th pay period lookback in October of '27 is looming, and this is another retirement cliff that will significantly impact our the notes here highlight that each new firefighter coming out of the academy to the station reduces overtime by about 2,000 hours per year, and that the additional FTE that were allotted to us over the past few years have reduced 33,000 overtime hours from FY24 to now.
That's a reduction of 13%.
And that's the end of my section.
I'm going to turn it back over to DCA Causie.
Thank you, Deputy City Administrator Morillo.
Bob Causie
Thank you, Chief.
As I mentioned earlier, we'll focus on community safety, the DCA's office, and PPB in the upcoming budget work session on Wednesday, May 13th.
And at this point, we're prepared to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you all so very much.
Colleagues, I plan on having us take a quick break in about, oh, about half an hour or so.
We've been in here for only about half an hour, so we're going to start with folks in the queue.
Vice President Clark, kick us off.
Olivia Clark
Thank you, Council President.
Um, I have a couple of questions, but I want to say a few things.
Uh, I have to say, this is probably one of the most painful and depressing times I've been on the dais.
Um, but first, I'll just say I want to thank, uh, DCA Causie for your service.
It's been a pleasure to work with you, and I, I appreciate everything that you've done, uh, in, in your service.
Thank you.
So thank you.
I also want to thank the firefighters that are here today for what they do every day, and for those who just responded to the MAC Club disaster, which could have been much worse if it weren't for, I guess, for Providence.
And thank you for risking your lives, the people who responded to a situation that could have been very horrific.
And I know these are the kinds of things that you are often called Thank you.
And I appreciate you very much, all of you.
And Chief Johnson, I just want to say I appreciate your service and the fact that you mentioned assets, asset management, which is a high priority for me.
I realize we're far behind in taking care of our equipment, our fire stations, etc., and that's a high priority for me as well.
But this is really a sad day for me because If our mission is a safe Portland for all, I think we're violating our mission with these proposed cuts.
I— when I first came into this office, I realized that we were already short, that due to our geography, our rivers, the conditions of our bridges, that we're already underserved.
And to me, Councilor Smith.
Fire service, public safety is a core function of government.
You know, in addition to clean water, to appropriate sewage disposal, to safe streets, public safety is at the top of the list.
So I'm very— feeling very bad about this.
I realize there are some bridges that our equipment can't even go over and makes our response time even worse.
We, uh, response time is of great concern to me.
So I have a couple questions.
Um, one is about how the proposed budget cuts will affect the CEI Hub and protecting the CEI Hub, which is in my district and has been an ongoing concern for me since I was elected to this office.
I don't know who can answer that.
I also would like to ask a question about the impact on response time.
Elizabeth Perez
I can start with the CEI Hub.
Um, like I said, in this year's budget we got 2 planners.
We're still hiring for them.
Our senior planner is actually going to be focused on CEI Hub, among other things.
So we're actually still in building mode for PBEM, so I don't see any current impact to our planning for that.
We're still just getting started.
And our Chief Resilience Officer currently meets with BPS on a regular basis because we're doing that in partnership.
That's all being said, we have a lot of work to do there.
And I think there is opportunity within PBEM, but then also at the state and federal level to get additional funding there.
Olivia Clark
Well, you may be in a planning mode, but I'm thinking about the cut that's coming to, I think it's the St. Johns Station.
That station protects the CEI hub, and I'm concerned about that.
In addition, I'm glad you're planning, but I'm concerned about right now and what the cut will mean to the CEI hub.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you, Councilor.
I can jump in on that.
So it's important to note that the first-due apparatus that responds to the CEI hub, that station was preserved, and that even the change with taking Engine 22 out of the mix doesn't change the number of resources that we send to any emergency, whether it's at the CEI hub or at somebody's house down the street.
But at the same time, acknowledge— I acknowledge that anytime we take a unit out of our system, which is a closed system, it's going to impact response times.
And I know you had follow-up Questions about response times, so I'd be happy to address that.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Right.
Olivia Clark
Um, can you talk about what the impact of these cuts will be on response times generally around the city?
Elizabeth Gallagher
It's—.
Olivia Clark
We're already struggling.
I know, I know we've made improvements, but we have a ways to go.
Rebecca Dobert
I can.
Olivia Clark
Yes, thank you.
Rebecca Dobert
Sorry about that.
Um, yeah, no, I— this is top of mind for me, and I, I've watched your work sessions.
I understand that it's top of mind for all of you and our firefighters and everybody out in the community.
So it's important to talk about it.
Like I said, we're a closed system.
We only have a certain number of resources.
So it stands to reason that anytime we're taking units out of that system, we expect our response times to increase.
There are a couple of things that it's important that you know we are doing to hopefully counteract that or dampen that effect.
One is making sure that we do have a responder from every station that's still available so that your neighborhood responder is still coming, even if it's not that fire engine.
Something that citywide we have noticed a difference in is the number of calls that are related to unsheltered or houseless folks.
We know that just in general, the number of, of people who use our services are largely part of that population.
And so as work continues across the city to improve that situation, we are hoping that the number of calls that we are called out to are reduced.
Something else that was started before I even came and that is really important work is a call allocation project that's happening just in fire.
And what that's looking at primarily is EMS responses.
But so since, like I said, before I got here, so the end of last fiscal year, we've been taking call types and working with the medical director to understand if it's a call that we need to continue to go on or if the community is served just as well to have AMR answer that call and keep our resources available for higher acuity calls and not respond to some of those most low acuity calls.
The last thing that we do every day but will be more of a focus with Engine 22 out of service is just what we think of as dynamic resource deployment.
So we have an officer that's stationed in Boeck.
He's a fire liaison, and his job their job is to make sure that the right responders from fire are assigned to those calls that come into 911, but then also to basically have eyes on our map and watch units across the city so that if we do have a section of the city that's impacted by simultaneous incidents, that fire liaison and any of our on-duty chiefs can coordinate resources.
Thank you.
Would make decisions to move our resources around.
So we would move up apparatus to different stations across the city to try to spread our resources out until those initial responding units get freed up from their incident and get to move back to their regular station.
So specific to the, um, reduction of Engine 22, that means that the focus for us and the focus for the fire liaison, for the fire chiefs that are on duty 24/7, is keeping a specific eye on that area to watch.
If Engine 22 and the station adjacent, Engine 26, are both tied up, then we plan to move resources into that area to help adjust our coverage.
Olivia Clark
Well, I appreciate that response and the effort to have dynamic response deployment.
Loretta Smith
Mm-hmm.
Olivia Clark
To me, it sounds like, you know, doing more with less, kind of like a peanut butter, spreading things around pretty thinly.
I think it's difficult because I do feel that we're understaffed, underprotected, and very vulnerable throughout the city.
Well, rest assured that I'll be looking for additional resources to restore some of these cuts as best I can.
And I appreciate your all being here and explaining this to us.
Thank you, and thank you all for being here.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Vice President Clark.
Councilor Morillo.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you, Council President.
Um, thank you all so much for being here and presenting today, and thank you very much to the firefighters who showed up today in your shirts to show us, uh, how important this is for the city.
I think that, uh, it's really critical that we respect the city employees and unions that come here to represent their interests, because the reality is that, uh, most of you live in the city of Portland and you're our Thank you.
Councilor Koyama Lane, you are our constituent.
You are our constituents too, and you provide a vital service for the city.
So thank you very much for being here.
Your presence is noted and honored.
And I agree with Councilor Clark, this is very painful as far as— I don't think a single one of these budget sessions has not been painful.
Olivia Clark
There are—.
Angelita Morillo
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't think there is any fat left to trim.
I don't think there's anything extra left to cut.
Every single employee, every single program is critical.
And DCA Causie, thank you so much for everything that you've done.
It's been such a pleasure working with you, and you have just always been so level-headed, kind, and generous in how you approach the work, and I just appreciate you very much.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Angelita Morillo
I have a few questions about FYRE, and one is regarding CHAT, the replacement of the expiring one-time grant funding with $1.5 million in federal grants.
What assurance do we have that this grant funding will come in the next fiscal year, or— and has it been awarded yet?
Rebecca Dobert
I'm gonna phone a friend to get a timeline on that.
Chief Wilson right behind— or do you have an update?
We haven't heard anything.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Oh, okay.
Rebecca Dobert
So we haven't gotten an update on that.
And I would need to follow up.
It's from SAMHSA, which is the federal mental health and substance abuse organization.
So I'm happy to follow up on that one.
Angelita Morillo
Okay, that's good to know because I think we have to factor in, you know, how sure some of these numbers are so we can calculate the risk or lack of risk there.
So that's also helpful to know and look forward to getting that information as well.
Yeah, thanks for that.
Another question I had was regarding the 2-person rescue unit reduction.
I think we've kind of touched on that a bit, but— and it's okay if you don't know all of this off the top of your head.
I think I'm asking very technical questions, but do you know what percentage of your calls are for medical responses?
Rebecca Dobert
Let me look at Elizabeth.
We'll pull that up.
I mean, we've got a rough dashboard.
I'd say, you know, 60 to 80%.
Okay.
And it's quite a bit.
Angelita Morillo
Yeah, I was asking because I know, you know, if we're reducing the 2-person rescue unit in Districts 1 and 3, I want to get sort of a mental picture of what that actually looks like for the people who are getting our services.
So if someone is calling 911 and they need an advanced medical response, Let me talk about that a little bit, and if we have more info, Elizabeth can come up with specific percentages.
Rebecca Dobert
So one thing that's important to note about this reduction and why it was at the top of our cut concepts is because they are only 2-person medical units, and so we cannot provide any fire protection for those units.
Angelita Morillo
So that's a 2-person medical unit?
Rebecca Dobert
Whereas from our engines and trucks, those were further down on our proposed list because they will answer medical calls and they'll also provide fire protection.
So it was— that was the risk assessment that got us to reducing the hours for the 3-person rescues.
To the point about ALS response in those areas, I mean, it's important to note that those responses are not emergency responses.
Okay.
Rescues are there because of the call volume and the demand out in those areas.
That's why those units are stationed there.
They have a paramedic on them and they are ALS responders, but so are our engines and trucks.
And so the removal of those, or when those rescues are out because it's an off-peak hour, then the engine from that station will be making that ALS But it is 3 less units during non-peak hours that would be making that medical response.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Gotcha.
Angelita Morillo
So I'm assuming when you compared what you had to calculate, it's even with a whole fire engine going, it's less expensive to preserve that with the dual system rather than the alternative?
Rebecca Dobert
So, I mean, that was definitely one of the factors is how much cost we could recover If we close the rescues versus closing an engine.
The other thing that's a really big factor for us is the amount of calls that happen in those areas, and that taking them out completely would make the workload for the remaining fire stations untenable.
Okay, so we would end up, you know, that would end up drawing resources from other areas to that side of town.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Gotcha.
Rebecca Dobert
Okay.
Angelita Morillo
Okay, thank you so much.
That was very helpful.
Rebecca Dobert
Okay, 65% medical in FY 24-25.
Angelita Morillo
Oh, okay, thanks.
That's actually a little bit less than I was expecting, so that's good to have a concrete number on that.
I have one more question.
Chief Johnson, you touched on a couple of response times, but a few years ago we were dealing with having zero ambulances available frequently.
How are we reconciling that with the county EMS and AMR with these specific cuts?
Or like, how did those— have you been in contact with them?
How have those conversations gone?
Rebecca Dobert
Yes, thank you.
We're in contact with AMR talking about— part of it is talking about the call allocation, so letting them know what we're going to take ourselves off of.
And that's really in an effort to make sure that we're available for the higher Thank you.
So that's the fire acuity or those ALS calls.
The other area that's impacted by this that's not specific to AMR is the partnership we have with Gresham at Station 31, which is in District 1 out east.
So I've been in contact with their fire chief to let them know about the reduction that's coming.
And then I think Councilor Novick is working on getting a presentation together from FHIR and AMR to describe just what moving forward looks like with EMS.
Elizabeth Gallagher
Awesome.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you so much.
Olivia Clark
Appreciate your time.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Maria.
Councilor Koyama Lane.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you, Council President.
Thank you everyone for being here today.
Thank you for the presentation.
Before I get into some more specifics, I just want to clarify the, the budgeting process and how the reductions are decided.
