City Council action creates dedicated EMT and paramedic positions while keeping three ambulances in service and returning Engine 39 to active duty
A significant change is coming to the way the Folsom Fire Department staffs its ambulances, one city officials say will put another fire engine back on the streets while creating a new group of employees dedicated specifically to emergency medical care and patient transportation.
The Folsom City Council on Tuesday approved a new single-role ambulance transport system, authorizing the city to establish dedicated Emergency Medical Technician and paramedic positions within the Fire Department rather than continuing to rely exclusively on personnel who serve the combined role of firefighter and paramedic.
The change is more than a personnel restructuring. At the operational level, it is designed to address two challenges that have increasingly intersected for the department: maintaining enough firefighter-paramedics to staff emergency operations and keeping adequate fire suppression resources available while continuing to meet the city’s emergency medical and ambulance transport needs.
“This model and this presentation dramatically changes the deployment model on how we staff our ambulances,” Folsom Fire Chief Jason Solak told the council.
For residents, Solak said the change will allow the department to bring a fifth engine company back into service while maintaining its existing ambulance transport capacity.
“The changes for the community is that we are able to restore services to the fifth engine. We lower cost per position. We are asking for no additional funding, and that will allow us to dedicate two of our three ambulances to what we refer to as single role, meaning that they will be staffed with EMTs and paramedics rather than firefighters,” Solak said.
Under the plan approved Tuesday, Folsom will create 14 single-role positions — seven paramedics and seven EMTs — while reducing the number of budgeted firefighter-paramedic positions from 37 to 27. Ten existing firefighter-paramedic positions will be converted to the new classifications, while four additional full-time positions will be added, increasing the number of positions within that portion of the staffing model from 37 to 41.
Importantly, the conversion does not eliminate any currently filled firefighter-paramedic jobs. The Fire Department intends to make the transition through existing and anticipated vacancies, meaning no incumbent firefighter-paramedic will be displaced, demoted or have compensation reduced as a result of the change.
The most visible result for residents will be the reactivation of Engine 39.
Folsom currently operates emergency services from six fire stations, but budget constraints led to the temporary closure of one engine company. The department has been operating four engines, one truck company and three medic units. Its analysis found that maintaining that configuration without structural overtime requires 36 firefighter-paramedic positions, with 37 currently budgeted.
Solak said the new structure gives the department a way to bring back the engine company that was taken out of regular service last fall without seeking additional funding.
“The culmination of this resolution and the staffing model provides the funding, again, with no additional funding to restore service to the engine that we browned out back in late October, early November,” Solak said.
Reactivating a fifth engine under the existing dual-role system would require 39 firefighter-paramedics, two more than the city’s current authorized staffing level, along with the additional salary, benefit and academy expenses associated with those positions.
Instead, the new model separates part of the ambulance transportation workload from fire suppression staffing.
Twenty-seven firefighter-paramedics will remain assigned across the city’s six stations and three shifts, staffing five engine companies, one truck company and one medic unit. The 14 newly classified single-role employees will staff two additional dedicated medic units, Medic 39 and Medic 37.
The city will therefore continue operating three staffed ambulances — the same number as today — but two will be staffed by employees whose primary role is emergency medical response and transportation rather than fire suppression.
That distinction is central to the city’s strategy.
By assigning dedicated EMTs and paramedics to two ambulances, the department expects to reduce the frequency with which personnel who are also trained and equipped for fire suppression are committed to ambulance transport. At the same time, those firefighter-paramedics can be concentrated on the department’s engines, truck and remaining medic unit, allowing Engine 39 to be reactivated.
City staff said returning the fifth engine company to service is expected to improve the department’s ability to assemble an effective response force, increase unit availability and improve coverage throughout Folsom’s six-station system. The dedicated transport units, meanwhile, will have personnel whose sole assignment is EMS response and transportation.
The change comes as Folsom Fire continues to contend with vacancies and a competitive market for firefighter-paramedics.
According to the staff report presented to the council, the department is carrying 10 vacancies among its 76 line positions, including nine firefighter vacancies — 10 when anticipated internal promotions are taken into account — and one engineer vacancy. The department also anticipates additional vacancies as personnel move through the ranks.
Solak acknowledged that appearing before the council with that many open positions would ordinarily be anything but good news.
“Standing before you and telling you that we have 10 vacancies isn’t normally something that I would take lightly,” Solak said. “It’s certainly not a best practice. This process has been an evolution.”
In this case, however, those vacancies are part of what allows Folsom to make the transition without laying off or displacing existing firefighter-paramedics. Rather than removing occupied positions, the department can convert vacancies into the new single-role classifications.
