09-06-17 Personnel and Finance (#5)

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Committeemember Voorde asked, How do you handle cutting overgrowth? Mr. Wilkerson replied, Previously we would cite this property to make the owner do it.Now we do it and bill the property owner. Committee Chair White asked, Have you seen an increase in illegal dumping?And have you seen an increase in graffiti? Mr. Wilkerson replied, We are getting better at investigating whether or not it was an illegal dump. We are still seeing a number of dumps. Fire Department Steve Cox, Fire Chief of the South Bend Fire Department located at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated, Thank you for hearing our budget presentation. I have with me many other members of our Department to answer any questions you may have. Our mission statement says the Fire Department exists to provide our community with the highest quality of emergency services protecting life and property through education, response and dynamic outreach. I read that on purpose because often times we talk about all the ancillary stuff we do such as recruitment and public education items. Our primary mission is to respond to emergency situations in the community. This year alone we have already responded to close to 20,000 calls. We are an all hazards response organization so anything outside the law enforcement responses is handled by the Fire Department. Back in the day we just responded to fire but we are now jacks of all trades. The Department Vision was developed by Fire Fighters on the Department through the strategic planning Committee. We put it together back in 2014 and Council approved it. It has a lot of overlapping segments with the City's mission. Gerard Ellis, Fire Captain for the South Bend Fire Department located at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated, We deal with three (3) different Funds for retirees. We have the old 1937 Fund,the old 1977 Fund and the true 1977 Fund. The pension portion is paid by the State. The City's obligation in payment comes out of the 1937 and the old 1977 Fund. From this time of last year we have lost fifteen (15) retirees and six (6) widows. He continued briefly describing the graph provided in the presentation(which is available in the City Clerk's Office). He continued, One (1) of my main roles with the pension Fund is simply having something there to help these individuals through the process. I budgeted a three percent (3%) increase. Chief Cox continued, I will now discuss the overall budget summary for the Department. In the 101 Fund, Personnel and Services are just over$18 million. Supplies and Services are at about $1.5 million. Allocations and Insurance is at about $1.5 million as well, all totaling $21.26 million. In our LOIT Fund which is our 249 Fund we carry all salaries. $3.3 million is for salaries and benefits. The EMS Capital Fund is getting changed with the way it is utilized. We are wanting to move everything from the 287 Fund to the 288 Fund. 287 was set up a couple of years ago to cover capital expenses using EMS reimbursement to do so. We have had a lot of conversations about how to cover that EMS reimbursement money. For the 2018 budget, we tried to wrap all of our EMS expenses and house it all in Fund#288. That is projected at a little 4