By Matt Galnor
The Florida Times-Union
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville’s $500,000-a-year contract with a specialized gym for health assessments and personal training was designed for “first responders” — police officers and firefighters on the city’s front lines.
But few firefighters signed up, and when the program was essentially opened up to the entire Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, secretaries, auditors and crime analysts were among the employees getting up to $1,200 of fitness instruction on the taxpayers’ dime.
More than 90 percent of the 456 employees in the program work for the Sheriff’s Office, a Times-Union analysis of the participants shows. Some of the others include a human resources manager, a landscape plans examiner and Risk Manager Charles Spencer, who oversaw the program.
In fact, it was Spencer’s suggestion this month to expand the program that prompted a top aide to Mayor John Peyton to pull the plug on the deal so the city can do a comprehensive analysis of the program, a city spokeswoman said.
“We are evaluating the program in total to determine if the results made were worth the investment,” Peyton spokesman Misty Skipper said.
The potential five-year contract began in May, with an option to renew it every year. The contract had already been approved for another year beginning Oct. 1, but the documents hadn’t been signed.
A city purchasing committee officially canceled the deal Thursday, but those in the program can stay until the end of the month.
The HIT Center of Jacksonville, a high-intensity training facility on the Southside, was the only company to respond to the city’s request for proposals last spring.
“The program is intended to increase the function strength and conditioning of the city’s first responders while also promoting health, safety and fitness through education and lifestyle changes,” according to the city’s request for proposals.
Participating employees get a full health analysis with a cardiologist, and measurements of body fat, blood-sugar levels and blood pressure, said HIT Center Executive Director Aaron Marston.
Employees are put into groups based on their fitness level and work out three times a week for eight weeks, Marston said. Results are tracked each week, with a more comprehensive look at the end of the eight weeks. In one group, 40 people had high blood pressure and, by the end of the eight weeks, only five still had it, Marston said.
Between 2002 and 2008, the city saw a 700 percent increase in the number of heart disease and hypertension claims filed by police officers and firefighters, Skipper said.
More than 70 percent of money the city has set aside for pending workers’ compensation claims is for heart disease and hypertension for first responders, who make up less than half of the workforce.
The program was designed for 500 people - 250 from the fire department and 250 from the Sheriff’s Office, said Chief Jimmy Holderfield, who oversees human resources for the Sheriff’s Office.
Once there were more openings, more employees from the office signed up, said Holderfield, who also took part in the training.
Rutherford said employees who go through the program get a taste of what it’s like and, hopefully, will continue on their own - either in the less-sophisticated gym at the Sheriff’s Office, the gym of their choice, or the HIT Center on their own dime.
Rutherford is doing the latter.
Asked if he considered himself a first responder, the sheriff said, “Yeah, I’m a policeman.”
Spencer had asked to meet with the mayor’s office last month about expanding the program to include city employees from other departments, Skipper said.
Because Peyton’s office was dealing with the city budget on its way through City Council, the meeting was postponed until last week. During that meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Alan Mosley decided to cancel the program.
Skipper said the city is determining whether the short-term investment for training and education provides long-term cost-saving benefits.
Marston said he respects the city’s decision and hopes that in better budget times it will reconsider the program, which he says helps make employees healthier and drives insurance costs down.
Copyright 2009 The Florida Times-Union