So my understanding is bureau leadership is asked to identify some potential reductions, and then ultimately the mayor makes those decisions on which ones to bring forward.
Is that correct?
And I'm just curious about if our union leaders included in any of that brainstorming or conversations, specifically with, with fire?
Rebecca Dobert
Yes.
So I feel very fortunate to be working well with the firefighters union and appreciate so much their work and for their presence today.
We have had lots of difficult conversations about where we were with our cut concepts and why we were in this position that we were in.
And so although it's not the outcome that they desired, and I understand that, it's something that we've been in communication about and have had—.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
I've been really open to hearing all And Chief Johnson, I want to highlight how you've hit the ground running.
I was at your swearing-in ceremony and saw how powerful it was to have folks handing you off here.
And as a rank-and-file union member, I really value what I hear from workers, and I'm hearing from a lot of firefighters that they're genuinely impressed by the trust that you're building and momentum there.
And that's something that means a lot and that I'm hearing.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Overall, I'm really concerned about the proposed cuts to the Fire Bureau.
Like my colleague said, these cuts aren't to excess.
They're cuts to core services, including literal fire companies that our community relies on.
And from conversations I've had, I've heard that The Fire Bureau has made really hard choices, you know, over the last 5, 10 years, cutting a lot of administrative capacity and protecting community-facing services and work.
And that is maybe different from some of the other public service, public safety bureaus in Portland, and that you're really running bare bones.
And I will say, We, we've also— I've also heard from different firefighters, and we've heard it from our constituents, that the chat program supports this, their work, a lot, that it helps firefighters respond more effectively.
We had community members show up to our D3 listening session specifically sharing how the chat team has supported them.
So I am, I'm really thinking about that.
And one of my questions too is, if this is a bureau that's continued to cut Like all of the administrative pieces, and they've, uh, which I feel like has been the right thing, and has— have left their funding towards, uh, community-facing services.
Mr. Mayor, have you thought about the cuts over the last 10 years and how they've looked, um, with the Fire Bureau compared to, um, other bureaus like the Police Bureau?
What I've heard is that it's been kind of flip-flopped in a, in a way, that there are no people really doing the administrative work.
Rebecca Dobert
Yeah.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
In fire anymore.
And so those cuts are going to feel a lot different than other bureaus that have made those cuts differently.
Keith Wilson
Chief Johnson and I were just talking about that yesterday, and I can just give you some high-level numbers.
They're off the top of my mind, so take it with a grain of salt.
Fire since 2005, Had 670 sworn firefighters, and today they have 710.
They had 29 fire stations, now they have 31.
They did take on additional geography, 3 stations in the east.
And so what we've seen, and you're right, administratively about the same, right?
Back office staff about the same.
So thinking about technology, productivity, and so on, that's about right.
So they've seen Status quo, if not a little bit gain.
When we look at PPB or police, in 2005 they had 1,057 sworn officers.
Today they have 822.
In 2005 they had 5 precincts.
Today they have 3.
So when we think about those 2 public safety response systems, it is clear PPB has had a reduction of overall headcount of about 20 to 23%, yet our city has grown significantly in that time.
So just to answer your question, those are the numbers and they're pretty close to that.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
I will say that it feels like we're asking the same bureau, the Fire Bureau, to absorb cuts.
And I hear us saying a lot there's no fat to trim, which I actually believe with this bureau.
But I, I do see some areas where it seems like there is some fat or there are some extras.
There's literally a line item for downtown marketing, an ad for that.
So that's— it's hard to see those.
Um, and I also wanted to clarify to make sure I understand what's happening with CHAT.
So we— is it correct that we have funded it with $2 million of general fund dollars and now we're switching over to grants?
And so that $500,000 is just— is really that gap there?
Okay.
Yeah, I just— I've said this already, I've said this before, but want to be clear.
I'm going to have a hard time supporting a budget that includes cuts to any companies fire companies in any of the districts.
I love District 3, but I think all of the districts are connected and we should care about all of them.
And I'm going to have a very hard time seeing us reduce our capacity in CHAT also.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.
Councilor Novick.
Steve Novick
Thank you, Mr. President.
I wanted to just follow up a bit, Chief Johnson, on Councilor Murillo's line of questioning.
And as you said, next month I'm hoping to do a Public Safety Committee, uh, the Community and Public Safety Committee discussion of the relationship, um, between the city and the county on emergency medical services.
But just briefly, um, I hear from people out in the world that, wait a minute, why is fire responding to these medical calls and they and, they and AMR both show up?
Isn't that wasteful?
And so some people, if they hear that there's rescues that specifically respond only to medical calls, they might say, well, why isn't Why aren't the ambulances doing that?
So I just wanted to ask you to spend a couple of minutes today talking about the relationship and why we can't just count on the ambulances to respond speedily to every call.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you, Councilor.
That's something that recently when I've been doing ride-outs, I noticed too, is that in many parts of the city when I respond with our fire engines or fire trucks to a medical call, call, AMR follows closely behind.
And so it does raise a flag to me of this is not an efficient system.
Why is that happening, especially on basic calls, the lower acuity calls?
Certainly on a higher acuity call, we want to be the first responder there.
We are happy to be the first paramedics there because that's a higher, more critical call that potentially needs more than just the 2 responders that are going to come on the ambulance.
Dan Ryan
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Dobert
But it's important for you all to know that we're talking with AMR about just that, that we have— I've talked to some of our responders in different parts of town that do wait for a longer amount of time, and then in many other places we've got just a short wait before AMR rolls up.
We'd like to spread that out and use those resources more efficiently.
Of course, they're controlled by AMR.
AMR does posting based on call volume, usually across Yes.
And so it sounds like they plan to look at our response times to parts of the city and then make adjustments to their posting sites so that we are doing that better, better.
And if there's parts of the city where we are arriving very near time to them on a BLS call, then we would take ourselves off those calls.
And we currently can do that anyways, which is Thank you.
I just want to ask you to make probably the obvious point that if it is a basic life support call that really just needs AMR to arrive, once we make that assessment, our companies can clear up.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
I just want to ask you to make probably the obvious point that if it is a high-priority medical call like a heart attack, then it kind of— to me, it kind of makes sense that both fire and AMR goes out to see, because whoever gets there first, if they get there a minute earlier, they might save a life.
Rebecca Dobert
It's pretty simple.
Steve Novick
I think that's a fair point.
Candace Avalos
Absolutely.
Steve Novick
I wanted to ask about the apparatus budget.
It obviously worries me to think that we're using old, old vehicles, and I'm curious how often— I mean, I assume that— do we have any extra vehicles around?
If one goes down, is the one ready to step in?
Rebecca Dobert
Yes, we do have a few that are reserve engines and reserve trucks.
That we use during regular prolonged maintenance that our engines and trucks go in, we'll swap them onto a reserve.
That inventory is running low.
Steve Novick
Okay.
And I mean, I assume that they're like regularly inspected to make sure that there's nothing going wrong.
Rebecca Dobert
That's right.
Steve Novick
But at a certain point, when they're ancient vehicles, it just— you can't count on them.
One thing you said was that you're going to lose some administrative staff and their work will be filled in by higher-level people.
And that always raises red flags for me.
Like, what kind of work will be done by what higher-level people?
Rebecca Dobert
Right.
I was speaking specifically about an office assistant position.
That a lot of that work will still need to be done.
So it's phone tree management, listening to voicemails that we get from the community, and then assigning them to the appropriate recipient to make a response.
It's things like customer service.
It's a customer-facing position that would greet interview candidates that we would have coming for interviews.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
Rebecca Dobert
It's doing some reporting about fire fatalities and then annual reports that are required.
Steve Novick
And I'm sure actually my District 2 colleagues will get into this in great detail.
But if you eliminate, I mean, an engine from a station, then the engines are the vehicles that have water.
So the idea that we'd have the truck that deals with, like, Sort of extricating people from tall buildings, etc., but we don't— wouldn't have any water seems probably counterintuitive to people.
So can you explain how the absence of a vehicle with water affects that jurisdiction?
Rebecca Dobert
Sure.
I mean, you said it.
So we have 2 primary work assignments when we arrive at a structure fire, and they are done by engines and trucks.
And so the engines carry water.
Those firefighters are assigned primarily for fire extinguishment.
We know that everything gets better when we put the fire out.
The firefighters that work on trucks, their primary duty is search and rescue, and so it's meant to be in concert.
When the engine is doing fire extinguishment, the firefighters from the truck are assigned to do search and rescue for victims in that structure and then to ventilate to improve the environment for anybody thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'm going to turn it over to Deputy City Attorney Nancy Thorington.
You know, I think it's important to say before I even, you know, get a question from District 2, the choice about Engine 22 is not a value statement.
It's not about the neighborhood, the community, the firefighters that work there.
It was simply data analysis and assessing our risk and trying to do the most good and the smallest amount of harm that we know would, that would come with this budget package that's designed to improve the city's ability to recover in the next several years.
And so when we looked at the last 5 years of data to make this decision, one of the things we were looking at certainly was that engine's call volume and making sure that as best as we could, we were picking something that wasn't already very busy.
But equally important was looking at the next closest station because we knew that that's where the burden would shift.
And so when we were looking at the city, we had to make sure we were picking only from a fire station that was a double company house, and then from a lower volume engine, and then that the area adjacent could tolerate the increase in call volume.
The data that we have Thank you.
So our analysis of the staffing graph show that Engine 26, which is the next due engine, arrives about a minute to locations after Engine 22 does.
That minute's not insignificant, but that is— that minimizes the change to our response times across the city.
And those were some of the decisions that I needed to make as we prepared to move forward in this budget.
And it's important to me that you hear I've asked both the CA, DCA, and the mayor for the operational flexibility for us to watch for trends and watch for changes and make a change if we need to throughout the year.
Steve Novick
Thank you, Chief.
Actually, just, I wanted to follow up on that for a second.
I mean, it's my understanding that most of the stations with the lowest absolute call volume are on the west side.
But my guess is that the geography there is such that if you cut one of those stations or reduce based on that fact, it would take— the response times increase would be far higher.
Rebecca Dobert
That's true about changing the response times just because of the geography.
It also doesn't meet the mission of ensuring that every fire station got to stay open.
We only have 8 double company houses.
The ones that are on the west side are really close into downtown and one, have a call volume that makes it too hard for the surrounding stations to absorb it.
But then 2 are also first due to high-rise fire responses that we really need to assemble a bunch of firefighters in a short amount of time to be effective at those locations.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
Director Baudsley, you talked about reducing operational overtime set aside for non-peak months.
I think you were saying that we are still having it for summer when we tend to have the most surges, but does that mean that if there is a really bad day that is not in the summer, then we might have less coverage?
It is Thank you for the question.
Steve Maudsley
Yes, that is what that means.
You know, we would keep an eye on that, and if we continue to have bad days— I mean, the difficult thing about all of our business in public safety is emergencies aren't planned.
So we ensure that we have that framework in place to be able to respond in the moment.
It is tough when we're cutting operational overtime.
I do support it because I have seen our improvements over time with bringing folks in the door using our trainee pipeline, bringing them to full certification.
It is kind of a challenge though to balance out, you know, folks can leave employment with 2 weeks' notice, let's say, and it takes us around 2 years to bring them in the door, train them to full certification to call, take, and dispatch.
Steve Novick
I also just quickly wanted to ask, you're talking about cutting an assistant operations manager.
What does that person do?
What won't be done if we lose that person?
Steve Maudsley
That's a great question.
They, boy, they're the wearer of all hats.
It was a position I had several years ago for a number of years.
Right now we have 2.
They primarily oversee the operations supervisors.
They're the ones that supervise day-to-day operations of call-taking and dispatch work.
So we have a team of 14 operations supervisors.
12 Of those work on the operations floor.
2 are assigned to our training department.
And the assistant operations manager primarily leads and mentors that group.
They're also the single point of contact, or the first point of contact, I'd say, for service complaints.
When we look at how we're providing service, we receive community feedback on those things and work on policy and procedure and also work in the labor relations on negotiations.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
Director Perez, one thing I was pleased to see that you're maintaining the positions the council either deliberately saved or deliberately added last year.
One question I had was you said that with the decline in materials and services budget, that will affect EOC activation.
Could you just elaborate on that?
Elizabeth Perez
It's more just our EMS in general.
