Staffing woes

 

Goochland needs to be competitive

At their Wednesday November 3 meeting, Goochland Supervisors responded to a plea from Fire-Rescue and Emergency Services Chief D. E. "Eddie" Ferguson, Jr. to adjust the salary scale for career employees upward. The Supervisors emphatically approved a $225,500 amendment to the FY22 budget using funds from personal property tax revenue. This represents a 12 percent compensation increase. The FY23 budget, which will be approved next spring, is expected to include a full year cost.

Earlier this year, the Board authorized salary increases for the Sheriff's Office.

 The changes will be effective January 1, 2022. This action is in line with the supervisors' goal to support core functions of government, law enforcement, public safety, and education.

(To see Ferguson's full presentation, go to https://goochlandva.new.swagit.com/videos/147355 at the1:45:01 mark.)

In 2009, Goochland hired its first career—paid—fire-rescue providers to supplement our intrepid volunteers who provided the county with fire-rescue response since 1951. As the county grew, the world changed. Young people were more likely to work outside the county and less inclined to take on a volunteer activity requiring a significant amount of time and energy to train and respond to calls.  

Early in the century, contract EMS providers were retained to fill daytime weekday gaps in rescue coverage. This was greeted with resistance by supervisors then in office, who believed that a more robust recruitment effort could fill coverage gaps. In reality, even with the contact responders, there were far too many hours when the county was NUA—no units available to respond to 911 calls.

That arrangement became dysfunctional and led to hiring fire-rescue providers who were county employees. That started the transition from an all-volunteer organization to a combination force.

Volunteers remain a vital part of the organization, "it takes everyone working together to get the job done," said Ferguson. A statewide volunteer recruitment drive is underway. Leaders of many fire-rescue agencies in the region got their start in the fire service as a Goochland volunteer, including Ferguson. Some of them still share their time and talent with our six volunteer companies.

About a year ago, two-person career crews were deployed 24/7 to each of the county's six fire-rescue stations. This reduced response times and improved service. For a variety of reasons, Covid among them, volunteer participation declined, and additional career spots were authorized.  In addition to emergency operation hazards, threats associated with civil unrest, Covid, and increased cancer risk due to on-the-job exposure to carcinogens, make the job less appealing. "A lot of people shy away from this occupation because of the risk," said the Chief.

Filling open slots with qualified people, Ferguson explained, has become more difficult as agencies around the region compete for employees from an increasingly limited pool of qualified applicants. Recruitment and retention of both career and volunteer personnel is the major challenge facing the organization.

Call volumes rose last year and will ramp up further when Avery Point, the continuous care community in West Creek, opens in the next year.

A snapshot of the fall 2021 hiring process paints a troubling picture. On September 1, advertising was posted on multiple fire and EMS hiring platforms that resulted in 38 applications,. Three qualified at the end of the process.

Covid made the competition for qualified fire-rescue personnel fiercer. Neighboring jurisdictions upped the ante in the contest for people with significant increases in compensation, leaving Goochland in the dust.

Ferguson said that at least six career personnel left Goochland to take similar but higher paying jobs elsewhere in recent months. He said that it takes at least two years and costs up to $100k to fully train a paramedic. "I hate to see that talent and investment walk out the door."

To be competitive, at least until the next round of salary increases by neighboring agencies, Ferguson asked for resources to develop a competitive pay scale, including salary steps for years of service, and establish a career development plan to allow providers to advance in their field.

You can't blame people with mortgages to pay and children to educate when they seek better wages. Let's hope this action can keep our wonderful providers in Goochland

 

 

 

Without personnel theses are metal and glass, rubber and brass.