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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 10-04-2012 APPROVED 12/2/2012 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Joint Meeting Meeting/Work Session October 4, 2012 7:00 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners held a joint meeting/work session on Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Bernadette Pelissier and Commissioners Valerie Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, Pam Hemminger, Earl McKee, and Steve Yuhasz COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant County Managers Michael Talbert, Clarence Grier and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff inembers will be identified appropriately below) VOLUNTEER FIRE CHIEFS PRESENT: VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPTS. — CHAIRS, Brad Allison, Fire Chief, Caldwell FD BOARD OF DIRECTORS Bryan Baker, Fire Chief, Eno FD Mac Miller, Caldwell BOD President Dan Jones, Fire Chief, Town of Chapel Hill Bill Waddell, Orange Grove, BOD Jeff Borland, Fire Chief, Cedar Grove FD President Phillip Nasseri, Asst. Chief, White Cross Wayne Paschall, Eno BOD President FD Jeff Roberts, Orange Rural BOD President Mac Cabe, Deputy Fire Chief, Orange Jacques Morin, SORS BOD President Rural FD Howard Pratt, New Hope BOD President John Stroud, Fire Chief, North Chatham, FD Kevin Brooks, Fire Chief, Efland FD Matthew Mauzy, Chief, South Orange Rescue Squad (SORS) Mike Tapp, Fire Chief, New Hope FD Tommy Holmes, Fire Chief, Orange Grove FD FIRE CHIEFS/BOD CHAIRS ABSENT: Bob Lewis, Fire Chief, City of Mebane FD Ronnie McAdams, Efland BOD President Travis Crabtree, Fire Chief, Town of Carrboro Chad Woods, Cedar Grove BOD President Frank Montes de Oca, Orange County Emergency Services Diretor Tony Blake, White Cross BOD President Jerry Lloyd, Fire Chief, White Cross FD Brian Vaughn, North Chatham BOD President Welcome (Board Chair Bernadette Pelissier) Chair Pelissier welcomed everyone and said that Commissioner Foushee and Commissioner Jacobs send their regrets because they were unable to attend tonight. 1. Discussion on Oranqe County Chief's Association's "Strateqic Plan for the Provision of Emerqency Services" Fire Chiefs Council President/ New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp said that this strategic plan was completed in March 2012 and there were eight goals in the plan. He listed the goals as shown below: • GOAL I: Ensuring Viable and Reliable Voice and Data Communication • GOAL II: Improving the 9-1-1 Telecommunications System and Center • GOAL III: Encouraging the Adoption of Measureable Emergency Response System Benchmarks and Reporting Norms • GOAL IV: Setting Service Standard Goals for Volunteer Fire Departments • GOAL V: Planning for a Countywide Training Facility • GOAL VI: Preparing a Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Plan • GOAL VII: Building Better Relationships with Key Stakeholders • GOAL VIII: Fostering Increased Public Awareness Mike Tapp said that there has been a lot of discussion in the Emergency Services Work Group and the County Commissioners. The primary two goals are the Ensuring Viable and Reliable Voice and Data Communication (Goal I), and Improving the 9-1-1 Telecommunications Systems and Center (Goal II). He said that some of these goals have timelines attached with them but also budgetary considerations as well, such as a countywide training center. At this time, introductions were made. Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks said that his department has obtained an ISO rating of 6, which will lower the fire insurance ratings for their citizens. Commissioner Hemminger commended the Efland Fire Department for pursuing this lower ISO rating. Commissioner McKee said that the Board of County Commissioners approved the purchase of the OSSI system at the October 2nd meeting. This purchase will be finalized tomorrow and then it will be approximately a 12-month period before it is fully installed. Mike Tapp reviewed the meaning of the ratings. Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks said that the ratings of the areas that are further away from stations could be improved only by building more stations. Bill Waddell, President of Orange Grove Fire Department, said that said building their new station was to cover those citizens that were over ten miles from the nearest station. Chair Pelissier asked about the goals that were priorities for the fire departments. Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that many goals have been identified in the Emergency Services Work Group, and all of those directly affect their on-scene safety radio systems. Bill Waddell said that the only two his department has been looking at is 2b - computer aided dispatch and mobile data terminals. He said that the new approved OSSI system by the Board of County Commissioners is the Pagetracker system that they are starting to use as well as the interface with the new OSSI system. Commissioner McKee said that the developer of Pagetracker is in talks with OSSI and he is not sure where they are in that process. The system is probably adaptable to OSSI but that is up to the private companies. Bill Waddell said that if the OSSI system does not work he would hope the County would provide a mechanism that would be cheaper than the $7,000 per terminal. He said that this seems excessive. He said that the Pagetracker system is very useful and informative. Commissioner McKee said that the hope is that the two systems will be compatible. Commissioner Yuhasz asked if the IT Department would have any expertise with the interface of these two types of software. Michael Talbert said that he is not sure IT could help since