Lee and Miano discuss Be Heard staffing and composition

And I know that in the beginning, especially when the program first started up, and as you alluded to, this is a very niche sort of program that deals with very underserved communities.

And so just wanting to know how has it been in terms of staffing up and getting enough teams that are able to appropriately meet the needs of the folks that need this help on the ground?

Because I know that it was tough in the beginning to recruit folks to take on this work.

And so I just wanted to hear if you had any updates on that.

And in terms of also from 44 to 84 positions, do you anticipate any issues there in terms of staffing up?

Yeah, I'll turn this over to our chief of EMS operations, Paul Miano, who will talk you through the operational portion.

How are you?

As the commissioner previously stated, we were preparing to disband Be Heard without any service gaps.

But that did mean we did start to send some units, some members out into the field, into other positions.

Since Commissioner coming back and taking back Be Heard to the fire department, we have rehired those members back into Be Heard, and our staffing remains consistent.

And again, Be Heard, we don't just pick people to go to Be Heard.

It's an application process.

So whenever we put out a posting for it, we get people who want to be a part of the unit.

It's something that our members feel very passionate about, so they apply to be a part of the unit.

And as we have those postings and we're able to have those trainings that you attended, we're going to fill all of those spots that we had originally started to put people out into the field for.

Okay, so no anticipation of having issues filling that position.

Hopefully, as you mentioned, I get that it's a volunteer application process.

No anticipation and, I mean, issues?

I don't believe so.

We have a lot of people who are members of EMS who feel very passionately about that program.

Perfect.

Okay.

And can you break down the titles?

How many are clinicians, EMS co-responders, and how many are administrative or supervisory?

So right now we have a total of 62 fire department EMS members assigned to be heard.

The majority of them are EMTs, and we do have sergeants and lieutenants also assigned.

So that's going to be 28.

28 sergeants and combination of 28 sergeants and lieutenants that we have assigned to be heard and

34 EMTs that are assigned to be heard.

Okay, 34 EMTs.

And what's the total cost now of Be Heard program inclusive of all the funding sources, not just the transferred city funded portion shown in the executive budget?

So for the current year, fiscal 26, it's about $4 million.

When you add the two components.

That's just the fire department piece.

So the social workers, for example, are actually part of the health and hospital budget.

H&H, right.

Yes, so you don't see that part in our budget numbers.

Right.

Okay.

And do you know what that total budget is overall, if you can remind?

I don't know what the H&H budget piece is.

Okay.