HUMAN RESOURCES

The Human Resources Division, headed by the Department's Human Resources Manager, directs the activities of the Department's Personnel Office, Employee Relations Office, and Employee Assistance Unit, offering a full range of diverse personnel services to maintain and support the Fire Department's workforce.

The Personnel Office administers all employment services and transactions, including: selection processing, appointments, retirements, resignations, medical terminations, dismissals, suspensions and other disciplinary actions, labor relations, injury and sick leave medical claims management, Civil Service examination and job classification requests, affirmative action, employee recognition and employee records maintenance in accordance with City and Fire Department rules and regulations, Civil Service regulations, and various applicable state and federal laws. The Personnel Office also provides testimony and support in any resulting grievance administrative and/or legal hearings relating to these services.

The Employee Relations Officer/Employee Assistance Program

The EAP has developed into a broad based, service oriented, and management supported assistance program offering a full range of confidential counseling and referral services which helps individuals navigate through problems or effectively manage personal and/or family crisis.

(ERO/EAP) is staffed by a Battalion Chief and four regularly assigned staff Firefighters who are professionally trained to serve as counselors. In addition, the staff is augmented by twelve (12) shift Firefighters who serve as back up peer counselors. The program is organized to accomplish two things: (1) to prevent problems that interfere with an employee’s ability to effectively and efficiently perform their responsibilities, (2) to rehabilitate those employees who are experiencing addiction, emotional or other personal problems that negatively impact the employee’s performance on the job. The PFD has diversified its approach to helping its employees by

  • Marketing the various services the EAP provides to members
  • Getting each new Cadet class and Officer Development class oriented of the functions and services provided by the unit in order to initiate early intervention
  • Providing educational and intervention programs directly at the station level

This multi-tiered approach helps address problems in their incipient stages which reduce organizational cost due to lost productivity and time away from the job. This thrust is designed to take the EAP’s motto “Firefighter helping Firefighter,” to higher standard.