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2007-03-06 Regular Meeting FIRE PROTECTION AREA NO.1 BOA REGULAR ~ING MINUTES March 6,~@ 7:30 p.m. BA YSIDE FIRE HALL o ~.JJJL~rm . PI L_2_~O~JJ/; 80ROUG~1 CLERI\'S OFFICE -- --~-- CALL TO ORDER: CHAIR S. ARNDT, called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. ROLL CALL: Present: Absent: Scott Arndt, Chair Cliff Davidson Mike Dolph Rebecca Nelson Greg Spalinger, Vice Chair Staff: Chief Bob Himes, Ex-Officio Jessica Kepley, ElF A quorum was established. Fire Protection Area No.1 residents were present, as were members of the Womens Bay Fire Department and US Coast Guard Fire. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA: It was MOVED, SP ALINGER and SECONDED, NELSON to accept the agenda as presented. The motion CARRIED unanimously. ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF THE FINANCIAL REPORT: It was MOVED, SP ALINGER and SECONDED, NELSON to acknowledge receipt of the financial report. The motion CARRIED unanimously. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: It was MOVED, SP ALINGER and SECONDED, DOLPH to approve the minutes as presented to the board for the meetings of November 14, 2006 and February 26, 2007. The motion CARRIED unanimously. PUHLIC COMMENTS: OLD BUSINESS: A. New Apparatus Updates and Color Choice CHIEF HIMES provided the Board with updates on the two fire apparatuses that are being built by Pierce. He told the Board that there would be 2 weeks between the start and completion of the two fire apparatuses. ARNDT told the Board that there would have to be discussion in the future regarding the inspection trip dates. CHAIR brought up the subject of the color choice of the new vehicles. SP ALINGER reported that he had heard "a lot of rumbling around town", and was asked who had chosen the color of the new apparatuses, asked if it was a Board decision. SP ALINGER told this person that the decision was left up to the volunteers. SP ALINGER said that it seemed there were a lot of people that had a problem with the initial color choice and he felt that the red and white would fit in with the other fire vehicles in town. And he feels that all vehicles should be the same color, to look like one unit Kodiak wide, because eventually he feels that we will all be one unit, although it may not be five to ten years away, it will happen. It was MOVED, SPALINGER and SECONDED, DOLPH (for discussion purposes) to change the two new fire apparatus colors to red and white. CHIEF HIMES told the Board that he noticed this item was on the agenda, so he brought the subject to the volunteers the night before. A ballot vote was held and the results were unanimous to chose lime green for the colors, with the exception of one "I don't care" vote. HIMES questioned SP ALINGER on the identity of the people that asked for the color to be changed to red and white. CHAIR stated that he had also heard from others (would not give names due to confidentiality) for the last 5 to 6 months that they wanted to change the colors. ARNDT checked around on other city vehicles, colors came up as Pierce Red 90 and Pierce White 10. He feels that in light of the information that is being submitted to the newspaper re the conflict between fire departments, he thinks that the difference of the colors of the vehicles won't help the situation. He would like to see the departments look the same and work together. He doesn't feel the color will make that difference but feels everybody being the same will heln as a community. Sees the governments combining and endorses the color change to red and white. CHAIR asked that the motion be amended to include changing the colors to Pierce Red 90 and Pierce White 10 with a friendly amendment. The amendment was accepted. DAVIDSON spoke to the Board, stating that if the volunteers had voted on the color and they want the lime green, he doesn't see a big deal with leaving the colors as they currently are. He stated he would cast his vote with the volunteers. KURT LAW (public) told the Board that it was their decision to leave the color scheme choice to the volunteers. The volunteers looked at it, researched it and found that the lime green is more visible at night and there were a lot of reasons why they chose to stay with the lime green. And it was a unanimous vote for the lime green. Again on the evening of March 5, there was a chance to change that decision and by a sealed vote, with no repercussions on the decision, and with only one exception of "I don't care", it was unanimous to keep the color as lime green. He told the Board that they were the ones who were allowing the volunteers to pick the color, and the volunteers did a good job of researching the color and making a decision. To change the color, he feels would be "a kick in the head" to the volunteers because essentially what the Board may be saying to the volunteers is that "your research and stuff doesn't matter" and especially now when there is a lot of strife. He stated that the volunteers really want lime green and asked the Board to let them have this color. JIM PICKETT (public) told the Board that he, as a volunteer, is in favor of the lime green; "this place started out with lime green vehicles". Although the Board members mentioned that the governments will one day be one government, he doesn't know when that will be but if it should happen he foresees it happening a long time down the road, and maybe when it does happen then they will want to take another look at the colors. For now, he said that he wants lime green. DOLPH told the Board the volunteers have unanimously spoken as requested and leave it at that. ARNDT asked for a roll call vote on the motion. Question was called on the motion. Motion CARRIED 3 to 2. B. Bayside Fire Station Addition Since the last meeting Bud Cassidy had reported to the CHAIR that according to the Borough attorney the Borough will need to go out to advertise for architectural services for the addition rather than "tagging on" with the School District project architect. Cassidy will put the RFP together as soon as possible. CHAIR will get back