So depending on how many times we have to activate next year, it does impact.
And just to note, all the bureaus participate in EOC activation, so all the bureaus have to participate in the funding of it.
It really is just dependent on what kind of disasters we see next year.
So as of right now, I think we'll be Okay.
Steve Novick
And finally, I just want to join my colleagues in saluting the firefighters that are here and let you know that people who— there's going to be some of us looking for additional funding to restore some of those cuts, whether we happen to represent District 2 or not.
So thanks for being here.
And I also wanted to say that when I saw you all in the hall, not to make light of anything, but my initial reaction was to yell, Thank you, Councilor Novick.
Jamie Dunphy
Councilor Kanal.
Sameer Kanal
Thank you, Council President.
Uh, thank you everyone for being here for the presentation.
I just want to note I see people from all the, the parts of, uh, the service area back there, and that's been a testament to the service area's work at building a collective culture and system, and I appreciate that.
Appreciate the CA, uh, Lee being here as well as the mayor.
Thanks to everyone in the gallery as well.
City Hall is the people's house.
Chamber is a place you come to be heard, whether you're doing it individually or through a group.
For those who are gonna watch on video later or now, there's a significant audience today.
I appreciate when people organize to be here, whether you're wearing matching t-shirts or not.
First, on the DCA transition, DCA Kazi, I'm grateful for your stepping up for the last 11 months.
We will be worse off not having you here as a city.
And I think we've seen the progress not only in the DCA role, but also in BOEC.
A lot of what we're talking about here is things that occurred, the positive from what you created when you were director there.
I also have confidence in the entire public safety workforce to adjust to changing circumstances and thrive.
That's what you do.
And I think that that goes from the rank and file all the way up to Chief Johnson, to Director Perez, and Director Madsley as well.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
I'll start with, I'll just go in the order.
Thanks to BOEC for the presentation.
Can you contextualize losing 2 call takers in the context of also reducing 311 hours of operation and how you think that those 2 things, are those going to be essentially multiplying the effect of the other?
How do you see that interacting?
Steve Maudsley
Is that relevant?
Yeah, it's really the reduction of 2 call taker dispatcher positions yes.
One of the consequences is going to be a reduction in the number of folks we can bring in throughout the fiscal year into academies.
As I mentioned during the presentation, we intend on hiring 2 academies this year because, you know, we are pushing our full allotted FTE.
This reduction will— I think this reduction will reduce our ability to bring in 2 folks into one of those 2 academies later in the year.
But I do know that mandatory training will continue.
We will continue bringing in those academies.
They'll just have 2 less overall.
Loretta Smith
Okay.
Steve Maudsley
And you'd asked about 311 and kind of the coordination there on the balance.
I really— I think we will be able to— we would be able to adjust to that increased call volume with reduced 311 hours.
Again, the 2 positions tied specifically to really, 2 out of 126 remaining call taker dispatcher positions.
Any reductions aren't great, but we understand the need and we think we can adjust to it over the year.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks.
Are the 2 Business System Analyst 3 positions being reallocated elsewhere?
Are those positions just going away?
Steve Maudsley
The 2 are being reallocated in the core services realignment to technology.
Sameer Kanal
So to BTS?
Steve Maudsley
To BTS, yes.
Thanks.
Sameer Kanal
And then my pivot, and I'm not sure to PBAM which will answer it, In the context of the security contract, because PBEM also has space, do you get IMS payments, internal payments from other bureaus who are in that facility to help cover the cost of the security contract?
Steve Maudsley
BOEC does not.
So a couple years ago, I think we've had 2 years now of this contracted security.
You know, it's a tough thing to put up for a reduction because of the optics and overall security of the facility.
We have security measures in place, and I'm confident that what we have will continue to maintain security of the facility.
A couple years ago, though, when we brought that contract on, we had, we had a break-in at the facility, a vehicle stolen from inside the warehouse bay there, and some other security concerns, just folks coming on the property that should not have been there after hours.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks.
I have some concern about that.
If the contract continues, I think it might be worth having the conversation there.
Not that PBEM is flush with money either.
I know that.
And that's my pivot.
I appreciate the changes you've laid out.
Everything that you said made sense, Director Perez.
I just wanted to get the opportunity to ask about some things that maybe aren't on the— in the slides.
Can you speak to the overall vision right now?
Because I think before getting into the details, there's definite interest in my office in supporting a more robust emergency management bureau.
Eric Zimmerman
Yes.
Sameer Kanal
I'm not 100% clear what you need for that, and I want to make sure that PBEM— you know, Councilor Novick and I talked about this last year— want to make sure that you have what you need.
We rely on PBEM here, and I also know there's a lot of important work on the council side.
I mean, there's also a lot of important work that you mentioned.
I'm super excited after talking about it for a year and a half that the continuity of operations program is being restarted in a new form of government.
But can you speak to maybe the big picture, what you What do you need and how does that serve the vision?
Elizabeth Perez
Yeah, so as interim, I'll talk about where I'm trying to get to then hand the reins over to a new director.
But I've been really privileged to work with a really strong team.
We had a strategic planning session last week to start talking through our mission, vision, values, and just reestablish what is PBEM and what should we be doing.
I think overall, like I said, we have 4 program areas.
We've lacked planners.
And the first part of, you know, working towards being prepared as a city is having those plans in place.
So we have certain plans that we're required to do through the federal government, but then plans that we need as a city.
And so there are some plans that need more significant change and some that just need changes in terms of reflecting the new form of government.
So when we're talking vision, I'm, I'm really talking about foundation.
It's really getting us to our planning, our operations, making sure that we have a functional operations center, making sure that we are— we have our plans and then we're training and exercising them.
I know Councilor Zimmerman has talked about this before, you know, just really making sure that we are prepared to do the work.
In a time where we don't know what is going to happen.
And really focusing on all hazards, because if we're prepared for the big one, we're likely going to be prepared for pretty much anything with some changes.
And then making sure that our community resilience programs are intact.
Our NET program is phenomenal.
And I think that the staff that have worked on that, you know, even through the past couple years of changes, have really persevered and made sure that even with less staff, they are still training up volunteers.
And I think that is a real boon to the city.
So in terms of vision, we're looking at foundation.
So what is it that the city, this city, capital C, is ready for?
And then making sure that as we're preparing that, our community members are also prepared.
So that is through the NETS and then our, our COAD, making sure that we have culturally specific work happening in the community.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Elizabeth Perez
So those are the 2 elements that we're working through, and I'm really excited to hire a full-time bureau director to lead the bureau and the really excellent staff.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks.
And it should be noted that you'll be here presenting a completely different area later on because you still have your old job as well.
Olivia Clark
I do.
Sameer Kanal
So appreciate the work flexing into that.
Steve Maudsley
One question that I want to return to the net thing for a moment.
Sameer Kanal
And this relates to realignment, or, and maybe it, maybe these are 2 questions and maybe they think they may be one.
Which position's being realigned into where and why is community programs, that might relate to what you just said, but why is the personnel cost increasing there?
How's that?
Elizabeth Perez
I believe the one position, and we're still having conversations about this, is the community resilience program.
I think she's an analyst, so that's— she works with the COAD, so the Community Organizations in Disasters.
The understanding is that she would be moved more to the service area to help not only work on the emergency management piece, but also in community resilience across public safety.
We're still having conversations on that.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, thanks.
In terms of the NET programs, and this is my segue, I'm pretty sure, but you could tell me, that St. John's is one of the largest NET teams in the city.
Is that accurate?
Is it number one?
I'm not sure.
Elizabeth Perez
I'm seeing from my Deputy Director Jordan Wiley a head nod, so we can come back to you and confirm that, but I think it's true.
Sameer Kanal
It may be second biggest.
They're doing great.
That's my pivot in.
That's my area.
Elizabeth Perez
So I just wanted to shout out, it's my pivot into fire.
Sameer Kanal
And, and also to just say, um, I was really hoping that after last year we wouldn't be having the conversation that starts with the question, why are we beating up on St. John's again?
So, um, I, I really want to express that I, I understand why, given what you had to do in terms of the exercise, why a process started and led to an answer that frankly, if it was in a different district those councilors would have hated just as much as I hate it.
I totally get that, and I am not faulting that process for it.
I do think that the potential closure of Station 22 in St. Johns is unacceptable, and largely that's because I live right on the border.
I'm kind of close to where Station 8 serves and where 26 serves.
I was as a candidate in the 26.
I live in 26's area.
And the context of Station 8 a few years ago losing its double company status, and to contextualize the figures we are talking about, both in terms of Councilor Koyama Lane's question to the mayor, but also in terms of how we look at this, call volume has to be compared.
We can't just look at raw numbers over time, but did those raw numbers change in light of call volume?
And I know that staffing hasn't increased anywhere in public safety.
To keep up with call volume, but I'm talking about proportionally.
And Station 8 has had among the large—.
Mitch Green
That's—.
Sameer Kanal
This is Lombard and Interstate right by the Fred Meyer, uh, for those who don't know, uh, has had one of the biggest increases in call volume.
At the same time, it's lost one of its 2 apparatus.
Um, and that's context, which means that Station 26, just to the west of it, um, in Portsmouth, is assisting there quite a bit.
Steve Novick
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
And now would also be asked to assist to its west, which is the St. Johns Station, Station 22.
Is that an accurate read of what would happen if this was cut?
Rebecca Dobert
It is.
Sameer Kanal
And engines, for those who don't know, have the significantly larger water capacity than either of the other 2 trucks or quints.
So when we're talking about actually putting I love the phrase, put the wet thing on the hot thing.
That's the particular apparatus that's most useful for that, right?
Rebecca Dobert
That's right.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, so we've also established that Station 22 neighbors and serves the south side of the St. Johns Bridge in part, and therefore is a neighboring station to Linton and the CEI hub area.
I'll also mention that Station 17 on Hayden Island has a large portion of the North Portland industrial waterfront and is reliant— because the station itself is in Hayden Island— is reliant on a bridge and traffic on that bridge on I-5 to get to that portion of their area.
And if they can't because of traffic or bridge issues, Station 22's engine would normally be supporting that too.
Is that correct?
Rebecca Dobert
Yes.
Angelita Morillo
Okay.
Sameer Kanal
So with all that said, we're talking about a very large fire management area to begin with, but also being a primary support to half of North Portland, pretty much, if not more.
And that's very concerning to me.
I also think it's a little bit— there's a way to tell this story financially that I have a little question about, which is we're calling it a saving of $2.5 million because it's also saving overtime.
And that's because we're reducing the workload of the bureau as a whole and therefore having less of a draw on overtime.
So the actual reduction in the apparatus and the people who work on it is less than that.
Is that— I'm seeing a nod from CA Lee.
So I think there's an argument to be made here that we're not actually saving as much as we should be looking to save to achieve a 4% target, which I'm also not Uh, in love with, but, um, that is actually the, the reduction itself is not creating that savings so much as that plus the overtime reduction.
Okay, just wanted to, to get that on the record here.
Um, and we could talk about this for an entire work session, but I won't.
Um, but, uh, I'm against it, just to be clear on that.
Uh, so, uh, switching gears to CHAT.
Uh, first off, I am really grateful to everybody involved in getting the $1.5 million that's a hard thing to do right now, and I'm grateful for it.
It is being used to replace $2 million in city one-time dollars.
We have no ongoing dollars in CHAT, which is why the staff are limited term, as you mentioned.
I think you've gone through what the impacts of the funding decrease are, and the good news for us is we're not looking to replace $2 million.
We'd be looking to replace half a million dollars there.
And I would love to— last year I put up an amendment.
You can anticipate one again to get some number of ongoing dollars into this program.
Everybody up here at some point has said we think that CHAT should be a part of our future.
Steve Maudsley
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
And it is time to get one or more dollars into this program on an ongoing basis so that it is a locked-in part of our future.
Obviously, I'd love a lot more than a dollar.
Are the 2 positions being eliminated additional to or the same as the Deputy Chief and Program Strategist in CHAT?
Rebecca Dobert
Those are the 2 positions.
So the initial budget book, I think, that you all got that said, 3 positions, which was the equivalent of 3 frontline chat responders.
And we decided to leave those 3 employees in place and make the reduction to the deputy chief and the program strategist.
Sameer Kanal
So I'm going to ask on the strategy side, and this is maybe not just the position but the overall situation.
