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Fire chief outlines staffing, ambulances and station rebuilds as calls and demand climb
Summary
Chief Joanne Hayes White told the Budget & Finance Committee that growing call volume—mostly medical—has driven investments in staffing, ambulance fleet and planned station projects (Station 16, Station 5, Station 35), while the department still faces equipment and facilities backlogs.
San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White told the Budget & Finance Committee the department is meeting many performance metrics after recent staffing and fleet investments, but faces growing demand driven by medical calls and major planned development projects.
Hayes White said call volume is rising; the department projects a more than 20% increase in FY2018 call volume compared with four years earlier, driven largely by medical calls. The department recently graduated a class of 36 entry-level EMTs and plans more entry-level firefighter academies over the next two fiscal years as part of an ongoing staffing plan.
The chief outlined capital projects funded mainly by the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response bonds passed in 2010 and 2014, including Station 16 (Greenwich), Station 5 (Turk & Webster), and Station 35 (Pier 22—2). She noted an ambulance deployment facility planned adjacent to Station 9 and a substantial backlog of maintenance across the roughly 50 stations maintained by the department.
On specific departmental finance questions, Deputy Director Mark Corso said ambulance-billing back payments from Medicare and Medi-Cal account for part of a projected shortfall referenced in the Controller's six-month report but that collections are expected to improve over the remainder of the fiscal year.
Supervisors asked about possible housing over stations, modernization of public emergency boxes (maintained by the Department of Technology), expansion of water-rescue capacity and the department's approach to harassment and internal investigations. Hayes White said the department is coordinating with other agencies on station development issues, working with the Department of Technology on fire boxes, studying a marine-only rescue unit and following established EEO/internal-investigation procedures in coordination with Human Resources and the City Attorney.
The committee took no formal budget vote on the fire presentation and moved on to the police department hearing.
