The Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department plans to start its paid preapprentice trainee program soon, Unified Government officials said Monday night.
Doug Bach, UG administrator told the Public Works and Safety Committee that the trainee program was recommended by a task force last year.
Chief John Paul Jones said the program will identify and hire qualified Wyandotte County residents as paid, pre-apprentice firefighter trainees who then would be placed in an accelerated emergency medical technician training.
The mission is to quickly get the minimum requirement for certification, he said. EMT training would occur as the schedule allows within a partnership with Kansas City Kansas Community College, he added.
Currently there are eight seats reserved for the fall session there in an accelerated EMT program, he said. There will be a competitive selection process including testing.
The trainees will be paid $25,292 plus benefits while they are in this program, Jones said. Besides their classroom work, they may be asked to do other training as required by the Fire Department.
Applicants for firefighter trainee must be 18 years old by the date of hire, must be a Wyandotte County resident, must have acquired a high school diploma or GED, and will be subject to the same disqualifiers as other firefighters. Automatic disqualifiers include DUI within the last three years, multiple DUIs, marijuana use within the last 12 months, illicit drug use within the last three years, falsification of documentation and felony conviction.
The first firefighter trainee is expected to be hired by mid-August, Jones said.
The trainees will be in an accelerated immersion-style program at KCKCC from Aug. 22 through Dec 19, 2016, he said. Advertising for the hiring process is expected to begin by mid-June or earlier, he said.
Bach said the objective is to get trainees in, and through EMT and to the first available academy. But the academy will not always be available when the trainees finish their coursework.
The trainees will either go right in to the academy, or wait a year until the next academy, he said. There will be an effort to provide programs to keep them active and instrumental in assisting with firefighter operations while they are waiting, he said.
Jones said the department is looking at this program in phases. The process to become a paramedic takes about four semesters of community college.
“Now we’re exploring the possibility of how we grow more paramedics within the community, and how do we home-grow paramedics within the Fire Department,” Jones said.
After asking several questions about benefits, the timeline of the program, and psychological testing by the department, Commissioner Jane Philbrook said, “I’m so excited that we’ve gone through this as a community and as the Fire Department.”
Jones said the department is using a different group for the testing now, and testing will be improved.
Commissioner Harold Johnson asked if there would be definitive goals on minority hiring.
Bach said the UG is not able to establish goals for minority hiring. One of the goals is to make the Fire Department and all departments more reflective of the community, he said. He added the recruitment base will be in Wyandotte County.
“We’re starting from a base of recruits of people we’re going to. If we hire people that are a cross-section of our community, then we’re going to ultimately end up and be reflective of our community,” Bach said. He said the end result would show a good reflection of the community.
Commissioner Melissa Bynum asked about working with the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools in the Diploma Plus program before students graduate from high school. Jones said he is working on a meeting with the district on this subject, and there could be another program in the future with the district.
Bynum also asked if the applicant and department come to a mutual understanding that the job is not right for the applicant, would the Fire Department steer the applicant toward another UG department job that might be more suitable.