My understanding is that role is part of what's working on a project to get reimbursement lined up, Medicaid reimbursement, which would be a part of getting us out of this conversation.
That's correct.
Rebecca Dobert
Yes, he is part of that position.
That worker, you know, our member is part of working on those kind of agreements and maintaining relationships and looking for additional funding options.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, so cutting that work would potentially limit our ability to get that reimbursement figured out as rapidly as possible.
Is that correct?
Rebecca Dobert
It's going to be shifted to the remaining folks that work in that group.
Sameer Kanal
Thanks.
And then last question on CHAT.
What is the impact in— how does it work in terms of the org chart if the Deputy Chief gets eliminated?
What does that do to where CHAT sits in your org chart?
Rebecca Dobert
So CHAT, right now we're planning for that to stay under the Emergency Operations Division.
But that deputy chief was critical just in terms of getting chat responders worked into the fabric of fire stations.
And he's been critical in just understanding both sides of the program that chat— the work that chat does, and then helping our firefighters understand the value that chat brings to the station.
Our plan is to use another existing deputy chief position to fill that.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, thanks for that.
I think everybody said it already in terms of the rescues.
I would love to— not only should we be saving those, I'd love to get some in D2.
I think a significant portion— I think you said 65% of calls now are on the medical side.
Rebecca Dobert
That's right.
Sameer Kanal
And so, you know, rescues— I'll also mention, and this relates to St. Johns, when I did a ride-along, we responded from Station 8 to St. Johns.
To a fire in St. Johns.
And getting— when the grid changes as you go west, it's actually difficult to maneuver, especially if someone's parking up to the corner.
And shout out to people who want to daylight our intersections.
But to actually get around— and a rescue is a much smaller vehicle, so there's quicker responses, more roads available as well.
But I share the concern about that largely because, like the Other conversation we've had.
It's a short-term budgetary gain with a long-term downside.
I did want to say thank you for the prevention fee updates and the budgets for payouts, whoever caught that in Business Services.
Mr. Mayor, I hope we can restore the payout schedule for 2027-2028 when there are 27 pay period months anticipated so that we're not caught flat-footed on that, but it's good to reduce it when we don't have that.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Sameer Kanal
Because we're in May and this is a 27-pay-period month, um, how— last year we had this conversation in the spring TAL and in the budget about what it would mean to start an academy not in July, which would line up with this month for when people would be, um, out, but, uh, starting it later.
Um, how are we doing on retirements this month, and should we anticipate an overtime which one do you want?
This is relevant to next year's budget.
Rebecca Dobert
I mean, uh, do you— can you come up and fill that in so that—.
Elizabeth Perez
Thank you.
Elizabeth Gallagher
Hello, Elizabeth Gallagher.
For the record, I'm Deputy Director at Portland Fire and Rescue.
Um, in terms of retirements for this month, uh, we have over 20 that we've received at this point in time that are going to be participating, or at least have put their interest in to be part of the Retire Rehire program.
And what that does is it allows those folks to work potentially for another year serving as frontline firefighters.
And that is something that we anticipate helping with some of the staffing over the course of the summer months.
That being said, we also have a number of folks who have just indicated that they will be retiring.
It's an advantageous time to do that, and we've got wonderful folks who've put in lots of great years of service.
And so that number you know, we kind of get some new information every day.
Not everybody is super vocal about that, keep it kind of close to the vest.
And so we're watching that very closely because we know that that payout amount for this year is going to be very tight.
And with it being the end of the year, we have minimal opportunity to adjust for that if it is more than what we had anticipated.
Sameer Kanal
Yeah, I guess so.
From the payout perspective, I really appreciate that.
From the retirement perspective, I'm thinking also the overtime side because we're pulling in people from traveler pool.
You got a lot of different ways that you account for it, all of which I imagine have a budgetary impact, certainly the ones we talked about.
What is the size of the spike?
Is it on average, are we looking at like a 10-15% increase in retirements when there's a 27-pay period?
Are we looking at doubling, tripling?
What's the scale of the spike?
Elizabeth Gallagher
I'm actually also going to turn my head back to I believe that she looked at that too, but it's typically, I mean—.
70%.
70% Retire during—.
Olivia Clark
Yes.
Elizabeth Gallagher
Yeah, of folks who retire, 70% opt to retire during a 27-pay period lookback month.
Sameer Kanal
And there's about one of those a year on average?
Elizabeth Gallagher
It rolls, honestly.
Like, I've tried to look for a pattern in it, but it, yeah, you can kind of bank on one a year, but just the way that that spread works, again, like this coming fiscal year, The spread is such that we miss it in FY27.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, so if retirements were evenly spaced over 12 months, we'd be looking at 8 or 9% of retirements occurring in a given month.
And in a 27-pay-period month, we're getting 70% of the retirements, just to scale that here.
And that's why it's so important that we prepare for this financially, not only— and I really appreciate the payout look, but also on the overtime side and how we scale our trainings, which is what gets me back to this year's— or sorry, the coming year's budget, because everything I've been asking kind of relates to this year's, which is I would love to look at how we can get what BOEC has for fire with the overhiring authority.
Because within a fiscal year, 10 months, we can get— I think it's a little shorter now, right?
9.
Yeah, we can get somebody hired up.
And I think if we have that overhiring capacity, built in, we can build to where we're going to need to be before those months happen.
Angelita Morillo
For sure.
Elizabeth Gallagher
I would add as well that just the way that hiring happened over the course of the '90s and the early aughts, we saw larger, huge classes of folks coming in.
That's true for both police and fire.
And just as we kind of move to a smoother hiring that happened 20 years ago, we'll see some of that phase out.
The difference between FPD and our being the retirement plan as compared to folks now being on the PERS system.
As of 2007, that also makes a difference.
So we anticipate seeing changes, but yes, it is a huge financial calculus that we have to bring in, um, over the next few years for sure.
Sameer Kanal
Okay, thanks.
And I'll also just close by saying I, I agree with my colleagues on the point of the, the 2 admin positions piece as well.
Just wanted to flag that.
Steve Novick
Thanks, Council President.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Kanal.
Colleagues, it is 11 o'clock.
We have 7 more people in the queue and a little over We have about an hour and a half until we are scheduled to get out of here.
I'm going to give us a 15-minute bathroom break.
Everybody please be back here at 11:15, and Councilor Avalos will be kicking us off.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
And we are back.
Thank you, folks.
We have about an hour and 15 minutes left.
We have 7 councilors left in the queue.
That means, colleagues, I'm trying to hold us to 10 minutes apiece.
Councilor Avalos, take us away.
Candace Avalos
Sounds great.
Elizabeth Perez
Thank you.
Candace Avalos
Well, you know, I feel like a lot of my colleagues have asked many of the questions that I had, so I'll keep it a little bit high level.
But I think that, you know, what I'm hearing a lot of is that we're you know, preserving core services and a safe Portland for all.
And I very much appreciate the work that goes into maintaining emergency response systems.
Those are crucial.
But as I'm looking closely at the budget and in the presentation, I feel like I'm seeing something different emerging, which is a pattern of maintaining the appearance of core services while reducing the underlying capacity that actually makes those services reliable.
So that's fewer 911 call takers or reduced training or fewer response units.
Councilmember Loretta Smith.
Reductions in things like CHAT.
So I just kind of wanted to better understand how these decisions are being made and what they actually mean for service reliability, especially for East Portland.
So high level, can you just walk me through what is the framework that you're using to determine what reductions are acceptable in this service area?
But specifically, what are the performance metrics or response time thresholds or service standards that you're using to conclude that these changes are not going to there we go.
Bob Causie
Thank you for the question, Councilor.
The process involved— early on involved guidance from the budget office that the bureaus submit reduction packages, and they were aligned with a 3% reduction and an additional 7% reduction.
So those reduction packages were brought forward, and the service area basically compiled all of those into a generalized report.
And that report kind of showed me as the DCA all of the potential cuts that the bureaus brought forward.
And I brought those along with the other DCAs, all of our collective efforts from the bureaus, and had a workshop with the city administrator.
And looked at all of those potential cuts.
We reviewed each one individually, and then in that collective workshop made decisions on the overall impact and whether or not we could afford the cuts, and went through many iterations.
There was that initial iteration kind of looking for and then we had to go through a second round and even massaging some of those reductions.
For example, one concept, the original concept for police, was to cut the PS3 program altogether.
And in that conversation, realized that we didn't want to remove the program completely.
I think that's a good point.
Completely because we wanted to maintain at least the framework so that it can be built back over time.
And then decided collectively through that process to reduce that one by 80% so that at least the framework's still in place, there's some employees, and then it can be built back.
At that point then, the city administrator had recommendations.
That almost final list that was handed and then in meeting with the mayor a couple times, as, you know, the, the DCAs and the mayor's office met to kind of further massage the list and, and kind of have a back-and-forth conversation with the Bureau of Directors as well as all of the DCAs and the mayor's office in determining the final list.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
Candace Avalos
Thank you for that explanation.
I think part of why I'm asking it is I'm just trying to, as we're looking at the whole budget, not just this area, understand what we mean when we say we're preserving core services if we are also chipping away at the things that make those core services.
That's what I'm trying to understand, your decision-making and what it means to maintain quality of service.
Steve Maudsley
Thank you.
Candace Avalos
As opposed to just a skeleton of a service just existing for the sake of existing.
So this is the kind of mindset I'm trying to understand, because at the end of the day, when we have such a big deficit, we have to make hard decisions about what are things that we scale back or we cut.
But when I'm hearing, you know, you all say, but we're keeping core services, we're keeping core services, I guess I don't maybe agree with what the definition of core services is, right?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Mm-hmm.
Candace Avalos
If you're reducing things like chat, 911 responders, I would not agree that that means you're keeping a core service.
So I think that's what I'm trying to get at.
And I wonder, as it relates to 911 in particular, you know, given that the data you all provided shows that increased staffing has reduced overtime, it has improved performance.
So what is the rationale then for reducing 911 call takers?
I mean, I heard you answer some of those questions, but I want to ask more pointedly because of what your data showed.
Steve Novick
Yeah.
Candace Avalos
What is the rationale for reducing that?
Should— and also, were there alternative reductions that were considered, particularly in other admin or non-frontline functions before reducing call-taking capacity?
How were those trade-offs assessed?
Steve Maudsley
Yeah, great question.
What we were looking to do is really align any reductions that I brought forward with our core mission.
Which in BOEC, most of our FTE are operations-focused.
They're frontline-focused on effective and timely 911 call answering and dispatching.
So any reductions may impact call answering down the road.
What I was trying to do is really minimize what those reductions are across the bureau and maintain our departments as they are today, or minimum maintain the departments.
We sometimes have departments of really 1 to 3 people outside call-taking and dispatch operations.
So places to reduce are very minimal.
So then we looked at things like training, security.
You know, reductions that weren't taken involve a couple administrative personnel.
And so it was really trying to look at maintaining frontline services of call-taking, dispatching, and quality assurance, and also balancing out and maintaining internal support systems for our training department, our public records and research, and the folks that in quality assurance that support our frontline folks and that make up most of our FTE.
Candace Avalos
Thank you.
Um, you know, I think it speaks to, um, something that I heard Councilor Koyama Lane say just around how are we deciding where, as we're balancing our budget, not every cut is felt equally across each bureau, right?
We all know and understand that.
But that seems to be the broader approach to this budget.
And that's where I think you're hearing a lot of councilors' concerns, right?
If we're saying that we're keeping core services, but we're hollowing out essential functions of those core services.
And there, I think there's a lot of line items across the city that I'm like, well, why are we keeping that if we're going to be cutting 911 call takers, right?
So if we look the budget as simply take 10% from each bureau, that's the kind of budgeting we're getting.
And I don't agree that that's the way to best deliver quality services to Portlanders, right?
Can you tell me a little bit— I heard a little exchange around like, you know, you all as the bureaus and the experts in your field are putting forward what you recommend as cuts.
Obviously, again, we all have to do some kind of cut, uh, at the end of the day, um, but then those decisions ultimately get made by the mayor.
Loretta Smith
Yeah.
Candace Avalos
Can you talk about where what, what goes on in that in-between part?
Like, how are you assessing what the bureau staff are telling you are the best places?
