LA Fire Wrestles With Overtime, Staffing, Budget

The Los Angeles (Calif.) fire department communications center is burning through $3.2 million in overtime a year, using firefighters as dispatchers who work 24-hour shifts to provide staffing. But facing a serious budget deficit, Los Angeles city officials have reduced funding for the comm center, and fire officials are proposing to switch to eight-hour shifts to stay within that budget, a change that critics say will reduce staffing up to 40 percent on some shifts. The situation raises all the classic comm center issues of civilianization, staffing levels, shift length and money, which are rarely solved simultaneously. A long story in the Los Angeles Times newspaper says the dispatchers now make an average base salary of $95,700 a year, with automatic overtime on their 56-hour weekly schedule. The fire department has resisted periodic calls for civilianization over the years, the newspaper notes. Fire officials have said civilians would not have the needed experience or training. A primary question is how to staff for periodic spikes in 911 calls generated by large incidents. Now, dispatchers working 24-hour shifts who are off the floor can be summoned. Under the eight-hour shift plan, firefighters from nearby stations would be called to the comm center to assist in answering 911 calls. Download (pdf) a recently-released LAFD’s “next generation” staffing proposal, and read more about the budget situation here.