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Committee approves use of ambulance revenue to cover firefighter overtime and departmental overtime shortfalls
Summary
The committee forwarded an amended ordinance that moves surplus ambulance revenue and permanent salary savings into overtime accounts for Fire, Department of Emergency Management and the Public Utilities Commission; the PUC request was reduced after BLA review.
The Budget and Finance Committee on May 21 approved and forwarded to the full board an amended ordinance that reallocates roughly $7.9 million in ambulance service revenue and vacancy savings to cover salary and overtime needs across multiple departments.
Mark Horso of the Fire Department told the committee that a one‑time set of back payments and higher Medicaid supplemental reimbursements have increased ambulance revenue this fiscal year. He said the Medicaid supplement raised eligible call reimbursement to about $1,100 per call and that some retroactive payments dating to 2023 contributed to the near‑term revenue increase. Horso described the fire department’s plan to use those funds to cover $3.7 million in salary adjustments and roughly $4.2 million in overtime related to suppression minimum staffing and inspection work.
Robert Smuts of the Department of Emergency Management said DEM would transfer $1.5 million of salary savings to dispatch overtime to cover separations and staffing gaps in the 9‑1‑1 center. Anna Dunning, budget director at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, described enterprise overtime tied to storm response and infrastructure maintenance and agreed with a BLA recommendation to reduce the PUC’s overtime supplemental from initial projections to a lower total (the committee approved the reduced PUC request as an amendment).
BLA recommended approval with the PUC reduction; the committee adopted that change and forwarded the item to the full board with a positive recommendation. Public comment was not offered on the item.
Action taken: Committee approved an amendment to reduce the PUC overtime request as recommended by the BLA, and forwarded the ordinance to the full board (3‑0).