How are you making those final calls for where to cut?
Keith Wilson
I think that's a great question.
I think that's a framing.
We start at the umbrella level and clean streets and safe places, and every meeting began with that.
We looked at the fatality rate in '23 and '24.
We lost 800 Portlanders on the street homeless.
So that's that overall framing part of it.
Our goal this year is to reduce that by over 70%, less people dying in Portland.
Our public safety system is at the cornerstone of making that happen.
DC Icazzi said at the very beginning, it's a holistic system we have to focus on, and it's a very complex system of which it's only one part.
When we go down the line and we look at Steve and what Steve's doing at BOAC, we see a 5% reduction in overall call volume.
Pressure on his system is being addressed.
When I set up this budget, focus is to reduce unsheltered homelessness, end it, which will reduce the burden on our public safety system, which is the folks we have right here, which will help us revitalize our economy and improve livability.
Steve's workload and his department is doing well.
Overtime is mitigated.
It is always green.
He is leading the best bureau we have right now as far as overtime and management, and call volume is falling.
And yet we have a fiscal crisis.
So we have to take the wins we have.
That department is outperforming like we haven't seen in 5 years.
When we go to Chief Johnson, we look at at her call volume, 9% of all of her calls are homelessness.
When we reduce unsheltered homelessness, we ostensibly reduce the burden on her.
Now, when we look at the budget writ large, Chief Johnson and I were in some very difficult meetings up until the budget was proposed to you because I had noted we are not going to close a fire station.
Olivia Clark
Yes.
Keith Wilson
And she had put forward drastic cuts to fire because that was the goal, not just doing a 10% cut across the whole.
The goal was making sure that her team was as intact as we could to respond when a Portlander calls.
And so we carved from other areas and funded her at the last moment to make sure she didn't close any fire stations because to meet that 10%, She was going to have to do drastic cuts, and it wasn't going to meet the core value of what our budget writing was.
She ended up with a 4%.
Police, because our goal was we didn't want to see a single sworn officer, which takes years to become fully operational, we wanted to keep every patrol officer and every investigator on staff.
And to do that, We only took a 6% cut, and then we saw higher cuts in parks and in sheltering, even though we want to make sure we have at least one empty shelter bed every night for somebody who's ready to come in off of the street.
So it was not a cut across the system.
It was not a standard cut that everybody took.
It was very judicious.
It was very difficult.
Ginger Damron
Thank you.
Keith Wilson
It was having these individuals at my table over the course of many, many months.
And in the end, Friday night, Chief Johnson heading out to do a camping trip, we needed her and she answered the call.
And fire is the least cut bureau that we have.
Candace Avalos
Okay, I will leave it at that.
Thank you for your time.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Avalos.
Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Council President.
Um, I have a couple of smaller questions to start and then some deeper things I want to go into.
Um, on— there were 2 areas where funding sources were identified as replacement dollar amounts, and I want to understand whether they are already secured, maybe not in the bank, but we know they are coming or not.
The first, my colleague Councilor Morillo asked about is the CHAT grant funding.
I know we're not sure on the timing for that funding, but has it been allocated on the federal level, or is it something that we are hoping will be allocated?
Rebecca Dobert
We've been awarded the grant.
Yes, we've been awarded the grant.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, we are 100% sure, as much as we can be with this federal administration, that that money is coming.
Bob Causie
Yes.
Loretta Smith
Okay.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And then on the, um, cost allocation with the county that I believe is within BOEC.
Steve Maudsley
Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Have we notified the county of that change, and are they including their increased costs in their budget, or is there a possibility that this will end up being a budget hole through the year because they are not currently planning to include the increased Yeah, the county is a member of BOEC's user board and has been involved in conversations for a number of years.
Steve Maudsley
I think since DCA Kazi became director at BOEC, those conversations started about updating the IGA.
And again, with the cost allocation last updated in 2005, the county has been at the table for those discussions.
So in October of last year, the county was invited to participate in a the user board did take the vote to approve the new model.
County was present.
Multnomah County has 2 seats on the board for Multnomah County Emergency Medical System or Emergency Medical Services and Multnomah County Sheriff.
Both voted no on that vote, but the vote did pass by quorum.
So we are working right now with CA's office and administration to move official notice to the county.
So they can include whatever allocation changes they need to make for the upcoming year.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So again, they will budget how they budget.
We can't control that, but they know this is coming.
It was part of the vote, and we have every reason to believe that we will get that full amount of money from them.
Bob Causie
Yeah, I am, you know, I put it in percentages, 80% confident, only because We built a glide path for them.
Their bill is actually much higher based on the funding model for, uh, for BOEC.
And in order to help them through this transition, the decision to charge them $1 million over what they're currently paying to help offset the EMS costs that, that BOEC basically absorbs for AMR.
That's really what this is all pertaining to.
So we're building them a glide path so that they only pay $1 million above their current bill and then begin to build that out in, in following years.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, and if the 20% chance happens, are we going to see you at fall TAO, or is there some sort plan B that is built into other funding within the bureau or the service area?
Bob Causie
I'll jump in and Steve can jump in if he has additional information.
A couple things.
The bureau will have to absorb that amount, which certainly will impact the bureau.
On the bright side of that, overtime is going down.
The costs do seem to be stable at BOEC right now.
So the bureau is going to be taking a close look at that.
They bill every month to all of the partner agencies— Troutdale, Fairview, Wood Village, Gresham, as well as Multnomah County— and we'll have a really clear picture early on.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
And DCA Cossi, I should have started by saying thank you for your service to the city, not only over this past year in your DCA position, but starting many of the changes that have helped us to decrease the costs at BOEC that you're talking about now in your many years of service there before.
We appreciate everything you've done for the city, and I will say, at least from, from the seat I sit in, the service area feels much more stable and like there's some clear integrated direction than it did a year ago today, and I appreciate your leadership in helping to make that happen.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
One more question while I'm on BOEC.
In terms of implementation and what we should expect as impact from the cut of 2 full-time positions, does that mean that there will be more overtime?
Does that mean that there will be 2 fewer positions on the rotation of people answering calls.
Should we expect that that means that wait times could increase slightly?
Is this covered by those trainees, or is this in line with maintaining current call answer times given the decrease in call volume?
What is the impact on the ground?
Jamie Dunphy
Great question.
Steve Maudsley
Councilor, you've hit a number of things that keep me up at night, uh, increased call volume and wait times, uh, workload on staff and burnout, uh, those sorts of things.
So, um, with the reduction of our 2 call taker dispatcher positions from our, uh, permanent staffing, we have an offset of the 8 limited-term positions in the, uh, $1.1 million, uh, training pipeline.
So the change will be minimal.
It is an impact to our permanent positions, which we would need to wait for attrition throughout the year to bring in 2— I guess we'd be bringing in 2 less folks into one of our academies, one of the 2, in the next 12 months.
So generally it would be like a fall and a spring academy.
And if we intend to bring in 8 at that time, because that's the number of positions we have available, or 10, then we would bring in 2 less at that time.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So what I'm hearing is we should not expect to hear from Portlanders that there's been a significant change in wait time for calls to be answered.
We should expect to see 2 fewer people coming out of training, which could be an overtime issue in the coming years if we don't make up for that in future years.
Steve Maudsley
Yeah, I don't expect calls I don't expect our performance to change drastically.
You know, one of the things we don't control is call volume.
And, you know, we want to ensure that we have folks in the seats ready to answer those calls and also at the times of the year that makes sense for that based on historical performance and call volume.
2022, 2023 were kind of odd years in the way that I think in 2022 was our highest call volume ever.
And it happened to be the same year where we were at lowest certified staffing ever.
Since then, we've been building back.
I intend to do that over the next year, couple years, at least those 2 positions back, in addition to, you know, as far as we can get down the road, regaining those 8 limited-term positions and converting what we can to permanent positions, because that is our way forward.
That is our way out.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
On the fire side, and I'll start not at Station 22, we'll get to that.
Chief Johnson, with the reduction to 12 hours for the rescue units, I'd like to understand what we might be able to expect there.
Do we have other rescue units that are already operating at just 12 hours a day, or are these our only 3 rescue units?
Rebecca Dobert
They're the only 3 rescue units.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So we don't have something to compare it to, to say here's what happens right.
Rebecca Dobert
We would be able to take roughly the amount of call volume that they respond to annually and cut that in half.
Although the plan is to have them doing the work when the majority of the calls come in so that they cover most of the peak hours.
The only condition that's really affecting that is our ability to staff the calls.
Olivia Clark
Okay.
Rebecca Dobert
The staff largely depends on when we start that work shift.
So it's going to be closer to when the firefighters get off from regular shifts at the station and start a shift on the rescue.
Right now we're thinking 8 AM to 8 PM, which will encompass most of the busiest hours of the rescues.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, and you said something about having some flexibility in some of these changes.
Changes, will you have the flexibility if we retain this cut, um, to shift around timing and staffing to find where the, where the most effective hours are to have these rigs available?
Rebecca Dobert
That's absolutely the plan.
That, like I said, the hinge I think is making sure that we can still have staff to work those shifts, but that's absolutely absolutely.
What our intention is, is to cover the busiest hours with those units.
That's why they're there.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Great, thank you.
A question on CHAT.
At one point I read something in the mayor's documents about the CHAT cut removing the follow-up care units, but I'm also seeing that the CHAT cut is these 2 positions, one of which is a management position.
Will we Do we still have follow-up care teams at CHAT, or are those eliminated?
Rebecca Dobert
Yep, not eliminated.
That's not changing.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So in terms of vehicles on the ground in community providing direct service, are there reductions with these CHAT cuts right now?
Rebecca Dobert
No, no, no, ma'am.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
You mentioned that you had some concern that the state might see this as the city not being committed anymore because we don't have general fund in the program any longer.
So that would be a potential reduction in health share dollars available.
Is that what you are concerned about?
Rebecca Dobert
That's the risk that I've been told.
I haven't been involved in those conversations up till now, just coming on in this fiscal we do have the mayor's offices involved with an upcoming meeting to talk about the changes with Health Share.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, and when is the Health Share contract up?
Do we need to worry about a renewal this budget cycle, or is that something that we could signal differently next year?
Rebecca Dobert
Okay, current contract is up June 30th of this year.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So when this budget goes into We're negotiating that contract right now.
Elizabeth Perez
Okay.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And I think I remember that we're also negotiating our contract with our employees there.
Rebecca Dobert
That's right.
They're currently in bargaining.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Do we need to worry that if we don't have city dollars in, in the pot here, that that could affect our contract negotiations?
Rebecca Dobert
Yes, let me turn around and look to see with those that are involved in the negotiations if that's—.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And I don't want to get too deep into that here at the dais, but I just, I want to understand if there's an implication that we should ask more about in executive session at some point there.
Rebecca Dobert
I think that's a fair assessment, fair statement.
Okay, yes, I would agree with that.
Agree that what you said is correct and that it's something we need to be concerned about moving forward in that contract.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, thank you.
I appreciate that you found a way to take reductions in that program that doesn't affect frontline service for Portlanders.
That's something that many of us have talked about hoping to see as we deal with some very difficult budget cuts.
I am a little bit concerned about what this means as we're We're in the middle of negotiating 2 contracts, one for funding coming in and one for supporting our staff on the ground.
I'll ask more questions about that in the appropriate venues.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Um, last question before I turn to Station 22: do any of the cuts in fire slow down training or hiring?
Rebecca Dobert
No, that is what we've preserved.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
So Station 22.
And I, I will note, Chief, that we've had a lot of bureau directors up here over the last few weeks, and nobody likes the cuts that they put forward.
But there was a sense of, I don't know, maybe defeat that I felt in your tone when you were talking about this.
And I, I don't know how real that is.
I think it's real.
But I can tell that you don't take these proposals lightly.
Should residents of St. Johns, if we cut an engine from Station 22, expect that they will have the same level of service that the rest of the city has for fire safety?
Rebecca Dobert
I think the answer okay.
Um, we have data, right, and trends.
I think what's so hard about this is that there are models for understanding where we should make cuts based on population changes but not on budget requirements.
And so what's important to note is the major cause of fires, along with the major cause of medical emergencies and rescue emergencies are people, and it's very hard for us to predict changes in the population or in certain pockets of the city with enough speed to adjust the location of our resources.
