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Ochopee FCD Advisory Board Minutes 07/09/2012OCHOPEE FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT ADVISORY BOARD MEETING BY,, ...................... HELD ON JULY 9, 2012 The following were in attendance: 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 Fiala McBeth Collins, Everglades City Advisory Board Member Hiller Henning Coyle The meeting came to order. Coletta ----- Approval of Minutes for 4 -10 -12 and 5 -1412: The minutes for 4 -10 -12 and 5 -14 -12 were approved and signed by the Chairman Ronald Gilbert, Ron Gilbert — He brought the board members up to date. Chief McLaughlin asked him to get some insurance estimates on ten different properties at Port of the Islands. The estimates were obtained in regards to if the fire truck and Personnel are at Port of the Islands and what it would be if they were at Everglades City, Tony Davis being an active insurance sales person He handled contacting the insurance companies. The properties chosen were in different communities with in Port of the Islands and were comprised of 5 condominiums and 5 houses. He asked Tony Davis to share his findings. Tony Davis — He is still working on this information the carriers are not very cooperative regarding their rates they are very secretive. These carriers have several agencies that they work with. One of the carriers came back with percentages not specific numbers. He didn't know if we could work with that or not. He is still going to try and work with somebody else to see what he can find out. We may have to go with those approximations. Ron Gilbert — We might be able to establish some base numbers with those percentages. Tony Davis — Because it is like a discount figure you get points for certain items. Page 1 Misc. Corres: Date: o\(�t \�g Item #: VLaS,'L -A Copies to: Chief McLaughlin — We can come back to that this is a project that we are working on for next year we've got some time for that. Tony Davis —The thing is they are not going to be that open. Chief McLaughlin — The fire department might have to get involved and contact them directly to ask specific questions regarding insurance coverage. When he was at the City of Naples they had to do this they contacted the insurance companies directly and gave them specific addresses. We'll come back to that. Tony Davis — We at least have something we can work with. He will continue to try and obtain the information they are looking for. Ron Gilbert — The Chief and I feel before we make presentations to the Commissioners or their designated committee and the CID Board it would be good to have some concrete numbers saying what kind of money we are talking about if we should lose the fire truck that is what we are angling at. Chief McLaughlin — Part of that is we are going for an ISO re -rate next year which is a very complex and lengthy process it takes about nine months to prepare that paperwork to get it in place. It takes a year to prepare. Tony Davis — He suggested instead of calling the insurance companies maybe a formal letter from the Advisory Board would be more successful. Chief McLaughlin — Yes, and I've got those numbers for you we will pursue that later we are starting with the ISO information officially in September. Ron Gilbert — He was going to suggest a letter from him to the Advisory Board saying what we need or directly to the insurance contact. Chief McLaughlin — We will pursue that. Tony Davis — I think we can come up with something it is just going to take a little more to get somebody to work it up for us. Page 2 OLD BUSINESS: Budget Approval: Chief McLaughlin — The budget was tentatively approved by the BCC on 6- 28 -12. The budget has changed again because the July numbers came in so there have been some adjustments to the evaluations in the reserve for salaries which is part of the vacation buy outs, a 2% cost of living added for contract employees, there was a change in retirement and insurance. We had a drop because the property values went down. Over all we landed up with $431,000 from general fund to keep us solvent for this year. This is the second year we have received funds from general funds to keep us a float. There were some questions that came up about the fire station at Port of the Islands came up. The questions were form Commissioner Hiller and Commissioner Fiala which he directed back to Mark Isackson and Leo Ochs. He felt it wasn't the time to answer them he had some direction that there is a time and place to answer them some of those questions need to be taken care of in a special meeting and there needs to be some research on some of those questions. However, we haven't seen any movement; the direction Commissioner Fiala gave to the staff was to find some sort of creative financing to fund the construction of the facility. So we'll see how and where that lands up. July 30th is the last day the budget can change then it goes for the final approval in September. Ron Gilbert — Did you get any encouragement from Commissioner Fiala. Chief McLaughlin — Nothing more than what we have seen in the past. He was surprised that Commissioner Hiller was more interested in getting the facility up than anyone. She had some questions about consolidation issues as well. She did seem very concerned and she did ask some questions about Pilt. She would like to do some research to find out what's been going on just for general information. He directed her back to Mark Isackson and the County Manager. NEW BUSINESS Public Safety Authority: Chief McLaughlin — You should all have a letter stating that The Public Safety Authority was approved. The Public Safety Authority was created to improve the Emergency Medical Services throughout the County and looking at all the parties involved in patient care from the street to the hospital emergency room how we work together and what our protocols are to get a better feel of that flow of information and that patient contact. Page 3 .