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Ochopee FCD Advisory Board Minutes 05/13/2013 2013 Ochopee Fire Control District Advisory Committee Minutes May 13 , 2013 [�—OCHOPEE FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON MAY 13, 2013 -- The following were in attendance: Alan McLaughlin, Fire Chief, Ochopee Fire Control District Caleb Morris, Assistant Chief, Ochopee Fire Control District Ronald Gilbert, Chairman, Ochopee Fire Control District Tony Davis, Port of the Islands, Advisory Board Member Frank Hawkins, Port of the Islands, Advisory Board Member ROLL CALL OF ATTENDEES: All committee members were in attendance except for McBeth Collins. ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS TO AGENDA: Frank Hawkins added the update regarding the citation under Old Business. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: The Agenda was approved APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR REGULAR MEETING OF 04- 08 -13: A motion was made to approve the minutes it was seconded and passed. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION: Chief McLaughlin — He wanted to recognize Caleb Morris who was promoted to Assistant Chief as of April 21, 2013 and will be known as Chief 62. There will be a badge pinning ceremony regarding the promotion around the 28th of May. The promotion was necessary due to the extra duties of managing Isles of Capri and of the future station on 1 -75. The Chief needed someone to handle more of the hands on duties. So his duties have been expanded and he will be finishing up his educational requirements. Page 1 REPORTS: Chief s Report: Chief McLaughlin -- We are on track with our operating budget. We are getting tight with our overtime budget because we've had 30 sick days this budget year compared to 18 the year before and 20 the year before that and we are only six months through this budget year. This has really pressed the overtime budget so when he had his executive Staff Meeting with Chief Morris and the Lieutenants they did some problem solving regarding this issue. He gave them a problem solving guide from a course he took so at the next Executive Staff Meeting they are going to try and come up with a solution in the event we run out of money in the overtime budget. The solutions will have to be implemented with the staff and the Chief will back them regarding these results. If the overtime expenses continue to climb this might become a problem by late July or August which is two months prior to the end of the budget year. We will probably get creative with our Job Bankers so that it doesn't affect the response out here. The overage is due to the increase in brush fires and sick time usage which in caparison to last year has doubled. Frank Hawkins — Has that root cause been identified and won't be re- occurring. Chief McLaughlin — I think we have put an end to the root cause of it. I allowed full time personnel to work overtime due to sick leave which prior to January 2013 Job Bankers were filling those shifts. After that was instituted personnel started taking more sick time so the option was terminated sick leave is once again filled by Job Bankers and the sick time usage has stopped. US Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths for the year of 2013 is 30 and for the month of April it is 7. Operations Report: There were 56 incidents for the month of April, 2013 which is actually higher than usual in fact in the last two months we have been 25% above average compared to our previous years. In fact in the past two or three weeks we have had four car fires. Which we are coming to our slow season but it seems people are still traveling. He feels we are going to have more incidents this year than last year. There was one mutual aid call outside the District on Marco Island, no boat calls, two fire inspections, zero fire investigations and 654 training hours for April. Page 2 Frank Hawkins - Is there any analysis regarding the dispatched and cancelled en -route calls? It seems to be the highest number of calls. Chief McLaughlin — That is very common. Frank Hawkins —That is a normal percentage? Chief McLaughlin — Yes, about 80% of those types of calls are on 1 -75. Assistant Chief Morris — Yes, a lot of people drive by see a car on the side of the road and without stopping call in the incident. Chief McLaughlin — By the time the police arrive on scene the Fire Department is already on the road so we wind up being canceled en -route to the incident. The cell phone has caused the rise of these types of calls. They should really be categorized as good intent calls instead of cancelations. Once the Station is on 1 -75 the travel times for these types of calls will diminish due to the proximity of the incident and the new station. Frank Hawkins — Is there any way to verify the incident via the cameras out on 1 -75? Chief McLaughlin — No, you can't really tell. We have access to the 511 system but you really can't tell if they are just sitting there. Assistant Chief Morris —The camera is not live it is a loop. Chief McLaughlin — We get a loop feed that runs so often and then FDOT updates it. Frank Hawkins — So what is the purpose of the cameras. Assistant Chief Morris — FDOT can get a live feed. Chief McLaughlin — FDOT has access to a live feed, they can zoom and turn the cameras. So they could determine what is going on. They use the cameras to monitor traffic. Assistant Chief Morris — He has used the 511 system when there are brush fires. Tony Davis — How much of that will be affected by the new station on the interstate will that eliminate it? Chief McLaughlin — It won't eliminate those types of calls but we will get there before the Sheriff's Office because now the response time will be in 10 to 12 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Page 3 Tony Davis — But the cost will be out there. Chief McLaughlin — Yes, the cost will come out of the Operating Budget Expenses for the 1 -75 Station. Frank