“It’s only through, I guess, some luck that we find ourselves in this position at a time where we can really leverage those vacancies and implement the system,” Solak said.
Recruiting dual-role firefighter-paramedics has become increasingly difficult regionally and statewide, according to the department. In addition to competing for a limited pool of qualified candidates, the city must account for the time and expense required for fire academy training and paramedic accreditation before new dual-role employees can be placed into service.
Single-role EMT and paramedic classifications give the city access to what staff described as a substantially larger potential labor pool. Those employees also require a shorter and less costly academy because they are not being trained to perform fire suppression duties.
The distinction between the two groups will remain clear. Single-role EMTs and paramedics will be Fire Department employees and respond to emergency calls, provide medical care and transport patients, but they will not be firefighters.
The city’s new EMT classification is specifically described as a non-firefighter position within the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services Division. EMTs will provide Basic Life Support care, assist paramedics with Advanced Life Support duties, operate ambulances, transport patients to hospitals and other emergency care facilities, complete patient-care reports and perform other EMS and public education duties.
Single-role paramedics will have a similar EMS-focused role but will be qualified to provide both Basic and Advanced Life Support care. The classification is likewise specifically distinguished from firefighter positions because firefighters are responsible for combating, extinguishing and preventing fires.
That also represents one of the limitations of the new system. Because the single-role employees are neither trained nor equipped for fire suppression, they cannot simply be moved onto an engine to fill a firefighter vacancy. Fire suppression coverage will continue to depend upon the department’s 27 dual-role firefighter-paramedic positions.
City staff acknowledged that distinction among the risks associated with the transition. Recruitment and retention will also remain important because Folsom will be competing in the regional EMS labor market for EMTs and paramedics, and delays in filling the new positions could prolong the department’s reliance on overtime during implementation.
The department, however, has already moved well beyond simply advertising the new jobs.
Recruitment opened June 12, followed by oral boards and EMS assessments July 8-10. Pre-employment medical examinations and background investigations began July 15 for prospective employees and alternates.
By Tuesday night’s meeting, Solak told the council that 14 candidates had already reached the contingent-offer stage.
“I’m pleased to say that we have 14 folks that have received contingent offers, pending the approval from council to adopt the resolution and officially acknowledge those classifications in the MOU and the Fire-EMS unit,” Solak said.
He said the department anticipated completing the process by the end of the week and was tentatively scheduled to begin the academy the following Monday.
“We are scheduled to tentatively start the academy next Monday and welcome 14 new employees to the Folsom Fire Department and our family,” Solak said.
The academy itself will look considerably different from the traditional process used to prepare a new firefighter-paramedic.
Because the new employees are being hired specifically for EMS duties and will not perform fire suppression, their training can focus heavily on the work they will actually perform on Folsom’s ambulances.
“Hiring EMTs and paramedics allows us to do a very modified academy because these folks are very EMS centric,” Solak said.
The recruits will still complete training required of city employees and other applicable state requirements, but Solak said the bulk of the academy will involve driver training, running EMS scenarios and becoming accredited to work within Sacramento County’s emergency medical system.
The entire process is expected to take about four weeks.
“For specifically the EMS Academy, we’ve leveraged incredible talent within our agency, and it will be them in conjunction with the training division providing EMS training,” Solak said.
The shortened training period is also a significant part of the financial equation behind the new model.
The department estimates that putting 10 firefighter-paramedics through the academy under the existing model would cost $372,077. Training 14 employees through the new EMS recruit academy is estimated at $207,558 — $164,519 less, even though four additional employees would be trained.
The transition will occur in stages rather than with all of the changes happening on a single day.
Sept. 6 is expected to mark the first major milestone, when EMT recruits complete their portion of the academy and begin going into service. Solak characterized that point as something of a trial run for bringing the fifth engine company back.
“September 6 is when we anticipate the EMTs completing their portion of the academy, and so they’ll go online, and that would be what I would refer to as kind of a soft opening of Engine 39 as staffing allows,” Solak said.
Full implementation is expected roughly two weeks later.
“Full implementation of the program would be expected on or around September 19, and it would be that time that we would propose staffing Engine 39 on an ongoing regular basis to give us that suppression capability,” Solak said.
That distinction means Sept. 6 is expected to begin the transition toward putting Engine 39 back into service as staffing permits, while Sept. 19 is the target for regular ongoing staffing of the engine and full implementation of the single-role ambulance program.
The city’s written implementation schedule similarly calls for EMT personnel to enter service and Engine 39 to begin staffing Sept. 6, followed by paramedic personnel and both single-role medic units entering service Sept. 19.
