Emergency Services Advisory Committee
MINUTES
Members present:
Joe Diamond Chris Rucker
Gerry Goldstein Tony Simmons
Lew Oliver Don Vanderryt
John E. Reble
Staff present:
Deb Grinde
Agenda approved as submitted for this meeting.
Minutes for meeting held
Persons to Appear, None
Determined that future reports for individual districts will be provided only to Chief Reble for his review. Discussion ensued regarding response time goals. First responders will be allowed six (6) minutes to respond plus additional two (2) minutes for dispatch for a total of eight (8) minutes. Reports will be provided for exceptions outside of the eight (8) minute window. Reports will be run for the entire county and not individual districts.
Mr. Vanderryt mentioned the importance of tracking the Fire Department responses and does not want us to lose sight of this critical information.
Chief Reble will attempt to streamline the required information for future reporting.
Request made to differentiate between medical calls and fire/other calls on future “No Response” reports.
Noted that accurate reporting does provide extra equipment and other items to different areas of the county based on information indicated by the reports.
Correspondence, None
An updated Fire Department roster was distributed to all members.
Reviewed results of fuel survey distributed to all fire districts. Discussion held regarding all aspects of fuel usage including accountability, distance emergency situations, etc. D. Ling advised that he was not aware of any current plan that would provide fuel to the fire districts in the case of an emergency.
J. Diamond suggested that the best alternative is to purchase fuel as a tax-exempt entity and acquire the savings in that manner. J. Diamond will look into the prospect of obtaining credit cards for the districts.
Committee reviewed draft of amended survey along with cover letter for same. Motion made and approved to distribute letter along with the survey amended as noted by the committee.
D. Ling advised committee that an Emergency Security
Assessment survey must be completed by
A class is scheduled to start
Town of Jay/Allentown will participate in a 160 Class shortly.
Tentative plans are for another class to be held in Gulf Breeze sometime in January 2004.
Discussion held regarding a request for a new budget item from the BOCC. It is to fill the position of a Public Training Officer. The reason for the request is to respond to a community need for an Emergency Response person and to fulfill a recommendation made by the EMS Taskforce. Responsibilities would include:
Training
Public Education
Public Awareness
Community CPR
H. Walker,
C. Rucker suggested that a letter of support regarding the establishment of this position be issued to the BOCC, including an extensive description of a new set of tasks to be accomplished. This motion was carried and approved.
A discussion was held regarding the purpose or mission of this committee and how any accomplishments of the committee will be measured.
Chairman Reble drafted a letter to be issued to the BOCC in order to update the commissioners on the progress of the committee. He also requested that the commission provide direction to the committee including any recommendations and/or changes.
Chief Reble will contact S. Bracewell to get the letter out quickly for next week’s BOCC meeting.
A discussion was held regarding the levels of disparity between the fire departments in different areas of the county.
G. Goldstein requested that the letter to the BOCC be more specific regarding areas of coverage, the fuel survey, the 40% gas tax, etc.
Scheduled meetings for the Commissioners are for
Noted that the fuel savings would be directly to the Districts’ funds.
Motion made and carried to issue letter to the BOCC after edits made per committee discussion.
None
Next meeting is
Further discussion held by committee members regarding visits to fire stations. Also discussed inviting each fire department to attend and provide the committee with information regarding individual department’s needs, training, etc. The districts will be invited to make a presentation and to include as many units as are interested in attending the committee meeting.
Suggestion made that after a district makes a presentation to the committee the committee will then tour that particular fire station. It will be considered a field trip and will be in addition to the regularly scheduled meeting.
It was noted that three (3) fire departments did not respond to the fuel survey.
G. Goldstein is concerned that some departments will not respond to the survey currently scheduled to be sent out to each of the departments. G. Goldstein will contact the three (3) departments that did not respond and report on the results at the next meeting.
Meeting adjourned at
Submitted by:
D. A. Grinde