Fire Department Staffing, Recruitment, Hiring
& Bilingual Services
Annual Report
Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee
October 19, 2023
Presented by:
Robert Sapien, Jr., Fire Chief
James A. Williams, Assistant Fire Chief
Fire Department
Staffing
2 Background
3 • “All Hazard” Response
• 208 Square Miles
• City Population: 959,256
• 109,136 Emergency
Responses in FY 2022-2023
• Local "In County" Auto-Aid and
Mutual Aid
• California OES Master Mutual
Aid Participation
• 720 Authorized Sworn
Positions in FY 2022-2023
Thursday, October 19, 2023
4 Thursday, October 19, 2023
Daily Staffing (Typical) = 190
Resource
(Staffing) Number Personnel
Battalion (1) 5 5
Fire Engine (4) 33 132
Fire Truck (4) 9 36
Rescue Medic (2) 3 6
ARFF (6) 1 6
US&R (4) 1 4
Med 30 (1) 1 1
5 Thursday, October 19, 2023
Authorized Sworn Staffing
Sworn Position (Rank)
Authorized Positions
FY 2022-2023: 720 sworn
Fire Chief 1
Assistant Fire Chief 1
Deputy Fire Chief 4
Battalion Chief 21
Fire Captain 175
Arson Investigator 4
Fire Prevention Inspector 13
Fire Engineer 234
Firefighter 267
Sworn Vacancy Rates
6 • Vacancy rates over last
five years have ranged
from 2.7% to 9.4%
• “Hire ahead”/overstrength
strategies have not been
employed
• 570 (190 per shift) staffed
field positions
• 30 sworn assigned to
administrative duties
• 6 sworn senior
management positions
Thursday, October 19, 2023
710
711
707
719
720
690
689
681
677
652
600 620 640 660 680 700 720 740
2018-2019
2019-2020
2020-2021
2021-2022
2022-2023
Authorized Positions vs. Filled Positions
Positions Filled Authorized Positions
Sworn Separations and Hiring
7 • Sworn separations
averaged 37 over fiveyear period
• Sworn hiring averaged 34
over five-year period
• Target 25-30 Firefighter
Recruits per Academy
• Firefighter Recruit
Academy is 18 to 20
weeks
Thursday, October 19, 2023
50 22
24 47
27 27
25 30
51 51
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
2018-2019
2019-2020
2020-2021
2021-2022
2022-2023
Sworn Employee Separations vs. Sworn Hires
Total Separations Total Hires
Absences, Vacancies, and Backfill Trends
8 Thursday, October 19, 2023
-
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
F Y 1 8 - 19 F Y 1 9 - 20 F Y 2 0 - 21 F Y 2 1 - 22 F Y 2 2 - 23
COMBINED
Absence Hours Vacancy Hours Back-Fill Hours
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
F Y 1 8 - 19 F Y 1 9 - 20 F Y 2 0 - 21 F Y 2 1 - 22 F Y 2 2 - 23
FIRE CAPTAIN
Absence Hours Vacancy Hours Back-Fill Hours
-
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
F Y 1 8 - 19 F Y 1 9 - 20 F Y 2 0 - 21 F Y 2 1 - 22 F Y 2 2 - 23
FIRE ENGINEER
Absence Hours Vacancy Hours Back-Fill Hours
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
180,000
200,000
F Y 1 8 - 19 F Y 1 9 - 20 F Y 2 0 - 21 F Y 2 1 - 22 F Y 2 2 - 23
FIREFIGHTER
Absence Hours Vacancy Hours Back-Fill Hours
Resource Deployment
9 Santa Clara County Fire
Agencies Staffing to
Population
• Agencies listed total
672,475 in population
and 748 total sworn
personnel (1.11 staffing
to population
• Agencies staffed by
CalFire excluded
(Morgan Hill, South
Santa Clara County
FPD, CalFire Unit)
Fire Agency Population
Served
Sworn
Personnel
Staffing to
Population
San José* 959,256 720 0.75 per 1,000
Santa Clara County 258,315 248 0.96 per 1,000
Sunnyvale DPS** 156,317 85 0.54 per 1,000
Santa Clara 132,476 125 0.94 per 1,000
Mountain View 83,601 80 0.95 per 1,000
Milpitas 81,067 75 0.92 per 1,000
Palo Alto 67,287 93 1.40 per 1,000
Gilroy 60,078 42 0.69 per 1,000
*Excludes population within 26.81 square miles of Santa Clara County Zone 1 Contract coverage area. **Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety provides both law enforcement and fire protection.