the current software is 20 years old. The Pagetracker system is not interactive like the OSSI system, which gives feedback data that the 9-1-1 operators have available, which show up on the screens. The system is also much better at tracking calls and who shows up when, etc. Commissioner McKee said that the County needs a lot of input from the fire departments regarding response times. He does not want to set some unrealistic goals with regard to response times. New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp agreed with Chief Baker and said that their top two priorities are Goals I and II. He said that there is a situation in the New Hope Fire District where they are on the fringe area of Chapel Hill and Hillsborough and there are communication issues. Commissioner Yuhasz said that everyone recognizes that more towers are needed, but no one wants them in their backyard. He said that it is important that the fire departments have a presence at the public hearings for the tower proposals to let the public know the need. The Board agreed. Caldwell Fire Chief Brad Allison said that his department dropped their ISO ratings from a 9 to a 7. There are no pressurized hydrants at Caldwell and everything is done by water haul. There are also houses outside of the six-mile range. 2. Discussion on Insurance Service Office (ISO) Ratinqs New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp said that the New Hope Fire District also improved its rating from a Class 9 to a Class 6. There will be letters sent out to the homeowners in the district. Chair Pelissier said that the Board of County Commissioners know that all citizens appreciate this and the Board would like to recognize the fire departments on the reduction of the ISO ratings at the next Board of County Commissioners' meeting. Commissioner Gordon said that she is thinking about the area between 5-6 miles and whether there is any hope to get any change. Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks said that it is up to the legislature. Commissioner McKee said that it is his understanding that the only way to get it changed is to go to the legislature. The Board then went back to item #1: Discussion on Oranqe County Chief's Association's "Strateqic Plan for the Provision of Emerqency Services" Chair Pelissier asked about the relationships between Emergency Services and the County and the fire departments. Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that Goal VII is very important to all of the chiefs, which is the building of better partnerships with all stakeholders. The consistent discussion amongst the chiefs is that this partnership has not existed for a number of years. He said that the Emergency Services Work Group and these annual meetings will begin the process of building a working relationship and these are all good steps. He said that a lot of the credit goes to Michael Talbert who has reached out to the chiefs and who has listened. Commissioner McKee said that it is critical that they not assume that because of the two annual meetings and that the Emergency Services work group has worked well, that they have suddenly arrived. He said that all issues need to be brought to the table forcibly. He does not want to leave issues or problems to fester. Commissioner Yuhasz made reference to Objective b in Goal VII, which is a discussion of provision of first responder EMS services. He said that this has evolved over time without any real plan for the fire departments. He asked how to go about providing more guidance about compensation and a better understanding of what is expected of fire departments. He said that there is no formalized plan to address these issues. Bill Waddell said that expenses they bear are incidentals such as oxygen, backboards, etc., and they do not mind startups with these, but they could help with it after that. He said that within their contracts they are not allowed to provide these services. He suggested considering the language within the contracts and reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses. Commissioner Foushee arrived at 7:50 PM. Commissioner Gordon said that there are fire services, which are within the purview of the departments, and then first responders, but her assumption is that the fire departments and Emergency Services have a working relationship. She asked how rescue fit into the services. South Orange Rescue Squad (SORS) Chief Matthew Mauzy said that a lot of the confusion is the definition of rescue. Traditionally, it was Emergency Services. He said that EMS has grown to mean an ambulance, EMT, and paramedic. He said that rescue is taking a patient, accessing a patient, and turning it over to a higher level of care. Commissioner Gordon asked if rescue is a separate service from the fire departments. Matthew Mauzy said that the rescue squad is franchised to provide EMS service and also technical rescue services. The issue of concern has focused on vehicle extrication services. Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that they typically break it up into three components in the fire departments —fire, rescue, and EMS. For the fire departments, the rescue is the vehicle extrication aspect, the search and rescue, and the water rescue component. Michael Talbert said that in the North Chatham Fire Department contract, it defines rescue. He read this: "For the purposes of this agreement, the term `rescue' shall be defined as the furnishing of services to protect persons within the district from injury or death." Chair Pelissier said that in reference to the relationship between the fire departments and Emergency Services and from her perspective, she did not understand the big picture. She said that with the budget she only sees whether or not a fire district tax increase is suggested with no idea of what is going on. Now she has a much better idea. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the consultant's report and the recommendation that Emergency Services and the fire departments being located in the same building. She asked about the pros and cons of doing this. Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that a lot of recommendations in the consultant's report are good and valid, but there are some implementation issues that were recommended that he takes serious issue with. He said that the relationship between field workers in Orange County has always been very good. The working relationships in the field have always been very good. He said that the problem over the years has been with the administration and leadership roles of the various agencies. He thinks that it is ridiculous to build nine new EMS stations when there are fire stations strategically located that can easily have additions to accommodate an ambulance and share those resources. The key to the success of that is setting the expectations early and putting it all in writing. Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that he agreed with Dan Jones. He said that when they were building new stations they did ask if a bay should be built in the station but were shot down by the county. He said that there is no need to build those new stations when bays can be added on to existing stations. SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy agreed with Dan Jones and Bryan Baker and said that South Orange Rescue Squad currently co-locates at least one Orange County ambulance and sometimes two or three. He said that the problems that have been experienced are entirely with the lack of expectations being set. Going forward with a clear understanding up front can resolve all of the potential issues. Commissioner Yuhasz said that this demonstrates to him the need to address the question of how Emergency Services and first responders are to be managed in this County. It is time to define the expectations. He asked if the Emergency Services Work Group should take this on. Commissioner McKee said that this may be something to look at but he is reluctant to expand the scope of the work group at this late date. He said that there is a contract negotiation in progress with Orange Rural Fire Department at this point with the county. He said that Orange Rural wished to have a contract that is spelled out, delineating all responsibilities, etc. Commissioner Yuhasz said that managing expectations has huge policy implications for the County. He thinks that it needs to be done on a countywide basis to have a consistent policy among all of the departments and a clear expectation among the departments, County Commissioners, and the citizens regarding the role of all three entities. Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that his recommendation is not to take it in front of the Emergency Services work group but with the Fire Chief's Council because there are other members on the Emergency Services work group like the Sheriff's office and police departments that are not familiar with this topic at all. He said that the first responder program needs to be ironed out. Commissioner Foushee agreed with Chief Baker and said that she does not think that the Emergency Services Work Group is the place for this to occur. Commissioner McKee agreed and said that the work group was given very specific directions and objectives. He would like to move forward with the objectives and sunset the committee. Commissioner Hemminger said that this issue needs to be resolved and the County Commissioners need to endorse that it should happen. Chair Pelissier said that everyone is in agreement that this issue needs to be addressed and Michael Talbert needs to work with the fire chiefs for an outline toward their goals. Michael Talbert said that there is a pending agreement between Orange County and Orange Rural and it does address some expectation issues, compensation, and sharing of locations. It is in legal review now. The hope is that this will be used as a template. Michael Talbert made reference to contracts and said that on June 5th, three contracts were cancelled — North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. All three of those were given a year's notice with the idea that the contracts will be redone. He thinks that it would be fair to not put this in the work group and get 3-4 representatives from the Fire Chiefs Council, representatives from Emergency Services, and representatives from the management of Orange County and sit down and work out these issues. These contracts that are redone can then be used as templates next year to redo the rest of the contracts that go back to 1992. Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that he agreed with Michael Talbert on the reworking of the contracts. 3. Discussion on Fire Protection Aqreements between Fire Departments and the County Commissioner Hemminger asked if there would be two separate contracts — ones that co-locate and ones that do not. Michael Talbert said that they are working on one contract to co-locate an ambulance at an existing fire station. The other contract will be for fire protection, rescue, and first responder with all fire departments. He would see these as two separate contracts. Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that the easiest way to do this is to come up with standard language and standard clauses. SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy said that this can be done on one inclusive document with check boxes for the services that each franchise provides. He agreed that the co-location is one document and the provision of services is another document. Commissioner Yuhasz said that he wants to make sure they do not end up with 11 different contracts. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro contracts and these have been cancelled. She said that she is not sure they should wait until the Orange Rural contract is finished because there may be some concerns. She wants an update on the contract process with these three departments. Michael Talbert said that the proposed contract with Orange Rural is the co-location of one ambulance and not a contract for fire protection. This is a separate contract for the three departments of North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. He said that staff will be coming back to the Emergency Services Work Group on October 16th with a recommendation for the work group to consider. If the work group endorses the plan, staff will continue meeting with the state, management, the Boards of the entities, and will schedule a work session between now and the end of the year with the idea that if it all works out there could be action as early as the first meeting in January. This would be early enough for the changes that need to be made. The first step is the work group endorsing this. Commissioner McKee said that the 112 homes that were a Class 10 rating was the driver in this issue. These homes were at risk of extreme increases in their insurance or no insurance. Michael Talbert said that he distributed a newer contract tonight for the three departments. There must be new contracts in place by July 1, 2013. He went through the North Chatham contract. The first page is similar to the 1992 contracts. The changes come on #3. Chatham County spells out the correction percentage they anticipate on the taxes and how they are going to pay the departments at the first of the month following the collections. The County currently pays once a quarter, so it would be a change. Item #4 says, "shall provide adequate fire protection services and will provide necessary equipment personnel and other resources as determined by the North Carolina Department of Insurance." It goes on to say that, "the district will maintain at least a rating of 9s." This puts the burden on the fire department to maintain that rating. It goes further to define rescue and first responder, and fire is already defined by the state statute. Item #7, the contract with North Chatham calls for an annual audit by a certified public accountant, which is then turned in to the County Commissioners by December 1 St of the next year. The County's contracts do not currently call for an audit. Item #10, in the event that the fire department is dissolved for any reason, it spells out how the assets of that fire department would be distributed, where they would go, and how they would be used within the existing district. This is not currently part of the County's contract. Item #11 is completely new and goes into the idea of hold harmless and insurance. Michael Talbert said that this is an example and it might be something that Orange County could use going forward. Commissioner Gordon asked to spell out fire, rescue, and first responder since this is for the North Chatham fire department. Michael Talbert said that all of this is to be worked out. Commissioner McKee suggested that as a first step that the County Commissioners let the departments and management work out these contracts before they come to the Board of County Commissioners. He said that the County Commissioners should keep the political aspect out of it now. Commissioner Yuhasz agreed with Commissioner McKee as far as the process but he would like to see paragraph 4 expanded to include more specifics. Commissioner Gordon said that her concern is that if this is brought back to Board of County Commissioners in January then there is time to work out the kinks. But if it comes later, there is no time to make a choice and they have to go with staff presents to them. She would like to get the technical details get worked out before January so that there is time for review. Michael Talbert said that they would work as fast as possible. SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy made reference to Commissioner McKee's comment that they may need to keep times by hands for responses to get quality statistics. He said that he supports a new CAD system. He wants to make sure that everyone is a partner in this and is working together to make sure that this system is something that is needed. New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp agreed with Matthew Mauzy and said that having these meetings are great and he said that in the past the only interaction with the Board of County Commissioners was when budgets were submitted. He said that starting this month, at their Fire Chief's meeting, they will be submitting a quarterly report to the Board of County Commissioners submitted through the Clerk's office. Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones echoed SORS Chief Mauzy's comments and complimented the Board of County Commissioners on the progress with Emergency Services in the past two years. He said that the commitment the County Commissioners made is starting to take effect. He said that the 9-1-1 center staffing levels are a key component and need to be addressed. He said that all of this technology is great, but unless there is adequate staff to operate it then it is null and void. Commissioner McKee said that he wants to set a reasonable standard that can be met as far as response times. With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM. Bernadette Pelissier, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board