We're also limited just by the structures that we have in terms of what additional units we can fit in closer fire stations.
So we're dealing with some fixed asset problems.
And to answer your question even more directly about what could change for those neighborhoods is that it's our estimation that a fire engine coming to that neighborhood is going to take 1 minute longer.
And then I really want to follow that up with the reassurance that that's the area that we are watching, that we prioritize moving resources up to.
Just like we do today if companies are on or tied up during simultaneous incidents.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So a couple of other questions here just to understand the impact of this proposal, right?
I think this is one of the stations that has some of our wildfire, wildland fire resources, and they provide backup both in the natural areas along the Columbia Slough to the north and also to the station that covers Forest Park.
Is that accurate?
Rebecca Dobert
It is.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So if we are reduced to one vehicle, one rig at this station, and there is a wildland fire that requires backup in the Slough area or in Forest Park, what will happen to response times in the Station 22 area?
Rebecca Dobert
I think those will still, when it's requiring an engine, will be about that minute out.
The other operational changes that we would be able to make is we send firefighters from other stations to Station 22 to pick up those resources and still use them so that those assets that exist there for wildland or for the terminal okay.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And I believe this is one of about 5 or 6 stations that has their jurisdiction split by a bridge.
There aren't very many in our city, and this is one of them.
Does the idea that we could get stuck with a single rig on one side of the bridge and need support on the other side give you pause?
Rebecca Dobert
It does.
It does.
And unfortunately, it's not unique to that area.
I think what's so hard about this conversation is that we know, like you've said, regardless of which district this cut was impacting, we have high-value target hazards spread out across the city.
That's why fire stations are in the locations that they are.
And so it's so unfortunate, but we would be having this conversation regardless of which of those 8 stations we decided to remove an engine from.
And it was those 8 stations so that we could maintain an open fire station in every neighborhood.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I hear that, and I appreciate that.
And I think what gives me concern here, and I want to be clear, I'm not proposing that we cut anybody else's fire engine instead.
But what gives me pause about this fire station specifically is that I, I understand that from a call volume perspective, this may have been the best station to look at.
From an emergency preparedness perspective, I'm very worried because we know that St. John's has some particular impacts when it comes to emergency emergency preparedness as a peninsula, a peninsula with bridges that are not all quite sound, an area with many bridges that are not up to the structural integrity to hold a quint, and an area that serves Linton and backs up CEI Hub and Forest Park across the river.
It seems to me that this station.
Olivia Clark
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Again, from a call volume perspective might have made sense, but from an emergency situation perspective, it's one of the hardest areas to see reduced resource in the city.
Also, as a peninsula, we can't easily get vehicles in on the other side quite as quickly as, as somewhere else.
So I will be looking to figure out what we can do here.
Um, this isn't something that I can easily stomach for that community.
I appreciate your honesty in answering the direct question about what folks in the region should expect.
Um, Council President, I think that's more than my 10 minutes, so I'll pause there.
Steve Maudsley
Thank you, Councilor.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney.
Councilor Zimmerman.
Steve Maudsley
Great.
Eric Zimmerman
Uh, my conversation is going to be entirely with the Fire Bureau and the leadership So if you've got your budget folks around, why don't you bring them on up?
So I want to talk a little bit about just some mechanisms.
So can we first talk about, Chief, how many current vacancies does the bureau have with respect to firefighters?
Rebecca Dobert
Firefighters?
Eric Zimmerman
Or any level of, I'll say, captain and below.
Rebecca Dobert
Sure.
Ginger was right there.
Do you have that?
Eric Zimmerman
Good morning.
Ginger Damron
Good morning.
Ginger Damron, Public Safety Budget Manager.
There's 11 vacant firefighters, um, as of today, with an academy anticipated to start this month, but also all of the retirements that were mentioned.
Um, we may have already had a couple of those, so Okay.
Rebecca Dobert
Yeah.
Eric Zimmerman
Thanks for that.
So in terms of, you know, looking through these budget documents, one thing that is hard to suss out here is, does the Fire Bureau have a separate line item budget for overtime purely?
Ginger Damron
Yes.
There's definitely a separate line item for overtime, and they're a little bit unique where it's not necessarily offset with vacancy savings, particularly because this year we added 10 FTE in the FY26 budget that did not have funding, with the assumption that as they staffed up, they would offset overtime.
So those positions weren't funded.
They're already sort of baked in, if that makes sense, of they, they are going to be funded by once they're deployed to, to offset overtime.
But the total overtime budget's around $22 million.
Elizabeth Perez
Thank you.
Eric Zimmerman
Is that a separate line item budget or is that partially vacancy savings?
That's what I'm trying to get to.
Ginger Damron
Yeah, not for the Fire Bureau.
It's not vacancy savings.
Eric Zimmerman
It is not vacancy savings.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yeah.
Eric Zimmerman
Okay.
So $22 million.
Angelita Morillo
Got it.
Dan Ryan
Okay.
Candace Avalos
And—.
Ginger Damron
But let me just, let me clarify one thing though, because I think that something that got mentioned is there is a dynamic between staffing and overtime.
And so if we have more separations in May, sort of what we're assuming to be staffed next year, we may have more overtime and then would have some vacancy savings because there's— it takes time to hire people.
Eric Zimmerman
I get that, right.
What I'm trying to understand right now is if the bureau's financial practice is take a look at a given month and say, Golly, look at that.
I had 11 vacancies that otherwise would have been straight time, but since those employees were not filled, if the bureau is using those funds, that bucket, so to speak, the unexpended funds, as its first tranche of money then to fill shifts in an overtime status, that's what I'm trying to figure out here.
Or if that's not the case and in fact actually to fill shifts that we are tapping into the overtime fund, which is now, has been established as a line item, while the vacancy one does not get filled.
That's what I'm trying to understand from a financials practice purpose.
Ginger Damron
Yeah, and so the way it works is there's an overtime line item, and really what we are doing is staffing 171 on-duty responders.
Loretta Smith
Right.
Ginger Damron
So whether we're doing that with straight time or overtime, that is how many we're staffing.
So we have a staffing plan that says we're going to have X number of responders next year, and they're going to do— 80% of their hours will be working, and then we need a certain number of overtime hours to offset the rest of it.
And so there's this— there's this difference than how the police bureau, for example, operates, where there are vacancy savings that are accounting for it.
Having said all that, I anticipate next year we may have some vacancy savings that will fund what could be additional overtime if we have higher turnover in May.
Loretta Smith
Okay.
Eric Zimmerman
It matters here in terms of the number we're talking about, and I don't know what your per-funded FTE round number would be.
Let's just round number it at 118, which is similar to the police bureau.
But 11 people times 118 each month, that's kind of where I'm going.
And I say that, that seems like complicated acrobatic math, but when we're trying to understand a $2.5 million cut, acrobatic math gets you to budget dust and budget dust gets you to an engine.
So when I look at $2.5 million for an engine consideration, and that's essentially $300 an hour in a 24-hour period.
Bob Causie
Yeah.
Eric Zimmerman
To keep that thing alive, right?
If it's a 4-person engine, $72 an hour, $300 an hour overall to keep that thing functioning is kind of the math if I deduce it out of what the cut to an engine truly means.
So we have established the concern around Station 22.
I want to just make sure that I understand one piece that that came up that, you know, we're all learning about different types of apparatus here.
Engines versus trucks versus— somebody said a quint.
I don't know what that is, but that sounds like a bigger thing.
But it's not.
Chief, what's a quint?
Rebecca Dobert
Yeah, so it's something that does a little bit of what an engine does because it carries water in a small amount of hose.
Candace Avalos
Okay.
Rebecca Dobert
But then it is a big heavy unit that has the same big ladder on top so that it's—.
Olivia Clark
Got it.
Rebecca Dobert
For us and our system, when we've had to use them, they act like trucks, but they do have an available tank of water to use based on the incident.
Eric Zimmerman
I just want to ask some layperson questions, right?
I think about Portland neighborhoods and we talk about the presence of water.
There are fire hydrants.
So in terms of the initial attack, does initial attack on a fire happen with water that you bring with you, and then we're looking for where can we hook up that may be half a block away to supplement that supply.
Is that kind of what we're talking about?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Yes.
Rebecca Dobert
And so we have more engines that respond to a structure fire because they do use hoses to connect to the fire hydrant and bring that water to the scene.
Eric Zimmerman
Okay.
And then in Forest Park, for instance, or in that area, we're talking we bring the water that we have to fight with and that's kind of about it.
Unless we have a specialty, unless we happen to be close to an infrastructure that actually has a hydrant system.
Rebecca Dobert
Right.
We do have some wildland units that are more adept and able to get into certain parts of Forest Park.
There's also a sort of a sprinkler system that is set up in that area that neighborhood teams can activate.
Steve Novick
Okay.
Eric Zimmerman
All right, that's helpful.
So traditionally, how has the— how have vacancy savings then been used by the Fire Bureau?
I want to make sure I'm understanding just kind of the, the mechanisms here.
Um, in years past, if the fire business ops— if you came to the end of like the first quarter and you had a certain number of vacancies, what then were those funds expended for?
Elizabeth Gallagher
I can speak to that a little bit.
I think that fire is unique relative to some of the other bureaus in that we don't typically carry many vacancies, or certainly not operational vacancies.
Oftentimes, if you were to pull a report out of SAP or have that provided to you, it will potentially show a vacancy on paper.
What it doesn't necessarily note is that perhaps in a different position, we've double, double filled to operationally get the capacity that we need working to staff the 171.
And so it is not historically not often where there have been a material amount of vacancies that the bureau is carrying that would have been something, again, different from police, for example, where you can look at a larger group and kind of apply that, what otherwise would have been budgeted for those positions towards something else.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay.
Elizabeth Gallagher
So fire's just, yeah, historically not had that same volume of money to So where does the—.
Eric Zimmerman
If I look back at the multiple years, where did the ending fund balances come from, right?
Over the last several years, ending fund balance in the Fire Bureau looks to be around hovering around a quarter million dollars either direction of $7 million.
Elizabeth Gallagher
That's the capital reserve fund.
Eric Zimmerman
That's just capital reserves?
Elizabeth Gallagher
Correct.
That is only the capital reserve fund.
And those are the residual funds from the Got it.
Dan Ryan
Okay.
Eric Zimmerman
Thank you for that.
In terms of operational funds, does the Fire Bureau generally turn anything back in at the end of the year?
Candace Avalos
We have.
Elizabeth Gallagher
I mean, in the— was it just last year that there was some?
I know that previously there was about $900,000 that we had turned back in.
It was part of the public safety policy set-aside monies.
That I believe— was that just last year?
What is time?
Ginger Damron
That was, um, I had one 2 years ago.
Okay.
We didn't turn anything.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Gallagher
Okay.
No, last year.
Yeah, last year.
That's right.
Last year we, we squeaked through by the skin of our teeth.
But, um, prior to that, yes, we have given back funds.
Ginger Damron
Okay.
I mean, and I, I do want to kind of clarify because I'm— I think I'm tracking with where you're going.
The vacancies— I mean, if there are vacant positions, fire's very set on the minimum staffing level.
And so if we're vacant positions and so then effectively it is getting used for overtime.
I think there's a little bit of a different dynamic where the work week was shortened, and so the hours worked increased also that was needed.
And the original— we added 33 positions in the last 3 years.
The first 13 didn't have funding, so they're supposed to offset overtime, and then the last 10 this year didn't have funding.
Councilor Smith.
Eric Zimmerman
Yeah, I think actually not having the dynamic be quite as clean is actually problematic, right?
So an unfunded position, we think— I think we need to wrap our heads around what the hell that actually means.
And so that's the challenge here.
And so what I'm trying to get at is, and we've had this conversation with other bureaus too, is that we yeah.
Dan Ryan
Need to be very careful about what we're saying.
Eric Zimmerman
Is the way a person who fills a shift on an overtime status is paid, right?
That person's paycheck should not know what the backend accounting was.
It's just that X number of hours were in an overtime status.
Great, that's what should occur.
What I'm trying to understand is if we are, We are placing funds into an overtime bucket at the expense of placing them in an operational bucket because our practice is to tap an overtime bucket anytime somebody moves into an overtime status versus if we had the operational bucket filled.
Okay.
And therefore the overtime budget could come down as well.
