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Chief Hayes White reports on budget, hiring, academies and surge response after power outage
Summary
Chief Joanne Hayes White told the commission the department remains on track for its current fiscal-year budget, has filled a senior finance position, graduated 49 recruits from the recent academy and reported a roughly 30% increase in call volume during a citywide power outage that affected an estimated 88,000 customers.
Chief of Department Joanne Hayes White delivered the department's report covering budget, personnel, training and recent major incidents.
On budget, Hayes White said the department remains on track for revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year and will present to the Board of Supervisors' Budget and Finance Committee on April 27. She said the department's goal is to maintain current funding levels as call volume increases; commissioners were told staffing for new programs (for example, a marine unit) would likely be a general-fund commitment unless an alternative funding source is identified.
Hayes White announced the hiring of a new finance officer: Elaine Walters is expected to start on May 15. She also outlined training and recruitment updates: the 120-first academy graduated 49 members on April 14, and the 120-second academy began with 42 members and will reach approximately 54 when additional probationary assignments are completed.
The chief reviewed the department's response to a major power outage earlier in the month, which she said affected roughly 88,000 businesses and residences. "We experienced roughly during that outage about a 30% increase in our volume of calls," she said, and credited crews and incident commanders for managing the surge with no major injuries reported.
Commissioners followed with detailed questions on response thresholds (unit on scene within 4.5 minutes; ALS within 7 minutes; transport within 10 minutes in the 90th percentile) and asked whether the department can quantify the impact of homelessness and frequent callers on workload. Hayes White and administration staff described EMS 6, a program with two dedicated paramedics working 12-hour shifts that targets frequent users; they said the department is capturing call-type data and exploring better ways to tag homelessness-related interactions for analysis.
Deputy Chief Ramona Williams provided an administration update covering facility projects: Pump Station 1 (located at department headquarters) has encountered exhaust-leakage setbacks with no current completion date; Station 16 construction is behind by about two months with an expected completion in January 2018; the Station 49 ambulance deployment facility is being redesigned for efficiency and lower cost.
