City of Omaha: Village District Concept

What should readers expect from ideas4omaha.com? This site proposes ideas and solutions for debate and consideration to address many of the problems and challenges facing Omaha today. This is a discussion open to anyone within our community who wishes to participate in improving life in Omaha. Of course, it is not a directive, as only political will and leadership can take the ideas discussed and move toward reform.  What you will find here is a series of ideas which will focus for the next several months on police and fire reform.

The core of this idea is to merge and cross-train Omaha police and fire services to enhance services and security.  That idea can stand alone, and if it were the only part of this proposal to be adopted, it would significantly improve life in Omaha. Two supporting concepts to the core idea are the creation of a part-time firefighter force to support the career officers patrolling Omaha’s streets, and the establishment of 25 Village Districts to localize service and protection. Preferably, the probationary firefighters would be students – cadets attending UNO and training to become patrol officers. Patrol officers are fully trained and equipped to perform both firefighting and police patrol duties. These three ideas present the primary legs of this proposal. All other suggestions are optional and intended to enhance the core concept and supporting propositions.

Your participation is encouraged.

City of Omaha:  Village District Concept

Merge Fire and Police:  Double Police Patrols

City government, like other forms of government, swells over time – gradually but relentlessly. For about 100 years Omahans have watched one administration replace another, each time their government getting a little larger, city departments getting a little heftier, and the price tag getting a whole lot bigger.

This 100-year old model has produced huge, impersonal departments which seem distant and unresponsive. It is time to decentralize.

Call it the Village Hall model.

We would like to see Omaha’s government divided into 20 subdistricts, each composed of about 20,000 people. Headed by an appointed village manager, each subdistrict would carry the responsibility and authority to coordinate all city activities within its area.

This is not a foreign concept to Omahans. We already have several neighborhoods with a clear sense of identity – Florence, Dundee, Millard, South Omaha and, the newest arrival, Elkhorn. Twenty-five of these, each led by a person well-known and well-versed with the district’s needs, would make government responsive again.

“District,” however, does not capture the concept. It is a bureaucratic term that suggests subservience to a larger entity. “Village,” is a better term, since it implies responsibility for its own affairs. Whereas we see these 20 villages divided into groups of five for the purpose of reporting to the mayor of Omaha, nevertheless they would have a significant degree of freedom in making their area work.

Let’s break it down a little:

The Village
It is possible for a single resident of Papillion to make an appointment to see the mayor. Even in Bellevue, which has now crossed the 50,000 population mark, it is no great feat for an individual citizen to walk into City Hall and have a chat with the mayor.

Omaha is understandably too big, the mayor and his department heads too burdened to afford that kind of easy access. There is a reason why Elkhorn residents wanted so passionately to remain their own city. They knew, rightly, that city government over the long term could not possibly be as responsive, as approachable or as effective when governed from Farnam Street instead of Glenn Street.

Local services at the “village” level are simply more in touch. It is an optimum size – not too small and not too big.  As a fully functioning government entity the village would have the responsibility and authority to execute plans to solve problems. Imagine 20 Villages Districts bundled together to make Omaha.

The Village Manager
The Village Manager would be an appointed official, similar to a city administrator, who ought to hold the position for years or even decades. He/she could be a civilian appointee or perhaps a long-serving police lieutenant with additional responsibilities who has served the area for many years and knows its people and problems intimately. Either way he should have at least 20 years experience in city government, preferably within the village he is appointed to lead.

This manager would be accountable to the mayor. He would be assigned a force of cross-trained police officers and firefighters and a staff sufficient to serve the needs of 20,000 people.

While being accountable to the mayor, an individual village manager would not report directly to the mayor unless asked to. Twenty village managers is simply too many people for the mayor to handle. They should be grouped into units of five for this purpose, with four representatives appointed to report to the mayor of Omaha. These groups could be known as “precincts,” corresponding roughly to the existing city precincts: Northeast, Northwest, Southwest and Southeast.

Like the Village Manager, these precinct leaders could be civilian or police, although we would prefer that they be more experienced than any of the 20 village managers. That these four precinct leaders report directly to the mayor – and not his chief of staff – lends a very direct and efficient chain of command from the resident to the Mayor: Resident to city employee, shift leader or directly to village manager. If not solved, problems are then sent directly to the precinct leader, and to the mayor if necessary.

