As you know the State Budget was handed down today. To save those of you who areslightly more sane than I am the fun of reading it yourself here are mynotes that I took as I read it. Now there are no guarantees on the accuracyof what I wrote, if you're interested in a quick brief go for my notes, ifyou're into the nitty gritty, hit the Treasury website.Now having written the notes I will write a quick summary of the summarybecause even the notes get quite lengthy!Firstly, the only mention of anything related to us in the summarydocuments was the GRN upgrade ($101 million to be spent over four yearsupgrading it), so we certainly weren't a focus area, so no bigannouncements of wonderful things for us. CFS did well last year and both spent less than we were supposed to ANDearned more than we were supposed to, so big pat on the back for us. Wehave been given slightly more money for next year, but probably not a greatdeal more after you take into account the fact things are more expensivethan they used to be, so we will likely be in about the same situation nextyear as we have been this year. Next year we have been told we are allowedto spend $2.2 million more, however $1 million of this will go on increasedGRN charges, $0.8 million will go on the fact things (including staffwages) just cost more with inflation and $0.3 million will be ourcontribution towards the continuation of the Bushfire CRC.MFS on the other hand overspent significantly (almost $4 million - althoughthis is still only about 5% of their budget) mostly on wages (they somehowended up with 903 staff when they had only budgeted for 885, and theyapproved a nice new pay agreement with their staff, effective January 1)and their income wasn't much more than the government expected it to be.They shouldn't have the same problem next year because they are allowed tospend $9 million more next year (almost a 10% increase), however they areonly expected to bring in $200,000 more in income. Almost all of this extramoney will go towards paying for the improved Enterprise BargainingAgreement with their current staff, and the fact their staff numbers areset to increase by another 22 from where they are now.So no influx of new trucks or new stations, just keep doing what we'redoing, and because everything is a bit more expensive these days we will begiven more money to buy what we are already buying, and because MFSfire-fighters are now a LOT more expensive than they used to be MFS will begiven a LOT more money.Out of interest sake if you divide the total cost of employee benefits bythe total number of employees for each service, and MFS employee on averagecosts $91,000, whereas a CFS employee costs $79,000. If you take intoaccount the fact that the MFS employee spectrum includes Senior Staff,Administration and Firefighters, whereas ours only includes Senior Staffand Administration you can basically assume MFS Senior Staff are paid afair bit better than CFS Senior Staff.So that's the highlights, if you're feeling bored read on!Here are the notes I made to myself as I read it, they are only the thingsthat interested me the most, it is not a full list:Cost of Operating:2008/9 - CFS Budget was $53, 762, 000 (which was 2.3 million lessthan our cost the year before, which from memory was a fair bit overbudget, thanks to the KI fires)2008/9 - CFS Actual cost was $52,676,000In other words we came in under by slightly over 1 million dollars,probably due to there being less significant fires this year, and the factwe got extra money from the federal government.2009/10 - CFS Budget will be $54,713,000In other words our cost of operating for next year is about 1 millionhigher than our budgeted cost last year and 2 million more than we ACTUALLYcost last year. (but still more than we cost this year, since we werecheaper than expected)2008/9 - MFS Budget was $93,466,000 (which was about 9 million morethan the total spent the year before)2008/9 - MFS Actual cost was $97,186,000In other words MFS overspent their budget by 3.7 million dollars, which wasbasically spent on employees..2009/10 - MFS Budget will be $106,269,000In other words the MFS budget has increased by 9 million dollars over whatthey spent this year, and 12 million from last year's budget again, thereshould be notes later on about where the extra money will go. But you wouldhave to be happy to have 84 million in 2007/8 and by 2009/10 have that goup by 21.5 million in 2 years!Poor old SES are allowed to cost $158,000 more next year which was at leastan increase, but is still within $200,000 of where they were 2years ago.SAFECOM blew their target of $14 million by over $5million, and have beengiven almost the same target for this coming year, so we'll see if they canblow it again.For interest's sake SAPOL last year came in under by about $4.5 million andwere rewarded with an increase of about $21 million (5% ish) to a total of$638,273,000For the past year CFS had about 110.9 staff, and we're supposed to keep theexact same number for next year. MFS get an extra 22.5 staff, to go to anew total of 925.5. Poor old SES have to lose two staff and go back to atotal of 38. SAPOL should get just over 100 new staff.For interest's sake our minister's office has 13 staff (more than 10%of the entire paid staff of the CFS) and is expected to cost just over 1.5million to run for the next year.ExpensesThese are the straight expenses of the service, without any reference toincome, which may offset the costs. This is basically the amount we areexpected to spend:2008/9 - CFS Expenses were predicted to be $56,070,000 (which wasabout 3 million less than the total spent the year before)2008/9 - CFS Actual expenses were $55,918,000In other words CFS spent $152 thousand dollars less than we were expectedto AND we had more income in the areas of Commonwealth grants, othergrants, sales of goods and services and other income than we were expectedto, so we were very good performers. We controlled costs and liftedincome - if we were a business we would all be getting bonuses right now 2009/10 - CFS expenses are expected to be $58,067,000In