3.b Discussion on hiring probationary firefighters Staff Report Date of Meeting: May, 1 2019 To: City Council From: Mike Hinz, Fire Chief Re: Approval to Hire Background: Scandia fire currently has a roster of 20 employees. Our goal personnel number is 30, this number was derived from the fact that we are a paid on call department and not every employee is available all the time. A medical response call requires 4 personnel, a motor vehicle accident requires 9 personnel on average and a structure or wildland fire requires at least 16 personnel for the initial response, but will use 30-40 personnel by the time the fire is extinguished. For this reason we request to hire up to 5 personnel every year until we can reach our goal staffing of 30. Issue: Should the council approve hiring 3 new members? Proposal Details: Scandia Fire and Rescue would like to hire 3 applicants; Steven Greenhow, Nick Vannelli & Darrin Gould conditional on passing Osceola hospitals physical & medical testing. These 3 applicants have completed & passed the interview, agility test at the fire station and background check procedures. We have 1 additional applicant that requires additional verification that we will bring to a council meeting in the future. Fiscal Impact: The fiscal impact per year per employee is estimated at $2,300. This includes certification classes (EMT & FF1 each class $1600), hourly wage during in-house training and hourly wage for responding to emergency calls. Options: (1) Approve the conditional hiring of Steven Greenhow, Nick Vannelli & Darrin Gould (2) Approve conditional hiring of some of the candidates (3) Not approve hiring of any personnel Recommendation: Option (1).