四虎影院

Last May, Fort Worth City Council members unanimously to dissolve the region鈥檚 longtime EMS provider, MedStar. The city opted to switch to a fire-based EMS system, housed within its fire department.

That decision necessitated a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make a fire-based system feasible, including between the city and the union representing its firefighters, IAFF 440. The majority of MedStar employees have been mapped over to equivalent positions with the city, in an effort to retain talent during the merger.

The city and IAFF 440 have been bargaining over the details of that merger since July 2024. They hosted multiple bargaining sessions, where city management sat across the table from the union鈥檚 board, and convened privately in several subcommittees dedicated to hashing out the essential details.

Key topics included which incoming MedStar employees should receive civil service protection; what their pay structures should look like; and how to handle questions of accrued vacation time and seniority. Representatives from the city, the union, and MedStar participated.

鈥淲e talked a lot about culture,鈥� Assistant City Manager Valerie Washington said in an interview with the Report. 鈥淵ou have this new workforce, and you don鈥檛 want to make them feel less than the current workforce (of firefighters). We did everything we could to prevent and mitigate that from happening.鈥�

In a Jan. 14 work session, Washington briefed council members on the progress that has been made up to this point, and presented a draft agreement that the City Council will vote on Jan. 28. The agreement has an estimated cost of $54 million over 15 months, costs that include around 75 new EMT positions on 12-hour shifts and nine new ambulances.

Among the provisions in the agreement are an average 10% salary increase for incoming MedStar EMTs and paramedics; the creation of new EMS job classifications; and civil service representation for both EMTs, paramedics and EMS telecommunicators.

鈥淥ur two main driving ideals were to serve the citizens better and then take great care of these people as they come over and become part of our team,鈥� Zac Shaffer, president of IAFF 440, said.

Civil service protections weren鈥檛 always guaranteed for telecommunicators. Early in the bargaining process, the city suggested excluding them from the bargaining group and instead classifying them as general employees. The fire union pushed back strongly on the suggestion, and the city鈥檚 bargaining team ultimately reconsidered and agreed to civil service classifications for telecommunicators as well.

Shaffer noted that the fire department is the only department whose telecommunicators are currently in the civil service. The Fort Worth police department鈥檚 telecommunicators are considered general employees. The police department has had persistent problems with , an issue Shaffer attributes in part to a lack of civil service protections.

鈥淲e think that the best way to keep those call rooms full, is to make sure that they鈥檙e compensated well and they have a right to their job,鈥� Shaffer said.

Holly Moyer, the city鈥檚 assistant human resources director, was part of the city鈥檚 shift in mindset with regard to telecommunicators. Before she joined the city of Fort Worth in 2023, she had previous experience working with fire and EMS divisions in central Texas, which gave her an experienced perspective on the issue.

She referenced the wording of local government code Chapter 143, which specifies that a fire department employee whose primary duties are to provide emergency medical services is entitled to civil service protection.

鈥淭hat is what the telecommunicators are doing,鈥� Moyer said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e on the call, and in that call, they鈥檙e providing that service until the EMT and paramedics get to the patient. So that鈥檚 just something I think was a factor in that decision-making process.鈥�

Dianna Giordano, the city鈥檚 human resources director, said another big part of this process has been communicating the benefits of civil service protection to MedStar employees. MedStar employees have not previously had union representation, and Giordano said there are unique benefits to being civil service employees, including guaranteed step pay increases and exam-based entry and promotional opportunities.

鈥淚t removes those individual influences from hiring and promotion so that it鈥檚 a very systematic process,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to communicate that as much as possible.鈥�

Shaffer said IAFF 440 has had similar conversations with MedStar employees throughout the bargaining process. MedStar employees were invited to the bargaining sessions, and several sat in on the proceedings throughout the year.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 really know us, right? They didn鈥檛 elect me. They didn鈥檛 elect my board,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I think it was a foreign concept for them to have somebody negotiate for them that鈥檚 not even really part of their organization. But I think the ones that attended the meetings were able to see that we were really putting skin in the game and trying to get them on an equal playing field.鈥�

He鈥檚 also had conversations with firefighters about why the merger was necessary. Many firefighters joined the Fort Worth Fire Department because it didn鈥檛 run an ambulance service, he said, and worried that dissolving MedStar would change their own jobs.

鈥淭hey thought this might mean that they鈥檙e gonna all of a sudden be riding an ambulance full time,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the way that we鈥檙e able to take care of the MedStar people as we鈥檙e bringing them over, I think guarantees that we will have an available workforce to staff those ambulances.鈥�

Giordano said she hasn鈥檛 seen this kind of merger in many other major cities, and Fort Worth is acting as a trailblazer while it maps the future of its new EMS system.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge task,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge undertaking. It鈥檚 history in the making.鈥�

There鈥檚 plenty of work left to do after the council approves the agreement. The city鈥檚 HR team has tapped a consultant to help work through any friction while merging the cultures of MedStar and the Fort Worth Fire Department, a project that will span throughout the year.

MedStar has served more than a dozen Tarrant County cities and over 1 million residents as the sole EMS provider for 38 years. The city is now ironing out a subscription-based model of service for the other cities that previously relied on MedStar.

鈥淎nd we don鈥檛 have an EMS budget in place for the city of Fort Worth yet,鈥� Washington said. 鈥淪o we will be going to the mayor and council in the spring to set up the fourth-quarter budget for EMS.鈥�

Shaffer鈥檚 team is also hard at work figuring out logistics ahead of the merger, which is expected to take full effect in July. Deployment models, infrastructure and scheduling are top of mind.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got about 110 working days between now and July 1,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we have our work cut out for us. But you know, it鈥檚 getting the team in place and then saying, 鈥楬ey, listen, here鈥檚 what we need, here鈥檚 what it will cost, and here鈥檚 our timeline for getting it finished and wrapped up and ready to go.鈥欌��

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