Fire commission endorses chief's proposal to elevate in-house fire mechanic position

At the February meeting, the commission debated and endorsed a proposal from Chief Hart to create or elevate an in-house fire mechanic/fire technician position with specialized emergency-vehicle qualifications, citing recurring outsourced repair costs and lengthy equipment downtime.

Chief Hart told the commission that a recent invoice from an outside vendor, Gowans & Knight, totaled $4,169, including about $3,200 in labor charges, and argued hiring a certified mechanic—trained to the NFPA 1071 standard—would reduce future outsourcing and downtime for air packs and apparatus. "I just look at the invoices... $200 an hour is on the low end," the chief said, arguing the long-term savings would outweigh salary costs.

Commissioners discussed whether the position should be inside the firefighters' union or civilian, and whether HR would accept the change. The chief said HR's last written response favored making the mechanic a civilian position, but the local union president indicated conditional support if pay matched duties. Commissioner Kilby and others urged documenting historical outsourcing costs for the HR case and suggested quarterly reporting of in-house versus outsourced repairs to support the request.

A motion to endorse the chief's revised position description and forward it to the Human Resources director was made and seconded; the commission approved the endorsement and the vote will be recorded in the minutes. The commission tasked staff to gather last year's maintenance-and-outsourcing data to substantiate the request before formal HR negotiations and to present the proposal to HR with commission endorsement.