other words the CFS get to go on a spending spree and spend almost twomillion more next year than we did last year. Some of this will go on wages(not much though - we don't get any extra staff) most of it goes on generalsupplies and services, which have gone up due to inflation, so really wewon't get much more for our buck 2008/9 - MFS Expenses were predicted to be $98,669,000 (which wasabout 5 million more than the total spent the year before)2008/9 - MFS Actual expenses were $102,486,000In other words MFS spent 3.8 million than they were expected to. Given howclose this is to their cost of operating variance it means they didn't makeup for much of this added expense with increased income.2009/10 - MFS expenses are expected to be $111,825,000Basically MFS have a greater variance between their expenses and their costof operating because they earn more money than we do, but while weunderspent on expenses and over earned on income, they overspent onexpenses and came in on target on income, so they came out with highercosts.CFSOur significant achievements of the past 12 months were thought to be: sending 400 vollies, 45 staff and the aircrane over to Victoria. Setting up a taskforce post black saturday to review ourselves setting up an incident management task group developing the tactical command and leadership course building a new website having some nice aircraft finishing the Mt Gambier group station They apparently set up a preparedness program for women on the Eyre Peninsula They did some more work on the Wangary reccommendations they made a DVD for community education they conducted a youth summitFor the next year they hope to: Reduce the number of people killed and injured in CFS area Train volunteers to conduct community education programs (money saver) Finish the Pt Lincoln station Trial some prototype appliances, including a rescue resource vehicle Set up electronic access to systems for the vollies Develop an incident level command and leadership program Establish a CFS medal award system Commence a review of evidence based resourcing levels (looks innocuous enough but I think we'll see more of this in the future)CFS apparently have 15,000 volunteers and 423 locations. The CFS did 7,771incidents last year.Employee costs came in a tad over budget ($200,000), but supplies andservices came in under budget by about half a million, but we have beengiven an increase of about 2 million on this line for next year (thanksSAFECOM and inflation). We did however overspend on "other" by over$250,000. Our revenue from the commonwealth was also slightly up onbudget, and is expected to stay higher (nearly double budget for last year,now nearly 2 million). For next year they are expecting to spend 2 milliondollars less on purchasing property plant and equipment (down to 12million) which is down from 14.5 million in 2007/8.Community education is going well, and they're pretty happy with theirconsultation processes.70 new appliances were scheduled for delivery (they don't comment on howmany actually WERE delivered).They did upgrades or replacements at the following stations: Aldgate, TeaTree Gully, Curramulka, Georgetown, Saddleworth and the Mount Gambier GroupCoordination Centre.They wanted 108 brigades to meet SFECs for training, but that didn't happen(only 61 did - exactly the same number as did last year, so no improvementthere) and they're not terribly positive about meeting this year's targetof 100. Even lowering the bar isn't expected to help us jump over it.Although they're saying it's because "if a single member lapses in theirtraining, the brigade will not have met the requirements", no mention ofthe fact it isn't because the poor scapegoat "single member" tried butcouldn't get on a course. They trained up 703 new recruits last year. Theywanted to run 2 state level 3 exercise, but only managed one, and wanted torun 12 regional level 2 exercises (2 per region), but only managed 4 (notsure which regions got left behind), in light of this they have lowered thebar and now will be happy if each region manages one.Of the 7,771 calls the CFS went to 2,356 were vehicle related, 2,073 wererural, 398 were structure fires and 192 were HAZMAT. So we could callourselves the Country Car Fire and Rescue Service.The biggest incidents of last year were:the deployment of CFS resources to assist in the Victorian Bushfires,the Yorke Peninsula hay storage facility fire,the Port Augusta prison incident, andbushfires at Onkaparinga Hills,Waitpinga, Engelbrecht, Gawler River, Bibaringa, Danggali, Cobdogla, Robe, Frances and Proper Bay.Apparently more fire deaths and injuries occur in CFS area than thenational average but this is improving. One of the reasons for this may bethat we include any reported injuries in our stats, but the nationalaverage only counts them if the person is hospitalised.Another stat that may get some attention post black saturday - 100% ofbushfire warning and information messages were issued within 30 minutes and99% of calls to the bushfire hotline were answered. 72% of bushfires have a determined cause, and they were hoping for 80%, sowe will have another go at that one next year.MFSTheir highlights form last year were considered: helping put on the AFAC conference Completing the Paradise station and starting work on Seaford Commissioning the new Aerial Worked with TAFE to review their staff development framework They conducted 4 recruit courses They renegotiated their EBATheir big plans for next year include: Completing Seaford Station delivering 12 new General Purpose Pumpers Commissioning the Lincoln station and aerial Getting involved in USAR they will run "multiple' recruit coursesThey had to spend a bit more money ($77,000) finishing the Beulah parkstation this year that they hadn't planned to, and another $68,000 on theirengineering facility. The did a lot of work on Paradise, with only $300,000or so more to do next year. They did about a third of the work they hadplanned to on the Lincoln station, so still have heaps to do next year, andthey did half as much on the Seaford station as they planned, so still haveanother 3 million to go on that one.They blew their employee budget by 4 million, but that's OK their budgetfor next year for employees has gone up by 11.5 million for next year, sothey still have 8 million to go, which will go on 22.5 new staff and thefact they pay their current staff more under the new EBA. Almosteverything else for them was pretty close to target.They are also pretty happy about a solar power initiative they started.They investigated 185 fires and expected to investigate 210 (they nowexpect 195 for next year). 