The problem
Obviously, there are benefits to size. The problem with small towns, or villages, is their overhead:  finance, city clerk, HR department, etc.  These are things necessary to run a city but which do not demonstrate visible value to the resident, like police officers or public works employees.  Small size tends to be wasteful because it lacks economy of scale. Nor can a town of small size support large projects like the Henry Doorly Zoo or the Qwest Center, or attract corporate giants like Conagra or Union Pacific. Those attractions and economies of scale are what make large cities so appealing.  The solution is to find a balance between both models.

Solve this problem and Omaha will quickly propel ahead of other cities, attracting more opportunities both private and public.

Police/Fire Merger Comparison Chart

Merge Fire and Police:  Save $100 Million

POLICE/FIRE MERGER COMPARISON CHART

Today Ideas4Omaha adds to its proposal that police officers and firefighters be cross trained by laying out several proposed organizational charts with their pros and cons, as well as cost comparisons.

It is important to understand the logic supporting our belief that a $100 million savings will result from a merger of the fire and police departments and the subsequent creation of a Department of Public Safety and Services. The cost savings, estimates on our part, are real dollars saved. The enhanced value comes from increasing the performance value of today’s police patrol force, which will be doubled, and which will be supported in some scenarios with part-time cadet firefighters, even as these part-timers attend UNO and train to become fully fledged patrol officers.

Patrol officers are redefined within this concept as dual-trained-and-equipped firefighters and police patrol officers. The introduction of this idea was made in the first article and can be found at Ideas4Omaha.com under “Merge Police and Fire: Save $100 Million.”

Each of the following scenarios present different savings. At one end is a scenario that maximizes cost savings through payroll reductions. At the other end is a scenario which offers little cost savings but optimizes the number of patrol officers on the streets.

Half of today’s authorized police force will be unaffected by this concept since they will carry out their duties the same as they do today. This plan focuses on the 400 police officers currently assigned to patrol our streets, and on the firefighter crews staffing our fire stations. It calls for merging and cross-training these forces to optimize the strength of our patrols while keeping highly trained fire and rescue personnel in position to respond even quicker to 911 incidents.

Omaha spends more than $40 million annually to maintain 400 officers on patrol. Doubling our patrol force, at no extra cost, therefore represents a $40 million enhancement to our security. This is achieved by cross training firefighters as patrol officers and then putting them on patrol rather than leave sitting on alert in their fire stations.

The same applies to police patrol officers, who will be trained as basic firefighters and integrated into patrol teams staffed with highly skilled firefighters. An 50 percent increase in active-duty fire and rescue personnel represents a $30 million value. In some scenarios these career professionals will be supported by entry-level basic firefighters. As part-timers and as students these basic firefighters will cost less than a third of the current career staff which represents a cost savings of $30 million. Significant savings of lesser value will be presented in subsequent articles.

These are the variables which will enable us to achieve a combined $100 million in savings and enhanced safety service.

Proposal A calls for 550 Police Officers, 150 Firefighters, 400 Patrol Officers and 375 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 125, a $24 million value, and Firefighters from 150 to 225, a $33 million value.  Additionally, using cadets saves in hard costs $29 million.  A total value of $86 million.

Pros and Cons:  It increases both police and fire qualified personnel on duty by 50% each.  It makes strong use of Firefighter/Cadets.  It keeps police and fire leadership duties and responsibilities separate for simplicity.  Cadets do not patrol which makes their field training less effective, yet constantly and directly supervised by a Fire Captain.

Proposal B calls for 450 Police Officers, 50 Firefighters, 600 Patrol Officers, and 375 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 150, a $36 Million value, and firefighters from 150 to 225, a $33 Million value.  Additionally, using cadets saves $29 Million.  Total value $95 million.

Pros and Cons:  Nearly doubles patrol force; and increases firefighters on duty by 50%; strong use of firefighter/cadets.  No substitutes for patrol rotation.

Proposal C calls for 450 Police Officers, 50 Firefighters, 500 Patrol Officers and 375 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 150, a $36 million value, and Firefighters from 150 to 225, a $33 million value. Additionally, using cadets saves in hard costs $39 million. A total value of $108 million.

Pros and Cons: This proposal maximizes cost savings at $39 million which is a tremendous boost to the city’s debt and obligation problems. Cadets are less supervised in the station and are very dependent upon the leadership on patrol to take charge of them upon arrival at an emergency therefore this plan also carries the greatest life and liability concerns.

