The committee includes three council members, a township trustee, one township resident and two city residents.
The committee last week also heard some support for first hiring four full time employees in non-supervisory roles.
Supervisors are needed to collaborate with those employees, who have varying levels of experience and training.
“Right now, with our system we are putting people in that position who haven’t been trained up, because that is all we have,” Haller said.
With supervisors on duty 24/7, more training and guidance can be provided, he said.
The department today has two full-time employees in the chief and assistant chief. The others are part-time with a supervisor not always available, Haller said.
“Our citizens want solid public safety services. The safety of our citizens and employees is paramount. Recruitment, retention, resiliency, consistency, effectiveness and efficiency are paramount and all in this plan,” Haller said.
Councilman Ryan Liddy asked about different staffing plans including hiring from the bottom up, which he said should help with creating more retention in the long term.
“My concern is we bring people in at the supervisor level, and it is a steppingstone,” Liddy said.
He suggested the city also look at bringing in a combination of shift commanders and firefighters.
“I think it would alleviate some of the concerns that we are just going from the top down,” he said.
The first-year hiring plan includes firefighters while the remaining three years of hiring would be for nonsupervisory firefighters.
The 2023 proposed budget includes just over $2 million for salary and benefits in the department.
City Council will be asked in coming weeks to approve the salary ranges for positions along with a civil service process for hiring, City Manager Tim Eggleston said.
Voters in November approved giving council the flexibility to move 0.2 percent of the city income tax from capital improvements to the general fund for operations, including helping pay for the expanded department. Funding is included in the proposed 2023 budget pending before council.
Voters in unincorporated Monroe Twp. in 2021 approved a tax increase to cover the township portion of an expanded department. The township now pays 26 percent of the cost of department operations. That will increase to 27 percent in 2023 under a new contract approved earlier this month.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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