Ochopee FCD Advisory Board Minutes 05/14/2012 OCHOPEE FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT
ADVISORY BOARD MEETING p3ONIEVIII
HELD ON MAY 14, 2012
In attendance were the following:
BY:
Alan McLaughlin, Fire Chief, Ochopee Fire Control District
Caleb Morris, Captain, Ochopee Fire Control District
Ronald Gilbert, Chairman, Port of the Islands Advisory Board Member
James Simmons, Port of the Islands Advisory Board Member
Tony Davis, Port of the Islands Advisory Board Member
McBeth Collins, Everglades City Advisory Board Member
Frank Hawkins, Port of the Islands Advisory Board Member
The meeting came to order at 4:04PM then roll call of attendees. T)✓
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2013 Budget, Manager's Meeting 5-17-12 Colette AC
Chief McLaughlin — He apologized that the minutes were not ready and will be submitted for
approval at the next meeting. The budget meeting with the County Manager will be Thursday
so far we look like we are going to be flat this year. He will have more information for the next
meeting and if there is any direction from the County Manager regarding the budget. It looks
like we will need pilt money again this year in the amount of $480,000 there was depreciation
again this year so until we see a turnaround we are going to be living in this situation.
Kitchen Cabinets&Counter Top Installed at Station 60
The kitchen cabinets and counter tops have been installed in Station 60 this is a project we have
been working on for two years. When the cabinets were removed there was a lot of damage
due to rodents eating at the wood and the walls. New flooring was also installed and the
remodel actually came in $1,000 under budget. Ochopee Personnel did a lot of the installation
work themselves so that saved a lot of money.
James Simmons—Station 60 is in Everglades City.
Chief McLaughlin — Yes, as far as I know that was the original kitchen that was put in the
building when it was constructed in 1977.
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Water Tender 60 Outfitted
Chief McLaughlin—The New Water Tender is being outfitted this week and we hope to put it in
service next week. Ochopee Personnel have done a lot of the modifications and installing
shelves which saved the Department thousands of dollars.
Windows and Doors installed
Chief McLaughlin —The new windows and doors have been installed at Station 60. Also all the
ground floor windows were upgraded to impact windows so we don't have to worry about
breaking and entering issues. The doors are now all key code lock including the ones in the bay
area they have been replaced by steel doors with fire windows and the glass window in the bay
has been replaced with a fire window. We actually came in a little under budget regarding
these replacements and repairs. This was a pretty expensive project it wasn't cheap. But we
are meeting code now.
New Business:
New Firefighter Hired as of 5-6-12
Chief McLaughlin — We dismissed a Firefighter he was terminated under his resignation. We
have since then gone through the interview process and have hired one of our Job Bankers of
four years. We had five applicants that met the testing criteria and we interviewed all five.
Two were Job Bankers, one from Isles of Capri,two from EMS.
James Simmons—Where does he live?
Chief McLaughlin—He lives in Naples. He actually was a Job Banker with Isles of Capri and then
started working as a Job Banker at Ochopee three years ago. He is familiar with everybody and
the system there was no start up time with him he just went from part time to full time.
McBeth Collins—The Job Bankers are part time.
Chief McLaughlin — Are Job Bankers are part time Firefighters but they are fully qualified and
certified they do not have any benefits except for retirement. The reason we use them it keeps
our overtime budget down we save approximately $40,000 by using them instead of paying
overtime. They get 60 to 70 hours of training before the work a shift and they have to go
through all the orientation as well like a full time employee. We have shared job bankers with
Isles of Capri as well. The job bankers are paid out of the cost center they are working under.
This arrangement works out really well especially since I am overseeing both Departments.
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Ron Gilbert—Do you see an end to that any time soon.
Chief McLaughlin — Not in the near future but we have made some proposals to the Advisory
Board at Isles of Capri that we are going to talk about Thursday and the information has been
sent to the County Manager. We are hoping in October that we can move forward with
something.
