7:45 pm:
Call to order of the Committee-of-the-Whole (CotW) by Co-Chair Barbara Chan.
Agenda Item 1; Chief Cutright's Follow-up Presentation and Question/Answer Session:
Chief Cutright summarized his previous presentation by reminding us that his salmon-colored report entitled "El Cerrito Fire Department Services for the 21st Century Task force", dated 6/10/98 covered the topics of Organization, Emergency Response, Budget, and Comparators. His memo, "Re-Statement of Selected Answers Provided to Questions from Neighbor to Neighbor Task Force", also dated 6/10/98, addressed Alternative Systems. He passed out another memo, "Replies to Miscellaneous Questions" that specifically addresses the subject of overtime use by Fire Safety Agencies.
He mentioned that because of the financial problems of the County Fire District and the success of the El Cerrito/Kensington fire services contract, he has received informal inquiries from the county concerning El Cerrito contracting to provide similar fire serviced to El Sobrante. This inquiry was not encouraged as it is not considered to be a good thing for El Cerrito.
In response to questions Chief Cutright provided the following statements:
"I don't think reducing the size of our engine crews from three to two violates our contract with Kensington, but it may be a problem with our Mutual Aid Agreements."
"Also, since our fire call profile closely matches the standard 'Urban Profile', the reduction is not a very good idea for technical or safety reasons. For example, our tactics require one person at the engine panel to ensure a continuous source of water at pressure is available to the two person hose team actually fighting the fire. We direct the application of water to fight the fires from the inside out, trying to drive the fire back into the burned area. We don't wait for the fire to burn through a building so we can get at it. This means that with two engine companies, our normal response, we have four people available to fight the fire. This is adequate for our type of fires, fewer is not. We must also consider the new unfunded federal OSHA '2 in, 2 out' requirement. If this reduction were mandated, the most junior fire fighters would go first."
Bill K. asked if the establishment of user fees for medical calls were discussed in the budget talks. Chief said they were (see memo from 6/10 meeting). He estimated that, at most, $55K might be generated with a fee system. He suggested a better method is to set up the emergency medical response so that the HMOs/Insurance Companies could be billed, since most elderly can not pay. Police Chief Fellers added that the personnel responding to medical emergency calls are already on duty and are being paid so that the additional costs of their responding to a call is not much.
Linda B. asked if there were any "model" agencies around we should look at regarding the medical calls and charging user fees. Chief Cutright said Pinole runs a good system, but that no local agencies charge fees for medical emergency calls. Berkely has a system using emergency response teams and back up transport vehicle. Because of private ambulance company lobby influence, that type of system would run into legal problems in our county.
Pat C. offered that Pinole was considering that option, but has dropped it.
Evalyn K. asked why so much equipment is sent out for medical emergency calls. Chief Cutright responded that they can not always tell what is really needed before they get there, and that they have to be able to go directly to another call without going back to the station to get additional equipment.
Janet A. mentioned a recent accident in front of Harding Elementary School in which two people were hurt. She said the response was good, but what would happen if more that two people were injured? Chief Cutright said the responding crews would follow their emergency protocols and call in more help as needed. these protocols tend to front end load the capability and build up in anticipation of need.
Don W., referring to the Overtime Chart Costs per Month, 1997-98, asked if we are near hiring another person to reduce the overtime costs. Chief said no, and said his memo handed out tonight explained the balance between use of overtime and hiring more personnel. He said his study shows that "minimum staffing plus 1" is the lowest cost option for EC.
Chief pointed out that the use of OT dips each winter except in the Flu season in January.
Barbara C. asked if flu shots were used to reduce sick time. Chief said that shots were made available free of charge, but because of the privacy issue regarding medical treatment, we can not force anybody to take them.
Al M. asked if a standard cost per medical emergency call had ever been set so that people had an option to repay the city for false alarms. Chief Cutright said no, but that it was an interesting idea. Al also asked how a persons physical fitness to perform her or his job was evaluated. Chief said as part of the required performance evaluation system.
Anne D., referring to the call response chart for 1997, asked Chief to elaborate on the 192 calls that took 7 minutes or longer. Chief said he did not have the individual data available, but that distance was always a factor. Some of them could be mutual aid responses to Richmond, for example. Another reason could be his policy to have all personnel fully dress in their protective clothing before getting on the engine. also, the responding units could have been involved in another project.
Anne D., referring to page 27 of the salmon handout from 6/10, noted that the Fire Department staff chart shows 37 in budget, but that there are only 36 fire fighters on staff. Chief said the Fire Dept. secretary is included in the budget. He mentioned that the figures above the line show what we paid for while the figures below the line, show what someone else paid for.
Janet A. asked how the Fire Department would transport a handicapped person and their power wheel chair. Chief said the person would be transported like all callers and that he would probably call the corporate yard for a pick up and help to transport the wheel chair. Janet followed up with a question about how would he respond to a call from a handicapped individual who was not injured, but had fallen out of his or her w/c and just needed help getting up and back in the w/c; would he still send the entire response team? Chief said that if he had a way of separating these calls out of the 911 system, it might be OK to respond with less, but until then, he is uncomfortable with this approach. These call are not a burden on the Fire Department. We are in the service business.
