Dec. 24--BUTLER COUNTY -- Seven fire departments across Butler County will soon hire a consultant group to study the feasibility of sharing human resource tasks including hiring and training of new employees.
The Joint Resources and Response Committee -- comprised of fire chiefs from Liberty, Fairfield, West Chester and Ross townships and the cities of Hamilton, Monroe and Oxford, and the Butler County Emergency Management Agency -- was recently granted $84,000 to conduct the study from the Ohio Development Services Agency's Local Government Innovation Fund.
The state department this month awarded $2.5 million in 10 grants and three loans to projects across Ohio.
"These loans and grants help communities use every penny they have as wisely as possible," said David Goodman, director of the Ohio Development Services Agency.
The Butler County Educational Service Center helped the fire chiefs' group in applying for the grant and will continue to serve as the fiscal agent for the project, according to Jon Graft, superintendent of Butler County ESC.
The educational agency will use the $84,000 grant to hire a consulting team, through a competitive bidding process, to work with the local departments in collecting and analyzing existing data relative to hiring and training costs, overtime and shared purchasing options.
Graft estimates a potential combined savings to the fire departments could be $200,000 annually.
"We're trying to be the best stewards of our stakeholders' money," said Monroe Fire Chief John Centers. "We'll be able to come back and say we've left no stone unturned."
Centers said the JRRC has existed for about 10 years, and collaborates on small equipment purchases, joint training opportunities, and developing policy and procedures that can be shared amongst the departments. Centers said he anticipates recommendations by mid-2014.
"I'm hoping they will unearth some procedures we haven't thought of," Centers said of the consultants. "These things require a lot of time and research that a lot of us don't have. It will be done much quicker by someone who can commit a full-time presence to this project."
In Liberty Twp., the hiring process for part-time firefighters can stretch into four months, said Melanie Brokaw, assistant administrator and human resources director. Brokaw said it's only after a written test, physical agility test, and emergency medical services skills tests are completed that a potential employee is called back for an interview.
Brokaw said the study will look at the potential for creating one test the fire departments can share that would speed up the hiring process.
"A lot of our part-time employees are also part time elsewhere; they've been through multiple processes," Brokaw said.
Liberty Twp. Fire Chief Paul Stumpf said the idea for sharing hiring and training processes for new, part-time firefighters has been considered for several years.
"With the economic downturn, everyone's looking for this magic bullet that will help save money," Stumpf said.
Copyright 2013 - Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio
