Good morning.

My name is Ben Weber.

I'm the district six city counselor and the chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

Today is May 11th, 2026, and the exact time is ten oh two.

So I just have a few preliminaries to get through here.

Uh this hearing is being recorded.

It's also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Xfinity Channel Eight, RCN Channel 82, and FIOS Channel 964.

The council's budget review process encompasses a series of public hearings beginning in April and running through June.

First, they can attend one of our hearings and give public testimony.

Uh, for a full hearing schedule.

Look at our website.

You can find it on Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

We also have a in-person listening session, the fourth of four, which will be Thursday evening, May twenty-sixth at six p.m.

right here in the chamber.

For in-person testimony, please come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet near the entrance.

For virtual testimony, you can sign up using our online form at our council budget review website or by emailing the committee at CCC.gov or by emailing Karishmachon, that's K A R I S H M A.

C H O U H A N at Boston.gov.

When you are called to testify, please say your name, your residence, and your affiliation with any organization.

In lieu of testifying virtually or in person at a hearing, you can email written testimony to the committee at CCC.gov.

For more information on the city council's budget process and how to testify, please visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

Again, in-person and public testimony will be taken following the first round of counselor questions.

Individuals will be called on the order in which they have signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify.

If you wish to sign up for public testimony and haven't done so, uh again, please email our director of legislative budget analysis, Karishma Chowan at K-A-R-I-SHMA.CHOUHAN at Boston.gov for the zoom link and your name will be added to the list.

This morning's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740, an overview of the fiscal year 2027 operating budget for the Boston Fire Department.

This is one in a series of hearings to review the fiscal year 2027 budget.

These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and were referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026.

This morning I'm joined by my colleagues on order of arrival.

Apologies to Councillor Louis Gen, but I've got Councillor Flynn first.

Uh uh Councillor Louis Gen second, and then Councillor Murphy.

Um, while we often have opening statements at at hearings like this, we're waiving them in the budget hearings.

So uh you'll hear from my colleagues in a second.

I'm going to introduce the panelists.

We're joined uh today by Deputy Commissioner of Administration Finance uh uh Kevin Coyne, Deputy Fire Chief for the Training Division, Scott Malone, uh Deputy of Operations Field Services Patrick Ellis, and for his first hearing here as our new fire commissioner Rodney Marshall.

Uh again, uh congratulations.

And uh this is uh an interesting way to start.

Uh uh but uh um I'm sorry.

So you know it's someone Michael.

I apologize.

Can you just tell tell me your name so I can get it to get it down right?

Gaskins, G-A-S-K-I-N-S.

I'm the recruitment officer for the department.

Okay.

First name?

Michael.

Michael.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, we're joined by Michael Gaskins, recruiting officers at uh recruitment, recruitment officer.

Recruitment officer for the Boston Fire Department.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh, and again, welcome.

Uh so I don't know if you have a presentation uh or comment, so I'm gonna give the floor to the panelists and then we'll go to my colleagues for questions.

Thank you, Chair Weber.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

I would like to thank uh Mayor Wu for continued support of the Boston Fire Department.

I'd also like to thank the Office of Budget Management for their assistance in the budget process.

I'd also like to thank Deputy Commissioner Kevin Coyne and his team for the tireless work that they do throughout the year to keep the department financially responsible.

I'd like to thank the panelists here today with us, chief of operations Pat Ellis, recruitment officer Michael Gaskins, uh Grant Manager Julie Devant, uh Safety Health and Wellness Deputy Chief Jody Shea, uh Chief and Hazmat, Chief Keith Kelly.

And uh that that's it for our panelists today.

Thank you again, Chair Webb and the members of the Means and We Ways Committee for holding this hearing today.

I'd like to also thank uh counselor Ed Flynn, Councillors uh Aaron Murphy and Counselor.

Excuse me for the mispronunciation.

The primary mission of the Boston Fire Department is to provide the residents and visitors of the city with the highest level of fire protection and emergency services.

Every day our firefighters, officers, and dedicated civilian employees work together to protect the lives, properties, and neighborhoods of a wide range of hazards while adapting to the growing demands placed on a modern fire department.

We are cognizant of the current fiscal constraints facing the city of Boston.

We remain committed to identifying efficiencies and reducing expenses across all areas of our operations in order to make meaningful contributions to the city city's overall fiscal health.

Over the past decade, the Boston Fire Department's operating budget has remained largely level funded.

During the same period, the cost of delivering emergency service services has steadily increased.

Rising equipment and apparatus costs, contractual obligations under the collective bargaining agreements, and expanding complexities of emergency response have all placed additional strains on the operating budget.

More recently, more recently, reductions in state funding for firefighter training has required the department to absorb costs that were previously supported through external sources.

In addition, the department has made important investments to ensure that its long-term strength and sustainability, including the establishment of the fire cadet program.

This program is essential to developing the next generation of firefighters and for maintaining a diverse, well-trained workforce, but it also represents a new and necessary budgetary commitment.

The funding requests before you reflect a careful and responsible assessment of the department's operational needs.

It is designed not to expand beyond necessity, but to preserve service levels, maintain readiness, and ensure that our members have the training, equipment, and support required to do their job safely and effectively.

As fire commissioner, City of Boston, I respectfully request that the funding outlined in the budget proposal be approved, and we are hopeful that we can answer questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We're gonna go to uh my colleagues and rivals that that's the end of that.

Sorry.

We do have a presentation, Chairman Weber.

If we wanted to go through that first, yes, please.

And we it's just a short presentation just to highlight the work that's being done.

Uh, we understand that uh the Office of Budget Management has submitted to you uh through the RFI process all the documents related to our budget submission this year.

We are here today to answer those questions, but we thought it would be a good opportunity for us to highlight you know some of the critical work that we're doing that as a result of the funding that we received through the city of Boston, the budget office and city council.

Yeah, that would be great to do the presentation.

I forgot to remind the panelists uh you don't have to press the buttons.

Uh we have central staff can operate that complicated apparatus, but uh um when I so who who wants to I can take it.

Yes.

So the next slide, please.

So this is just really just the tagline from the Boston Fire Department.

We're an organization of dedicated professionals who are committed to serving the community by protecting life property and the environment through prevention, education, emergency medical, civil defense, and fire service.

We protect all Boston residents and the hundreds of thousands of people who work, shop, and visit, and call the city of Boston home.

The Boston Fire Department is commonly referred to as the first in the nation.

Next, please.

So this uh document and luckily I have my subject matter expert here, Julie Devon, who can answer any questions you might have related to the grants.

So currently we are recipient of eight active federal grants through the Department of Um DHS and FEMA, VJA, Boston Jobs Alliance, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Department of Transportation totaling 1.8 million dollars in federal monies.

The grants make up uh one is the PR support program, which provides clinical director and chief training within our organization.

The next one is marine firefighting and land-based uh firefighting commitment training and control.

Uh, another offshoot of that is marine firefighting for land-based.

Uh, we have another grant that funds the hot work training, and hot work has been particularly important for the Boston Fire Department because that terrible tragedy that occurred on Beacon Street was a direct result of that, which you know changed the legislation and how hot work is done, and you know, we're very cognizant of the ongoing training that needs to be done with that.

Um, the next one is purchase and installation of carbon monoxide detectors with education and outreach.

We've been doing that for just over a year, very successful in some of the neighborhoods.

We've completed a large installation in Chinatown, and most recently another successful campaign in Hyde Park in Matty Pan.

Um, another grant that we've received and work diligently on is the Boston Fire Department Forensic Lab accreditation.

Um previously, our lab was not accredited, so this work will allow us to, you know, all will ensure that all of the uh work that we're doing in terms of ASIN investigation is fully vetted and secure within the city of Boston archives.

Um, and the other one is command level training, and um is really just a multi-agency.

It's how we can work better together with multiple agencies across the city of Boston.

Next slide, please.

There um, so the other grants that we're receiving, we have six active state grants that we receive.

Um, two of them are earmarks that we received is Hazmiat training.

It's 1.4 million dollars, and the second one is the Department Fire Training Academy grant for 1.7 million dollars.

Both of those have been instrumental in the success of the training that the Hazmat folks conduct, and as well as the training academy on Moon Island would be actually lost without those.

Another earmark that we received was a legislative authority, which allowed us last summer to um have a dedicated Delta car in the South Boston uh Castle Island Casa Beach area to provide to any medical emergency or um any critical incident that occurred, and that was very successful last year.

Um another one we have is the fire alarm dispatch, which provides education and um for the fire alarm division to make sure they're completely up to date with the changing you know technology and all the works that they do.

Another offshoot of that is the personnel, which is the CAD, which you know supports fire alarm, which also we're linked in with EMS and Boston Police Department, and another training uh which has been somewhat new, which has been very successful this year is an elevator rescue kit training exercise that has been conducted for the department.

Next slide, please.

So again, I'm I'm grateful to work with really talented and educated people that really can help support the work of the fire department.

Um the fire department is extremely committed to uh the diversity of the department in total, and the biggest component of that over the past you know three years or so has been the cadet program.

I'm joined by my colleague Michael Gaskins, who is going to highlight some of the demographics of the department and the cadet program itself.

Thank you, Kevin.

And thank you, Chair and City Councillors for the opportunity to present.

Um, we're excited.

Uh we're a few years into our uh process for the cadet program, where we've seen some uh great gains.

One thing that we want to highlight is the focus on casting a large net over the city of Boston for our applicant pool.

Uh prior to the cadet program and now with the new hybrid process, we are looking at and considering targeting Boston residents, the people that have more than three years of uh residency in the city of Boston within our applicant pool.

Uh prior to this, with just using civil service as the uh applicant pool, we're casting uh a net over the state of Massachusetts for those that are coming uh from military service into uh the city of Boston, and oftentimes not being uh Boston residents.

So the opportunity to uh really have an applicant pool that's more reflective of the city of Boston is really our our approach.

Um we had our first cadet class that was eligible for appointment go in uh this past April, and now their um firefighters on probation or FFOPs.

Our second class uh went in as far as appointment goes in January and just recently graduated, many of whom are now in their first week of uh service to the department.

So we're excited.

Um those two classes represented um record breaking uh numbers of women in particular, which is a very underrepresented uh population within the uh fire department and has historically been uh such.

So the programming that really relates to targeting qualified individuals in the city of Boston.

We can say has been uh rather successful.

We're excited about uh continued funding and support of the cadet program.

Uh one of the highlights of the cadet program is the majority of the cadets that are going into an academy class actually have EMT certification.

Um, so we're excited that the uh resources that we're putting into the cadets put them in a much better position to not only go into an academy but to uh graduate from an academy.

And I'm happy to answer any questions that you all might have regarding uh the hybrid or the cadets.

Actually, if you go to the next slide, given that the uh hybrid process was relatively new with the uh passing of uh civil service uh um options for us to opt into a hybrid process.

Um again the uh recruit class for the first time in many years had a more balanced approach to uh the applicant pool and a more balanced approach to the uh recruit class in and of itself.

Um the hybrid higher demographics you'll see um indicate we hired thirteen people off the for the hybrid list and um it was a really good uh mix of people, different uh backgrounds and representation within the uh city of Boston, and we're excited to say from Deputy Chief Malone.

Um the 13 hybrid applicants uh fared very well within the uh uh academy class, and we're happy to um repeat that uh going forward.

Uh next slide.

Um this is just an overall uh view of our demographics to date uh for the cadet program.

Uh, we are actually in the vetting process right now for our Delta class.

So we've we use the uh military alphabet, Alpha Bravo, Charlie.

We have three classes that are uh three three cohorts that are that are uh active now.

Most of our alphas um have gone into an academy class now and have graduated.

Um we're excited that Charlie will be coming up, excuse me, Bravo will be coming up on their uh two years uh for appointment, and uh Charlie is up and running.

Uh we're in the process now of uh actually vetting for Delta to be hired with a start date in June.

And again, um if you follow us on social media, you'll see that the cadets are the best of us.

Um they really reflect um a good portion of the city with language skills.

Um again, most of the kids uh were born and raised here, and they have a great opportunity at a great career, and we're excited that a good showing within the recruit classes have been for the last two recruit classes.

The top academy recruit has been a cadet.

So we thank you for your time, and we look forward to uh fielding any questions that you might have.

Okay.

Next slide, please.

So as part of the work that we wanted to do today was you know, in addition to, you know, uh we're grateful for the funding that we're receiving.

We thought it would be important to show you know how we're using some of these funds.

Um big accomplishment that occurred earlier this year, just actually March 1st of this year, was the implementation of a detail um detail software.

So details are uh conditioned where firefighters are asked to report when they're doing some type of either uh work on it could be hot work, it could be um a public event where uh fire is used or fireworks or anything like that.

And in the past it was you know 100% paper process.

You know, there was these index cards that were filled out, they were signed by the firefighters, the company representing the who requested the detail, and that information would be taken back to the fire department manually entered to pay for the firefighters that conducted the detail, and then we would also bill out the work to the person that requested the detail.

So by you know, going uh with the software, we've taken all of that uh manual process out of that, and it's been extremely successful with this going forward, where the firefighters are getting paid, and a much quicker time we're able to bill out the money that the vendors have requested these details and collect that money more uh more swiftly.

And we're hoping, and I know we when this uh RFP went out a couple of years ago, we worked with uh the Boston Police Department and a couple of other smaller city departments.

I believe the parks department and ISD will be uh implementing this software at some point in time.

Um, a tremendous uh investment for the city, but we're already seeing the benefit of that.

So that's been uh very highlighted.

I also mentioned a couple items here too with the class, and and I think Michael has mentioned those.

I mean, very proud of the number of people that we've been able to graduate through our cadet program and our recruit program.

Um, another, you know, we have been a recipient of the AFG grant for since 2017, and that money has allowed us to fund you know skin cancer clinics, which last year we screened 587 firefighters.

94 of those members needed to uh have follow-ups for um you know things that appeared on their screening, and two of them had identified melanomas.

Um, another part of that AFG grant was to conduct comprehensive body scans.

So this was you know a complete assessment of the body.

Uh, it was done through an MRI machine, but there was also urinalysis and blood tests that were taken as part of that, and in addition to the low dose CT scan.

Um, and that uh information was pretty comprehensive as well.

There were 637 firefighters who um had high risk of um things that were identified as part of those scans.

413 of those firefighters had cardiovascular issues, and and that enabled them to have access to early intervention.

Another very successful program that we have, it's not just about you know treating disease, it's trying to prevent them.

So we have you know, nutritionist that works with the fire department, and she has conducted over 546 sessions with the firefighters to help them reverse you know anything that's on their scan scans or help them improve their overall health.

Um, we also have an injury prevention specialist who deals with firefighters to either help them uh strategize on ways to prevent illness or if they are returning from an injury that they may have resulted.

The physical therapist is working with them on the best protocols to be able to prevent further injury and make sure at the same time they're staying healthy.

The facilities, I mean, the Boston Fire Department is made up of over 40 buildings.

Uh, they're very old, most of them, and you know, have had some deferred maintenance over the many years.

Uh, but part of the work that we're doing is again falls directly in line with the safety, health, and wellness.

We call it industrial cleaning, where we will go in and we will uh clean these firehouses and remove any possible carcinogens.

Um, so part of that work is the firehouse is emptied out, uh any uh soft goods materials uh furniture is replaced or cleaned, the walls are all power washed, high-powered cleaning done on those, and then everything's repainted, the floors, and it also involves a deep cleaning of the industrial venting system within the building to improve the overall health of our firefighters.

Next slide, please.

Um, and this is somewhat of a unique talk topic, especially because of as we're dealing with Sail Boston coming up.

The Boston Fire Department is very proud of the marine unit that we have.

And in the past year, we have been a recipient of three new vessels, totaling over $9 million.

The city invested in capital goods to allow us to modernize our force.

This boat that you see on the screen here is, you know, it's making its way to Boston.

I believe it's leaving from upstate New York this week to make its way here, and we'll go through a series of tests when it finally gets here.

But it's we'll be tested in in the uh en route from upstate New York.

And it's a 69-foot custom boat, totally state-of-the-art, uh, 100% you know, electronic, really, with everything a modern you know, firefighter would need, and also to deal with you know Boston Harbor, which is you know a small harbor, but you know, very challenging in terms of the way it's set up.

Um the capital investment, you know, that the budget office has given us for these boats is 9.2 million dollars, and all of our boats will be ready to deal with the influx of people that will be coming to enjoy all that Boston has to offer this summer.

So we're very excited about these boats coming.

Next slide, please.

Um, you know, everything that is happening at the fire department is really a direct result of you know the training.

If we, you know uh training is so crucial to making sure we stay on top of everything that it requires to be a modern firefighter today.

So part of the training academy highlights for last year was, you know, a new program on electronic battery innovation, how to store store them, how to put out fires.

We're looking at the department developed a custom nozzle to be able to put out electric fire, electric fires, you know, and they estimate that saved over 100,000 dollars and not having to buy them.

So what they did, they retrofitted a current nozzle that was already in use within the fire service.

Um the training academy has also partnered with the MBTA, and as part of that partnership, we have received a 300 foot red line train that was taken out of service, and we also have a green line train that's coming.

So with the two additions of these cars, it will allow us to have actual, you know, uh trains to actually train uh our firefighters on and local firefight firehouses from the greater Boston area that use our Moon Island Academy for training.

And that's you know, any time you can have something real life training, it's it's very good.

Uh, we also have we're working with Amtrak and Acela to do some training on some of their boats, um, sorry, some of their trains.

Marine firefighting, you know, we're working with the United States Coast Guard on working on a port ship training, and we're also um working with Logan Airport on some uh aerial training for mainly the use of drones.

Um part of the uh field training and certification that happens is all firefighters go through core uh core competencies, which test all of their skills completely.

Uh, safety and survival, again, making sure they're staying up to date on everything that's possible.

Um, and then also we're looking at what the state fire service that you know they're constantly looking at ways of improving the uh testing that we uh that firefighters are opting to go through and making sure we're staying on target with all that.

Uh and then always we're looking for ways of you know conducting large-scale search and training, and then we call it back to basics, which to make sure that in addition to all the specialized training that's happening within the department, that we you know are not straying far from you know, which is at the core of firefighting.

Next slide, please.

So, as I said, you know, we are, you know, the fire um Boston Fire Department is made up of 40 different buildings, you know, very old buildings for the most part.

You know, we have been lucky that we've had you know three new uh firehouses in the past you know, uh four or five years and several more that are in the planning stages.

Um, you know, engine 17 was the most recent one, which is open just over a year.

Um we're working on some fuel infrastructure projects, and part of that is just really upgrading the way that fuel is being stored within the Boston Fire Department.

Some of it was underground, and that creates some challenges.

So we're we're looking at ways of upgrading those facilities to make sure they're completely safe.

Engine 17.

Um now we're in phase two of that project, which the old firehouse is right behind the newer one.

So uh construction is underway now, which involves the demolition of that old firehouse, and that's going to make way for a new fire pump, fuel pump that will be located there and a fuel detection system, which is uh engaged to give us the high reliability of life safety detection.

We're working on engine eight, which is in uh the north end of Austin on Hanover Street, um, you know, which needs some extensive work.

So there's a design study currently underway for that project to which include uh roof replacement, kitchen relocation.

Um, as it is right now, the kitchen is on the first floor with the apparatus, and with all modern, you know, firefighting, you know, recommendations today.

Um the modern theory is to separate, you know, where the apparatus and all the carcinogens may reside from where the firefighters actually live.

So all of those things, kitchens, sleeping quarters, bathrooms for the most part, should be separate from where the fire trucks are going in and out of and where the apparatus and their bunker gear is stored.

Um we're working on an engine three study for a new firehouse.

Um also the Moon Island Seawall.

This has been a long on standing uh ongoing project to replace the seawall and currently it has gone through several different iterations of design they have been doing some work and we're also we also partnered with uh property management in the city to apply for some federal grants awesome stake grants actually to uh get some additional funding for that um engine 21 uh which is on Columbia Road has a retaining um retaining wall stabilization project that is currently underway which is you know critically needed and we're working on another kind of a large scale project at engine nine in east boston which is to have the uh apron which is you know basically the driveway of the uh firehouse replaced it was um subjected to severe um just weather I think had to deteriorate that project next slide so that you know is again just an overall uh view of some of the work that we're doing uh we're happy to take any questions that you might have this morning and we thank you for the opportunity to be here okay thank you to the panelists uh we're gonna go to my colleagues in order of arrival we've have been joined by uh council president uh Liz Braden and Councillor John Fitzgerald uh so uh we're gonna have a first round of questions and um come back for a second if if necessary and maybe a third if we have time so seven minutes uh per counselor counselor Flynn whenever you're ready thank you thank you Mr.

Chair wanna say congratulations and welcome to the fire commissioner Commissioner Marshall it's good to be with you had an opportunity to speak earlier this morning with you and also want to welcome the chief and to um the others as well that are here Mr.

Gaskins and Mr.

Mr.

Coyne um I also want to acknowledge the president of the Boston firefighters local 718 Sam Dillon an outstanding labor leader and outstanding um leader in our city um yeah during these challenging times what what I believe is important is we don't see reductions or cuts in any services at the fire department um fire suppression those are types of issues and you know firefighters and officers riding fire trucks and responding to 91 ROM calls that must be the priority but you don't see any um cuts at all is that is that accurate to say Commissioner that is correct uh we don't have any cuts in terms of personnel at this point uh we just uh as Mr Gaskin said earlier we just uh hired a new class that just graduated in uh last month in April of our 52 firefighters so at this time our contingency of members is right where we need to be okay um commission of Boston fire department responding to um medical emergencies including overdoses are they uh are those um calls up or down and oftentimes the fire department is often there before the police department um do you keep track of that data uh we do keep track of that data uh it goes into a database called the uh the uh infrared system uh so all the closed numbers are tracked on on a daily basis and on a yearly basis have those calls have those responses gone up at this time the the calls are constant have been constant from previous uh years but um we just got a new reporting system that actually uh we went from a digital number based system to a ward-based system so um as as this new system evolves and unrolls, we might see differences in how the numbers are reflected.

Okay.

I also want to acknowledge um employee assistance um specialist brian knee for being here.

Lieutenant brian, thank you for the work you you are doing.

Commissioner, when when someone fentanyl is obviously one of one of the most horrific drugs out there and very dangerous.

When a firefighter responds to a medical situation, overdose, rather, I should say, about someone, an overdose due to fentanyl, is that a concern, a medical concern for the firefighters, and how do you prevent or ensure that the firefighter is also not impacted by being contaminated by that strong that strong drug?

It's always a concern that our members could be contaminated by that strong drug, but we try to provide the best equipment, medical uh PPE for our members to wear, and that's within our protocol when we respond to medicals or fire incidents to have on our proper PPE before we assist anyone.

Has a firefighter ever been exposed to fentanyl due to responding to that type of overdose situation?

Not to my knowledge, no.

Okay.

Um, how often are firefighter firefighters on the scene before any other first responders?

Is it is it a um majority of the time or do you it that it would be the majority of the time because of our the way firehouses are placed throughout this DR city?

Uh we are able to respond to most incidents in less than four minutes.

Okay.

Commissioner, a lot of firefighters tell me they're due to the traffic that the stuff stuck in traffic, trying to get to an emergency medical call.

People are not pulling over for various reasons, but response time, you said it's four minutes, but don't you think the don't you think we have challenges with the with the traffic and uh some of the road infrastructure?

The city uh has become more and more congested as we know.

Um but to this point again, like I said, um for the most part we're still able to get to these calls within a four-minute time frame.

Okay.

A lot of a lot of um tourists coming this summer, traffic, but what what specifically are you doing in terms of working with other first responders to address traffic but also coordinating and working together?

Uh we work with uh the Boston Police Department in terms of um, you know, making sure that roads have the the correct access for us to get in and out of um, and that's based upon whatever type of event may be going on going on in the city at the time.

Um we work with the traffic department as well.

Uh so we we have a good rate relationship with the other um organizations in the city to mitigate uh overcrowding and traffic incidents.

Thank you.

I I uh Kevin, I work with you and in the the previous fire commissioner um in Chinatown in the South End, especially helping the Asian community get um get response um the the infrastructure in place at their apartment um so the carbon monoxide um I want to say thank you to you.

Was that one of the grants you highlighted Kevin when you when you discussed in your opening statement?

Yes, that's a grant from the consumer product safety commission that we received.

I believe it was in June of 2025, and we have until June of 2027 on this grant.

You know, as I said, we met we conducted two, you know, campaigns, and we highlighted the Chinatown district first with your help and your officers' help, and most recently we work with um Council Louis Jean and Councillor Pepin and the High Park in Matapian area.

In addition to the the larger scale campaigns that we're doing, we're doing somewhat micro campaigns.

So any time we're just keeping an ongoing list of um households all over Boston that need them.

I believe we're installing about 40 homes this week, and we're gonna continue to do that.

We're looking at doing another larger scale uh program in Dorchester, probably sometime either late summer or early fall.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you to the commissioner, thank you to the fire department, fire prevention, fire education programs.

Uh critical I'm I'm a strong supporter of them.

I don't want to see any cuts at all to any program at the fire department, and I'm gonna fight tooth and nail if anyone's gonna try to cut anything out of the out of the fire department budget.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councillor Louie Jen, seven minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and congratulations again to Commissioner Marshall.

Uh it was very exciting to be there and present for uh your install installation and to just learn more about your record of service and excellence here in the city of Boston.

So we're just really excited to have you in this chair and again want to give another just thank you to Commissioner Burke for all of the incredible work that he did in the city of Boston.

So I'm at as as the commissioner.

Um you know, I last week there's been a number of fires and in very close to me around the corner on Friday night in Mattapan on Cummins Highway, and um earlier in the week in on Metropolitan Avenue in High Park and just want to thank the Boston Fire Department for responding and uh as quickly as they did and trying to help the families there.

And it was mentioned that my office um has enjoyed partnering with the fire department to make sure that we um provide a people with education and the tools that they need to prevent um fires and um the hazards of carbon monoxide.

So thank you.

Um my first question is about the this is a department that sees that we see an increase in the personnel from year to year, uh, nine million of nine million point seven million.

Is that can explain what that is a result of?

Is that the cadet program?

Is that the hybrid?

Uh what is driving that personnel increase, and or is that just us, the city council agreeing to um uh the compensation?

What what is driving that?

Yes, uh counselor.

Thank you.

Uh the bulk of that is due to the uh collective bargaining agreement.

Yep.

Okay, thank you.

And what um are we paying now to what are what are the what is the salary or the compensation that cadets currently are earning?

Uh cadets earn about $32,000 per year, and they're fully benefited, so they uh you know health benefits, things of that nature, but they they earn about $32,000 per year.

Thank you.

And what was the starting when this is we are now in the the Delta class for the cadets?

What was the starting when when it was first introduced?

What was the salary for them then?

Might have been around 29,000.

29, so it's seen about a three thousand.

Yeah.

Um, and I want to thank you, Officer Gaskins, because you've been incredibly uh faithful in stewarding that program and steering it with like the most utmost integrity to make sure that it's benefiting Boston residents in the fairest way possible.

So just wanted to say thank you for that.

Um if you could talk a little bit about the you know, it was mentioned about the different points of entry right now into the fire department and the comparison between them with the traditional process, the uh cadet program, the hybrid option, and just talk about uh the difference between the between those.

Uh that's either to you, officer to uh chief or to the commissioner.

Yeah, so thank you.

Um I call it a full court press where we're able to utilize all three avenues uh for recruitment process and and um really um a valued process for the department.

Um nothing like it in the nation.

Um we're we're excited that we're partnering with uh civil service in a memorandum of agreement to uh try the new hybrid process, but um also the uh support from uh legislation in terms of actually having a cadet program.

Um we mirrored the cadet program on the success of the Boston police department, and uh with the initiation of it and the uh cooperation and partnerships across the board, we found uh tremendous success um with the cadet program.

With the new hybrid process, that was a challenge in and of itself, but it's it really is an opportunity for us to kind of look at the amount of time that one might spend in Boston and understand Boston and have a cultural competency.

So we've mirrored the three years of a minimum residency in the city of Boston for the hybrid process.

Uh, we're not the only municipality that's entered into a hybrid agreement.

Um we're one of maybe 26 or so within the state that have entered into the hybrid process.

Oftentimes civil service will work with smaller agencies in these types of initiatives are a benefit to them.

We found that it can be a benefit to us as well, especially as it relates to our outreach.

We're able to do information sessions for our military candidates as well.

Thank you.

And either it was you or the commissioner mentioned that we're uh was it the cadet program where we're seeing a higher recruitment of women, which has traditionally been a difficult recruitment area, which I take as a really great sign of success.

If anybody could talk more about about that and about um you know what we're learning in order to uh get even better recruitment.

Yeah, well, so we already know uh nationally this is a male-dominated industry, so we're not suggesting that we're ever gonna have um alarming or great numbers of women, but we know that there are great numbers of women that are well uh qualified to do this job.

So it's just a matter of making sure that people have the information and the resources and the track.

Um if we were solely rely on if we had to solely rely on a traditional process, we know that in the state, again, because the uh state is our applicant pool for the traditional process, one in 26 veterans that are returning are are women, and so that could be um one in how many 26.

26.

Yeah, and that's again for the state, yeah.

Um, with a traditional process and and being a disabled veteran as well for our selection process, that would be an even greater uh task in terms of reaching anybody that was a woman on a list uh for eligible uh candidates.

Um, so with the hybrid process and with cadets, we're able to really concentrate on the city of Boston, and uh that's gonna be more reflective of our applicant pool, which you'll see again doesn't mean that we'll have a hundred women applying to be cadets, but if we have 10 women that are applying to be cadets, we know that out of that 10 we'll find well qualified candidates that are on track to eventually become firefighters.

Thank you, thank you.

Um, I have a few more questions about um contracted services, mental health, in-house capacity.

I'm gonna go over, but um I'll just say, are we doing a better job of bringing in services that we would otherwise have to pay for?

Like electricians, plumbers.

I remember last year we were doing a better job so that so that we wouldn't have to contract those services.

Are we doing a better job of bringing that in house?

Yes, we are still on track to uh try to bring in as many um services within our department instead of uh using uh external sources.

Um we have uh like our uh we call it our SISMS team, which is our critical incident stress management teams.

Those are all members within the department that will help firefighters in a uh situation where uh there's a uh complex uh uh incident where they might be having issues that they can talk to our member, and these are all volunteer members of our department.

So that is an internal service that would probably be uh contracted out.

So that's an example of one thing.

Thank you.

I'll reserve my questions for second.

Thank you very much, Councilor Murphy.

Thank you for your presentation and for the answers.

We've already received before I move.

I do want to give a special shout out to Julie.

Thank you for all you do.

I know we've had a couple hearings, you know, about the grants, and you did a great job along with your team and Kevin explaining that critical funding that we need for the city to get what we need for our firefighters and our residents, and also thank Sam for being here and all you do for your members.

Thank you for that.

Um, I'm gonna focus on some of the knowing that the life expectancy of a firefighter is five years after they retire.

It's always, even though I know it's true, I always feel like I have to like check it because it just seems so um unbelievable.

But knowing it's true, I'm gonna focus my first round of questions kind of on some of those questions, but I do have in my second round some staffing and hiring questions for you.

So don't feel like I'm not focusing on that.

The second round will be good questions on that.

So the materials show that 587 members were screened through skin cancer clinics.

There were 94 referrals for further treatment.

711 comprehensive body scans.

We had a hundred thousand dollars, which was reappointed for the firefighter cancer screening program.

Um the department has seen a 63% reduction in total injures industry injuries through prevention programs and on duty recovery protocols.

We've also upgraded diesel exhaust systems and seven firehouses to the Magna Grip system, and I've dedicated more than 300,000 to HVAC repairs to prevent carcinogens from moving from the apparatus base into the living quarters.

There's also um, and you touched on it like the capital plan for continued upgrades to our firehouses or the need for just you know complete rebuilding.

So just some questions on that.

Are our current cancer screening funds enough to meet the needs, or should we create a permanent funding stream for firefighter screening in early detection?

How many firehouses do you um do we know still need the magna grip diesel exhaust system, HVAC upgrades, industrial cleaning, or other carcinogen reduction improvements?

And I know I visited some firehouses and know it's needed and have said in the past, you know, even just the moving of where like the kitchens are or the firehouses.

If you could also just touch on and explain, you know, for the public who are listening in who I hope are supporting when we're trying to make sure we're full of fully funding the fire department.

Explain why kitchen living spaces and ventilation and these upgrades are necessary for the health and safety of our firefighters.

Okay, well, um, as uh Deputy Commissioner Coins stated earlier, in terms of uh engine eight, we'll just focus on that one firehouse.

Um the kitchen is on the main floor where the apparatus is.

So when the apparatus actually pulls into quarters, um there's a great chance of diesel exhaust being transmitted from the uh what we will call the hot zone to what should be called the cold zone.

So uh new firehouses are constructed suggested to be constructed in terms of different zones.

So hot zone would be where we would have the apparatus, all our gear that has no carcinogens uh within it, and warm zone would be where we would clean ourselves off, and the cold zones is where we would live in and eat.

So in terms of engine eight, that kitchen location is totally in the wrong spot.

Um we've had over the years maybe four members come down with cancer uh in that house alone, and they've all had the same type of cancer.

So we're not sure again if it's directly associated with that kitchen be in place where it is.

So again, we have a study going forward right now that's I think 75% complete uh in terms of trying to relocate the kitchen to the second floor and uh replace the roof on that on that house, but uh yeah, the living quarters should definitely be separated from the hot zone where the apparatus and the gear is placed.

Yeah, I would think that should be an absolute priority to especially where you have the facts.

Um, and there are there's a grant, is it the AFG grant that we did not?

Did we lose it?

Did we get it in the past, but we're not having it, which would assist the um critical needs like equipment, protective gear, wellness programs.

Are we losing that grant or do we not receive it?

We have had that grant uh since 2017.

We did apply for it, and we did not get it this year, and it does have some serious ramifications by us not getting that.

Uh, the majority of that money has been used to fund the safety health and wellness division, and all the screenings that you mentioned, skin cancer, um, you know, employee mental health, um, you know, body scans, all of those things, prevention specialists with the physical therapist and also the nutritional needs will all go away by September of this year.

So does that mean we just won't be providing that anymore?

Or are we gonna find ways, other ways to fund it, or are we going to have to make sure before we approve this budget that we make sure that funding is put back in?

So we we are open to looking for ways to do that.

We did, you know, submit something with our budget submission, the FY27 submission to you know offset some of those losses.

Um we don't know where that stands, but what is the total amount of that grant we get?

Um, yeah.

1.4 million dollars.

Doable.

I mean, BPS, I think's asking for a 23 million dollar supplement.

So much more than um, yeah, we can probably talk talk more.

I don't want to take up all my time, but that that's concerning, especially where I feel like we've gotten to a point in the city where we're taking what we should have always taken responsibility for the health and wellness of our firefighters to not be able to continue that.

Um, and we do have deputy Shea and Lieutenant Nee, who could add more context to you know the good work that those uh the access to those funds has given the department.

I'll make sure on my second round.

If they can come down more, yeah, might buzz, but that's thank you.

Thank you, counsel for that question.

I just want to add on to what Kevin just told um said, and when I tell people what I do, which is uh I'm in charge of safety, health and wellness, and I and I explained to them one of the things that we we're providing for our firefighters is the um body scans, uh skin cancer checks, mental health, um access to mental health uh therapists.

They say, Well, don't you have don't can't your own insurance take care of that?

Why we pay why is taxpayer uh funds paying for that?

But they don't understand that the state of insurance these days um in the medical field, if you go to a doctor and you don't have uh some type of um symptom, they will not send you to to get those body scans.

Then they're not gonna do it.

So I just wanted to point that out that we're finding not only we're finding uh issues with our older firefighters, we're finding uh the much younger we're finding these issues with much younger firefighters.

So there is a need there.

Yes, um, I agree, absolutely.

So thank you.

Could I add one more thing?

Sure.

So one other question, and I just learned this recently is that the Boston Fire Department doesn't not are maybe until recently our mental health uh uh the needs of our members from according to mental health, we don't have anything in the budget, and I've I've heard that the EMS and Boston Boston police do, and I just found that amazing because as council Flynn said, we are the first people on on scene, and usually it's at things are at its worst.

So we have that added stress along with the with the disrupted sleep patents can uh lead to to issues with uh fire fighters' mental health.

So I'd like you to keep that in mind as well.

That was one of the big wins, I would say in the police contract this past one was that the union really made sure that the mental health and wellness was part of the package for our police members.

So thank you for that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Okay, thank you very much.

Councillor Braden.

Mr.

Chair, good morning.

Um, just also would like to um welcome uh Commissioner Fire Commissioner uh Marshall.

It was so nice to be at your swearing-in ceremony and celebration, the wonderful joy of your family.

Thank you.

Uh it was very impressive and uh a wonderful historic day in Boston to have you uh rise to this position, and uh I look forward to working with you going forward.

Um I had a few questions.

Um there's and I know um we've talked about this before.

Um, the increased number of electric vehicles on the roads um in our in our tunnels and our parking garages.

I'm wondering uh have we seen an uptick in the demand for response to uh EV fires in cars, electric electric vehicles?

We haven't actually seen an uptick in response to those uh to those events.

Um right now they are still far in few in between and and the total number of things, but the problem with those those type of fires is that they're extremely hard to extinguish because of the location of the batteries, they were encased and they're closed.

Uh so um our training academy just actually um came up with a proprietary tool to help with the extinguishment of these uh uh EV fires.

Um but in terms of like I said, total um in terms of fire cough car fires, we haven't seen an uptick.

Okay.

Um just looking at the the capital budget.

The fire department spent only 66% of the financial year 26 capital budget, and only 40% of the fin of the allocation in financial year 25.

Uh the financial this the capital plan for 27 through 31 has increased by 16 percent, but it seems like the fire department has not been able to spend prior allocations.

Um I'm just wondering um are we how what is the issue with the under spending year over year?

Is it is it uh procurement delays, staffing, project management, or something else?

Like we we really recognize the need for upgrades in our facilities, building new facilities.

Um we seem to be but putting it into the budget, but it doesn't seem to be getting spent.

Is there is there something we need to know about that and something we need to change?

Yes, thank you, counselor.

Um most of that is a direct result of some capital projects that were delayed on the city side.

They had some stalled capital programs, a number of them have just you know ticked up just recently, but for the past couple years, most of them have been on a very slow uh process.

Uh you know, we're we're totally on board and willing to you know um advocate for the expansion of these projects and get them moving as quickly as possible.

And these are things that you know, we're you know, we submit the requests, and these projects themselves are really being managed through the public facilities department.

So, what that involves is they need to assign you know project managers and you know, architects, engineers and and get all those things going.

But we have been advocating for for the expansion of these and even some of the smaller ones that you know we had asked to take control over with HVAC and roofing projects.

We felt like we could manage some of those on our own, uh and we're still working with the budget office and public facilities to see if they will give us some of that ability to use those funds to do our own roofs and fix our own HVAC HVAC systems and not have to, you know, go through the public facilities department process, if at all possible to speed up them.

Time is money, the longer we wait, the more expensive it is.

Right, the longer you wait, the more it costs.

Um I had another question.

I know um I know we've we've talked um Chief Allison and I have had discussions and about just thinking about Alston Brighton because you're a local guy from Alston Brighton.

I'm just thinking over many years ago, just thinking about um all of the expansion north of the pike.

It seems to have stalled right now, but it will continue.

Um, and and the need for thinking about how do we are we are we working with the the Alston Brighton community plan to think about spaces and places where we could put uh a new firehouse in north of the pike uh in the future?

Like it's not going to happen immediately, but are we putting that sort of marker down on the board to say as we build out like the population is now 87,000, and that whole area north of the pike will continue to grow in terms of commercial and residential.

Um, just thinking, are we are we working with the um planning department to think about designating space zoning for a for a new firehouse north of the pike?

Yeah.

Well, counselor, as you know, I've been in these meetings with the BPDA, you know, and I've been advocating that we should bring engine 34 back when the time comes.

You know, uh the beacon part rail yards is all vacant land.

Now they're taking the tracks out and a lot of sparks, and then they're gonna move the the pike over.

The whole area is gonna be developed.

So we've been pushing.

Yeah, we'd like to see uh uh an engine company at least in uh I've suggested an engine slash hazmat house uh for that area.

But it's just suggestions at that time.

We don't have you know control over that land ourselves.

Harvard needs to be involved in the thing, and then that that comes to um you as our legislative uh representatives to put the uh the power, the pressure onto Harvard to work with us.

You know, they own the land, they're the ones ultimately gonna be developing the land.

Uh all we can do is go to these meetings and say, yeah, we'd like a uh a a firehouse or a fire department presence here.

You know, it all comes down to response times.

You know, the ISO, the insurance agency uh gives us number and your insurance rates are based on how fast we can get to you, okay.

So if we if all our responses are coming from Union Square, going down to where like you know the double tree is, you know, we're gonna be delayed because as they build in uh the roads and the infrastructure and put more and more people in that area, it's gonna delay our response.

We really need a presence down uh in in the old uh Austin neighborhood.

Yeah.

Engine 34 historically is that the one that used to be on Western F.

Yeah, that's yes, the firehouse is still there.

I think artists are in there now, but yeah, on Western F.

I'm not saying we would go that that exact spot.

So we'd be better off further down by the business school while we're you know double tree where they've dwelt dealt that area in the Houghton Chemical area.

Uh a firehouse would be great right there.

You would have access to the uh the interchange down Sterrow Drive to get to the back bay.

We'd have the pike to get down uh uh downtown to 93.

It'd be a perfect spot for like a uh an engine company uh with a hazmat uh contingent uh connected to it.

Very good.

Thank you.

We'll continue the conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you.

We've been joined by Councillor Culpepper.

Uh Councillor Fitzgerald, you're next.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Uh and Commissioner Marshall, let me be also uh continuing and congratulating you, and that was a great event the other day.

Thank you.

And I then look forward to working with you as well.

Um, I've started off every one of these budget hearings with every department sort of asking the same question, so I will I'll be consistent here in just saying everyone's kind of taking a haircut this year.

Um how much of that haircut for you guys and where where are you feeling the pain and sort of how have you sort of adapted to try and cover for any of those cuts and how confident do we feel that we'll be able to cover?

Well, as Chief Shay just uh stated that haircut is mostly uh concentrated on our safety, health and wellness division.

Um and we're just trying to uh come up with a a creative way to try to um cover those uh the losses and those funds from from those grants.

Okay.

Um I noticed that the in the six state grants uh that we have there's a expiration date of June 30th that we are uh need to exhaust those funds by.

Is there anything uh do we feel confident we're gonna do that by the end of this fiscal year?

And for the eight federal grants, are there any uh similar contingencies on um exhausting the funds by or a date?

With the state grants, we don't have much flexibility in uh being able to extend those at all.

The state brings on its own set of challenges where the state will you know vote for these things and you know they become uh effective in July first.

Many times, at least for the past three years, we don't get the documents from the state until December, which means that only gives us six months to be able to spend that money in terms of some of the things that we would need to spend that money on.

The procurement challenges about getting something in six months is extremely difficult.

We don't want to give the money back, but we're also being, you know, cautious and not spending, you know, we're not gonna spend it if we don't have it.

Um but I think we're in a better position for the state grants this year, uh, the federal grants.

There's more flexibility, but there's been challenges with the federal government change in administration.

Uh FEMA being closed and other you know political issues totally beyond the control of what what I can do within the department.

But um, there is some flexibility where we can apply for an extension on some of these, but when we have done that, it's the delays in getting a response back from you know FEMA or any other federal agencies is very delayed.

Um, you know, we've had a couple successes with them in um making minor adjustments to the grants themselves, uh, but you know, nothing um you know really that comprehensive, understood, thank you.

Um so the funding won't be coming to our recruitment, correct, Mr.

Gasmus.

We feel pretty good around the the funding uh in terms of uh both our hybrid cadet and traditional.

Umly the the timing of of uh of a class that would have a direct impact on um our cadets in particular, um in a ripple effect.

But um those are things I think we can we can sort out determine.

Uh we we are budgeted for a uh 2020 fiscal year 2027 class.

Um and so just the timing of that in terms of when we're able to uh administer that class is is something that we would want we would be concerned about now.

But uh we've had 100 uh percent uh support uh for the cadets in terms of funding for the cadet program, and again the uh hybrid, there's no funding or line item for that, it's just part of our uh 50-50 one 50 percent is traditional, the other half is combination of hybrid and cadets.

Okay, so that would that that thank you for that because that was gonna lead me to my lex next question about the total cost of cadet versus hybrid.

I was thank you, because I was gonna ask what the difference was for my own education.

Um, but now that you've explained that the cost, so one is at no cost and one has a cost.

I know there's the I heard you say the thirty-two thousand dollar right per cadet, but in total, even I mean, uh uh facilities, operations, equipment, any of that for the cadet program.

Do we have an entire number of what that might be?

In terms of what we've received from the budget office, it looks like about a 1.1 million, 1.18 million dollar reduction in non-personnel accounts.

Okay, and that and that covers everything that has to do with the cadet program.

And the hybrid is just a formula that's uh built into the personnel costs.

Understood.

Okay.

Um couple of things on on the capital side.

Uh I know at Ashmont on.

That's one of the one of the another troubled firehouse in terms of one you're talking about in East Boston and things of the like.

Um I know it's not next on the capital agenda, but I believe it is uh in the queue uh to be redone, and there was a land that was purchased behind it, and we'll hopefully see some.

I just didn't know if anyone had an update as to a potential uh shovel in the ground for anything like that for uh for the Ashmort Firehouse.

The transfer of the deed for the land that you're speaking of behind the engine uh 18 has been completed.

Um it did not make it on the docket for the capital plan for next year.

I suspect it will make it into next year's the planning stages.

But in the initial planning stages in general take about three years for you know design and you know kind of discovery of that.

Yep.

That timeline sounds right, but that sounds good.

I hope I hope it continues on that timeline then.

Question around the marine units.

Uh, what are the new boats and equipment allow us to do better now than the previous that we had?

When we said we have updated state of the art.

What what is it that our members would be able to do uh that to say, hey, this made this made the job and life and and and the delivery of the services a lot better than what we had before.

What are the any specific examples there?

Oh, counsel.

Counselor, uh the the state of the art uh allows our members to work more efficiently when they respond out.

We got these uh that that they're like turbojet engines now.

Uh supposedly, I'm not a maritime guy myself, but they're more reliable.

Uh we're able to put uh uh members that have maritime experience on there, they'll be able to respond and work more efficiently once they get to the scene.

Uh we've got three uh uh main boats down there right now.

The fi uh, the new boat coming in.

Uh I won't announce its name, but Marine One will call it right now, has total harbor.

But some of the areas of harbor have uh lower tides, so we send out the Leahy for that.

And then we have a third boat that's dedicated just for our uh our scuba divers, all right.

The John Kenny.

All right.

So if there's an incident where we're putting member members in the water to dive, they're gonna uh use this boat designed specifically by them for them, all right.

All right, before we would, you know, piecemeal boat together or whatever, the old the old uh dive boat doesn't have near the capabilities of this dive boat.

Uh we're just more efficient with with the investment the city made with in our marine unit.

That's awesome.

And the new boat, not the USS Fitzgerald to look at it.

It's not the Fitzgerald, but it's not my place to announce its name.

I still have a chance.

Thank you guys.

Uh my time is up.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Culpepper.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good to see you, Commissioner Marshall.

I miss that swearing in.

But uh I was at the announcement.

I uh hated to miss it, but I just um ruptured a diss in my bat, and uh I couldn't move.

And when I think about the firefighters and all the work that you do and the number of disks that are ruptured and fighting fires, really have to compliment the fire department on how you have kept the city safe with regard to fires.

I watch those fires and I watch how the men react as first responders, not thinking about their lives, thinking about saving lives.

So we really commend the work that you do.

It's really amazing that we can sit with you this morning, and uh I'm gonna you know, questioning, you know, I can be tough sometimes, but I first wanted to just commend you and all the work that you do.

What would we do without firefighters?

And so thank you for all that all of you do uh now to the tough part.

And I'm only kidding.

I've heard a lot of talk about these grants, and for the state grants, what are they?

The six state grants, and how close are we to sending money back to the state?

Sure.

Who's sure the procurement grants manager for the Boston Fire Department?

Speak to that.

She's in the weeds with grants.

Okay, I just want to dig a little deeper into it.

So much better deal than that.

Okay, okay.

My computer is sleeping.

I should be able to do it from my head.

Um, so the six state grants that the department currently has an earmark for the training academy.

Um, it funds all of the needs and wants of our facility in Moon Island.

Uh that's where all of our training occurs.

Um that is 1.7 million dollars that we receive.

Um, we did see a year, I believe it was fiscal year 23, uh, where those funds drop down to a half a million dollars.

Um there seems to be some news articles indicating that we will be given the 1.7 in fiscal year 27, but like Kevin had mentioned earlier, sometimes with the state legislation, we're we're fearful of nine C cuts that may occur, and when we don't get the contract until December, we try to be as fiscally responsible and not heavily procure, assuming that that money will be coming to the department, because if you spend grant funds that have not been awarded or accepted by the council, it becomes the responsibility of the department.

So, with regard to that December, is there anything that we can do to help you get the information earlier so you have more time to prepare for it?

What can the council do?

I mean, we could do a resolution hearing order, but I mean, I think it's it it hinges on the state and and their process with executing their budget.

Um so oftentimes we're we're in conversation with them.

I tend to send them emails on a daily weekly basis just to say where are we?

Do we have a dollar value?

Um, but sometimes they can't get give us that information if there's gonna be a 9C reduction.

Um so we do the best that we can.

Um we are not looking at returning any of our state grants.

Um I'm sure to be diligent and making sure that that money gets spent accordingly.

Um, so if that's the case, let's go to the federal grants.

If you don't think any of the money has gone back to the state, let's look at the federal grants.

Okay.

Let's just look at the ones that you might be in trouble with in terms of the money going back.

So I don't think we have an issue of money going back.

It's more that majority of the grants that the fire department receives are competitive in nature.

So I previously worked for the Boston Police Department.

They have a decent amount of formula grants.

So their crime crime ratings are contingent, you know, population-based.

One of the grants that we do receive through the police department is our PSAP grant.

So that's the public safety answering point, the CAD system response.

We do receive funds from Boston Police through EOPS for that money.

That is a state grant.

But with our grants, the majority of our federal funding has come from assistance for firefighter grants.

It's competitive in nature.

Over the past three years, we've received about 1.4 million dollars under those awards.

We put in an application for their fiscal year 24 funding.

It was due on December 20th of 2025.

We did not receive an award.

Also, like Kevin had said earlier, we're dealing with FEMA being part of a freeze or a pause.

So even with inquiries relative to the current grants that we have, there's oftentimes not staff available at the federal government to correspond with us to discuss some of the changes we may like to see.

I have a co-programmatic staff member, and she and I work with a grant writer, and we meet with the departments that receive federal funding on a pretty constant basis to make sure they're aware of what funding they have, how it can be spent, and how they're doing on their spending.

But I think the issue at hand is that with the federal laps, we're seeing that solicitations for these assisted for firefighter grants as well as we also receive grants under fire prevention and safety is another FEMA program.

And we've been steadily increasing our award amount.

I think we received 106,000, like haven't said that funded hot work.

So we have just recently implemented with NFPA the ability for all of our members to get a hot work certificate.

So if somebody does work within the city dealing with welding, they're required to have a 51B license.

This institution under these grant funds will allow all of our members who are overseeing hot work permits be certified or have the license that we require the contractors to do that work.

So I think there's just a lot of uncertainty with the federal government grants.

We applied for a grant for first responders to educate community members, Lieutenant on Narcan responses.

So I know Councillor Flynn asked about Narcan or overdose responses.

So we're just seeing a lot of federal uncertainty.

We do intend to apply for AFG funding if it is released, but generally the solicit solicitations or the notice of funding opportunity for AFG is released in about April.

So if they're not released this May before the fiscal the federal fiscal year, we may not be likely to recover or apply for an additional 1.4 million, which would support potentially cancer screening, dermatology testing, uh training of our senior officers, our clinical director who is the nutritionist and our injury prevention specialist.

So those are some of the important things that have been funded under those grants in the past.

Mr.

Chairman, I have additional questions, but I'll save them until the second round.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, well thank thank you, Counselor Copeper.

So I I thank you.

A couple questions from the chair, and then we'll go to a second.

Okay, unless we if there's folks who sign up for public testimony, we'll hear from them.

But uh right now there's no one signed up.

So I have a couple questions and we'll go to a second round to my colleagues.

Um I guess uh Mr.

Gaskins can so in terms of uh using residency in Boston as a as a tool to you know increase diversity in our hiring.

Can you just explain what the mechanism is there?

Uh do you get extra points or uh because I think when we had Commissioner Burke before us, he's he said he supported like hybrid pathways.

Okay, we do have one public testimony, um, uh you know, hybrid pathways to increase diversity, but he's sort of hands were tied in diversity hiring because of the way you know disabled veterans' uh status played a role.

So I don't know, can you just explain how you're using residency to the residency?

Thank you, uh Chair.

Um with residency, uh, right now, if we just relied on the traditional civil service process, if I'm a uh person that's serving in the military, I'm from Marblehead, never come to Boston uh outside of a Red Sox game.

Upon separation, I have 90 days from separation to become a Boston resident.

I can score a 70 on that particular test.

A civilian that's a Boston resident can take that same test and score a hundred, but that in someone that's born and raised in Dorchester, that same uh candidate from Marblehead would get would be ranked higher and would get the get the job over the resident.

So if we're relying solely on the traditional process, uh the majority of our candidates over the past 10 years aren't originally Boston residents through that process.

So there is a pipeline of candidates in the state of Massachusetts that make their way to Boston, and in some cases they could be from California or Oklahoma, having moved here one year prior to taking a test, and so again, really looking at the three years of residency as a as a bar, uh, not necessarily a barrier because we know people that are uh immigrating to um to Boston or to to the U.S.

or even myself as an example coming from the West Coast, as long as I'm investing enough time in the city to get a better understanding of what the city is, that cultural competency, we feel like that gives uh our Boston residents a good uh opportunity to apply to the position.

So if you have three years in the city, you get you get put at the top of the list, or is that no?

It's just uh so the hybrid process is is more uh closely related to an interview process.

Um, so where we're able to uh vet candidates through a uh physical fitness assessment, which is our FARA or our firefighter applicant readiness assessment.

We do require them to uh uh have passed the civil service test, and then we look at their resume transferable skills, we look at their uh community uh service and and and uh again uh what they've been doing in their communities, and then we're able to interview candidates uh that way.

And it's so it's it's more closely related to uh a traditional interview process where we can assess a candidate's complete profile to make those decisions.

But um, at the core, the three years, the majority of our candidates have more than three years.

Well, we didn't want to take away from say uh someone that um again, if I'm using myself as an example, I'm from Las Vegas.

I came here to go to school.

Once I graduated, I decided to stay.

Um so now I've been here for four years.

Maybe I've registered the vote, maybe I've been involved in the community.

Um now I'm an eligible candidate to in order to apply to to the position.

Okay.

And then I guess, you know, in terms of making sure once once you get hired, how you move up the chain, you know, uh I think we've uh in cases I litigated uh against the city of Boston, you know, the police department people were moving up.

Uh so I I think I you know, or what are we doing to make sure that those once hired, you know, people can advance in the process.

Yeah, once hired, the promotional exam process, they're still in the civil service, so there's a uh a process through there.

I will say that if um I think veterans have a distinct advantage throughout their uh the their tenure up to 25 years where uh they're at a distinct advantage over someone that's a non-veteran.

Um there are different models in the in the uh nation that I think might be more uh beneficial and equitable.

Um New York as an example.

If I'm entering into uh New York civil service process, I can use my preference either at the beginning of uh my tenure getting into an academy class or uh during one promotional exam.

After that, it's all it's all uh the same playing field.

Um whereas Boston, if I'm a veteran, I I have points right off the bat throughout my tenure until 25 years.

So I always commend uh civilian employee or civilians that don't have any veteran preference uh when they do move up the ranks, like uh commissioner, um they're competing and they're really at a two-point or disadvantage, and those two points mean a whole lot.

They could they can make the difference uh uh between uh getting uh an opportunity or not.

So um the civil service process right now is as as it's established.

I think what I hear from the ranks is that it's a fair process, but I will say that um the two points that a veteran might get if we start again, I'm not a fire.

And these are written tests, these are written tests.

Well, I guess the question is like how does a written test measure like someone's ability to lead people?

Yep.

So I I would say um I like Julie, Miss Devin, um, we come from uh BPD where where we've had a great experience, and actually, Miss Devin helped me uh tremendously uh through the uh Boston Police Department's uh promotional exam process.

Um the changes that one might make in a process really has to come from a job analysis and make a determination as to whether or not the components of the exam uh can in fact assess candidates.

Yeah.

If we're using uh the hybrid model as far as our recruiting process goes, um I think using these assessment tools like career readiness to determine whether or not someone um is strong enough to do the job and capable to do that, and then using a traditional interview process that consists of firefighters that are at on the committee that are actually making uh.

Yeah, I I hear I'm just I'm sorry to cut you off.

My time is about to end.

I just I had one question.

It's the miscellaneous supplies uh uh materials line item.

It's it's about like 3.5 million.

Historically, the fire department hasn't spent about 900,000 of that money every year.

I'm just wondering what that gets used for and why uh you know we I think to similar to Councillor Braden's question on the capital budget, like you know, why we don't spend the full amount on a it's similar to the problem that we have with it's a procurement issue where you know the city will issue a memo every uh that you know um all um spending for goods needs to be completed by April 15th.

Um I was the purchasing agent for the city of Boston and was never an advocate of that, the timing of that memo, because I do feel it it restricts the ability of departments to be able to spend accordingly.

So, you know, already we're we're out of supplies now, you know, you know, one month into the deadline, which was I think was April 12th.

So we can't the city restricts us from spending that money.

Uh we would spend probably every penny of that if we had been given uh a longer window to be able to do that.

Now, with service procurements, we have until I think June 12th to edit.

Um, it's just it's very difficult.

And I see it now from you know both sides of the street from the you know, city hall side, and I also see it from the restrictions it puts on a department like the fire department who has consistently you know gone through level funding and to a certain extent some budget cuts over many years.

Okay, thank thank you very much.

Uh, I'm gonna go to oh, sorry, we do have public testimony.

Uh oh, yeah, oh sorry, Counselor Jerkin, you did make it here.

Uh so um the one person signed up for public testimony will have to have to wait uh another seven minutes.

Counselor Jerkin, uh first round of questions.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Um, and I just want to thank the hardworking men of the fire department and women.

Um, it's incredible that uh we have a new commissioner, you know, and um it's also incredible that we've um gotten to a place in our budget where we're before you again.

So last year I asked a question about uh fire inspectors.

Um I heard from one of the departments, ISD that um a big issue in my district is um the time it takes a business to get permitted.

Um, and so I just wanted to ask the same question with the new information that there are more fire inspectors.

So I just wanted to ask the question of how many fire inspectors are there?

Do you feel like um it's making a difference?

Hi, counselor uh.

Oh, sorry.

Uh we got about five uh 50 inspectors up there uh assigned to fire prevention that go out on a daily basis uh doing compliance and acceptance testing um across the board uh working with ISD uh with the certificate of occupancy uh issuing and whatnot.

Thank you.

Yeah, a big issue in my district is just well, I mean, we have a lot of commercial corridors, but like specifically, I have one street that has over 400 small businesses, so oftentimes there's changeover, and it's important that our um you know the core of our city and our retail spaces are filled.