Proposal G calls for 450 Police Officers, 50 Firefighters, 800 Patrol Officers and 500 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 200, a $60 million value, and Firefighters from 150 to 300, a $66 million value.  Although Cadets are used in this scenario no hard cost savings are achieved.  The total value of the improvements are $126 million.

Pros and Cons:  This presents maximum patrolling with an astonishing 150% increase over today’s patrols while maintaining four firefighters in each station with leadership present with the cadets.  It is the strongest scenario pushing help closest to the public and to suppress crime.  It achieves no hard cost savings but delivers so much more service potential as it doubles fire and rescue capabilities and increases patrols by 150% from 80 to 200.  Upon graduation their is a surplus of cadets, so not all will get hired on for the Omaha career positions, yet other communities will likely gladly seek them out.

Proposal H calls for 450 Police Officers, 150 Firefighters, 900 Patrol Officers which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 150, a $36 Million value, and firefighters from 150 to 225, a $33 Million value.  Total value, $69 Million.

Pros and Cons:  Maximum Career Patrol Force; yet no cadets; and no cost savings; only security and safety enhancements.  Patrols can rotate to station during shifts for rest which enhances alertness.  This is a good transition model for the first few years, until a Firefighter/Cadet Patrol Officer program is started at UNO.

Proposal I calls for 550 Police Officers, 150 Firefighters, 600 Patrol Officers and 375 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 175, a $47 million value, and Firefighters from 150 to 275, a $55 million value.  Although cadets are used in this scenario little hard costs are saved at only $9 million.  The total value of the improvements are $111 million.

Pros and Cons:  This is also a scenario with an exceptionally strong push on greater patrolling.  It makes strong use of cadets to add strength of numbers to this concept and leaves a Fire Captain in charge always.  Its well balanced, yet achieves little hard savings.

Proposal J calls for 450 Police Officers, 50 Firefighters, 800 Patrol Officers and 250 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 175, a $47 million value, and Firefighters from 150 to 225, a $33 million value.  Less cadets are used but ads very little to the hard cost savings at only $13 million.  The total value of the improvements are $93 million.

Pros and Cons:  This a balanced scenario and was featured in the first article.  It more than doubles the patrol force on the streets and increases qualified Firefighters on duty by 50%.  It uses cadets but not as aggressively and achieves some hard savings.  It is suitable for an end status scenario.

Proposal K calls for 1000 Police Officers, 275 Firefighters, 100 Patrol Officers and 375 Firefighter/Cadets which increases the neighborhood patrols on duty from 80 to 175, a $47 million value, and Firefighters maintained the same at 150, no value enhancement.  No hard cost savings are achieved.  The total value of the improvements are $47 million.

Pros and Cons:  This scenario keeps police and fire duties, largely, separated.  The point of cross-training is one Police Medical Ambulance Van staffed with a Police Officer dual trained as a Paramedic and accompanied by a Firefighter/Cadet.  At the station is a four member team:  a Fire Captain, a Paramedic and two Firefighter/Cadets.  They have two vehicles:  a pumper/ladder truck and a paramedic rescue truck.  Depending on the call determines the vehicle used.  If the paramedic rescue truck is dispatched with two crew members, then the Fire Captain alerts two off duty but on second alert stand by cadets living in the station to step up to first alert status to fill the void.  The cadets called up are compensated hourly for the extra duty.  This senario has the least added value compared to all the proposals and no hard cost savings, yet is still a better safeguard than today’s organizational practices.

Their are several other points to note throughout these scenarios.

1-Note that many proposals make use of extended top vans and are often crewed with a Patrol Officer/Paramedic and a Firefighter/Cadet Patrol Officer, these are teams with the dual purpose of police patrolling and paramedic medical teams with an ambulance transportation capability.  As the vast number of fire and rescue calls are for medical assistance, and with one paramedic rescue vehicle assigned at the station, then the number of paramedic teams available increases to 50 or more depending on the scenario.  Today the GIS distribution is 25 sites.  In these concepts, the paramedic sites increase to 50; 25 staionary and 25 roving patrols.  These Paramedic Patrol Officers also have the task to conduct field training with their Firefighter/Cadet Patrol Officers.

2-Also note the mixed use of vehicles suggested throughout these scenarios.  These do not suggest the final outcome but more the greater flexibility and adaptability to support demands in the field to think about and determine in the final analysis.  Its been a very long time since we have seen such hazardous roads here in Omaha, the rescue pick up trucks would have been very useful with winches as suggested here within these proposals.

3-Observe the intent to pair up partners where ever possible so that team work is enhanced.

4-Add back expenses need to be determined that cover new equipment costs, operating costs and training costs.

5-Finally, more scenarios can be imagined and each with their own pros and cons and expenses and savings and enhancements.  This suggests different capabilities pushed out closer to the point of need providing much more life saving enhancements, which react quicker to the site, yet backed up with the heavy equipment which still arrives within the 4.5 minute standard.  Yet most demands today do require the full compliment response and often a two member team will be sufficient, little different than the decision to dispatch a paramedic rescue truck and crew rather than a pumper truck and crew.  More patrols with more capability, flexibility and adaptability pushed out closer to the needs of the people in distress is better.  Active patrols are better than passive alert status in the stations; it not only enhances fire and rescue; it also suppresses and interdicts crime; staff contacts with the people more frequent while providing service which builds trust.  The outcome will be a more appreciative public and a more effective safety force.

Merge Fire and Police: Save $100 Million

What should readers expect from ideas4omaha.com? This site proposes ideas and solutions for debate and consideration to address many of the problems and challenges facing Omaha today. This is a discussion open to anyone within our community who wishes to participate in improving life in Omaha. Of course, it is not a directive, as only political will and leadership can take the ideas discussed and move toward reform.  What you will find here is a series of ideas which will focus for the next several months on police and fire reform.

The core of this idea is to merge and cross-train Omaha police and fire services to enhance services and security.  That idea can stand alone, and if it were the only part of this proposal to be adopted, it would significantly improve life in Omaha. Two supporting concepts to the core idea are the creation of a part-time firefighter force to support the career officers patrolling Omaha’s streets, and the establishment of 25 Village Districts to localize service and protection. Preferably, the probationary firefighters would be students – cadets attending UNO and training to become patrol officers. Patrol officers are fully trained and equipped to perform both firefighting and police patrol duties. These three ideas present the primary legs of this proposal. All other suggestions are optional and intended to enhance the core concept and supporting propositions.

Your participation is encouraged.

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The series introduction:

The great goal of city government is, and ought to be, to provide the highest level of service at the lowest cost.

To that end we propose a groundbreaking restructuring of Omaha’s public safety system in which the police and fire departments are merged into a single entity and their officers cross trained to perform each other’s jobs.

We hold that such a reform would:

• Provide a total of $100 million in savings or enhanced service value to Omaha taxpayers, annually.
• Double police patrols – a $40 million security value.
• Increase fire and rescue capability by 50 percent – a $30 million safety value.
• Cut initial emergency response time from 4.5 minutes to 3 minutes – priceless, if it’s your heart attack.
• Support patrols with part-time firefighters – cadets, replacing expensive full-timers – a $30 million savings over current costs.
• Establish 25 Village Districts to localize service – increased mutual cooperation and respect between residents and city staff.

Here’s how we see it:

The police department is authorized 840 uniformed officers. To keep the math simple, let us round this up to 850.  Approximately 400 of these are assigned to neighborhood patrol districts with 80 officers patrolling our streets at any given time, 24/7/365.

The city should cross train 400 of these police officers with 400 firefighters so that they can do each other’s jobs, including EMT training. Half of them would be further trained as paramedics. With this single stroke, and without hiring another person, we increase the number of officers patrolling our neighborhoods from 400 to 800.

These cross trained officers should drive vehicles designed to meet the equipment needs of police officers and firefighter/emergency responders. They should deploy out of stations that house small teams whose members stand ready to transport heavy equipment to crisis situations.

If this sounds too good to be true, just consider the inefficient way things are done currently.

Police officers are actively employed; firefighters are passively employed. That is to say, police officers are constantly patrolling the streets of our city, often enforcing the law simply by being visible. Firefighters sit in their stations waiting for a call to action. This constitutes gross underemployment of our firefighting force.

At first blush, when looking at fire department statistics, “underemployment” might not seem to be the case. In 2008, the Omaha Fire Department responded to nearly 40,000 calls, which sounds like a lot until we begin to break the numbers down.

There are 24 fire stations around Omaha available to respond to those 40,000 calls. Of these, 11% are false alarms, leaving 35,600 legitimate calls. This breaks down to about 4.5 calls per day per station.