Hawkins — He Referred to the attached "Incident Type Summary Report" and wanted to know what the "Total Estimated Loss Column" represented. Chief McLaughlin — The dollar amounts are an estimation of the damaged property. He feels the property losses will reduce when the new station is up and running because the response times will diminish. OLD BUSINESS: Grant Up Dates Chief McLaughlin — We have received the grant monies for the radios in the amount of $82,000 it has been deposited in our account, a Purchase Order has been opened and an order has been placed with Communications International for the new radios. We have not heard on the state of the FEMA Grant for this year it hasn't been released yet but they have made major cuts. If we are going to hear anything it should be in the next couple of months. If they release FEMA Grants for this year we are going to apply for breathing apparatus. 1 -75 Station Up Date Chief McLaughlin — Last week he had a pre - construction and pre - permit meeting at Growth Management with the construction company. He felt it was a very productive meeting so that station is moving along. The last bill in the house was the "Glitch Bill" which was submitted to eliminate the States obligation to paying the operating costs for the 1 -75 Station which was proposed and passed in the original bill. Senator Richter has been actively drumming up support to follow the law by funding the operations of the 1 -75 station and defeat the "Glitch Bill ". It was the last bill in the house and it was defeated. He does not know how we will receive the money but this is good news that the "Glitch Bill" has been defeated because that means the state will have to cover the operating costs as well. The District is ready to put the bids out for the vehicles as soon as the money is received. Ron Gilbert — What happened last year was defeated? Chief McLaughlin — No, the "Glitch Bill" was defeated they were trying to repeal the bill that said they had to pay for the operation costs of the 1 -75 Fire Station. Page 4 Frank Hawkins — The year before when the bill was passed funding the operating expenses and perpetuity was there any specified time frame? Chief McLaughlin — No, they tried to put a two year limit on it. Senator Richter has assured him that we have the funding for the station. Tony Davis — Are you and Dan Summers still going to speak with the governor? Chief McLaughlin — No, now we won't have to do that. There will be some communication between the County Manager and FDOT as to how the funding is going to come in from the State. FDOT may choose for us to supply the specs and they purchase the vehicle. He let them know that it was imperative that we hire the personnel as soon as possible. It would help us with the budget but also with the response to 1 -75. Some of his superiors stated that the State funding is not supposed to supplement our budget. He feels they do not see the whole picture. For 35 years this District has supplied a service to the State on their toll road every day we go out there the paying members of this District loose 50% of their fire protection. I think that it is absolutely imperative that the leaders here see this and ask for those people because those two people per shift we take on will be two of the people going out to 1 -75 so that we do not lose the fire protection in the District. It isn't about supplementing the budget it is so we do not lose people when we respond to 1 -75. We are hiring a total of nine personnel six the first year and three the next year. Until the station is open we are still responding with our equipment and personnel which every time we do that it is an impact to our District. So the sooner we receive the monies the sooner we can hire the new personnel and ease the impact to the District. Port of the Islands Station Chief McLaughlin — We are really moving ahead on this one all the bids are in they have been tabulated. He has a meeting sometime this week to go through the process of the two low bidders. Facilities Manager Hank Jones who is heading up this project is familiar with both companies. We had a bid of $530,000 and $576,000. Our goal is to get this back to the board for a recommendation and then asked for the project to start construction. If we can get this done in June we could start breaking ground in July. The Architect feels we can have this done by November 2013. We are on schedule with this building but we are two months behind on the 1 -75 Station which we knew that was going to happen because it was such a large project so it looks like it will begin in August instead of June. Page 5 Vacant position on the Advisory Board Chief McLaughlin — We are having a difficult time getting any one from Chokoloskee, Plantation, Everglades City or Copeland. The last active member was from Copeland. We are going to continue to try and find someone from one of those areas. Tony Davis — Does the County have any lee way because Bob Miller would serve on the committee but he is not technically a resident? Chief McLaughlin — No, it is in the ordinance. Ron Gilbert — He asked if it would be helpful if we started holding the meetings in Everglades City again? Chief McLaughlin — If we got another member from there we could rotate between Everglades City and Port of the Islands. Since we currently do not have an active participation from the Everglades City member then there is no need to rotate the meetings between the two areas because the three active members live at Port of the Islands. Ron Gilbert — We have people at Port of the Islands that are willing to serve. Tony Davis — He asked if Jan Brock or Robert Wells have been contacted for the positions on the Advisory Committee. Chief McLaughlin — He is going to advertise in the local paper to try and drum up some interest. Everglades City Agreement for Service Chief McLaughlin — He has not heard back yet. A few weeks ago he spoke to Dottie the Everglades City Clerk who said that the agreement