So I'm grateful to the fire department for all the coordination that's happening, and I know that um I I sense that there's been improvements.

Well, we we worked with uh under the mayor's uh initiative.

She uh assigned what was it, uh Kristen Shelley?

She assigned uh like the permit ZAR, and we we tried to streamline anything on our end of it, and she was working you know across the board with ISD and whatnot, but we tried to streamline our application process to make it easier.

So if you come in and off the street, you're not like dumbfounded when you come to the desk.

You know, we're trying to put the information out there to the public to let them know what you got because that's 90% of the time.

And I you know, uh Deputy Shea behind me was also a former uh marshal.

We're not holding people up needlessly, but people when they come in, they need to bring code compliant plans.

If they don't bring us code compliant plans, we can't just like you know sign off on something, you know.

So it it it's really the education to the people what they need to bring in to us so we can you know review their plans on a timely manner, send an inspector out that it was built according to the plans, and then sign off so the building is safe because you know ultimately that's that's our mission to uh make sure that the people are living and working in safe environments and buildings.

Absolutely, one of the most important missions of the city.

So thank you for all of your work.

Um I am supportive of this budget.

Um, I do um I noticed that the increase in personnel services, those are ones that we all voted on through the collective bargaining process.

So I'm I was supportive of that uh contract and continue to be supportive of the hardworking people that work for the fire department.

So thank you for all of your work, and I'll I'll yield my time back, Chair.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh okay, so uh the wraps up our first round.

We're going to our uh public testimony.

We've got a Sam Dylan.

Please introduce yourself uh to the council.

Um you got two minutes.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh good morning, Sam Dylan, president of Boston Firefighters, Ocal 718.

Thank you to members of our command staff for appearing here today for this committee, and to the counselors who are present today for getting together.

Budget season is never easy.

This is a I believe the fourth iteration of this since I became president.

You have every agency, every department, every union within the city coming in advocating for their asks, what they need to see out of this body and out of this city for the coming fiscal year.

We all read the paper, everyone's paying attention.

We understand this upcoming FY and this current budget season.

The hard reality of that is it it's difficult.

It's not looking good for the city or for these departments coming in.

So local 718 understands the position that this elected body is in.

That being said, just listening to uh some of the presentation and the testimony that just took place.

I do want to focus in on public safety and particularly firefighters because that's who I represent.

The single most important piece of equipment, if you will, out there in the city is a Boston firefighter, is a fire officer.

The members that I represent are the ones from our division and district commanders to our company officers to our firefighters on the apparatus, on the fire truck, responding to these 911 calls, putting their health and their life on the line for this city.

One thing that's really jumped out to me over the past half an hour testimony, that 1.4, I believe it was 1.41.5 million for the wellness initiative.

You heard some of the testimony from my brother coming out of safety health and wellness.

Those early detection cancer screenings, that early intervention for firefighter and fire officer health.

You can't put a price tag on that.

Now, if you had to, you're gonna see it's a lot less than 1.4 million.

Early detection, early intervention, preventative maintenance saves this city millions of dollars a year.

One step further, that program and those initiatives have directly saved the lives of our firefighters.

You saw the statistics of how many of our members went through that screening, and how many needed fall on care.

Those screenings directly caught several cancers that otherwise would not have been detected.

Like my brother mentioned, trying to go if you're a firefighter, trying to go through your insurance to get these things done, they're not going to do it because you don't have any of the symptoms that they would use to justify these screenings.

Well, in our world, being a firefighter is the symptom.

The things that our members are exposed to, that is the symptom of one of the most dangerous, if not deadliest, professions in the city.

I cannot reiterate enough to this body.

I understand it's a difficult FY.

I understand the budget's tight this year.

1.4, 1.5 million in a supplemental to ensure we're doing everything we can to protect the men and women who put their lives on the line every day.

I think it needs to be done.

And local 718 is willing to work with this body and with our department to try and get that done.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um, okay, no one online.

Uh okay, so we're gonna go for a second round.

Uh we'll we'll do six minutes uh per counselor.

Counselor Flynn, you're up.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and I listen closely to um President Dylan's comments on how important health and wellness are to the Boston Fire Department and the families of Boston firefighters as well.

We're not talking about a lot of money here, 1.4, 1.5 million dollars for health and wellness, early detection screening as the press as the president mentioned.

Some of those screenings detected firefighters that had melanoma, had ski probably had skin cancer, probably saved saved their life.

As many of you know, um, I go, I attend the local 718 retirement banquet every year.

I don't I don't miss it.

I love going to it.

And I talk to the firefighters and I talk to their families, and they love the job, but they would always say to me, hey Ed, you know, we love being a firefighter, we love being, we love the job.

Um the problem, Ed, as you know, is the average firefighter lives five or six years following retirement.

And so I'm um I'm sitting listening to these listening to these comments from firefighters and their families, knowing that after this banquet, uh they just retired, they're probably only gonna live five or six years.

And I've been to probably been to eight of them already.

And a good portion of the people that I had met at the banquet, um, probably a lot of them are probably deceased.

But what what's what the president just advocated for is something I I strongly support a supplemental that would provide added funding that was that was previously cut or potentially cut, so that we're able to do this early detection for so we're able to do health and wellness.

We have to ask ourselves on the Boston City Council, is this a priority?

Is this important?

Is this one of the most important decisions we could make all year?

For me, the answer is clear.

Yes.

Yes, it is important.

Yes, it's one of the most important decisions we make all year.

1.4 million dollars, 1.5 million dollars for a supplemental, is that worth it?

Of course it's worth it.

It's worth it if it's one life saved.

How would how could we go to a firefighter's retirement?

How could we go to a promotional ceremony?

Next year after after saying no, we don't think a supplemental is warranted.

How could we go to a um graduation ceremony?

All of us, all city officials, and say, you know, we're here to celebrate you.

But by the way, we we didn't have enough money for you in the in the supplemental.

Health and wellness wasn't important.

We can't have it both ways.

We we the fo support the fire department, we support the men and women of the fire department, we support the families.

Well, we don't.

But I I think we have maybe it's a moral obligation.

This body has to look for this budget and see if there's more money in there or more money in the in city finances.

Are we doing it with the Boston Public School system?

A supplemental?

I think we are going to do it.

Should the should we do it for the Boston Public School system?

Yes, we should do it for the Boston Public School system.

Should we do a supplemental for the Boston Fire Department?

Definitely.

Commissioner, I know you've only been on the job for a week.

Do you support a supplemental?

Anything that saves a life, as you said, um all in favor of.

So the next the next ask, the next question to any of the four gentlemen here, how do we get it done?

What's the logistics of getting it before the mayor, getting it before the city council, getting it before this body?

How do we get that done?

I'm not really sure the politics of it all, counselor.

Um, but you know, I know from the people that I work with on a daily basis, we'll do whatever we can to support that.

What I don't understand with the supplemental is I wouldn't I would not want to um have that supplemental budget taken from the existing funds that have already been allocated.

We had an example of that last year, and it it's very difficult to do that.

It's not sustainable for the department going forward to year after year have these ongoing cuts.

Uh, and then to have that um, you know, while we were grateful for that additional money that we received last year, it was taken from our facilities department and put into the safety, health, and wellness, which did tremendous, you know, it was a tremendous benefit for the department.

If you're talking about supplemental, it would be handled in the same way.

I would say we can't sustain that.

Yeah, that's a that's a good point, Kevin.

Thank you.

And I agree with you with we should not make any cuts or or take it from one part of the fire department to another part of the fire department.

I also know.

Well, I'll leave that for another, I'll leave it that for another another time.

But I just don't want us to balance the budget on the backs of the health and wellness of Boston firefighters and their families.

We need to do better.

We need to come up with the money, and we can't sit here and say thank you to the firemen and firefighters and their families, and then by the way, not provide the needed money for health and wellness.

Just my opinion.

That's what I believe in.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Just in terms of our discussion, I I I want to make sure we're comparing apples to apples in terms of.

No, no, no, no, I I'm just saying in terms of a supplemental versus an amendment.

So a supplemental would be for the fiscal year twenty-six budget to fill a gap, whereas where we're talking, we have the power under the city charter to amend the budget to move money into certain line items.

A supplemental would be to add money to the budget from some other source.

So, you know, that's uh just in terms of all my colleagues, there's amendments, supplementals, uh, you know, the in terms of supplementing the budget, that would be later on to take it from reserves or we can have that conversation later, but usually we're talking about amendments, and like you said, you know, uh moving it from one place has impacts on that department.

Um anyway, okay.

Mr.

Chair, but BPS is asking for supplemental though.

BPS is asking for a supplemental to cover their deficit in the fiscal year 26 budget.

Which is that's I don't know if BPS is asking for that.

That is what BTU is asking for.

Um, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Louis Jam.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to uh the Boston Fire Department for being here for the for your uh for answering the questions.

Um I have uh a few pretty granular ones.

Uh a lot of my question uh some of my other questions have been covered.

Um in the RFI responses, it states that the contractor diversity is limited in some areas because of proprietary Motorola-based systems and certification requirements, particularly in the radio shop.

Can you explain and talk about that more?

What are the limitations around contractual diversity um in the radio shop?

And are these limitations written into vendor specifications required by the technology itself or driven by the available pool of certified contractors?

I think it directly relates, counselor, to the uh proprietary nature of the radio system.

Motoroler is probably the leader in the world in terms of communication.

It would be similar to if I had to relate it to like Apple iPhones.

You know, there's really only one game in town that deals with that.

So Motorola controls, you know, the the sale of their radios, the um installation and ongoing service and maintenance of those.

Uh not just, you know, for Boston Fire, I believe it's, you know, every agency all over the city and at least in the United States.

And there are limited contractors, I guess I guess there are a limited number of vendors who are able to deal with those issues, which limits our ability to sort of put on diversity procurement requirements.

So I think for the most part they do limit um the number of contractors that they will allow to work on their equipment.

I don't know, and we can look to see if we can find find some of that information for you in terms of the diversity of some of their contracted vendors.

That's not something that we have any um exposure to or involvement with whatsoever.

Um I will just say motor roller is just a beast of a company.

Yeah.

Okay, and we deal with them almost exclusively in the in the radio shop.

Yes.

Okay.

Um another cost savings that we were able to identify in this budget was uh the department reports that the training division, so your shop design and manufactured a proprietary EV fire nozzle in-house, um, and that saved more than a hundred thousand dollars.

And the Academy already performs most of its um improvements and labor with BPD staff BFD staff rather than outside contractors.

Are there any other specialized tools, modifications, training props, vehicle adaptations, or sponsor equipment that BFD could develop or maintain in house rather than purchasing externally?

It's similar to like the contracting the individuals externally bring them in the house.

Are there are there is there equipment that we can be sort of working on and building in-house rather than contracting for those outside?

Well, to speak on your uh the EV nozzle, so uh they sell them for like three thousand thirty-five hundred dollars uh each.

So uh under uh Deputy Malone's uh leadership down there uh with John McDonald, the district chief, they came up with the MM nozzle, all right?

Was they designed it?

Chief Ellis, and that's the nozzle, the EV1.

Thank you, thank you.

Um and they were able to go from $3,500 down to about 300 uh 350 per nozzle that that we so there's 33 engines uh out across the city, so at a savings about uh 3,000 each engine, that's where we come up to 100,000.

Uh that's pretty excellent.

That we were able to do that.

Yeah, that was great.

Kudos to them.

You know, Deputy Malone and and John McDonald came to the MM novel.

It was great.

As far as uh uh other pieces of equipment, I mean we're always adapting.

We all I mean you go out to any one of the firehouses, the the members of our department are always like you know, coming up with new ideas, doing things on their own, whether it's uh you know their own door chalk or a better way to do things, uh just like teachers who bring supplies into the firehouse.

Firefighters are always bringing their own things that make them more efficient out on uh uh on the fire scene.

Uh we have a great department, great membership.

Uh I can't single out another thing like the MM nozzle recently that we've come up with, but you know, when the time comes, you know, we try to come up with things like that.

Awesome.

Well, I just wanna support and thank the the uh uh the folks on the leaders in the department who were able to realize that and and accomplish it.

I think that's great, and I think you know it's that's a level of innovation and uh creativity that we need to be thinking about in this department around the city, um, because I think it's uh it's gonna be its investments long term in the city.

You really should come down the island too uh when you get a change uh council.

I've been once, but I haven't been.

I would love to come back.

I I know we we had open house there recently, but uh even just on a regular training day, then when the island rocks, you know, we got the new uh uh trains there that we're gonna be uh doing uh MBTA training on there.

We have the smoke house, but we're we're constantly putting our companies with back to basics, fresh uh first water truck company operations, training uh uh uh firefighters from uh regional area, uh, on top of our own uh cadet training.

The island's really a busy place, and it it it you really if you have a chance, anyone of you have a chance to come down, you should.

Well, Chief Ellis Commissioner, I'd love an invitation back, and I'd love to come back.

Um, there was a recent article about a demonstration that was done and and just like you know, setting fires intention intentionally just to see um to do the work of of teaching those in the academy, and I think it's just um the work you do is so incredibly important for prevention again.

Um we I had asked this question at the beginning, and I believe it was um Officer Gaskins who answered, but you know, in this in this budget um on the personnel item and the budget overall, we're seeing an increase most of it attributed to personnel, and you stated that the biggest driver of the increase in the personnel line item is a collective bargaining agreement.

Is there anything else that's driving that the increase in the overall budget to the fire department that we're seeing?

No, everything is in the increase in the personnel line is directly related to increasing collecting bargaining agreements.

Okay, so it's one that's a hundred percent the collective bargaining agreement.

Okay, um, thank you.

And I did want to ask a question about the pipeline that we're seeing between Teen Academy, the cadet program, and uh eventually to our fire department.

Officer Gaskins, if you talk a little bit about Teen Academy, where that stands, how that's going.

Yeah, so the Teen Academy is a partnership with the City of Boston.

It's our summer success link program.

Um we've been doing that since 2017, and um it's been supported each year.

Uh, we're actually gonna be making selections for our summer teens uh probably later on this week.

Uh typically we're um given around uh 35 to 45 uh teens uh to to provide six weeks of uh employment too.

Um, and so we're able to partner with the city in that.

And we do think of uh the Teen Academy as our pipeline, uh, one of our pipelines.

Uh we work directly with a lot of schools in the area, uh, high schools in particular, English High, and uh East Boston High, they have legal and protective studies curriculum.

Um, and so we're able to sit on the boards for those for those departments and make sure that the uh teens are aware of the uh teen academy programs going on for both BPD and uh BFD.

Our program happens to be the best in the city, very competitive.

But um, what that does is introduces uh young people to fire services.

We go out to Moon Island, we we do a number of uh activities, uh go to different firehouses.

We also bring in professionals from other industries to give uh teens a perspective of the different types of opportunities that are out there for professional development.

Um, in short, we we do have a number of teen academy folks that are now firefighters.

Um, so from our alpha class, I want to say there were three uh former teen academy uh applicants or uh participants that are now firefighters, and each year.