The 14 single-role employees will be divided among seven shifts, with each shift consisting of one paramedic and one EMT. Medic 39 will be staffed by six single-role employees and Medic 37 by another six. A seventh two-person shift will divide its scheduled time between the two units to complete weekly coverage.
The council’s action also approved a memorandum of understanding between the city and Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522, IAFF, covering the newly created Folsom Fire-EMS Professional Unit. The bargaining unit had already ratified the agreement following negotiations with the city.
Solak described development of the plan as an extensive six- to seven-month collaborative effort involving Fire Department leadership, Human Resources, the city’s finance staff, City Manager’s Office, City Attorney’s Office and Local 522.
He credited the cooperation between city staff and labor representatives with getting the proposal to the council.
“I’m really grateful for the commitment of not only the staff, but Local 522, the Sacramento Area Firefighters and their leadership, as well as the council’s support and an ongoing belief that we could make this happen and it was possible,” Solak said.
The MOU establishes Local 522 as the exclusive representative of employees in the new classifications and sets their compensation, work schedules, overtime provisions, benefits, leave policies and other terms of employment. The agreement runs through June 30, 2028.
Under the compensation schedule, EMT base salaries range from $45,760 to $61,318.40 annually, while paramedic base salaries range from $54,080 to $72,488 annually. Those figures are based on a 40-hour workweek and do not include scheduled overtime or a 6% holiday pay differential.
The employees are classified as 40-hour employees assigned to work 48 hours per week, with eight hours of scheduled overtime per pay period. Medical, dental, vision and related benefits remain at existing city levels, and the agreement maintains the CalPERS Safety retirement formula of 2.7% at age 57 for new members, subject to CalPERS’ enrollment determination for the classifications.
The financial component was another major element of the proposal.
Despite adding a net four full-time positions, the city projects the new staffing model will cost less than the existing budgeted structure.
The estimated annual salary and benefit cost for 37 firefighter-paramedics under the current budgeted model is approximately $7.77 million. Under the new structure of 27 firefighter-paramedics, seven single-role paramedics and seven single-role EMTs, the estimated annual cost is approximately $7.56 million.
The Fire Department projects ongoing annual salary and benefit savings of $128,102.
The difference reflects the substantially lower fully burdened cost of the single-role positions.
According to city estimates, a firefighter-paramedic costs approximately $209,990 annually at initial hire and as much as $266,759 at the top step when salary and benefits are included. A single-role paramedic is estimated at $144,479 initially and $186,494 at the top step, while a single-role EMT is estimated at $125,489 initially and $161,000 at the top step.
Combined with the projected academy savings, the city estimates savings associated with the change at $292,621 for fiscal year 2026-27, consisting of $128,102 in ongoing salary and benefit savings and $164,519 in one-time recruit academy savings. No additional appropriation is required to implement the change.
The actual savings during the current fiscal year will depend on when employees are hired and placed into service because implementation is occurring during the first quarter. The city’s estimates therefore anticipate only a partial year of realized savings during fiscal year 2026-27.
Beyond the immediate staffing change, the department also sees the single-role system as potentially creating a new internal pipeline for employees interested in advancing within emergency medical services or eventually becoming firefighters.
Solak said that once the department has operated the new model for several months, it intends to explore ways of helping EMTs advance to paramedic positions and, for those interested, eventually pursue careers on the fire suppression side of the department.
“After we implement the system and we kind of work through the first three to six months, it is our intent to try to identify a pathway so that we’re taking folks who we’ve hired as EMTs and helping them achieve paramedic status and then ultimately supporting those folks in their development should they choose to want to enter into the fire service,” Solak said.
The department is also discussing potential training partnerships with other Sacramento-area fire agencies that could help employees interested in becoming firefighters move through a competitive process and attend a fire academy. Solak said having those employees already working within the department as EMTs or paramedics could significantly shorten the onboarding process compared with recruiting an entirely new employee.
For Solak, that longer-term career path is also about keeping employees the department has already recruited and trained.
“When you have great people, you wanna retain those people,” Solak said. “And so helping them achieve their goals is really a goal of ours.”
For Folsom residents, however, the most immediate effect of Tuesday’s decision will not be found on a budget sheet or organizational chart. It will be seen in the department’s daily deployment.
Three ambulances will remain available. Six fire stations will remain staffed. But instead of asking the same pool of firefighter-paramedics to shoulder both the city’s ambulance transportation needs and its fire suppression staffing requirements, two medic units will have crews dedicated to EMS while additional firefighter-paramedic resources are placed back into suppression.
The transition is expected to begin taking shape Sept. 6 with what Solak described as a “soft opening” of Engine 39 as staffing allows. Full implementation is targeted for around Sept. 19, when the department expects both single-role medic units to be operating and Engine 39 to return to regular ongoing service.
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