Friday's Internet Edition, July 04, 2008.
cross-training
new personnel
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News editor -
The Copperas Cove Fire Department is making some changes.
With the recent loss of the city’s two code enforcement officers, Fire Chief Dennis Haas is looking to cross train the position.
“Because of the type of year we have had, we are looking to cross-train our employees” Haas said. “The two new enforcers will be trained to perform firefighter duties, and our fire inspectors will be trained to do code enforcement.”
Haas said the reason for the training would be so that each will know how to perform another job if the need arises.
“With the code enforcers, if we are short staffed due to a major fire,” Haas said. “They are easier to call in than our off duty firefighters.”
Haas said that the main job for the new hires would be code enforcement.
“We are not going to take our firefighters and just teach them to do code enforcement,” Haas said. “We are not hiring two new firefighters, we are hiring two code enforcement officers, but they will be trained to do firefighter and EMT work.”
The reason for the cross training is also so that in the event the department loses the two officers at the same time, someone would be able to step in with the ability to keep up with the current pace of the job.
“We don’t want to run into the problem of us scrambling to get things done. It won’t be something that is so noticed by the public,” Haas said. “Eventually, we want to have the fire inspectors know code enforcement and the code enforcers to know fire inspection.”
Haas said the cross training would also help when it comes to vacation time. The cross training will also help when staff is brought to minimum due to an emergency call.
“It would just be easier to call them in and have them ready in case another call comes in,” Haas said. “Otherwise we would have to wait for an off duty firefighter to come in from home, which could be some time lost.”
The training will also help when code enforcement receives a high volume of calls.
“When the city states they have a loss of 400 water accounts, well then that just means that we have 400 vacant lots,” Haas said. “And 400 vacant lots means there are bound to be some complaints when it comes to growing grass”
Haas said that the vacant lots coupled with a wet year, complaints on high grass have been growing rapidly.
The fire department fielded 127 complaints for July, compared to 17 in June.
“What we really want the citizens to know is that there is a process when we get a complaint,” Haas said. “Sometimes they expect to call in the complaint and see the problem fixed the next day, but in reality it can take up to three weeks before any action is taken.”
Haas said the reason for the delay is because of guidelines set out by City Charter.
After the first report of a code violation, the resident is given notice that they are in violation and then are given ten days to comply.
If the violator fails to comply within the allotted ten days, then a citation is issued. After another ten days if the problem is still not corrected, the officer can take the issue to the courts.
If the city has to hire a contractor to mow a yard and have it up to code, then the owner will be charged for the labor plus an $150 administrative fee plus an additional $50 lien fee.
“We understand it can be frustrating to those citizens who do follow city code,” Deputy Fire Chief Robert O’Dell said. “It may seem like we are not doing anything, but it’s a process we have to follow. The best thing would be to have voluntary compliance.”