Um, if you're a teen academy um participant and you apply to be a cadet, you're guaranteed an interview, doesn't guarantee you the spot, but it guarantees you an interview, and so we do see that as a great feeder uh for our program.

Thank you, and thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you for the all of the work that you all do.

Really appreciate it, too.

Thank you very much, Councillor Murphy.

Um, so in my first round, I did focus on the health and welfare and the cancer screenings, and I know um President Dylan spoke about it, and others have also talked about it.

So I just want to touch on that a little bit more before I move on.

And as you may know, but if those listening in, this is our fifth year with the amendment power, I guess you could say, I don't know if it's a positive power, but we get the budget from the mayor, we can vote yes as is and just pass it.

We can vote no and have her go back and work on it and or we can propose amendments, but as you know, the amendments then have to be cutting from somewhere else.

And I know I have recently put out a statement about devastating seven hundred and twenty-four thousand dollar, fourteen percent cut to the veterans, and that yes, I do want it restored, but in no way do I want it to be restored on the backs of say the fire department.

And so I'm saying, and again, for the 1.2 or 3 million that would be needed to make sure that our firefighters have the screening and medical support they need, that it would be that the mayor would go back and find the money other places because there are ways to do that.

There's the rainy day fund, there's reserves, there's other available ways.

It's not only the amendment process we have to kind of push back and say this is important to us.

And we do know my fifth year doing the budget, the first four years with all of the hundreds of millions of dollars with opera funds and ether funding for our school, you know, we were able to add programming.

We were it was there were no cuts, and now we're in this no-fluff nuts and bolts, you know, bare minimum.

And to me, in a tight budget cycle, I can't think of anything more nuts and bolts, anything more basic than making sure any city employee, not just the fire department.

And I know um we have fought, and we're adding, you know, we're making sure that the medical cost for you know weight loss is not being cut, right?

So that matters to many people across other city departments.

To me, I mean my dad died of melanoma from cancer.

I know that screening does matter, and you need to get it quickly, and the facts and the data are there that our city employees, our firefighters, our neighbors, our family members are putting their life at risk.

So we should never be scrimping on their health care.

So I will advocate that it won't go through an amendment process, but that we will ask for the mayor to find the money somehow.

Because like you mentioned, Kevin, and if you could speak a little bit more to that, because I know it's true in the school department where I work for over 20 years, you have to spend the money by a certain date.

But teachers right now at schools across the city are bringing in their own reams of paper, not just the extras that I know we've always done as teachers, but just the basic materials are being paid for by city employees to get to get through, right?

And so if the April 15th date is you have to say you've spent it all, because this has come up time and time again.

We see a number somewhere on a spreadsheet, and we say, well, the fire department never spends this, or the police department always seems to have this many millions of dollars left over.

So can you just explain more of that timeline so that we have a better understanding?

So that is something that has been occurring for many years within the city of Boston.

It is a joint memo that comes out through the auditor, the uh director of budget and the procurement, the purchasing age of the city of Boston, and it outlines not just um you know the restrictions of purchasing, it outlines in general how the rest of the fiscal year will close out.

The challenging part, you know, for for what I see at the fire department now, and I know many departments have have over the years um talked to me about this, is that it's difficult to anticipate your needs on April 15th, what you might need through the end to June 30th.

So, you know, we we did the best we can, or we could at that point in time to order what we needed to to carry us through those, but almost daily I get five, six calls from people, we forgot this, we didn't have this, we don't have this, and you know, we have to make tough tough decisions to you know put things on hold or not buy things at all in in terms of that.

Um, looking back, uh the money that you know I'll say is left on the table is money that we somehow lose access to.

So, you know, if we had left money in contracted services, whether it's you know, say it was $500,000 when the budget gets you know allocated for the next year, what will happen is they'll use that example of money that was left on the table and level fund that particular department uh um a cost center within the budget.

Difficult to anticipate, you need three months out.

Right, okay, thank you.

Um, a cadet question.

You mentioned, and I've had conversation before about the pay.

Do you know what the police and the AMS cadets get paid?

Um I I am familiar.

Um police cadets, I believe they're part of the uh the uh police union as kind of associate members, so they might have been part of that collective bargaining uh recent contract.

Um I'd have to get updated numbers on that, but we did base the uh the number, the initial number on how much uh cadets, uh BPD cadets get um EMS is a little bit of a different the kind of a hybrid uh quasi uh city agency.

I do know that uh mass state police cadets um are upwards of 40, some 40 and some change, so they get they get paid significantly more.

And I understand that maybe the cadets do a different job based on the department, but I know last year when I was advocating that our fire cadets get paid a little bit more, that many police cadets who do a wonderful job and are out there in the community um were saying, Hey, you're gonna advocate for me too, and I had no idea that we were paying them less.

So I do just want to go on record that while I support, you know, them getting paid well that I don't want um the police cadets who have been around for a long time, and it's a great feature program that we also support them.

And I've run out of time again, so I will be here for a third round, but thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh, Councillor Braden.

Thank you.

Um question I had was um in terms of this is when radio technology and uh in an emergency situation is and this is more of a technical question.

In in an emergency is does the BTE B the fire department are they able to uh seamlessly connect with uh other first responders like the EMS and police department.

Are we are the only frequency where they can talk to each other?

Because I know that sometimes there's there's issues or have heard that there's issues.

Um I are you any any insights into that?

Well, I'll refer to my subject matter experts on the fire service.

Um, but I can say that the city has been investing um with a joint project with the police EMS of upgrading the technology and installing more um access points all over the city.

Previously there were dead zones in in certain areas of the city, so that has improved, and I do believe that there is something built into the system where they can either online or offline talk to each other.

Is that correct?

The system in place.

We have an SOP.

If we need to contact the police directly or the EMS directly, we go through our fire alarm and we activate the channel.

The initiating department needs to activate the channel to let the other two agencies know that you know they need to monitor it, and then you know, we could talk that way.

Most of our communications does go through uh fire alarm uh dispatches there, and they usually relay the messages on a normal everyday basis, and it works pretty well.

But if we had to talk directly, there is a uh a system in place where we could activate a channel.

So if you're in an if you're in a situation, heaven forbid that there's an active shooter situation, um, and and say you folks needed to contact police or EMS needed to contact police or each other.

That's that's that's easy to do.

There's a mechanism that there is a mechanism, like I said, a mechanism in place the the agency that wants to activate the intercommunication needs to tell everyone, and then we we monitored it, okay.

And then we can uh the ability to flip the channel uh to that frequency.

Very good.

And we would also establish a unified command um post where we all could be in a same area talking amongst each other.

Okay, good.

Heaven forbid we have to think about these things, but there we are.

A few years ago, we got a grant uh for an investment in hoses that don't collapse.

Um how is the how is that um those supplies or those that equipment held up?

And do we do we is there an is there a planned obsolescence for equipment like that, or what what is this life cycle?

Are you speaking about the hose that uh the burn hose?

There's a burn through.

It doesn't burn through and it can maintains pressure when it's when there's when it's yeah, yeah.

We just uh recently fitted out all of our apparatus with with the uh well, the engine companies anyway, with that hose.

So uh it's still in the uh you know early stages of uh you know being used.

The life cycle.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

But all of the engine companies have been uh furnished with that hose.

Yeah, like the last uh hundred feet I think of the other of all our attack lines has that uh because that's the part of the hose that's gonna be closest to the fire.

Uh they're all using that type of hose.

Yeah, that's good.

Good to know.

Good to know we're investing in that that um equipment.

Um, and then um back to the the capital um the planning, the capital, several houses are firehouses are aging and in need of upgrades.

Uh which stations are prioritized for this next financial this uh capital plan 27 through 31, and what criteria are you used to determine your choice?

I know there's many you could probably need to upgrade many more than you've got on the list.

Um which ones are getting priority and and what sort of criteria do is is uh been used.

So I I think in terms of criteria, I think it does vary from house to house.

Um some of them, I think the one in Charlestown was built, I think it's 1863, so that's a relatively older houses, but some of the even the newer houses were built a little smaller, and with the you know, this the size of the apparatus that's a uh something that is you know seriously considered as is like the location of certain pieces.

I mean, there are several um pieces, uh several firehouses on the Capitol plan that are in, you know, kind of design and discovery stage.

Um I think all of the ones that are listed, you know, engine 21, engine three, engine eight, and engine nine are all priorities right now.

But I think there are several others that we have in the pipeline that will be hopefully being added to this list over the next year or so.

Certainly the seaport is one that has come up many times, and we've been close with that, but that is um relative to a developer, you know, accessing some location down on the waterfront area that you know they've had some difficulty, you know, getting themselves established.

Thank you.

And and again to our question about you know uh wellness and party particulate matter in in firehouses and how how dangerous, how detrimental to health and those conditions are.

I think uh it's gonna be money well spent to make our firehouses safer for our firefighters.

Um then uh I know um we heard a lot about the the loss of of um FEMA grants and like how how significant is the loss of of federal funding in this particular climate.

I think it's it's particularly egregious that we're it's impacting our public safety.

I think definitely, especially, you know, um with full understanding of the crisis that the city is under right now, the access to federal and straight grants give us the additional resources to be able to you know build up the department, whether it's through training or other initiatives for the safety, health and wellness of the firefighters, but not just that.

I mean, you know, some of these grants pay for, you know, overtime that is supplemental to the training of when we have to pull people into the training academy, or if it is like for the hot work, you know, which was you know, you know, a result of you know, terrible tragedy that occurred on Beacon Street.

I mean, there's just so many things that you know we can use these grant monies for that you know just aren't built into our current budget.

Yeah, an ongoing training and professional development is hugely important.

Use it or lose it.

Lose it or lose it.

Yes, indeed.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you very much, Councillor Fisher.

Uh Fitzgerald, sorry.

Thank you, Council Blood.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, bear with me for a sec here, okay?

Because I'm gonna do we're trying to do some back of the napkin math while everyone else was asking their questions, um, trying to find ways to cover some things here.

It it let me start by saying I I'm all for the city jobs for city kids, but we are also tasked with being fiscally responsible here, right?

And there's this sort of a balance where we want to make sure we deliver the best services to all people of all the cities.

So uh I say that uh just before I begin.

How many academy classes a year are they?

Not cadet, academy classes per year.

One one to two, right?

Yes, right, roughly.

Um average that that class is fifty.

And so we're splitting off 50-50, and then that's divided in half twenty-five-25, right?

Half for the cadet slash hybrid program, half traditional.

Traditional.

Um, we're about five cadet classes in, right?

For the cadets, four, and working on the f the fifth is working on the fourth.

Uh working on the fourth.

Okay.

So, and there is in the average amount of kids in the cadet classes per class is.

Well, the um, now that we're up and running.

Now that we're up and running, it the the average is gonna kind of fluctuate.

It's gonna depend on how many cadets are going to go into a recruit class.

So we'll just be looking at open position numbers.

So for instance, the uh Delta class that's gonna start in June, only has 13.

So based on um the number of open position numbers that we have.

Okay, good.

That helps because that was leading into sort of what I was going into the extrapolating it out, going like we're gonna create ourselves a log jam here where we're not we're gonna be training kids that will not have we wouldn't be able to take into the academy, right?

And so I was trying to think of saving efficiencies of well, if we're spending money to train kids that are never gonna get hired, maybe that's where we could look at some of the mental health, how to backfill some of the mental health stuff.

Because I think if we said it was 1.1 million, uh, Mr.

Coyne, if I'm correct, for the total cost annually of the cadet program at X amount of kit, right?

Approximately it's built into our personal expenses.

And that does that include the 32,000 per cadet as well in that 1.1.

Okay, all right.

Um so maybe I'm not you know, I thought I saw I thought I thought I saw a hole in the line here where we could like you know just sprint sprint to the end zone.

But um so it no, but it that that that we're right sizing the classes is important, right?

So that we one, we don't create that log jam, two, we're being fiscally responsible, and three, we're allowing the best uh um the academies to move forward with the with the the right amount of people.

Um well, something to keep an eye on anyway, and I hope we continue to do that right sizing and opening.

I appreciate that.

Um, I had um, oh, I know we talked about electric cars, but uh best the the storage systems, the battery uh energy storage systems are uh coming up, and I know there are there's a lot of um, I wouldn't say controversy, but concern about where they're being located, uh, how close to residential, what pockets in the city do we have them and open that could be there, um, and then how to uh how we're training to extinguish them, uh, because that's all I've heard is some of the issues of just like a just like a Tesla car um the these uh and you know what what it can give off.

Be happy if there's someone in the stands that could uh just speak to that.

That would be fantastic, Keith.

Thank you.

Um sorry to make you work and earn it here.

Something to do now.

Yeah, I saw you nodding off.

I said I should ask a best question, keep them uh keep them active.

No, thank you very much.

So please, it is important and it is the future.

So we're gonna see what's happening.

So, as far as the location of them in the city, a lot of that has to do with zoning and the planning department.

Where the fire department, we can't permit where something is going to go in the city.

We can only make sure that when it goes there, it's safe.

So that question really needs to be held in house here to talk to your planning department.

Uh I have talked to them, they were developing.

I don't want to speak with them.

Yep, fair enough.

If you don't mind, so I'll let them, but uh Travis Handerson in the planning department is who I've had contact with, and fantastic.

I did talk to him last week about setting up some sort of policy, so it's it's coming.

Like everything else when it comes to energy storage, we're working on it because it's technology is moving way faster than we are right now.

Yeah, um, as far as what we are doing, uh, thanks to Julie.

The BFD has a application in for the advancing Massachusetts power grant, and uh I'm trying to line up an eight hour course on energy storage for every officer in the Boston Fire Department.

Great.

We're waiting to hear back.

Um any movement.

Oh no, they should ask them questions or hand, which is how we said it's signed for an application.

It's not yet been employed.

Um, so as far as training goes, it's coming.

It's waiting, yeah.

It's coming.

And hopefully based on the grant.

Gotcha.

As far as the permitting goes to uh fire prevention division is now working with inspectional services department.

So whenever they get a permit now, and I've seen a copy of it.

If anywhere on that permit, energy storage is listed, ISD now will bring in the Boston Fire Department so we can work with these companies from the beginning instead of at the end.

Chief Ellis can go into the fire marshal and the fire prevention side of things, but way more clearly than I can.

We usually came at the end of things instead of at the beginning.

Now with the BFD trying to become a stakeholder in energy storage on future permits.

We'll be involved in the beginning.

So we can work with all these companies and say where's it gonna go?

This is what we're looking for, because like I said, we're working on it.

The fire code isn't written yet for us to enforce the newest technologies.

So let us work with you from the beginning so that we can make sure this is gonna be the safest possible location for it, and we know about it ahead of time as well.

Understood.

If there's any way this body can help uh advance those grants or advocate, please let us know how, Julie, as well, and and we'll be happy to write individual letters, I'm sure, and others to make sure because uh it is important to have our work first trained for what's coming and things are changing.

So uh I know that's my time.

Chair, thank you so much.

Uh and panel, thank you so much as well.

Can I add one more thing?

Yes.

I'm kind of proud of it.

Um, a lot of talk about EVs.