That's what I'm struggling with.
And having the different variations of how overtime is expended, statuses like approved but not filled, or excuse me, approved but not funded, these are the challenges that make, when we're talking about such a small number as $2.5 million, that make it very challenging to know what the right math is.
So my next question is, is the overtime budget for the Fire Bureau an on-time, or excuse me, an ongoing line item of general fund dollars, or is it every year we put in a number that is one-time only, knowing full well that you have to have an overtime budget?
I'm just trying to get for what is the practice here.
Ginger Damron
The funding, so there's a, I think there's kind of 2 answers.
One is, There has not been adequate ongoing funding to afford all of the overtime needed.
So there's been one-time dollars given to the Fire Bureau the last couple of years.
This year it is $5.3 million of one-time funding in FY26.
Next year there is $2 million of one-time funding in the overtime.
Eric Zimmerman
What do you mean next?
Oh, this one we're talking about right now?
Yeah.
Um, and where, where in the budget can I find such information?
Ginger Damron
We noted it in the decision package narrative.
Eric Zimmerman
Yeah, I'm looking for like spreadsheets and numbers because I sure got a whole lot of narratives, but I sure don't have a lot of numbers, and I am finding decision-making to be incredibly difficult.
Ginger Damron
I see Ruth.
Come on up, Ruth.
Eric Zimmerman
I mean, I'll just— I want to do a little bit of commentary.
Just even the way that the presentations are going is challenging because it is full of narrative and void of real numbers and year-over-year comparisons.
And I really appreciated Elizabeth with PBIM.
She said we're getting rid of 4 and put in parentheses of 8 vehicles.
That's the kind of context that we need to make decisions.
And very few presentations this far have had that context.
So I just, that's an editorial note there.
Ruth, you stepped up.
Rebecca Dobert
Sure.
Candace Avalos
Sure, Ruth Levine, Budget Director.
I stepped up to speak to the question about the one-time versus ongoing.
I think, I believe it's in the tables in the bureau summary of the proposed budget book.
There's also, I would direct people again to the City Budget Office dashboard for the proposed budget, which can link links from our website.
Eric Zimmerman
That's different than OpenBook?
Candace Avalos
It is, yes.
There's a Tableau dashboard that just, you can actually download data from there and has a little bit more, it's more dynamic than OpenBook, which is static, obviously.
So those are probably the first places I would recommend people go.
I believe we can, if we haven't already, we can also— I think we have.
Post some raw data of the prior 2 fiscal years and the budget in Excel on our website so that people can play with that themselves.
But so there are a couple of different places to answer that question.
Eric Zimmerman
So if I'm looking at, and I am right now looking at Portland Fire and Rescue budget revenues by major object, expenses by major object, I've basically got some big fat buckets, one of which is personnel, $171, $172 million, and that doesn't tell me much.
Dan Ryan
Right.
Eric Zimmerman
And that's where I'm not loving the idea that I have to have a decoder ring that goes outside of the budget documents to go find the information because that that is going to be challenging for the rest of the season.
And it's again a challenge from— that we noted last year in terms of what makes up $171 million if it is not all actually straight personnel.
And so I'm challenged by that.
Bob Causie
The—.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you.
Eric Zimmerman
I think, um, in terms of— I'd like to get a sense, and as I close this out, I'd like to just get a sense of, um, kind of how the, the last part was, and I really appreciated whomever it was.
Somebody was talking about making decisions against risk factors, right?
And I think that's an incredibly important and sometimes nuanced and lost aspect.
But I was hoping, Chief, that you could articulate a little bit about what risk factors, right?
As anybody who's evaluated risk, we put more— it's a weighted total, right?
We put weight on certain items.
Can you talk about relative to the double company stations, what types of risk factors you were giving more weight to versus other risk factors in that decision-making process, because I think it is quite helpful to understand that.
Rebecca Dobert
Yeah, no, I appreciate that question, and it's important to speak to all of you about that.
So as I mentioned, there are 8 double company stations in the city.
In District 1, there's Station 2 and Station 7.
District— or Station 2 2 is a double company house that we use as our training environment.
And so that— it was not an option to close because it would impact the pipeline for recruits and trainees that come out to the field and ultimately fill those vacancies that we've been talking about.
Station 7 is our hazmat station.
That's a county resource that's also called on by the state.
And so that team needs to stay together and stay intact to provide hazmat protection for the City of Portland.
Let me talk about District 4, which has 3 stations— Station 3, Station 4, and Station 1.
Those are all closest into the downtown city core.
And so in terms of risk analysis there, one, call volume is high for all of those stations.
Additionally, the call volume for the stations that would move up and fill in to those locations are also already high.
And so they wouldn't be available to come in and take that workload.
And then we also have the hazards that are downtown.
So I mentioned a core group of high-rise buildings that require us to assemble a larger number of firefighters before we can ever engage a fire that's taking place in one of those buildings.
District 3 has Station 25.
It was also probably the other place that would have been considered for a closure, except that it is east and it is going to be heavily impacted by the closure, the part-time closures of the 3 rescues.
So it's going to shift the run volume from Stations 19, 11, and 31.
It's going to be pushed over to the 2 apparatus that are at Station 25.
13 Is in District 2.
That is the other double company house that is just outside of the downtown core and responds in, but their call volume is high enough that a surrounding station could not move up and absorb that and, and be available.
We would be calling units from further out to come to 13.
That really leaves us at Station 25.
No good decision was to be made there, but just to be clear about how much thought went into making that choice.
Eric Zimmerman
Okay, thank you for walking us through that.
I think that is helpful, and it's kind of the sense I've been feeling.
There's no good decisions here.
I share the concerns with Councilor Smith the factors of the slough, the peninsula, having lived in St. Johns myself and knowing what that situation is like, and given the— like, I share that.
I understand it.
And that's why when we talk about $2.5 million to keep an engine on shift, I think it's worthy to dig into the budget dust.
And I'll end with, Council President, I'll end with, from a DCA perspective, I think that there is, and I have some interest in, certain vacancy savings across the service area not being assumed to yes.
So I think it's important that we don't just stay within various bureaus or offices by default, and that there's a decision-making at a DCA level perhaps for how we operationalize our day-in and our day-out frontline services through the vacancy situation across the organization and not just single bureaus.
So I just, I say that for future development.
But thanks, Mr. President.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Zimmerman.
Colleagues, we have about 12 min— or sorry, 22 minutes left, and there are 4 colleagues in the queue who have not spoken yet and 2 who are hoping to get to a second round.
I don't know that's going to happen.
So Councilor Smith, followed by Green and Ryan.
I'll just go ahead and take myself out of the queue.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Council President.
Um, first I'd like to say to, uh, DCA Causey, thank you for your over 30 years worth of service for the City of Portland.
It has been exemplary, exemplary, uh, you know, experience.
And what you've done with the 911 system prior to coming to DCA, I always told you that you should have offered a master class on how to do that.
You really manage the, um, the vacancies and improve the efficiencies there, and that was what I was able to see.
So thank you so much thank you.
Thank you so much for all of your service.
But let me tell you a little bit about my concern about the Public Safety Department.
My concern is that this budget says we're preserving core services, emergency response, but the reductions before us touch every part of the emergency response chain: 911 call-taking, emergency preparedness, fire apparatus, rescue units, on-duty firefighters, and alternative medical response.
I want to understand whether these alternative efficiencies— are they truly efficiencies, or whether we're accepting slower response times, greater overtime risks, and reduced service in communities that already experience the greatest disparities, like District 1?
So my first question for you is, Portland Fire and Rescue proposes eliminating 2 administrative support positions, which will shift duties to higher-level staff and executives.
How much executive or sworn staff time will be redirected to administrative tasks, and could that create a hidden operational cost in overtime for these very—.
Rebecca Dobert
These are higher-paid I, I can speak to that, Councilor, just to help answer the question.
It's, it's my plan that the administrative tasks are either done within the regular 40-hour weeks or they're shifted to our executive staff that are salaried employees and don't incur overtime costs.
Loretta Smith
So they're So how do they actually get that work done if the redirected administrative tasks are going to the executives?
How do they get the work done that they need to get done?
Who does that work?
Rebecca Dobert
I appreciate the point.
It is a lot of hours that over, you know, year over year, these cuts, like you guys have mentioned, have impacted most of the staff.
Mostly the office staff so that we could maintain frontline firefighters.
And there are a small but mighty group that are taking on additional duties.
And then I think faced with these changes, we will have a roster that we plan to discuss with the DCA and CA and the mayor about what's not going to get done potentially.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
The mayor's proposed public safety materials note that PF&R's 2-person rescue units and CHAT units that serve East Portland and communities where racial income and educational health literacy and access disparities are the highest.
Given that, how did the administration evaluate the equity impact of reducing Councilor Smith.
Thank you, Mayor.
I have a question for Deputy City Administrator Donnie Oliveira.
How many fire rescue units available and the capacity of CHAT?
And either one of you all can answer that question because I think there needs to be an equity lens put over the entire budget, and that equity lens needs to look at those, those things that I discussed around education, health literacy, access to Fresh foods, high crash corridors, all those things.
That's District 1.
You cannot name a disparity that's had in this city that District 1 is not leading.
And so as we look at the budget, I see District 1 being pounced on.
Rebecca Dobert
I can start with acknowledging the equity impact, and that was something, a lens that we used as we developed our entire budget.
Budget and just want to acknowledge and validate that you're right.
Those units are there for a reason, and it's because that community has a higher demand.
And just in general, I think I may have mentioned it earlier in the meeting, but we know that the majority of people who need to use 911 services do come from underserved or underprivileged communities.
So from my standpoint, when I had to make the decision about cutting to achieve the amount of savings that we've got to do for the Fire Bureau.
The reason why, and the only reason why, those rescues were on that list is because we can't also use them for fire protection.
Candace Avalos
Hmm.
Loretta Smith
Okay.
I'm going to have to process that for a second.
Next question.
Page 25 says the budget eliminates 4 vehicles I think 8 vehicles was probably too many for the bureau.
Elizabeth Perez
We are maintaining 4 vehicles that all have different uses.
So we have one that is an electric vehicle, which is good for, you know, moving around, and then we have 3 that help us transport supplies, as well as one that will do— be employed when there is a disaster, so rugged terrain.
In my opinion, the, the 4 other vehicles were not necessary.
Loretta Smith
Councilor and I, I, I can appreciate that, um, that, um, and we probably could have addressed that last year too if, if that was the case.
We could have really done some things last year.
But I want to— I, I, I have very limited time.
I thank you for that, Elizabeth.
Um, the presentation states that Public Safety Service Area has 2,250 proposed staff and a $611 million proposed budget on page 3, but the financial overview chart on page 7 appears to show the fiscal year '26-'27 proposed budget at approximately $620 million point 4.
So can somebody clarify to me what is the actual budget?
Bob Causie
Is it I think I would need, uh, Ruth or Ginger to come up.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Ginger Damron
I see $620 million, so the $611 may be a typo.
There's also some charts that are showing program expenses specifically, and so then contingency, general fund overhead, and debt doesn't show up.
So sometimes there's Discrepancies that have to do with what is classified as program expenses.
Loretta Smith
Yeah, it just said that it was the proposed budget, it was $611 million, but what you're saying is it's $620.4 million.
Is that what you're saying?
That's the real number, the $620?
Ginger Damron
Yeah.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
And I think this goes back to what Councilman Zimmerman said.
We have narratives yes.
And I've been saying this for 2 years and through each TAO that we've had since I've been here.
We don't have spreadsheets, and that's a problem because all these stories that you all are telling so brilliantly in the budget, they're having different numbers.
And this is not the first time that I caught this.
It— last week there was another issue because you guys are putting these numbers in narratives.
Steve Maudsley
Yes.
Loretta Smith
If I have an Excel spreadsheet, it is there.
I can see.
I can look at it.
But I can't do that in this kind of format.
It's really tough.
But one of the things that I learned early on was to read and to add longhand.
My grandkids don't know how to add longhand.
They don't know how to do that.
But I do.
So the other piece is BOEC is proposing to eliminate 2 911 call-taking positions, and the presentation states that this could impact call answer times.
What is the expected impact on 911 answer times, especially during high call periods, major incidents, heat events, wildfire smoke emergencies?