75 CFS fires were investigated, when they onlyexpected 70. They expect 70 again this coming year.They were also slightly down in school visits and the like.They assessed more building proposals than they expected to, and did moreinspections. They did less booster commissioning than expected and theyexpect to stay at the new lower level (because less new buildings are beingcommissioned thanks to the GFC)They did more training than they thought they would, and they recruited the54 people they planned to. In the coming year they plan to recruit 36people (so maybe one less recruit squad in the intake)The number of structure fires they went to was well down, (1200 instead of1700) and they think it will stay down. vehicle fires were slightly down,as were other fires. Overall they went to 2,000 less callouts last yearthan they expected to and they expect to go to even less (20,350) nextyear. HAZMATs nearly halved, rescues were up about 20% and alarms weredown. They think structure fires might be down because of educationprograms, but too early to say, and they think alarms are down because ofthe new charging regime.They wanted to arrive within 7 minutes (metro area) 75% of the time andmade it 80% of the time, and are hoping for 75% next year too. The retainedguys did better, with the same target of 75%, but for 11 minutes, theymanaged it 81% of the time. The paid country guys topped the pops - with an11 minute arrival target (jobs can be up to 50km away) they managed it 96%of the time, 1% above their target.They had budgeted for 50 SPAM debriefs but had 100, and are expecting 75next year.They have a fair bit of cash at hand at the moment, but they will invest achunk of that into land and buildings next year (that would be theleftovers from being behind schedule at Lincoln and Seaford) they expect tospend less next year on plant and equipment (vehicles, machines and stuff)probably because they got the Aerial out last year.SAFECOMOver the next year they are: supposed to look at a telephony based emergency warning system (anyone see that coming?) They will have a focus on building replacement Changes to the Act (as suggested in the John Murray review) are supposed to be implemented They need to finish implementing the Wangary coronial findings Volunteer services need to be reviewed to "ensure that they align to the National Standards for Volunteers" They also need to "Provide the government with recommendations on Emergency Services Delivery Standards based on community risk", Keep an eye on this one, could be a lead-in to some service rationalisation. They also need to "Conduct a review of the procurement, servicing and salvaging of appliances, vehicles and vessels across the sector to improve efficiency, effectiveness and consistency", in it's best form it could mean some nice joint contracts for appliances with other services, could mean second hand MFS pumpers go on the run as CFS pumpers, but in its worst form it could mean that they extend the life of a CFS pumper to about a million years, or until it the amount of chewing gum holding it together outweighs the rust...For their past year's $5 million blowing of the budget they are pattingthemselves on the back for: Updating their website reviewing the administrative workloads of volunteers Basically doing what they are supposed toMost of the blowout in budget occurred under "Services and Supplies" whichthey were supposed to spend 5 million on, but they spent 10 million on.They have been allocated even less ($500,000 less) for this budget linenext year. There are no clear details on what this entails, but i can tellyou it isn't consultancies, because they were pretty much on budget. Maybethey bought a lot of paperclips.They also significantly overspent on "Other" which was supposed to be$64,000 but became $166,000. They have been only been given $65,000 forthis budget line next year so won't be allowed to keep up theoverspend.T hey were expecting to get half a million from the governmentlast year but got zippo (it was sent to Treasury instead, because they nowlook after the relevant programs so they are expecting zilch again thisyear).They set up a State Logistics Functional Service which will providelogistics support, such as catering and supplies during major emergencies.SAFECOM had slightly less staff than they were allowed, so that was a bitcheaper and they got given more money by the state government that wasmoved between programs (some of the stuff that went to treasury got sentback) but this didn't quite make up for the mystery overspend. They blamedthe overspend on "inflation supplementation"SAFECOM expect to get less from the ESL next year, but are happy with thatbecause they think the emergency services will get cheaper next year (makeup your own mind about that one)
Out of interest sake if you divide the total cost of employee benefits bythe total number of employees for each service, and MFS employee on averagecosts $91,000, whereas a CFS employee costs $79,000. If you take intoaccount the fact that the MFS employee spectrum includes Senior Staff,Administration and Firefighters, whereas ours only includes Senior Staffand Administration you can basically assume MFS Senior Staff are paid afair bit better than CFS Senior Staff.
I dont get how CFS staff can be paid less.
Gee someone is sh itty pants with the MFS !! Some interesting stats, I love the statement "CFS keeps lowering the bar to meet the standards" hahahahhaha, thats funny.Now let me clean my computer, its dripping with sarcasm from reading that.
