June, 2008

The sentiment of the general public today is that the government carelessly wastes taxpayers' money, that every level of government employs far too many people, and that spending is out of control. In some situations, as we have seen at the federal and state level, I tend to agree; but ALL government programs are not wasteful and ALL government employees do not spend their time wasting money. As Chief of Plainfield Township's Fire Department, I am using this space in the PROFILE to weigh in on this subject and to educate our citizens about what your fire department is doing to counter this negative perception. Being responsible for the largest allocation money in Plainfield Charter Township's General Fund budget, my staff and I are very aware of intense scrutiny and accountability for every dollar spent.

Having been around for awhile, I have observed that townships typically operate more efficiently and with less bureaucracy than other forms of local government. I believe our fire department reflects this very well. The average cost per resident for fire suppression and emergency services nationally is $164. The Plainfield Fire Department is operating at $86 per resident for 2009.

Over the last few years, the Plainfield Fire Department has been implementing more cost-saving ideas in order to make the department operate as "lean" as possible, without sacrificing the high level of service offered to residents and businesses. Some of the ways the department is conserving resources and saving money are:

• Turning lights off in unused rooms and turning down the heat in all fire department buildings saved $16,029.32 in one year (including gas, electric, water, and sewer)
• Utilizing Paid-On-Call personnel to fill in for full time Equipment Operators whenever possible saved approximately $20,000 in one year. Having paid-on-call personnel instead of hiring additional full time firefighters enables us to avoid spending many more thousands of dollars.
• Delaying the replacement of one full time Equipment Operator saved $10,000 this year
• Eliminating pay differential for POC/part time firefighters working as instructors during their trainings
• Utilizing the Internet to communicate schedules, department procedures and operations with employees rather than using paper memos and calendars saves money on paper and copy costs
• Recycling all paper waste
• Downsizing Tech Rescue Team through attrition
• Cutting the Firefighter Appreciation Banquet saved $3,000 (this occasion was intended to distribute service awards and recognize the spouses of our POC firefighters who frequently "lose" their spouses and families during holidays and special occasions because of their dedication to the department).
• Freeze hiring of new POC and part time firefighters delayed cost of equipment purchases and training
• Cutting cost by only washing apparatus once a day rather than after every call
• Filling Lieutenant absences with Chief Officers who are salaried employees saves on overtime expenses
• The department uses a non-traditional method of staffing. In addition to our use of Paid on Call staffing, the department has negotiated the use of Part Time firefighters to fill two positions per shift (one at each station). The projected savings over ten years by the use of this method is $2,500,000. In the next issue I will explain the pros and cons of our staffing system.

Not only are we saving money, but we are also generating revenue from outside sources to relieve the burden from the Township's tight budget. Here are the ways we are doing that:

• Applying for all available grants (federal, public and private) garnered $235,300 since 2007 and $401,762 since 2003. As we struggle to do our part to assist the Township Manager and Township Board deal with continuing cutbacks in state shared revenue over the past several years, using this source of "outside" money for essential purchases has helped to balance the General Fund budget.
• Starting to charge businesses and groups for Fire Extinguisher, CPR and First Aid trainings, rather than to continue to offer it free of charge, collected approximately $5,000 per year
• Generating revenue through Cost Recovery Ordinance totaled $17,500

The implementation of these ideas illustrates the cost-conscious mindset of your local government - not just the fire department. In addition to this list of savings to the Township's budget, the fire department also affects each homeowner's and business owner's budgets by providing a level of fire protection that meets national standards, resulting in lower insurance premiums than would be the case without this effort. This saves homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars that they would otherwise pay in insurance premiums.

In last year's PROFILE I wrote about how the fire department is saving the property owner money on insurance premiums. Currently, the average annual insurance premium for residents with a home valued at $100,000 in Plainfield Township is $642, based on the ISO rating of the Township at ISO Level 5. Using one company's estimates for comparison, the premiums paid Township-wide for homeowners insurance would total $6,095,020. If the department were rated

at ISO 7, premium would be $686, totaling $6,512,747 for the Township (a savings of $417,727).
at ISO 8, premium would be $724, totaling $6,873,511 for the Township (a savings of $778,491).
at ISO 9, premium would be $885, totaling $8,402,013 for the Township (a savings of $2,307,997).

Investing your tax dollars in our fire department and your water usage fees in our water department has made these savings possible.

Below is a comparison between Plainfield Fire Department and other surrounding fire departments in terms of ISO ratings. The significance of the Plainfield rating is that we are a 5 in hydrant and non-hydrant areas. This allows all of our residents to benefit from the quality of the water distribution system and fire department.

The Plainfield Fire Department intends to consistently offer the high level of service to which residents have grown accustomed -- even during these tough economic times. To do this, we are making every effort to stretch your tax dollars and increase our creativity in providing the necessary fire and life safety services.

Chief David Peterson