TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to evaluate new and ongoing revenue sources, and make the necessary preparations to restore Paramedic Rescue 12 in January 2017, according to the Fire Chief's restoration priority list;
Further request City Manager to evaluate and report back to the City Council the feasibility of a short term and long term plan for additional public safety restorations within 90 days.
DISCUSSION
Since 2010, the Long Beach Fire Department has had to continually restructure its citywide deployment strategy due to budget cuts. Response times have increased across the city, and the safety of our residents has been compromised. In a February 2015 report to the Public Safety Committee, the Fire Department reported the following increase in response times over a 10-year period:
2005 2015 2006* 2016*
Emergency Medical 5:12 5:55 74.2% 46.6%
Structure Fires 5:14 5:24 73.2% 59.7%
All Fires 5:29 6:23 68.6% 50.5%
All Emergency Responses 5:29 6:16 72.8% 46.1%
During the Fire Department's FY 2017 budget hearing presentation in August, Chief Mike Duree noted that one of the department's significant issues/opportunities was to, "Improve response times and response capabilities and continue to meet the expectations of the community by maintaining and restoring fire suppression and emergency medical services staffing levels through the use of new revenue."
The Opportunity
Now, circumstances have changed to address these issues. In the year 2016 alone, thanks to the voters of Long Beach and LA County as well as revisions to Fire Department policies, the General Fund stands to benefit from a number of new revenue opportunities, including:
Long Beach Measure A
Long Beach Measure MA
LA County Measure M
LA County Measure A
First Responder Fee
Now is the time that we can and must provide the level of public safety services that Long Beach residents need and deserve by adding an additional Paramedic Rescue into the sys...
Click here for full text