The e the the battery fires that we're responding to, we're responding to way more smaller battery fires, right?

So the so the e-scooters, uh e-bikes, the cover boards and stuff like that.

What we just got a hold of um, we're setting up in fact to get a meeting this afternoon about it with the representative out of born and the National Waste and Recycle Association.

We're gonna try to set up a lithium battery kickback recycle free for all the residents of Boston.

Uh BFD is gonna host it at our special operations division warehouse over on Rivermore Street in West Roxbury.

Um it's slated for July.

Uh I got meetings to work out a lot of the details this afternoon, but we have had EV fires.

I don't want to say that we have not had them.

We've had, I can think of three off the top of my head we've had in the last six months, but we've had at least a dozen e-scooter fires, uh, e-bite fires.

Since I've been tracking them since I've been in this position, I can think uh I looked this morning before we came.

We've had 16 fires that have been caused by uh the micromobility lithium IO batteries.

Awesome.

So we're working with businesses as well as those for when it comes to storage and charging when it comes to apartment buildings, dorms, businesses to make sure that they're kept on a secure location.

Well, thank you for all you work, all the work you do on the preventative side.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Jim.

Okay, yeah, thank you very much.

Uh yeah, I think there was like a there was several fatalities at a fire related to like a store that was in New York City a year ago, two years ago.

2043 was the leading cause of that.

Yeah, yeah, for the store that was working on batteries and you know, like rehabbing them or whatever.

Anyway, so it's a serious issue.

Thanks for bringing that up.

Um okay, thank you.

Uh Counselor Culpepper, six minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Commissioner, I think you were talking about uh the investment in the firehouses that had HVAC issues.

I think three thousand three hundred thousand dollars that went to HFA.

How much would it cost to really update all of those seven houses where there are issues?

Uh counselor, I um I can't give you an exact number because uh can you get back to us?

Sure.

Um, but as um uh deputy commissioner coins said, each house because of its configuration is different, so uh just to put a blanket cost on on those seven houses.

Like I said, we would have to uh strapolate that out to how each house is configured.

Please, because it doesn't make sense for the fireman to go to work every day and under the threat of maybe cancer because of the it doesn't make sense.

Does it?

No, it doesn't.

I mean who wants to I mean I'm amazed to hear that this morning that they're going to work every day, and there's a possibility that over the years they could end up uh with cancer.

It just doesn't make sense.

So if you could get that to us and let us look at it, because it just it just boggles my mind that these officers take away going to a fire and the threat and the challenges and the safety issues deal with fires, but then they gotta come back and go to sleep in a house where in a firehouse where there's a possibility that they may end up with cancer, just that makes no sense whatsoever.

And I can't speak directly to what's in the capital budget, but I can tell you some of what's in the capital budget is to replace maybe the many, many firehouses have window units.

So this would be um, you know, upgrading those systems to a more energy efficient system, something that's you know more environmentally friendly, you know.

Probably overall um would provide better, you know, cooling and heating within the firehouses.

So that's part of what's in the capital plan right now.

Okay, and and if you could just get us what would bring it so that the risks to the firemen are lessened, what that would cost.

I mean, because I think we really need to look at that uh versus a lot of other things that across the city's budget that we look at, it would be helpful because uh I know they're saving lives, but we want to save their lives too.

And so if you could break that out so we can look at that and just brainstorm over that, because that seems to me to be a critical issue in terms of uh the health and safety of the firemen.

So one example I can give you.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry, I just wanted to say that um under Commissioner uh Joe Finn, uh he did start an industrial cleaning program that tried to address most of these issues uh within the current firehouses, but uh as uh Commissioner Coyne is just saying uh in terms of the HVAC systems, that is a separate component of a that we that's new to us.

Uh so but we we are currently on a program where we do industrial clean, the main floors of firehouses.

We haven't done them all, but we have them in the pipeline to do that.

When you say the HVAC is new to you, you mean in terms of identifying that that's uh a safety factor.

Yes, that's all part of the safety factor because like I said, the the houses should be zoned in terms of um hot zone where the apparatus and the gear is uh the sleeping the sleeping quarters area.

So that HVAC system is throughout the house, um, so you're still getting contaminants from the main area, the main uh floor into those other living spaces.

Thank you.

The uh we talked a lot about that 1.4 million, whether there would be a supplement or uh an amendment, and uh we can talk about that among ourselves and try to figure out uh whether we'll be able to make an amendment for it, but I mean whatever we can do, we're willing to do, and and I want to ask a question.

Um deputy superintendent, deputy Gaskins, I'll take the what's it?

I'll give it to you if I could.

Yes, sir.

Let's give it to them.

Chair.

What's a proper title?

Yeah, what's the proper title?

Recruitment officer.

Yeah, I'm a civilian employee with the civilizer.

So you mentioned that uh there would probably be a need for a job analysis.

Why why why would we there need to be a job analysis?

Um the question was around promotional exams, and so when if you're gonna change or consider the change of any promotional exam, you need to do a job analysis to determine whether or not the uh process and the components of the exam make the assessment.

BPD went goes through that job analysis about every five to seven years to determine whether or not they're gonna add a oral component or um some type of uh other components to that.

So that's um a longer term approach to determining whether or not our exams are um adequate or whether or not there needs to be additional uh components that would be added to determine one's ability to do the job.

And so there is there one needed that's not my my area.

Um I would say uh every department, if they're responsible in their exam process, should go through a job analysis about every five to seven years.

And who would make that determination?

Who would make that assessment?

I think that's a um cooperative uh uh kind of conversation between uh personnel and uh civil service, our personnel internal uh in the civil service department.

Yeah, cancer co-bero.

I'll he'll allow you to make a comment on this, but it's so just in terms of what what I was asking about is when we're making promotions, we use a written test, right?

So in these in our police exam case, the the city hires a firm to do a job analysis for you know a fire lieutenant and what what are the KSAs, the skills uh knowledges and knowledge of skills and abilities for that job, and then if you look at the test, you try to see you want it to measure the important skills, knowledges, and abilities.

And so in our police lieutenant exam case, the court said they this a written, you know, an 80-20 exam, a written exam with this sort of education experience rating where everyone got the same score, failed to measure really important skills and abilities of a police lieutenant, which were oral communication skills and leadership skills and organizational skills, and so, you know, that using that as a test that had a disparate impact on uh on officers of color, like they couldn't show it was a valid exam.

Whereas if you have if I use the fire, correct me if I'm wrong, uh, there might be a requirement that you carry a hose that weighs I don't know, 100 pounds, whatever, 50 pounds up six flights of stairs.

There for uh you might have women do worse on that test, but it has it might have a closer relation.

So you have discrimination, but then under Title 7, it's not illegal.

If you can show it, you know, it's measuring an important skill and ability.

And they're I just so I I use that just as not as like a that that's actually happening or as an example.

So when I mentioned when we talked about the job analysis, it just we try to make sure our our promotional mechanisms are measuring the right things, and so to have a valid job analysis, it has to be conducted I think every five to seven years.

And I think in the police department had been like many more years than that to say, oh, this job analysis isn't even valid that they're basing it off of.

So that that I don't think we need a job analysis necessarily.

It's uh, so my question to you, Mr.

Chairman, that's what I was gonna ask.

Do we need a job analysis?

And why would you say you don't necessarily think we need one?

I think who would make that determination?

It's not the job analysis that's the issue, it's how our civil service laws require us to measure capability for advancement.

So I think that as long as they're up to date, as long as they do every five to seven years, they have a valid job, and that we I mean, I think we all agree on like what you need to be a good, you know, superior officer, I don't know what you can call in the fire department, but um, you know, to be to be good at that job, uh, I think we all, you know, it's not really a debate about that.

It's like whether our test gets to those things.

If Gaskins wants to talk about that, uh, council chairman.

Yeah, I just want to chime in, yeah, because you're talking about every five to seven years or whatever for the judge.

The Civil Service Commission, after the court case that you uh referenced for the police, did change our exam process and and did a job analysis, and it's not just 80-20, as you're saying, 80 written and 20 experience.

They've added a uh a situational judgment component to our exams now.

So now you you still take like what 80 or 100 uh question test, and that's uh uh rated a certain percentage, but now they're they're actually giving you situations and you answer questions based on the situations, so it's not just route memory anymore.

So they have uh changed our test in that's over the last three or four years.

Yeah, because Mr.

Chair, I mean you took my time away.

I didn't wait until the buzzer went off, but I didn't take any retirement.

Let me just ask him about this job analysis.

How long ago was that when they did that?

When they changed the situation uh about probably about four years ago.

Uh counselor, okay.

So we probably don't need a job analysis now.

He's not talking about a job.

I took the last exam that was strictly the 80 questions or 80 20.

And since now it was about four years ago I could promote a three, and since then the tests have been added with the situational judgment.

Can I now ask my question?

Well, you've got to the end of your time, Counselor Cove, but I just I thought I would, but if you want if you want to make a comment.

I just have a question that they're not going to be able to answer now.

Sure, I would like just like I did with the Boston police department, because my question is since that consent decree, and I know you remember when that consent decree was dissolved.

I wanted to look at what's happened with the fire department since that consent decree was dissolved, whether the hiring and promotion of minorities have gone up, whether it's gone down, whether it stayed the same.

Just give me when you can, and I'm asking it through the chair, the impact of the dissolution of that consent decree.

Yeah, we can get that data.

I do know from last year's hearing, and I I believe that I mean mostly you know the the percentage numbers are are lower.

You know, the police department patrol officers have managed to g achieve a level that reflects the diversity of the city.

The fire department has not, and we've talked about uh prior last year with Commissioner Burke and it being a component of these, you know, the scoring system where you know, even though if you've lived here your whole life, uh you're not a disabled veteran, but if you live in Oklahoma and you take the test, you re and you score 30 points worse, you still end up on top of that, ranked above that person.

So it it's something I think they're working on, uh, and the and the governor has approved this you know, hybrid pathway system which we're using, and we have data from the presentation on people coming in, you know, and it it is a more diverse group, but I think uh I think the fire department in that respect has work to do.

Uh just that's my personal thing.

I can I just finish yes, and and recruitment gas can say other piece of it was with regard to the example you gave of the person that lived out of state out of the city that was a veteran versus somebody that had lived in uh Dorchester all of their life.

I wanted to just no you and I know you probably don't have it now.

What impact at the time did the consent the consent decree have on the veterans versus the ones that were city residents for use?

So thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Under the consent decree, uh for a period of time they did one for one hiring.

Um that one for one hiring meant uh one person coming off of a traditional civil service list and then one uh personal color.

Oftentimes could be a civilian.

So if the uh person scored a 99 from the traditional list, they would take the 99 uh from the uh civilian lists for a person of color.

So they did that over a period of time, and then there was a disillusion of that.

But what about with regard to the veteran?

Did it have an impact on whether a veteran was brought in at that point or whether someone that had been living in the city?

That's what I was trying to get to.

Um that's hard to determine because um there are two preferences that can happen within the civil service lists DAVs, which have absolute preference, and then veterans.

Um, if you use our current uh hybrid model as an example, we actually hired veterans to our hybrid process.

These are people that serve the country but just have veteran stat status.

If not for the hybrid process, we would never have reached them on the uh traditional list because of the glut of DAVs that we have um on the traditional list.

Okay, thank you, Councillor.

We will have a brief third round uh and and I think we'll be able to get to you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, just uh a couple questions uh from the chair.

Um, okay, in terms of uh, you know, like there is discussion about um supplementals to the budget, uh, which would be just adding money on onto the budget from reserves.

I just you know, in terms of if you look at recent history, New York City had their financial outlook downgraded from stable to negative because they were taking money out of their reserves to pay for one-time expenses, and because they were making overly optimistic revenue projections, uh, and which is hurt their ability to borrow money to do things like build firehouses, you know, and uh and build schools and things like that.

So I would say that we should be very careful with spending money from our reserves, adjusting revenue projections because the the city of Boston's uh we have our highest possible rating, it's a strong financial foundation that allows us to increase the fire department budget by two percent this year at a time when lots of costs are going up.

So I think your budget it's like 335 million.

Do I have that right?

So when we're talking about 1.4 million for cancer screenings, and I I agree with all my colleagues and uh my just I I can't believe the can the the cancer data uh for our firefighters, it's it's you know, I feel like we need to do everything we can to help them.

You know, and this is probably a decision made, Commissioner, before you even took this job, but somewhere in that budget, there were like I I think we're just waiting for the 1.4 to come in as a grant.

Like when did why is that not prioritized in in the fire department's budget?

I mean, like what what decisions were made to fund something over that?

Well, I think it wasn't a decision, it was just that we have been receiving this grant since 2017, and now that has gone away.

So, how can we provide the level of services and the security needed to make sure the firefighters, you know, get the adequate screening to prevent occupational cancers and other things, you know.

What if we don't have the funds available to us?

I mean, have you looked through the the budget to try to I mean I think as Councillor Fitzcher was talking about maybe ways in manipulating the cadet class?

I mean, can you can at least come up with like a a plan we could talk about it uh for how it's it's difficult because traditionally we are not receiving increases in line items across our budget?

What you're referencing is you know uh the increase is you know 2.4 percent is a direct result of collective bargaining agreements, and there are several other cost centers within the department, uh, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine cost centers, ten cost centers in the department that are taking hits reductions this year.

And you know, the one point that I mentioned to you know, my colleagues, you know, Commissioner Um Marshall, Commissioner Ellis is you know, the budget, it does not account for any inflationary factors.

You know, as you know, average citizens, consumers here.

We see increases in everything over the past, you know, probably a couple weeks.

Just look at the price of gas.

But this budget and traditionally has not allowed for any increases at all in terms of inflation or uh any any changes.

Yeah, no, and and it's like the you know we're at a time when property people's property taxes, residential property taxes are going up, and they're looking and they're like, well, why is the fire department budget or the police department budget going up?

But we're talking about collective bargaining, we're trying to pay people, make sure you know if the public uh our BPS budget is going up and even though it goes up about 100 million dollars, they're still having to lay people off.

Uh it just costs more to re retain people.

So I I'm glad to hear you're you know, we're maintaining staffing levels, but in terms of those items that are going down, contractual services is taking a hit, uh, and uh I can't remember it's like uh I think 75,900 uh 96.82 cents.

Well I I have it uh yeah contracted services is 438,000 less than the 52900 line item.

I guess what is the contractual it's going down from 3.7 to 3.3 million.

I mean, what are what are the how how is that gonna impact um the fire departments?

Well, contracted services is you know, things that we use for service-related work in the department, things that we cannot maintain with our existing workforce.

So it could be, you know, like the you know, adjusting of the HVAC systems, having to call in specialized you know mechanic to be able to do some of that work.

That's just you know one example.

This you know, many examples of how we use contracted services money.

Are there any contracts that you know you're terminating because of the budget?

No, there's no contracts that were terminating.

Okay.

But there's other services that are taking a hit in terms of um contracted services um that directly uh affect the health and wellness of of firefighters like our uh bunker gear cleaning would be considered a contractual uh service that we uh gonna take a hit on.

