A paramedic rolls a stretcher into an ambulance. The Provo Fire Department hopes to attract more paramedics to the area with higher salaries. (Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels)
Provo City Council members unanimously approved a resolution that will allocate $ 105,000 to the fire department budget to help create more competitive salaries and attract new paramedics, as set on the agenda for the March 30 council meeting.
“Over the past two years we have seen several agencies on the Wasatch front trying to get people involved in public safety and making significant adjustments to the salaries paid to get people involved in the service,” said Provo Human Resource Analyst Daniel Softley.
Provo has lagged behind these trends for higher wages for first responders compared to surrounding cities, according to Softley.
Alderman Bill Fillmore said at the council’s working session on the same day that this change “appears absolutely necessary”.
Instead of waiting for the start of the next fiscal year to propose these changes, the city council expressed the need to make these changes as soon as possible.
Softley said there will be “nine vacancies in the fire department by July 1 due to retirements, a medical leave application, and some moving to other jobs. We will fill four of them, which will leave five more vacancies that we must fill. “
The department has a particular need for ambulance paramedics recruitment and hopes that competitive salaries for parametric positions will attract applicants to Provo.
“One of the things we noticed is that we were able to hire emergency services but had difficulty getting paramedics on,” Softley said.
Provo has the most EMTs working for the department Softley has seen in his 20 years at Provo City. “These are skilled and skilled workers, but if we hire too many emergency services it means we will no longer be able to have a minimum number of ambulance personnel,” Softley said.
“Paramedics have a higher level of certification, which means they can do more on the ambulance,” Softley said. That higher certification deserves higher pay, and while other fire departments across the country have adjusted their paramedic salary budgets, Softley said, “Based on our current study, Provo Fire is lagging behind.”
The Provo Fire Department often helps rescue workers become certified paramedics in their school education. However, between paying overtime for school hours and covering the cost of paramedic training, fire departments can spend up to $ 35,000 on certification.
Softley and other city officials hope that an increase in pay will cost the city less money and will bring more paramedics to Provo soon.
“A paramedic class is scheduled for May. These changes are scheduled to take effect in April so that we can be competitive with many of these graduates, ”said Softley.
The income for the additional funding came from the Wildland Fire Response Revenues, which are used to compensate fire departments who help in emergencies outside their area of responsibility.
“Our firefighters respond to fires across the country, mostly California, and generate additional revenue,” said John Borget, director of administrative services at Provo. “What we’ve done in the past is to allow the fire department to use certain things that they need from this additional income.”
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