BY ALEX REECE
Zooming out
Civil service Several other north Texas entities operate under a civil service system. Each vary in terms of their populations.
Dozens of fire departments across Texas rely on some form of civil service, said John Riddle, president of the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters, a non-partisan firefighters organization. The hiring, promotion and discipline standards in civil service benefit the city and employees by reducing political interference and setting strong department standards, Riddle said in an email. For example, civil service promotions and hirings are based on test scores instead of any bias or potential favoritism, Greif said. “You just need to make sure you know the rules,” Greif said. Implementing civil service would strengthen the department and the city the same way it does for other Texas fire departments, Sapp said.
Frisco 219,587
Carrollton 133,820
Plano 289,547
Garland 240,854
Fort Worth 956,709
Dallas 1.3M
Arlington 394,602
Irving 254,715
MAP NOT TO SCALE N
SOURCE: US CENSUS, TEXAS MUNICIPAL LEAGUE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Diving deeper
Department staffing
The standardized hiring process with civil service would make it easier to hire firefighters, Sapp said. “We’re concerned about our call volume and our run times, which are increasing,” he said. Frisco’s projected growth means additional fire stations should take priority over the new structures proposed by the propositions, Woodard said. Through collective bargaining, allocating more money for staffing may hinder opening additional fire stations since it would take a larger percentage of the city’s budget, Woodard said. “[Safety First Frisco] doesn’t believe that’s what the citizens of Frisco want,” he said.
The Frisco Fire Department's staff has grown by more than 150 since 2010, including emergency medical services and administrative staff, volunteer members and firefighters, according to city data.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
SOURCE: CITY OF FRISCO/COMMUNITY IMPACT
What’s next?
The propositions are separate entities and could be approved together, denied together, or one approved and one denied.
Both Pass
Only prop A passes
Only prop B passes
None pass
Nothing changes and the fire department remains as it is.
Officials have 90 days to implement civil service, form a three-citizen commission and begin work on a bargaining contract.
A citizen commission and civil service guidelines will be implemented in 90 days.
Representatives begin working out a contract, which could take a while as both sides compromise.
OR
OR
OR
SOURCE: TEXAS LOCAL GOVERNMENT CODE, FRISCO FIRE FIGHTERS ASSOCIATION/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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FRISCO EDITION
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