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Santa Clara County Fire Agencies Company Staffing
10 Fire Agency Engine Company
Staffing
Truck Company
Staffing
Daily Total
Staffing
San José 4 4 190
Santa Clara County 3 4 66
Sunnyvale DPS 2 2 26
City of Santa Clara 3 4 36
Mountain View 3 3 21
Milpitas 3 4 21
Palo Alto 3 3 24
Gilroy 3 3 9
Thursday, October 19, 2023
U.S. Cities Staffing Levels
11 Thursday, October 19, 2023
City Estimated Population Sworn Personnel Staffing to Population New York, New York 8,804,194 15,225 1.73
Los Angeles, California 3,766,109 3,510 0.93
Chicago, Illinois 2,608,425 5,160 1.97
Houston, Texas 2,264,876 3,897 1.72
Phoenix, Arizona 1,651,344 1,978 1.2
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1,527,886 3,000 1.96
San Antonio, Texas 1,479,493 1,893 1.28
San Diego, California 1,368,395 1,021 0.75
Dallas, Texas 1,259,404 2,097 1.67
Austin, Texas 966,292 1,257 1.3
Jacksonville, Florida 962,970 1,784 1.85
Fort Worth, Texas 961,885 977 1.02
San José, California 959,256 720 0.75
Columbus, Ohio 907,865 1,638 1.8
Charlotte, North Carolina 885,663 1,104 1.25
Indianapolis, Indiana 871,449 1,270 1.46
San Francisco, California 831,703 1,564 1.88
Arson Unit Staffing
12 • 4 authorized Arson Investigator
positions
• 4
th Arson Investigator added in FY
2022-2023 Operating Budget to
address short term vacancies
• Arson Investigators assigned to
24-hour shift schedules
• Supervising Arson Captain on 40-
hour administrative schedule
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Sworn Recruitment/Hiring Status
13 Sworn Recruitment/Hiring Status
14 • Filled 80 sworn vacancies
• Each classification has unique job
requirements and minimum
qualifications; requires separate
recruitment processes
• External recruitments - conducted
for entry-level Firefighter rank
• Internal recruitments - conducted
for promotion to non-management
sworn ranks
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Recruitment, Marketing, & Outreach
15 Thursday, October 19, 2023
• SJFD Women’s Boot Camp
• San José Fire Explorer Post 888
• Accredited Local Academy
• South Bay Regional Public Safety Training
Consortium
• Advertising, Marketing and Social Media
Resources
• Career Fairs
Bilingual Services Status
16 17 Thursday, October 19, 2023
Fire Sworn Personnel Demographics
Senior
Staff BC CA AI FPI FE FF
Female (24) 1 4 1 2 4 12
American Indian or Alaskan Native (7) 3 3 1
Asian/Pacific Islander (50) 1 19 2 18 10
Black, African American (14) 1 8 1 1 3
Mexican, Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin (114) 1 5 38 1 36 33 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (1) 1
White, Caucasian (251) 3 10 84 3 4 104 43
Undisclosed/Declined to State (Race/Ethnicity) (215) 1 4 16 1 2 29 162 Key: BC = Battalion Chief, CA= Captain, AI= Arson Investigator, FPI= Fire Prevention Investigator, FE= Fire Engineer, FF= Firefighter The Fire Department seeks to actively recruit, train, and support a talented and diverse workforce. To ensure we meet our goals, demographic data is maintained to monitor progress and to guide recruitment efforts.
Language Needs Reported by First Responders
18 Thursday, October 19, 2023
58%
28%
7%
2%
2% 2% 1%
Spanish*
Vietnamese*
Mandarin*
Farsi (Persian)
Punjabi
Russian*
Tagalog*
• Department recognizes 20
languages for bilingual
certification.
• 86% utilize Spanish and
Vietnamese translation.
*Languages recognized for bilingual certification
19 Thursday, October 19, 2023
Current Certified Bilingual Employees
9%
69%
5%
12%
5%
Chinese, Cantonese, Korean,
Mandarin
Spanish
Tagalog
Vietnamese
Other Languages
Note: Other languages include the following – Armenian, Assyrian, Cambodian, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, & Turkish. These languages made up less than 1% of the total reported
• Department Bilingual
Policy requires
assignment of certified
bilingual employees at
each fire station,
during each shift.
• Department will
continue to explore
language needs and
capabilities.
Questions?
James A. Williams, Assistant Fire Chief
20 Thursday, October 19, 2023
Fire Department Sworn Staffing, Recruitment, Hiring & Bilingual Services Annual Report October 19, 2023
Item (d)1