Received funds from insurance company to replace portable radio in the amount of$2665.28:
We received funds from the insurance company for a portable radio that was damaged the
radio could not be repaired they can no longer get parts for them because they are over 20
years old. But the insurance covered the cost of$2600 it costs$3,000 to purchase a new radio.
That money is in the process of coming back into the budget once that happens we will add a
few dollars to it and replace the radio. We were fortunate to get $2600 from the insurance
company for that radio.
Chief McLaughlin—Some painting has been done by personnel at Station 60.
Station 63:
Chief McLaughlin--We are still moving along with Station 63 on Alligator Alley. The bids are to
be awarded in August 2012. He is getting phone calls weekly about the bidders and contractors
calling about different items and we are answering there questions. The State has their first
quarter in July that will be the beginning of their fiscal year. We have requested that in this
upcoming fiscal year that we start the process of the delivery of funds for man power and other
things in phases. We have twelve people scheduled out of that. We've have a grid as to how
this all works out until completion of this project he will have it printed out for the board. The
County Attorney have been working on just how those monies are going to handled from the
State to the County and into our funding source. This has been one of the most complicated
aspects and they have finally found a way of doing so. We have asked for immediately relief
regarding coverage of 1-75 so the hiring of three personnel will take place in the first quarter
once the monies are received and continue on each quarter until all 12 personnel are hired for
the 1-75 Station. Once we've at least hired six personnel three of our current Firefighters will be
promoted to Lieutenant and Station 66 will be opened up. Then either the attack truck or the
pumper will be placed out there and we will start operating out of station 66. Station 66 has
recently been remodeled to prepare for its reopening. Personnel will occupy the station 24/7
and respond to the alley keeping personnel and vehicles in Everglades City, Chokoloskee Island
and the surrounding area. So the burden of covering 1-75 doesn't strip our District and the tax
payers of the resources which has been our big complaint. So he is trying to attain some relief a
year ahead of station 63 is opening. We figured it would be 8 to 10 months of engineering on
this project.
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Chief McLaughlin —They are building a new water plant a whole new north and south side the
fire station is slated to go up early it is part of the first phase of the project. We won't be in
there until September or October of 2014. We've asked for the apparatus money starting
January because it will take a year to build the rescue vehicle, pumper and tanker. We've done
about three months of engineering and design on those vehicles. There will be $180,000 of
lose equipment that will go on those vehicles. There is a time element involved regarding
purchasing those items and mounting them on the vehicles so we are probably looking at an 18
month lead time just to have the trucks built, equipped and train personnel regarding the usage
of the new apparatus and equipment before we can put the apparatus in service at station 63.
The last three personnel that come out of our cost center will be hired in the second year. We
will bring them on six months before the opening of station 63. The three medics will come in
under EMS funding because they are going to hire the medics not us. It will be a total of twelve
personnel so nine will be under our cost center and three will be under the EMS cost center.
Jim Simmons—One medic per shift?
Chief McLaughlin—One medic per shift.
Jim Simmons—What equipment is going to be out there?
Chief McLaughlin—We will have an ALS heavy rescue specially designed, a tanker similar to the
one we just bought but it will be scaled down more simplified but it bigger it will be 3,000
gallons and there will be a quick attack truck like the one we have but not quite the same size
more like a 450 or 350 range. It will be more like a transport vehicle for equipment because we
are 18 to 20 miles out so the EMS supply people can meet at the 1-75 exchange. The Captain
can go up and one person can come in so he doesn't have to drive 40 miles instead it would
only be 20 miles to the exchange. The EMS personnel can meet to do supply and paperwork
exchanges and still be available for calls.
Jim Simmons—Is there going to be an ambulance out there?
Chief McLaughlin—No.
Ron Gilbert—Is there a medic here now?
Chief McLaughlin —Yes, there's one here and one in Everglades City. There is an ambulance in
Everglades City and the unit at Port of the Islands is an ALS Engine so there is a medic stationed
on the unit and actually they are Firefighter Medics. We get the benefit of adding two more
Firefighters that we don't pay for because the medics have to be cross trained certified
Firefighters and that helps with ISO.