to Board on the progress. SP ALINGER questioned if this was the same thing that the Board was trying to push towards the year before and the Board was told that the Borough would allow them to "piggy back" with the architect doing the work for the school projects; now the Borough is telling them they can't and setting them back. ARNDT said yes it was the same Issue. C. Dispatch Update HIMES told the Board there are various issues with City dispatch, which are on-going. All other departments are having issues as well; this will come before the Assembly at the scheduled meeting, March 15. The Assembly work session will be held on March 13, the issue is on the Assembly agenda. CHAIR spoke with Borough clerk to see if Bayside and Womens Bay Fire could speak to the Assembly. CHAIR would like to go to the Assembly as a collective group. He asked for input from visiting fire department personnel. DAVE CONRAD (WBFD) spoke to the Board re Womens Bay's issues with the encrypted paging system. To build a repeater site to alleviate current paging issues would be expensive and there are a lot of unresolved issues, so it makes it difficult to form an opinion when you don't have all the facts. This concerns him as both a fire fighter and a Board member. Reported that Dale Rice (WBFD CHIEF) looked back at the calls received by WBFD for the past 10 years and found over 50% of the dispatched calls received by WBFD are to assist the City ambulance on calls in their area. So they are being charged for helping the City on ambulance calls, which he feels is "slightly distasteful". CONRAD also commented that he would like to make clear that this discussion is not coming from the firefighters, it is coming from a higher level. Everyone on the firefighter's level are more than willing to cooperate with each other, no matter which agency they are from. He feels that if the public knew what some of the ramifications would be as a result of this issue, they would be outraged. ARNDT agreed. He reported that some of the members attended the joint work session held by the City and the Borough, where they discussed the subject. Rather than focus on the dispatch and equities, discussion was averted to whether the Women's Bay and ~ I --- Bayside Fire Depts. had any authority to respond to medical calls. The direction changed and the dispatch issue was never brought up or addressed. HIMES discussed the issue brought up re that the misrepresentation that the Borough fire departments are not Basic Life Support service providers, but are First Responder Service providers and in the eyes of the State there is no certification process for first responder services so despite what the City says, Borough fire departments can't be certified. CHIEF asked Kathy McClaren to address this in a letter which has not yet been received. There are significant differences between Basic Life Support and First Responder services, one being the financial part, as a Basic Life Support service provider the department would have to have a physician sponsor and pay all or part of the malpractice insurance. This was not the direction the Board wished to go when deciding on this issue in the past. It appears that both the City and the Borough managers are misinformed. Although discussion has gone back and forth on the EMS powers, it's true that the Borough doesn't have EMS powers, in their ordinances etc, but they also don't have fire (unclear) but have two fire departments. CHIEF's opinion that First Responder services are part of the services the fire department provides. There was a false statement made by the City that there are two fire simulation training buildings, City has a Flashover Simulator, Borough has a Live Fire Training building. They are two separate buildings one is made specifically for flashover fires, it is not provided for fire attacks or fire training; Borough's unit is. Discussion between Borough Manager and CHIEF was held to try to work with the City and work things out between departments, so knowing there were new rigs on the way and with the new addition being built, CHIEF offered Andy Nault, City Fire Chief, the possible use of Bayside's Squad 11 and apparatus space to store and transport the City's Hazardous Material Trailer. The answer was an outright "no", with no discussion on the matter. CHIEF said he's made the attempt to work with the City Fire Chief, but it isn't happening on City side. ARNDT asked HIMES who was at the meeting when the City offered to discuss the new communication upgrade RFP; all fire departments, police department and state troopers were supposed to be there. HIMES responded that the only meeting he knew of was the one the City held to tell everyone what they were planning on doing, other than that he knew of no meetings that were held for planning purposes. He was initially told by Police Chief Kamai that a unite?) group would be formed or has been formed, (this is in the proposed contract) but this did not happen. Further discussion was held re the percentages of the calls that are received per department/government. City dispatch personnel and equipment were discussed at this point. ARNDT feels that there are underlying issues and problems involved and the City is looking for additional money and they seem to forget that everyone pays City sales tax, and it is discouraging that there has to be an argument about it and that the Borough is not receiving the EMS calls; feels afraid this conflict is going to lead to someone losing their life because of it and then where is this going to go? DOLPH reviewed percentages in the report and feels it would be "easier to swallow" if the Borough was getting 100% of the services provided; but they don't. Bayside doesn't get police service, neither does Womens Bay. There is no public works person to address issues of drainage. The Borough just doesn't receive 100 % of the City services, we are using a small portion. Reality is there are thousands of complaint calls that go through the City dispatch and the reality of those numbers is that Womens Bay has about 20 of those complaint calls and Bayside has