Uh so we have to figure out a way to either try to bring that in-house at some point, um, and and try to like I said deflect that cost, but um at this point we just don't know how how we're gonna cover that.

Okay, um uh okay, and that there is well, okay.

That that that's it for me for this round.

Uh we're gonna go to the third round to my colleagues.

Uh I I think because we have a two o'clock hearing, we're gonna try to end this hearing at one, which is I think in a half an hour, uh 23 minutes.

Um, so we can divide 23 by five, but uh um, yeah.

How about uh yeah, three minutes, Councillor Flynn?

Thank you.

Commissioner Bunker gear cleaning.

Um that that program is being cut, that funding is being cut.

Well that that comes under the contractual services.

Um, like I said, that per se is not going to be cut, but uh we have to make some tough decisions.

Okay.

Historically, it has not been funded completely.

So it costs us about eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year to maintain the cleaning of the bunker gear.

As a line item, we have been funded approximately $600,000 for that.

So what that does to us is we're forced to make decisions on where do we find that additional money to compete complete that cleaning annually?

Okay.

Did the five did the fire department advocate prior to the release of the budget that these programs that are being cut or that won't be refunded or funded would have a negative would have a devastating impact on the health and wellness of firefighters and their families?

Was did the FIA department mention that to the mayor's office?

Yes, we did.

And what was the response?

Well, again, most of the uh that funding was going to be cut from grants.

So the response is basically that you can't, you know, uh depend on grants uh to to fund everything in your budget.

So, I mean, basically we just have to make some hard choices like open departments to we allocate funds to to cover those things.

But if we know the grants are not being funded, the the budget has to be adjusted to reflect that the grants aren't being funded, and then more money has to go into the budget to make up that difference.

That didn't take place.

That's what I'm that's what I'm concerned about.

Now we as a city, I believe we have a moral obligation to get that money back into the budget.

Um I don't think we have a choice.

I don't think we we can have a conversation if we're going to do it.

The only conversation we can have is how we're going to do it, and that has to take place today.

And people say, well, you know, the this you know, there's no money in the budget, but we're funding a lot of programs that don't necessarily need to be funded completely, in my opinion.

I've I've said that.

Um people say, well, a budget is your a reflection of your values.

I don't I don't want to hear about people's values.

I want to see the budget.

I want to see the budget, and if the budget says that we're cutting health and wellness, then we have to start over.

But we just can't, Mr.

Chair, we just can't go on and accept that we're cutting health and wellness as if it's not not that big of a deal.

This is a major priority.

If if anything comes out of this meeting today, residents of Boston should know that we're going to cut health and wellness programs that are saving lives for Boston firefighters and their families, and is the city council going to accept that?

That's the question.

Is the city council going to sit down and accept that, or are we going to do something about it?

That's that's the question.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor Flynn.

Counselor Murphy, three minutes.

Thank you.

Um, you know, we're referred to as the first in the nation.

I would argue the best in the nation also.

Um but to me it is outrageous, and I just want to thank you all for you know being here in your answers.

It's probably one of the most productive budget hearings.

Many times we come, we ask a few questions, we leave without any real understanding if we need to advocate.

So I think it's important that we have these tough conversations because if we're funding things across all other city departments that aren't, in my opinion, life and death situations, and if our city employees are, you know, sleeping and living and eating in unhealthy spaces, that's unacceptable, right?

We can't have students in classrooms with asbestos and we find the money to make sure we remove it.

We can't have seniors or like Council Flynn always advocating for our BHA residents when there's rats and broken elevators.

It's just unacceptable.

So we can have fun and fund feel-good things, and those are important for a city to be you know happy and have fun, but to me, these are the tough decisions that we've been saying all along that this time will come where we have to make tough decisions.

So I am ready to make those tough decisions and agree that we have to find a way, and not through our amendment process.

But if we need the residents to back us, which I know they will, to advocate that these things are not gone from the budget before we need to take a vote in June.

But I do want to have my few minutes to ask Michael if you could just talk a little bit about the residency requirement, and thank you also for the work we're doing.

I you know, with the cadet program and all, you know, I've been to all of those pinnings, and when we graduate academies and I do see, you know, the change, and lots of um young women, my daughter's friends, you know.

She grew up with, it's great to see city kids on these jobs and neighbors that I taught and just see around the neighborhood.

But there is a three-year residency requirement to apply to the cadet program, is that true?

That's correct.

If you're somebody who was born and raised in the city of Boston, so you know you've been here, you know, because oftentimes, like we know, we when we talk to police officers also, you might say to someone if they've been on for a few years, like, oh, what neighborhood do you live in?

Like, but they grew up in Ducksbury, you know, they grew up somewhere else, they obviously live here for the 10 years.

But if you have lived, you know, went to you know, school in Boston, grew up here.

Do you get more points, or do you have an advantage over someone who may have like you've grown up in Pembroke their whole life, and then use their grandmother's address in High Park, South Boston, maybe they were living there, but the timeline often, I'm not like targeting any one person, but knowing that there is a way to say, well, we've been living here in this address, it's a family house and it's a cadet, but they were probably away in college.

They've never actually lived in any of these neighborhoods because I just don't want this small number of opportunities, which I think are wonderful for our city kids to not go to 100% like actual, you know, city kids that we see, you know, at our playgrounds, in our kindergarten classrooms, going through our middle school and high school, and you know, working at you know, our in our neighborhoods, and so if you could just explain a little bit about that residency and how you look at it.

Yes, thank you, ma'am.

Um, so I'm not aware of anybody that would use a different address or anything of that nature.

We do have uh great investigators that would that we used um that are usually former BPD detectives, and so we we have a pretty good understanding in terms of uh residency.

Um the three years is really just uh an opportunity for us to look at candidates that have a minimum of three years, the majority of our cadets born and raised here.

Yeah, that's my question.

So I'm I'm not saying if they have their three years that maybe they weren't being honest about that, but I would want that they have less however the point system goes for some interview on the cadets.

That if they were lined up and they both did a great job on their interview and they both bring value that you can see, but that someone who's actually lived here their whole life that they would be chosen over someone who you know obviously grew up somewhere else and just moved here for this opportunity.

Yeah, I would agree with you.

Uh um overall, there's no point system in terms of the uh cadets and their their assessment uh process.

Um I would say if I'm vetting two candidates and they're equal, that we'd probably opt for the candidate that had more time in the city because chances are they're more vested in the city, they've probably had more experience in the communities as well.

We look at volunteerism as a big plus within the department.

So chances are if you have more time in the city, um, you've graduated from a school in the city, a more METCO program, uh, chances are you would have more, we would lean more toward that particular candidate's profile, but again, it's a it's it really is subjective in a case by case.

I have uh one example of a kid that came from uh New Jersey who's now a firefighter was a cadet.

He's a he was a cadet, now he's a firefighter.

Um he came here as a young adult to play uh college hockey.

Um, and so a great example of a candidate um, again, myself not being a Boston uh resident lifelong, but I've been here longer than I've been anywhere else in the world.

I think I would have made an excellent firefighter by coming here and uh laying roots in Roxbury, right on Woodville Street, and uh and really uh becoming a productive citizen of the city.

So there's a balance to it.

But all in all, if if two candidates are equal, a kid that uh is from the city, chances are there would be more weight that on that candidate's profile.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Councilor Fitzcherald, three minutes.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I don't really have any remaining questions.

Just want to say thank you all.

Uh, look forward to continue to work with you, and uh, you know, hopefully there can be some maneuvering internally on the budget to try and cover some of these health issues.

We want to make sure if we're sending folks uh to fight fires first that they're coming back the same way they went in.

So um maybe there's just a little bit more digging we can do and happy to help with you guys in any time, but I know times are tight, so uh just to continue that advocacy, but otherwise, thank you all for what you do for uh the city of Boston.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, Councillor Culpever, you've waived your three minutes on press.

No, okay.

You got three minutes.

Reclaiming my time.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Commissioner, I wanted to raise a question with you with regard to the firefighter gear and the PFAS, and whether they're still using gear that has that PFAS in it, and if they are, how are you transitioning?

How quickly are you transitioning away from a PFAS included firefighters gear?

Well, uh counsel, we we do still have um the traditional gear, and we've purchased the newer gear.

Um, there's nothing that says that we have to strictly go to to the PFAS gear right away.

So we're still using, like I said, the older gear that that supposedly has the PFAST in it at this time.

And so, let me ask you through the chair if you could go back and look at an estimate of what it would cause to provide the all firefighters with PFAS free gear.

Because again, it doesn't make sense for them to put on their gear, and it has that uh that health risks to go out to fight to save fires for folks, and they're putting on gear that is possibly threatening their their life.

And I looked at the 637 high risk cases that have been identified through body scans, 413 cardiovascular issues, the referral to 94 referrals for further treatment, and I'm traumatized this morning to see these figures, even with regard to the uh the gear, or we should be able to provide the firefighters with PFAS free gear, so if that is contributing to cancer, that's something that we can take off the table.

Because again, I know it's older equipment, but I think we have to focus on what helps save lives.

And it seems like from all the studies and the reports that PFAS free gear is helping to save lives.

And I don't think folks really understand the significance of the gear that they wear and how the gear is a threat to their safety.

So if you could look at it through the chair to see what it would cause to at least provide the firefighters with PFAS-free gear, because here they are going out to fight a fire, and their safety is at risk too.

So uh I'd appreciate that.

So, and I think we we have to be serious about the impact that these officers uh taking on with regard to firefighters.

Not want to publicize to the whole world because then you'll have no one want to be a firefighter.

But I think it's important that we as a council have a fiduciary duty to make sure we do all we can to make sure these firefighters, at least the gear, and uh, council you know uh traditionally we do um allocate um resources every year through the lease purchase program and the replenishment program we're on is about 400 sets per year at about $3,500 each.

So we have requested as part of the FY27 budget submission this year, a 1.4 million dollar add-on to uh continue that program.

So we're hoping that will move forward.

And I will say the city has been very good about funding that line every year.

Is that used to buy the PFAS free gear?

Yes, that will be.

And then after you do that, how much more do we need, and how many officers are actually using the gear that has a PFAS contaminant in it?

Because I think we need to be more aggressive about trying to at least get them with uh contaminant-free gear that they have to wear on.

It's something that we'll have to look at.

Thank you, please.

We have 400 sets, we'll look.

Thank you.

Yeah, I could maybe add a few things.

Um we've met with manufacturers in the probably within the last year about PFAS gear going to it.

And the way it was explained to me is PFAS free isn't necessarily PFAS, it's just below the reportable uh reportable standard.

And one of the other uh things that would uh they explain it to us is it doesn't last as long, not it's not as durable, and it costs probably two to three times as much.

So when you give each firefighter, you have to give each firefighter two sets, it can the cost can add up.

Now I don't wanna come up here and say that I'm putting cost over a firefighter's life, but those are the things that we're running up against.

I mean, I'd love to have that conversation.

If that'd be what's absolutely, I'd love to have a conversation because I think it's important.

I think it's really, really important that we try and do all we can between now and next year, even if it means going outside.

The government, I mean, look, we've got all these companies that uh would probably be willing to contribute uh to the health and safety of the firefighters.

So let's have some uh side conversations, Commissioner and your leadership team to to talk about how we can really give all of the firefighters PFAS free gear.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you very much.

I just um in terms of we talked about the 1.4 million for cancer screening, uh that money came from an outside grant.

If it's to be funded, like within the department's budget, where and I'm not not saying this is happening, but I just where is that money where would it have where should it go in your budget?

Is it contractual services or you know, I don't know that I will say that any additional cuts would be almost devastating.

No, I'm saying, like if we if we amended the budget to you know to fund the cancer screening, where in your fire, you know, in the fire department budget would that money?

Well, the majority would go directly to the um safety health and wellness, which I think is 2018, and yeah.

Are you looking for the account or the I'm just uh yeah, where would we want to send that money to to do the most good?

Um, so just to be clear, the 1.4 million is the total award that we have received from our AFG grant, and it's generally split between our training unit and our safety health and wellness.

Um the other questions about cancer screening, just you know, to be up front, we the union was also doing cancer screening, um, but they had certain caps on age and years of service, and you know, there were costs to the member.

Um, so it has been a program that we've been sort of developing and and staying on top of despite not being funded through our operating budget.

Um, we also got an allocation from a different department within the fire department, different cost center, uh, to move 100,000 dollars from I think miscellaneous supplies of our facilities department into contractual services, and those funds were also utilized when we did our most recent cancer screening through United Diagnostics, but essentially, you know, it all depends on our.

We intend, you know, the federal government lapse in funding has has created a lot of uncertainty citywide, and that's well known again.

Like Chief Marshall said too, oftentimes, you know, we can't rely on grant funds, and we have to look at sustainability.

Um, so I think I think it was probably about eight hundred thousand dollars that went towards the cancer screening in this or not in the fiscal year 23 grant, which has expired.

Fiscal year 24 grant is also puts us at an issue where the clinical director, who is our nutritionist and our injury prevention specialist who is proactively working with members to prevent line of duty injuries.

Also, the clinical director has hinged her treatment nutritional plans based on a lot of the um cardiac results that have come from the body scanning.

So I think the funds would be that's where we're seeing our biggest hit, would be the safety health and wellness budget because there's not much of a budget within that unit, and so the grant funds just to be clear that 1.4 million is what we were awarded in fiscal year 23.

What we applied for about the same amount, we we cycle the programs sometimes.

Um it's not always cancer screening, um, it's not always you know, different things depending on where we stand with funding or other funding, we make those judgment calls through the management, but I think in looking at the budget, like Kevin said, you know, bunker gear cleaning has been level funded, if not short funded, dips into other categories, and sometimes we're using the grants to say, okay, the you know, our budget is this, and we're also mindful we certainly don't want to take money off of other departments where students are not getting paper or pencils.

Um, you know, so we have addressed our concerns upward, and we understand that we're in a very difficult climate with a funding gap deficit.

So we do our best to sort of make sure that we can continue, you know, our critical services.

Yeah, I think I mean it would help uh to just be maybe to sketch out to provide the same benefits as were being provided by the grant.

If the grant doesn't come through, what types of resources would and you know, and how would the I could I from the chair I would I can send you uh like a just that question and you can answer that, and it might help.

I mean, for folks who this is a high priority, and I I think most of the colleagues of my colleagues would want to see that you know continued uh how to effectively advocate for that.

So I we we can take that.

Yeah, and I think Chief Shea probably has sort of a working plan.

You know, we were able to scan a good amount of our members, you know, the 700, which is about half.

Um, you know, they they medically can't do these scans every year, so it's possible that we can work with the number of what we might be able to do to get a good comprehensive scanning plan scheduled for future years to know you know what our best approach would be.

Um, so may not necessarily be the amount that was awarded in the grant, but what we can do to best service our members.

I hear that uh well, thank you very much.

So I want to uh just thank uh the commissioner and your staff for for uh answering questions.

I want to thank my council colleagues for for being here and asking great questions.

Uh and so um you know, it's one o'clock, we we have a hearing of two, trying to give central staff an hour to get ready for the next hearing.

Uh, we don't have anyone else.

Okay.

Uh this uh this morning's hearing is now adjourned.