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Consolidation
Chief McLaughlin —There was a big meeting two weeks ago in North Naples the County had a
work shop regarding consolidation. There was nothing new discussed regarding the topic. It is
the same players same concepts a lot of politics in both municipalities and the other Fire
Districts.
It's been going on for almost 30 years. The bottom line is the Board of County Commissioners
has asked the Districts for the last five years to do something. Two years ago there was a straw
vote asking tax payers if they wanted consolidation of the Fire Districts and 60% of the votes
said yes. Then the County asked the Fire Districts to figure out how to attain the consolidation.
The County has come to the conclusion if the Fire Districts are not going to figure out how to
consolidate the Districts then the County will take care of it. So the County is going to put it to
a vote to have the Districts placed under the Collier County Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff would
only do it if all the Districts were to consolidate under his department not a half system. The
Chief feels all the Districts would be interested in doing that except for possibly North Naples.
From a taxpayers point of view it would be the best thing that could happen.
Ron Gilbert—Does is boil down to turf battles?
Chief McLaughlin — It always does but also it's who is going to be in charge and how are we
going to do it. The Independent Districts don't want to go under the County. Not that the
County wants to run it but everywhere else in the State of Florida the Fire Districts are run by
the County. The problem with the independent Districts each one has a board with paid
pensions then you have the accountability and a lot of the taxpayers don't like that you are
going to have a 60 million dollar budget with some private enterprises that are hired that
maybe a member of the board that is overseeing the funding that is not accountable to an
independent office like the clerk of courts. He has more accountability because he comes
under the clerk more than any of the Independent Districts all though they are all accountable
as well. That is a lot of money to give to an independent board and where is the assurances
that the money is going to be used properly as a tax payer I would be happier if the clerk of
courts was overseeing the funds but they are never going to do that. The sheriff is independent
but the clerk does over see his budget so for the taxpayers having the funds within that realm
would be a good thing but it is an ongoing battle.
Tony Davis—As a board position do we take no comment or do we state our position?
Chief McLaughlin — You can state your position unless ifs a benefit. One of the speakers felt
that going under the Sheriff's Department could save money. If there is no benefit then there is
no reason to change. Some of the Districts are having a lot of problems.
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Chief McLaughlin — We've offered a plan to the Capri Board and have presented it to the
County Manager it is functional consolidation administration. The Districts will remain the
same separate MSTUs and the board members will remain the same. What we did was split the
cost of the salary of the Fire Chief and created two Division Chief's. Caleb would be promoted
to Division Chief and we would create a Division Chief for Isles of Capri they will be the
operational Chiefs for the Districts. Chief McLaughlin will supervise the Division Chiefs and the
budgets of both the current Captain at Isles of Capri's salary would be split 50/50 between both
Departments and become a logistics Captain which the Departments need for standardizing our
purchases and maintenance of equipment plus there is a cost saving by purchasing in volume.
By doing this we add an additional person plus there is a cost savings to Ochopee Fire Control
District of $1600 and a cost savings to Isles of Capri Fire District of$2600. We will have four
personnel in the command level where now we have two and save money.
Frank Hawkins — Who or how is the loaning, placing or swapping of the equipment control
going to work?
Chief McLaughlin — There is no equipment change personnel only we are splitting salaries
between cost centers. Under the BES umbrella we are all functional. The EMS Chief is over
EMS and his logistics Chiefs. The Fire Chief is over the Fire Departments and his logistics Chief.
Frank Hawkins— He has been involved with geographical consolidations before and equipment
wasn't involved however when something would happen the equipment would be somewhere
else so that was his concern.
Chief McLaughlin — No equipment transfer at all everything stays where it is at. We can't
actually do that unless the board dissolved the MSTU's and combined them into one District.
The MSTUs,the dollars, and the assets stay intact. It's totally administrative.
Frank Hawkins—There is nothing wrong with that.
There was a motion made to adjourn it was passed and the meeting ended.
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Ronald Gilbert, Chairman
Ochopee Fire Control District
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