East Bethel work session backs duty‑crew pilot, tighter limits on nonemergent medical responses

EAST BETHEL, Minn. — City officials discussed a package of changes to the East Bethel Fire Department at a work session April 28, proposing a daytime ‘‘duty crew’’ pilot, narrower response to nonemergent medical calls, and a reclassification of a fire inspector into an assistant/operations role.

Jerry, the presenter who conducted a one‑year study of the department, told the mayor and council the city currently operates a volunteer model and that the department has 27 on‑call firefighters but would need “at least 40” and possibly “50” to meet desired service levels. He said the department’s pension credit is currently about $8,000 a year per qualifying member and that the city’s on‑call starting hourly rate is about $16 per hour; by comparison, Forest Lake pays on‑call members more than $30 an hour, he said.

The change under consideration would formally restrict some nonemergent medical responses — examples Jerry described as abdominal pain, low‑risk fevers, chronic cough and routine lift assists — while maintaining full response to life‑threatening events such as cardiac arrest, severe bleeding, choking, drowning, electrocution and similar high‑priority incidents. “If you need us, call us. But don’t immediately tone us out,” Jerry said, describing how dispatch and incident information can trigger a response if a call’s condition escalates.

Why it matters: the city’s volunteer model produces widely varying daytime staffing because many volunteers work weekday jobs. Jerry said those shortages create safety and response‑time risks for structure fires during daytime hours. He cited national guidance that a typical single‑family dwelling fire may require a much larger crew than the volunteer model routinely assembles, and he pointed to automatic aid arrangements with neighboring departments as one existing mitigation.

Key proposals and estimated budget effects

- Daytime duty crew pilot: Jerry recommended offering volunteers paid, scheduled eight‑hour daytime shifts at the fire station so two people would be on duty during weekdays. He estimated a marginal cost to start the pilot of about $15,452 and a total annual duty‑crew cost shown in the packet of $93,632 for two people on an eight‑hour daytime model. He said other budget shifts and reduced overtime tied to fewer nonemergent calls could free roughly $78,000 to offset that cost.

- Narrow medical response list: Jerry recommended working with Anoka County dispatch and Allina Health’s medical direction to mark a subset of medical codes as nonemergent for which East Bethel fire crews would not routinely be dispatched. He said Allina’s recent data showed only about 1% of ambulance responses leaving the city were emergent in the reviewed set, a figure he described as support for reducing routine fire responses to certain low‑acuity calls.

- Reclassify fire inspector: Jerry proposed reclassifying the current fire inspector position to an assistant/operations role that would respond more frequently and be classified as exempt; the suggestion would move some overtime funds to support the duty‑crew program. Jerry said the inspector told him he would welcome the operational role.

Timeline and next steps

Jerry said changes to Computer‑Aided Dispatch (CAD) settings and related dispatch agreements would be required and estimated the CAD work could take “no more than 2 months” if pursued quickly. Council members asked that the proposal be added to the next council meeting as new business for formal consideration; one council member moved to add it and another seconded, and the council agreed to bring it forward for discussion.

What officials said

Jerry: “It’s time to regroup, focus on what’s best for East Bethel right now.”

Councilmember (unnamed 6): “That’s important to me. So I mean, I’m in favor of this big time.”

Councilmember (unnamed 7): “What do I say to someone that is worried about something like that?”

Jerry responded that telecommunicators and paramedic triage reduce risk and that the department will still respond to life‑threatening calls; he also said duty‑crew vehicles would be equipped with medicines such as epinephrine and automatic external defibrillators to improve early interventions.

Community and staffing context

Jerry said East Bethel originally formed a department in 1959, currently operates three stations and maintains two full‑time positions (the fire chief and the fire inspector), and that several long‑tenured members could retire soon. He described training, station and equipment maintenance, and record‑keeping responsibilities as growing administrative demands and said a duty‑crew model would also create daily opportunities for equipment checks, low‑priority inspections, public education and training.

What wasn’t decided

The work session produced no formal policy change. Council members asked to place the staff recommendations on the council meeting agenda for formal consideration. If the council approves changes, dispatch protocol updates, formal job‑description reclassification and agreement with Allina and neighboring jurisdictions would be required before new practices begin.

Ending

Council members indicated general support for further consideration and directed staff to bring the proposal to the council meeting under new business. Jerry said he would present additional details to firefighters and continue coordinating with dispatch, Allina and department leaders if council moves the matter forward.