is on the table and the Mayor is aware of it. The Everglades City Council recessed for the summer. He hasn't received anything yet from Everglades City but once he does the document will be forwarded to the County Attorney's Office. Budget Chief McLaughlin - The budget was approved and we received $600,000 out of general fund for the remodeling of the marina for the Fire Station at Port of the Islands. Page 6 District I Chief McLaughlin — He apologized to Frank Hawkins because he forgot the power point Presentation regarding District I but he offered to e-mail it to him. Frank Hawkins — I don't have power point on my home computer. Chief McLaughlin — I can send you a printed copy. Frank Hawkins — I just want to understand where District I is. Chief McLaughlin — He will e-mail the power point presentation in PDF form. He is not sure the County is going to do anything about District I even though it expires in September 2013. The contract was made 20 years ago when there were people living in the south blocks not many people live there anymore. Everyone has mutual aid agreements with Forestry; therefore, the only area of District I that is being covered on a regular basis is North of 1 -75, Miller Road, Patterson and Janes Scenic Drive. There is a small piece of land by Sabal Palm Rd. Golden Gate and East Naples Fire District have combined their Administrative Services. We are already covering 72% of the land we could negotiate a single contract with Golden Gate and East Naples Fire Districts for the Sabal Palm Road area which would still leaving us over $500,000 if we bring it into our District. We are currently $435,000 short which means for the first time we will pay all our bills and still have a reserve. The County is cautious about moving forward with us taking District I because the other Fire Districts will lose some of their funding. Frank Hawkins — He feels that as long as they are not getting hurt they will see that this makes logical sense. Chief McLaughlin — If we still make it equitably feasible as to what is being protected he doesn't feel they would have a problem with it. Ron Gilbert — Can you quantify that in words? Chief McLaughlin — He has with the power point presentation and he will bring it to the next meeting. Ron Gilbert — Can you quantify that information in a letter then we can get moving with this. Page 7 Chief McLaughlin — He already met with the Budget Manager but he also has the obligation to give it to the Advisory Committee. He mentioned that a comment was made by Commissioner Fiala at the Isles of Capri Fire District Meeting in regards to giving Ochopee Fire District away as well. He suggested that since the remark was troubling that maybe they should contact her and Commissioner Nance about clarification because we should not be penalized just because there are problems at Isles of Capri Fire District. Ron Gilbert — So you are going to get us a presentation and a summary regarding District I. He asked if Linda Swisher could obtain a copy of the minutes that contained Commissioner Fiala's comment about Ochopee Fire Control District. Chief McLaughlin — No, Barbra Shea would have them and she has just left for a two and a half week vacation. He will go through the summary minutes to see if the statement is in there and if not he will have to wait until Barbra Shea is back to obtain the recorded minutes. Frank Hawkins — He wanted to know who to contact. Chief McLaughlin —That would be all five Commissioners and the County Manager. Tony Davis — Suggested they approach Commissioner Fiala first regarding a clarification of her statement. Chief McLaughlin — He brought up District I again and feels now is the time to take it in and possibly somewhere down the road we could even lower the millage rate. We could balance the budget and have a proper reserve. The Budget Manager would not have to give us funds out of general fund any more. It would also take care of the special assessment for the remodeling of the building for the Port of the Islands Station. The Chief was describing the boundaries of District 1. He estimates that at 4mils District I would bring in $564,000 that is at this year's property values. It could be more for the coming up year maybe closer to $600,000. Frank Hawkins — He wanted to know how the District would handle the pieces that would be contract out. Chief McLaughlin — He went on to explain the history of how District I was divided up. Golden Gate Fire District, East Naples Fire District and Ochopee Fire Control District each received 27% of District I and Isles of Capri Fire District received 12% for Keewayden Island. So we would contract with them instead of the County the monies would come out of our budget instead of General Fund. Page 8 Frank Hawkins — He asked would it be the equivalent amount that they are getting from the County now? Chief McLaughlin — District I has a budget it Is recognized as a fire district. The County wants to consolidate the fire districts this would be a step in that direction. It was clarified that if the contracted area is done by Ochopee Fire Control District the amount and area covered would be negotiated. The original protected area has changed a lot of it now belongs to the State of Florida so the coverage has changed. Frank Hawkins — He asked for an update in regards to the State Attorney's Office as to whether they had taken any action regarding the code violation of the table and chairs in the egress area at one of the buildings at Port of the Islands. Chief McLaughlin — Nothing has happened with the State Attorney's Office so this issue will have to be pushed up for code review. Frank Hawkins — The condominium association could have enforced the issue. He feels they should have taken care of it. NEW BUSINESS: None PUBLIC COMMENT None ADJOURNMENT The motion was made to adjourn the meeting it was seconded and passed the meeting ended. r Ronald Gilbert, Chairman Ochopee Fire Control District Advisory Board Page 9