Etc., etc., etc.
How do you plan to make that work?
Because when I was running for City Council before, the big thing was response timing.
Now we're going to increase response time, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Director Adesia Causey, you worked so hard to get that done, but now it's—.
Keith Wilson
Yes.
Loretta Smith
We're getting ready to lose some of those things.
Steve Maudsley
And I'll tell you, uh, Councilor, thanks for the question.
The reduction of the 2 call-taking dispatcher positions, uh, is not great news.
Any reduction to our operational workforce, albeit it is 1.5% of our operational FTE, um, it's still not great news.
Uh, but you know what we intend on doing is hosting our 2 academies over the next year and, uh, bringing in 2 less people than we would anyway.
So impacting call answer times you said specifically during, I think, high-volume times.
We would intend on targeting the, you know, summer call load, our highest call volume times, and reserving operational overtime, for example, throughout the year, postponing training.
I said reserving operational overtime for surge events throughout the year is what I meant to say.
In addition, postponing training.
Until the fall when our call volume starts to drop, as we've historically seen.
As I mentioned earlier, one thing we don't control, but we talked to the mayor about recently is the last 2 fiscal years we have seen a 5% decrease in overall 911 call volume.
That's promising.
I hope that's the new normal, although I can say over the last several years we've said new normal way too many times.
And, you know, to be surprised by some things.
Loretta Smith
I hope it sticks.
Steve Maudsley
Sorry.
Loretta Smith
I hope it sticks.
Steve Maudsley
Me too.
Well, I hope it's more than 5%.
We could use less 911 calls for sure.
Loretta Smith
And so I'll, I'll leave, I'll leave some time for folks, but I have one last question.
BOEC proposes eliminating 325,000 in contracted security personnel for BOEC, PBIM, and BTS, and the presentation says this reduces visible deterrent and on-site response to threats or concerns.
What specific security risk does this create for emergency communications and emergency management staff?
Steve Maudsley
Yeah, so the security does allow a visible presence both inside the facility and out.
They do patrol parking lot and the perimeter of the building many times during the hours that they're, that they're present.
You know, we have expanded lighting in the parking lot.
Really worked on that the last year or so.
And existing security protocol, badged access, locked facility, gated access, and all of that.
So those procedures, those items will continue.
You know, what I can see this impacting is the visible presence where you won't see someone in a neon vest walking around the parking lot providing that extra patrol.
Loretta Smith
Councilor Herbold.
Thank you.
And, um, again, DCA Kazi, I thank you for your, for your service.
And just one last, uh, request.
Um, I think we need to work on the policy of us as a city when we get grants.
If we're going to backfill every grant that we have, that's going to put us in a yes.
In a pickle.
And so when we do those extra and expanded kinds of services, we just need to look at those and say that's what they were.
We got funded for them.
We don't have the money anymore because we can't backfill everything that we get a grant for.
And there were like $600 million in the grants department.
And I'm like, okay, if we tried to backfill all of that, Yes.
If we didn't get those grants again, we couldn't do it.
So we have to identify as a council what our book of business is.
And if we get something extra and we can do it, yes, that's fine.
But what we're doing is putting everybody else who've been at the city for a long time at risk when we start new programs that are paid for with outside sources and then those sources leave.
Steve Maudsley
Yes.
Loretta Smith
And then we have to figure out how to, how to put these things in.
You know, ongoing money should be for ongoing money.
If we want to keep some of those things, then we got to take something out.
We can't just keep adding to the budget because we think we need to do those things.
And I'm just— and I'm looking at you all because you all are doing a great job.
I know you have Ceasefire and all those programs that were paid with ARPA money.
And I'm just— I'm concerned that our need is bigger than what our revenue is.
But I also know that we have to have a policy decision that says when we don't— and fortunately with the SAMHSA grant, Chief Johnson, we're going to be able to keep some of those folks with CHAT.
But when we don't have that money, we got to be— we got to have a hard line on that.
Jamie Dunphy
Yes.
Loretta Smith
But, but thank you.
Thank you so much.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Uh, colleagues, we're going to get to Councilors Green and Ryan, and then we're going to adjourn for the day.
Councilor Green.
Mitch Green
Thank you, Mr. President.
I'm going to be very brief because I know our time's short.
Um, DCA Causie, I just want to thank you for your service to the city.
Um, I think we were better, better for, uh, the city was better for your service to the city.
So thank you.
Um, I'm going to echo everyone, what everyone has already said about Station 22.
I don't need to repeat that.
The critical energy infrastructure hub is in my district.
That's the first thing I thought about when I saw the presentation.
I know, Chief, you didn't make the recommendation lightly.
I'm sure you lost a little sleep.
And so I, you know, recognize that too.
I do want to recognize though that this budget as a whole is a statement of priorities, and there's a number of places throughout the entire budget where we've promoted a manager from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 3.
And colleagues, a manager 3 is an executive-level role.
Steve Maudsley
Okay?
Mitch Green
So when you add all that up, that's a fire engine.
When you look at all these things and like just the other day we were talking about the investments we need to make in the CA's office.
And I agree the CA needs some investments.
But that is a DCA role in this budget.
I question whether or not we need to be making that investment while we're cutting trucks and we're cutting, frankly, services that are core, life-saving services to the City of Portland.
There is an interplay between sheltering our homelessness and the cost to our public safety bureaus.
I'll note that we have not reduced our public safety bureaus.
Ginger Damron
Thank you.
Mitch Green
The number of unsheltered homeless people in the city of Portland.
And so if we're going to cut into CHAT and we're going to cut into our sort of vehicles that can deploy while we're not making any headway on the homelessness problem, I think that just sets us back.
Last thing I want to say is earlier in the week, maybe last week, I got a report on the status of Green 13, which was intended to provide $2.2 million to the public safety as a whole to improve capability and capacity.
I note that we left— we let $160,000 of that go back to the general fund in the spring TAO.
And I wonder if where that money went once it went into the general fund and whether or not $160,000 could have helped keep our capacity in line for CHAT for one more year while we figure out— I mean, that's a third of the CHAT cut.
So these are the sorts of things that I'm going to be looking at as we get into the budget as a whole.
I know there's money in this budget to make whole some of these into-the-bone cuts that we have made in public safety.
So I'll leave it there.
Dan Ryan
Thanks.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Green.
Councilor Ryan.
Dan Ryan
Yes, thank you, Council President.
And I will skip all the niceties, but it's great to see everybody.
Thanks for being here.
Bob will get back to you later.
I want to focus on the overtime strategy.
I've been here since 2022 when we implemented that strategy.
Bob, you were the architect of that, as I recall.
And we've seen how that's benefited BOEC because we played it out long enough to see that.
We implemented in fire and police, but we're doing that thing, Mr. Mayor, that's challenging when you've been around a while now, coming up to 6 years in September.
I'm not going to say anything.
And that is we have these really smart strategies so that we get to a place where the service delivery is where it should be, and then we experience these fits and starts.
And so I think when we're doing budgets, there has to be a vision about long-term results.
And when we make certain cuts to those strategies, we don't get to experience the results that Portlanders desire.
So I took about 5 paragraphs on that and tried to be more succinct, but I'm concerned that we're not allowing that to play out.
And so that would go to basically fire for sure in this conversation.
Um, I really appreciate the ride-alongs and sit-alongs I've experienced with all of you of late.
It's definitely the best way for me to have insight and my respect for the first responders.
So I wanted to make sure I acknowledge that.
I think it would be remiss, especially the 3 of us in District 2 had our budget listening session, and it was remarkable about the testimony that came on Station 22.
No offense, but it wasn't just people that were there because they work for the Bureau.
It wasn't there because the political sector told them to be there.
It was neighbors that just showed up.
So in my experience as a public servant, when you experience that type of testimony, it goes to your heart a bit more.
And I think my 2 colleagues have expressed similar thoughts on this, so I'll try not to repeat theirs.
And I'll just add one more that I didn't hear.
Maybe they were allowing this Oregonian to talk about this.
Councilmember Herbold.
We are experiencing the lowest snowmelt in the history and snowpack.
Sorry, we're experiencing the lowest snowmelt because we don't have enough snowpack.
Snowpack is a big deal.
It's about— it's our energy infrastructure, it's our irrigation, and it's our safety infrastructure because wildfires peak in those years where we have low snowpack.
We all know this.
We're experiencing conditions already that are more like early July.
And it's early May.
So where it's located, and this has been mentioned, we have jurisdictions that come up to our borders all the way out to Scappoose.
And so I need to know if there were conversations, Mr. Mayor and Chief, with those jurisdictions that we share space with where there's all those forests between here and the borders of Multnomah County.
And so, you know, it says that area of the peninsula is a gateway to nature for a reason, 'cause it is.
And so I think the conditions this summer might make the current data that we use to make decisions missing some of those nuances about what the conditions are for the summer that we're projecting for the summer of 2026.
Was that part of the conversation?
So I'll answer first.
Rebecca Dobert
I haven't talked to the chief at SCAPUS about these changes yet.
Dan Ryan
And I know you've been busy, so I'm not trying to say that you did anything wrong.
I just think that when we make decisions with our borders, we have such a responsibility because wildfires spread rather quickly.
Rebecca Dobert
I agree.
Dan Ryan
And I haven't experienced too many Augusts or Septembers where there there isn't a fire on the bluff that you all respond to.
Thank you for that.
So I do think when I hear about the lack of water with this change, it just makes everybody feel unsafe in North Portland.
But it spreads beyond North Portland, across the bridge, like everyone has mentioned.
So I think what you're hearing is a united front that we have to figure out how to restore that service.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
Dan Ryan
And I think we'll be all very dogged about that.
And so I needed to use my time to express that.
I think that was different than what the two of you said, so it was additive.
CHAT's really close to my heart.
I've been a part of the stewardship of trying to bring in the local grant with Health Share.
And I think where we've maybe— I think where we failed is we haven't shown up where we have received that partnership with our commitment.
And it's hard to steward a grant if we're not putting our skin in the game, if you will.
And so I'm pausing right now to say I'm here to be helpful, but I think it's a moment in time where the emergency, the ER unit that's on the ground is CHAT.
I can't be the only one that's had ER nurses tell me this would be devastating cut to this, the healthcare ecosystem of this area.
The appreciation that ER units have for CHAT is immense because that was a missing link.
And they say that those who show up in ERs is different than it was 4 years ago because of CHAT getting stronger and having more of an impact in our community.
So I also think there's a united front about how this council wants to work with the mayor to figure out how to reinstate the investment for CHAT.
So I wanted to make sure I said that.
I care a lot about all the other units that were here today, the other public safety systems that were here today, but I'm the last one.
I'm keeping everybody from lunch, so I'll try to keep it brief.
So there you go.
Thank you for being here, and I look forward to more conversations.
And Mr. Mayor and City Clerk Lee, I just have to say that I think we're at a moment where I know we didn't do across the board, but I do think that there are certain bureaus that you can't touch.
There's a contract with Portlanders that say, I pay high dollar to live in Portland, Oregon, and I expect quick response times to emergencies.
And so I think that a lot of us might look at public safety differently— understatement of the year— but we all can agree, because we agreed on one thing.
One thing was at the top of our list in that meeting we had about our priorities.
That was to improve response times.
This body of 12 very different points of view agreed that that was at the top of our list based on what I was seeing from that day and some of the reports.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you.
Dan Ryan
We're making decisions if we approve this budget that would, would, would backslide that.
I don't think that's acceptable to anybody, but most importantly, it's not acceptable to the Portlanders that want public safety to be at the top of our list.
Thank you.
Jamie Dunphy
Thank you, Councilor Ryan.
Thank you all so much for being here today.
I took myself out of the queue, didn't get to ask my question, so I'm going to email my questions and follow up to you all.
Hope you can get some answers I have one last statement to say that while I agree with the concerns that I heard about the cuts to Station 22, if the cut— my understanding is that if the cuts to Station 22 are taken, call response times will still be faster than in the Centennial neighborhood on the east side.
So that is worth noting.
Colleagues, couple programming notes.
We have work sessions the next 3 days in a row.
I will be implementing a public-facing timer.
We went pretty long today.
And so I'm going to try and be holding us to 10 minutes of talking going forward through these work sessions.
Uh, with that, we are adjourned.
Thank you all so much.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Sorry.