OCEAN CITY – Faced with a dire need for more personnel for the town’s fire department, resort officials this week approved four new full-time positions with a promise to possibly add more if certain federal grant funding comes through.
During budget deliberations last spring, it became apparent there was a critical need for more full-time firefighters and paramedics for the Ocean City Fire Department (OCFD). Last year, there was a 12% increase in the number of EMS calls in the department’s service area, however, it was learned there were 58 occasions when the department was out of crews.
To that end, the Mayor and Council directed City Manager Terry McGean and OCFD Chief Richie Bowers to come back with a new staffing plan to meet the department’s growing needs. That plan was presented to the Mayor and Council during Tuesday’s work session and included a request for four new full-time positions almost immediately.
The long-range plan calls for adding as many as 18 new full-time positions for the OCFD, but the four requested, and ultimately approved, this week would help the department bridge the gap until anticipated federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant funding is approved. The town, among many jurisdictions around the country, has applied for federal SAFER grant funding to help finance new positions needed to fortify its fire department and emergency services although no final approval on the grant funding has yet come through.
The OCFD continues to experience a dramatic decline in the availability of career part-time personnel to fill vacancies on the shift schedule. It’s a trend being felt by jurisdictions all over the state and the country. As a result, the town’s fire department has been relying more heavily on its full-time personnel, many of whom are “forced” to work overtime.
The result is the full-time ranks are getting stretched thin. In addition, the limited number of available personnel is creating a strain on the town’s overtime budget for the fire department. For example, McGean pointed out the overtime expenses for fiscal year 2023 are currently expected to exceed the $300,000 budgeted. Unless additional full-time staff is hired, that estimate could soar to $700,000 over what was budgeted.
Even before the OCFD additional personnel request appeared on the agenda on Tuesday, Career Firefighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City, or Local IAFF 4269, President Ryan Whittington explained the direness of the situation during the public comment period.
“Sadly, four people may not resolve it,” he said. “The workload created on our full-time employees is taxing. It’s like putting $4 in your gas tank when you know it’s going to take you $18 to get there.”
Whittington explained the urgency of approving at least the four new requested positions because of the time it takes to vet and train new hires that didn’t have a part-time position with the OCFD in the past.
“It takes 16 weeks to onboard a full-time firefighter-EMS provider and waiting until the next budget to hire more than four will not help us for next summer,” he said. “We need help now.”
Whittington pointed to the dramatically declining number of part-time personnel and its impact on the department’s ability to fill shifts.
“In 2019, the number of part-timers stood at 82,” he said. “After COVID, we were down to 40. Of those, only 26 were willing to work more than 350 hours per year, and 12 of the 40 provide little to no weekend or night availability.”
Again, the department was requesting four new positions at this time, with the hopes of adding more in the near future, likely contingent on securing the federal SAFER grant funding, according to Whittington.
“There are several options,” he said. “The first is to hire eight now and eight more in 2024. Let the SAFER grant play out and see where we are going to be, but we have to make a decision to get your fire department where it needs to be.”
Whittington said the town faced similar issues two years ago when officials approved the hiring of 10 new full-time police officers.
“When the council approved hiring 10 new police officers in 2020, some of the problems identified were recruiting, training, testing and lack of interest,” he said. “We have the same problems. I ask that you consider the proposal to hire more than four. We need the help now.”
The issue of adding more full-time positions for the fire department arose out of budget deliberations last spring. McGean what the department is facing now is more dire.
“What we are facing is worse now,” he said. “When I saw where we were going, the worst thing to do is to do nothing. Our full-time employees are getting stretched pretty thin.”
McGean said the decision to add the four new positions and potentially more would be easier if the status of the SAFER grants were known, but the town needed to act soon to meet the department’s demands in the short term.
“We would all like to hire more people,” he said. “The SAFER grant is still out there, but we have to do something now. I would like to see us wait to see what happens with the SAFER grant and just do the four positions now. If the grant comes through, we could address this with as many as 18 positions. We can’t count on the part-timers anymore. If we get the grant, I’ll come back to you.”
For his part, Bowers made an impassioned plea to at least add the four new requested positions now.
“We come before you asking for additional positions,” he said. “If there is such a thing as a perfect storm, this is it. It started three years ago. There are not enough full-timers, not enough part-timers and not enough volunteers. We need more full-time employees to meet the demand and answer the calls.”
Bowers said when he came aboard as chief, he assessed the availability of personnel and the department’s needs to meet the shift demands and learned, availability he characterized as “human capital.”
“My first assessment was we were upside down,” he said. “We had more part-timers than full-timers but that has changed. What we rely on now because of the lack of human capital is forced overtime. You might be expecting to be going home at the end of the day, but you are forced to stay.”
Bowers said complicating the issue was a number of full-time personnel on temporary leave for a variety of reasons, which has left the department short of relief positions for shifts.
“We’re asking for four positions now,” he said. “It would provide relief on the shifts. I have three on injury leave, one on military leave and one I anticipate will be on family medical leave. That leaves me five in the hole. I only have one relief position per shift because of the lack of human capital.”
Council Secretary Tony DeLuca made a motion to approve the four full-time positions requested by the fire department, a motion seconded by Councilman Lloyd Martin.
“As the season grows, we’re going to need more people,” he said. “Hopefully, the grants come through. It’s harder and harder to full the part-time positions and we need people there right away.”
Councilman John Gehrig said he supported adding the four requested positions, but suggested a funding plan be in place if the anticipated grant funding does not come through.
“I support this,” he said. “We need to look at this with or without the SAFER grant. We just got a great financial report. We need to remain safe and clean.”
The council voted unanimously to approve the four requested full-time positions and revisit the issue of adding even more when the outcome of the SAFER grant application became clear.