- Chief McLaughlin - It was really pushed by the Fire Chief's Association and the Blue Ribbon Committee that was overseeing that initial phase about a year and a half ago. It's a reality after two and a half years. The Authority doesn't have any jurisdiction per say or authority over Independent Fire District or Municipalities because they are governed by their own policies just as the County what they do have is regulatory authority over what the process is and how it should be conducted between agencies in working out issues. In a way it is replacing the old MSAC that wasn't going anywhere. He feels it will be a better format being that you will have emergency room personnel, field personnel, and fire personnel from different areas of the service. He feels this authority is going to give the County as a whole a great oversight for future EMS care and provision out in the field. James Simmons - This is going to happen sometime in the future? Chief McLaughlin - This has already been formed it has just been approved. Now they have to appoint personnel to this Authority then they will have the first meeting. So it may be some months before we have an active Authority looking at issues. Ron Gilbert - They are asking that we formally name a representative to this Public Safety Authority. Chief McLaughlin - You can't that has to be done by Mr. Summers we don't have one. The letter states that the representatives for the Fire Departments will be selected by the Fire Chief's association from a municipality either an independent or dependant district. There is no independent or dependant board that is going to select any one. The letter doesn't make sense there is no independent selection it will be done by the Fire Chief's Association. We don't have a board to select on the dependant side and we don't have any authority over EMS or the hospitals or agencies. He called up Mr. Summers after he received the letter from the County Manager's Office regarding the Public Safety Authority. He stated to Mr. Summers per the letter the fire side has been selected but we could appoint someone to be selected that would have to go to Mr. Summers then the Fire Chief's. Which you have four independent boards out there selecting people. Tony Davis - He just looked over the letter but it was his understanding as well that each District would select someone and submitted that name to Mr. Summers and then it would be his decision or someone higher up to pick one. Ron Gilbert - What you are saying we don't even have to submit a name. Page 4 Chief McLaughlin — We would only have one person we could submit and that would be out of a pool of 50 and once that gets to the Fire Chiefs between the Municipal, Independent and Dependant Fire Districts there will probably be at least 100 names to choose from. Ron Gilbert — So the Advisory Board doesn't need to respond to this. Chief McLaughlin — You could send a reply back stating that the Advisory Board is going to leave the decision as to who is going to represent the Ochopee Fire Control District to the Chief. Chief McLaughlin — When we pick someone then it has to go to the Fire Chief's Association. Chief McLaughlin — Linda, make sure McBeth Collins gets a copy of the Public Safety Ordinance. CERT Team: Chief McLaughlin — Tom Wise called me last Friday if there is any interest in the CERT Team at the Port because there is money for it. What would we do with the money do we give it back to Ochopee Fire Control District? He told him that a check could be made out to the Ochopee Fire Control District and would be deposited into the budget or he could wait and bring it up at the next Advisory Board Meeting to see if there is any interest in a CERT Team. Tony Davis — He just thinks it is a lack of interest in the community. They couldn't seem to get people to come to the meetings. Chief McLaughlin — They have the same thing at Isles of Capri it is a small community and we don't have the infrastructure or the money to train people. If you don't have regular training and events people lose interest especially if you have hurricanes every 15 years. Tony Davis — Most of the people interested were snow birds which means they wouldn't be around to do anything if something did happen. Chief McLaughlin — They are not here when events happen. Tony Davis — The key would be to hit the people that are hear year round and the snow birds would be extra people when they are here. Chief McLaughlin — The CERT Team came out of California because of earthquakes back in the 90's. They have earthquakes regularly even small ones but we don't have hurricanes regularly we have more tropical storms to actually activate a team in a community like that if you don't have the events they lose interest. In the summer you are stuck with five people and you are trying to merge them into an emergency response at the same time they are trying to take care of their own things it makes it difficult. Page 5 Chief McLaughlin — If you think there is not interest in the community I will respond to Tom and give him the direction. Ron Gilbert — He was involved with the CERT Team six or seven years ago and it kind of died because of the same things you are describing here. Chief McLaughlin — I've seen it go through this cycle twice at Isles of Capri and it died. Tony Davis —John was tired of doing it. Chief McLaughlin will get back to Tom and give him direction to deposit the funds in our budget. Applied for Grants (FEMA & DOF) Chief McLaughlin — We have applied for the FEMA Grant we went through the process and it's on the way. The grant is to replace all our mobile and portable radios. Our radios are about 15 or 16 years old and we can't buy parts for them anymore. The radios are $3400 each the mobiles are a little cheaper than the portables. The new radios are amerceable and water proof. In the past 15 years there has been an incredible surge in technology plus now they are digital not analog. He spoke to Amanda Wood who is our lobbyist she reviewed it and she thinks we have an extremely strong case and a well written grant. We are asking for $84,000 it is a 95/5 match so we have to come up with $4,000 which we put in capital outlay for that project so it's in there if we get it we have it. We also applied for the DOF Grant it is a 50/50 match it will be $1,000 on our side and $1,000 from Forestry it is for class A foam. We usually do the DOF Grant once or twice a year it can be applied to more than once a year. The 50/50 grant is great for obtaining brush fire supplies. It traditionally outfits our foam supply which is expensive through that 50/50 grant, brush gear equipment and we built a large part of our brush truck through this grant so it is very beneficial for us. Jim Simmons — Is you base station antennae sufficient to cover you area for radios? Page 6 Chief McLaughlin — Yes, our base station only has to reach Carnestown because the 800MHZ system is on all of the towers throughout the County. So all we have to do is it the tower at Carnestown and it is off to the other locations. Most of the state is 800MHZ we can talk state wide with our radios. A motion was made to adjourn it was seconded by McBeth Collins it was passed and the meeting ended. Ronald Gilbert, Chairman Ochopee Fire Control District Advisory Board Page 7