about 70 which equates to 1-2 %. He stated he didn't have a problem paying this minimum cost, but has a problem with the figures the City is presenting to the Borough to pay. DALE RICE wishes to make the public aware of the costs, feels it would hurt the customer/consumer relationship is the services were charged for. CONRAD brought up the meeting re contracts with other agencies, such as State Troopers, Feds, Immigration, etc. These agencies are not being included in the call percentage. HIMES said the contract proposed states they are only requesting funding from 3 agencies, and although they do list the other agencies, these are not being asked for funding. DAVIDSON asked, where do we go from here? There was a mention of a communication study, is anyone aware of what was studied and why has this not been release to all involved in the communication process; this is one thing the Board should discuss with the Borough, because this needs to be straightened out, otherwise the public needs to be aware that the calls made are going to be charged for. Focus needs to be made on what this means to the public, what does this mean to someone in need of EMS services, where is the problem and why is there a problem. He feels there is obvious confusion on the Borough Assembly's part, as there is for the City Council; "there is a lot of confusion that needs to be sorted out so that there is forward movement, and movement there should be because this is a critical life-threatening situation." DOLPH thinks the Borough needs to be educated. Bullet and line item the issues, then get answers to these questions. Everyone pays sales tax and sales tax is what goes towards paying for the services provided. "If they want additional funding, it sounds like double taxation." Questions are being asked by the Assembly and the public; the people aren't happy that there is an issue as to who would respond to a call. Discussion continued at length re this issue. It was asked that terms be clarified, first responder service be determined and clarified. It was stated, before the Borough refused to pay for a new ambulance there were a number of calls that were directed to Bayside to respond to, once they refused, the number of calls stopped. Discussion re First Responder status, is it in the policy, what does it mean? There is a difference between Basic Life Support and First Responder services; Basic Life Support is based on certification through the State of Alaska. It was elected that the Borough only be First Responders as this does not require certification. The public expects that if there is an emergency the closest fire department is going to respond, this is a matter of risk vs. benefit. It was stated, "in an emergency, time is of the essence, as tax payers this is demanded of the service providers no matter which area they are in, fire departments should work as a brotherhood, not separately." All were invited to attend the Assembly work session on March 13,2007 to voice ideas and opinions. CHIEF'S REPORT None. NEW BUSINESS A. Disposal of House at 4518 Rezanof Drive Firefighter's Association declined the offer of the house located at 4518 Rezanof Dri ve. It was then MOVED, SPALINGER and SECONDED, DOLPH to direct the Borough to dispose of the house. The motion CARRIED unanimously. B. Election of Officers Nominees for Chairperson were: Mike Dolph and Scott Arndt. DOLPH was elected Chairperson, 3 to 2. Nominees for Vice Chairperson were: G. Spalinger (declined) and Rebecca Nelson. NELSON was elected as Vice Chairperson. ARNDT continued the meeting at DOLPH's request. CORRESPONDENCE A. Letter from Clerk's office re OMA KEPLEY reported she had spoken with Nova Javier, Borough Clerk the morning of this meeting. There are issues that have occurred; these issues are addressed in the letter from the Clerk's office. One thing Javier did convey for clarification was whether or not the Board had a Rules of Procedures. If not, she has provided documentation on how to implement the Rules of Procedures for the Board, similar to those of the Borough Assembly. ARNDT did not know of any Rules of Procedures that the Board had established. If there are not any already established, Javier suggested reviewing the Assembly's Rules of Procedures to come up with the Board's own procedures; this it to help get all Boards and Committees up to the same level. KEPLEY will alter Rules of Procedures of the Assembly to fit the Board and will provide a draft copy for review at a later meeting. PUBLIC COMMENTS DAVE CONRAD: Would provide a copy of a letter that was provided by Dave Jensen in 2000 re EMS services; it talks extensively of the EMS services and the Borough's position at the time. The letter leads up to the present discussion. NELSON stated that she has worked with both City and Borough Fire Chiefs in the past, and City and Borough fire departments. The history is that there are superior attitudes within the City, knowledge that they are more trained than other departments shows in the superior attitude. "This has to change; it's good to come up with a resolution to some of the issues, but until the human element of attitudes is fixed, nothing is going to change." BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS ARNDT. None. DA VIDSON. Thanked previous Chair, ARNDT for doing a great job. Looking forward to moving forward with the construction of the addition. Wants to get the issue of First Responder calls resolved. DOLPH. Appreciated the visitors being present, it's nice to have the participation and input. Would like to see the Board establish a tentative agenda for the next meeting, need to get it posted for the public. Recommends the Board's concurrence to place one item- Public Hearing for FY2008 Budget-on the agenda. NELSON. None. SP ALINGER. Alerted the Board he would be gone at the time the Borough holds the next work session. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 9: 10 p.m. SUBMITTED BY: Date: if! ~/01 e _!._ Secretary ngineering / Facilities Department APPROVED BY: ~-~-d #-#rr?~- Scott Arndt, Chair Fire Protection Area No.1 Board Date: Lj-.A b- :lClO 7