We have 673 uniformed firefighters. Around 180 are on duty on any given day with a minimum of 147 in stations 24/7/365, providing around-the-clock emergency fire, rescue and medical response. If we assume a 2,000-hour work year (40 hours per week times 50 weeks) per firefighter we find we are paying the fire department for 1.35 million labor hours a year. Now, 1.35 million labor hours divided by 35,600 calls for 44 fire and rescue crews means that 38 labor hours are being spent per single call. In short, we are allocating almost a week’s worth of labor to deal with a single incident. Seldom should a single incident require 38 hours to resolve, especially considering that most calls are medical emergencies.

Firefighters are burdened with a large amount of idle time that could be used to augment police patrols. Cross training would reduce response times since these roving responders would already be on the streets instead of sitting in fire stations.

Yes, this is a new way of looking at things; it’s a new strategy.  And yes, it will require new tactics, reorganization, new equipment and additional training.  But the rewards would be enormous – improved service and safety, dramatically reduced costs – just the kinds of “efficiencies” to which politicians pay lip service but rarely deliver.

Let’s look at how this would impact the police department:

The police department is currently authorized nearly 850 police officers for everything from patrol duties to administration. Detectives, the gang unit, all the functions that police officers perform, are conducted by those 850.  Unfortunately, OPD is understaffed by nearly 100 officers today.

Only about 400 of these 850 are assigned to 24-hour patrol duty. Our proposal focuses on these 400 patrol officers.

The police department has established 78 patrol districts around Omaha. Each patrol position requires four officers to staff it around the clock, with a fifth added to fill in for absences due to sickness, vacation, training and other needs. The police department tells us that these 78 districts are patrolled generally by 80 officers at any given time.

So, 80 officers patrolling 78 districts multiplied by five officers per shift position is 400 officers required to maintain a 24-hour police presence on the streets of Omaha.

We should reduce the 78 police patrol districts to 75, incorporating three neighborhood patrol zones into each of 25 newly established Village Districts and basing these forces out of the existing 25 fire stations (A new station was added recently). These Village Districts would have neighborhood patrol zones as subdistricts, and would each contain a fire station/Village Hall.

Nine people – seven police officer/firefighters, now called patrol officers, and two cadet firefighters – should be assigned to each of these Village Districts 24/7/365.  Each of the three neighborhood patrol zones within these Village Districts would now be patrolled at all times by two cross-trained patrol officers and in some instances a cadet in field training; or 175 officers per shift across the city rather than 80 today.

This 175-strong patrolling force would be supported by a Heavy Equipment Team with fire trucks and staffed with part-time, fully trained firefighter/cadets. One cadet and one patrol officer will typically rotate between the station and patrolling. On alert in the station/hall would be a patrol officer and a cadet. Fifteen cadets living at each fire station would be qualified to move fire trucks and other critical equipment to emergency scenes as needed. These cadets would have been trained in the same manner as firefighters are trained today. They would receive a year of training, the same as today, followed by four years as cadets, attending UNO and training to become patrol officers. They would be qualified to provide whatever additional labor might be required in a support role to the more experienced, police/firefighter, patrol officers on permanent patrol.

We have said we believe that all this superior service could be achieved at an annual cost savings to Omaha of about $10-30 million. That is an estimate on our part, and it would be interesting to see what number might show up if city auditors were ever asked to take a look at it. The savings depends on which staffing option city leaders decide to pursue. These options, staffing at 8, 9 or 10 personnel, will be discussed in detail in a subsequent article to be posted here. The cost savings will also be addressed in greater detail later in this series.

But here is how we get there:

The cost of employing one firefighter in Omaha is currently $102,828 including payroll, pension and benefits. Depending on the staffing option selected; 8, 9 or 10 per shift per station/hall and with or without cadets, we believe that consolidation of the police and fire departments into a single, cross-trained department, would permit the elimination of 150-350 full-time positions. Rounded down, that’s as great as a $35 million savings.

Of course, we have proposed an optional student cadet corps which, in return for its support services, would receive financial support to pay college costs and payroll for 250-375 cadets, option dependent. We might be looking at $30,000 per cadet. That’s probably high, but let’s use it anyway.

That would be an expense of  $11 million, cutting the high end cost savings from $30- $35 million to about $19- $24 million.  Additional overtime payroll expenses should also be less due to the flexibility and cost of cadets in appropriate situations rather than patrol officers; perhaps a $3 million savings.  Let’s be pessimistic about it and say that it actually ends up being a savings of $20 million.

Additional millions in savings will be demonstrated in the near future. So stay tuned.