M. Selph, referring to the bottom of page 9 of Chief's 6/10 memo, asked him to clarify "Advanced Life Support (ALS)" and "Basic Life Support (BLS)". Chief stated that BLS is what we have with all of our fire fighters qualified at the EMT-1 level. They can use CPR and defibrillators, but administer no drugs or fluids of any kind. ALS is provided by fully qualified paramedics, who can do what we do and give drugs, IVs and breathing tubes.
Evalyn K. asked what the starting pay of a fire fighter is in EC. Chief said he did not have the pay scales with him, but we could figure it out from the proposed budget figures which lists the salary of an "A" step fire fighter, the highest level. Beginning fire fighters start off at level "E" and pay scale drops 5% for each level. So, a beginning fire fighter's pay rate would be 20% lower. Also, benefits add about 50% of salary to cost per fire fighter.
Chief Cutright explained his "10 Year Budget History; Trend Line Projections: ECFD vs. COMBINED FD" chart. This chart summarizes the costs of EC's Fire protection from 1987-88 through 1994-95 and the cost of the combined EC & Kensington fire protection from 1995-96 through the 1999-2000 projections. It shows that EC is benefiting from an approximate $250K per year savings with the combination. It also shows that, even though Kensington residents pay almost twice what EC residents do, Kensington is receiving about $250K per year savings, too. A definite win-win situation.
Janet A. asked if the local paramedic/ambulance service can find unusual addresses in EC. Chief said that they have current maps. Also, they are on radio with ECFD and Police and can get help as needed. Janet asked , that if EC decided to upgrade to the paramedic level, would all fire fighters be trained and certified to that level?. Chief said no, we would need 12 paramedics for three stations.
George A., referring to the "Types of Emergency Response: 1978-1997" chart in Chief Cutrights 6/10, salmon colored handout, asked Chief to categorize items within the "Other" category. Chief Cutright said he could not break down this category for past years because the data was not gathered that way. He has added new codes for current and future years.
M. Selph asked d for examples of what these "Other" calls might be. Chief listed false alarms, mistaken alarms, public assistance (other than medical), downed wire, and nuisance calls.
This ended Chief Cutright's presentation.
9:25 pm (about):
Agenda Item 2; Chief Fellers' Follow-up Presentation and Question/Answer Session:
Chief Fellers started out by asking the CotW for clarification on what we were looking for from her regarding the four pages of questions that Anne D. had forwarded as a result of Chief Fellers' first presentation. Chief said she wants to provide answers needed, but that answers to several of the questions would take considerable staff time to prepare and she has limited staff. After a general discussion on what the CotW was expecting, we agreed that any questions concerning costs, trends or expenditures would be pursued by the FRT's Audit/Budget Review Subcommittee. She was asked to do her best to answer the rest.
Chief Fellers was asked questions concerning the new Police/Emergency Dispatch Radio System appearing in this year's budget. Examples; What are the problems requiring the new system? Was a "cost-benefit analysis" done to justify the expense? Chief Fellers responded that no CBA was done. She stated that some time ago, to save money, EC joined with Richmond and others to share Police/ Emergency Dispatch costs, with Richmond basically running the combines system and EC paying "our fair share." Several things have happened to necessitate the new system. Examples are:
We really do not have much of a choice of alternatives to going along with the new system. We could look elsewhere, we could resume our own dispatch set up, or we can buy into the new system. Buying into the new system is the least expensive and most effective way to provide for our dispatch needs.
Pat C. pointed out that the City of Richmond is fronting all the system costs. Chief Fellers agreed and said that all we are paying for are units for our vehicles and mobile units our Officers use. Richmond pays all back bone costs. Our monthly costs will increase because of the increased complexity and capabilities of the system.
Don W. asked what are the increases for using the new system. $56K for ECPD, $20K for ECFD, plus some for EC Public Works.
Evalyn K. asked if the new system had sufficient reserve capacity if more agencies wanted to join. Chief Fellers told us that currently The police and fire departments of Richmond, Kensington, EC, and San Pablo are in the system. Future plans include Pinole, Hercules, WCC School District PD, and the Hilltop Security Force
Next, Chief Fellers was asked what per cent of ECPD time was spent covering merchants. She offered that to research available data would take a lot of staff time. She will provide general impressions of the force, but said the ECPD spends a fair amount of its time on San Pablo Avenue since that is where most of our crime is. EC does not have much night time burglary.
M. Selph asked if crimes were tracked by area. Chief said that calls are dispatched by beat areas, but we do not get response records by beat areas, so, no we don't track by area. In fact, since the position of Crime Analyst was lost in previous budget cut backs, not enough effort is spent tracking or analyzing crime statistics. Chief did say that ECPD gets response time report by month and quarterly.
Chief Fellers ended her presentation by saying that EC is a very good place for Community Policing and problem solving. Currently, all ECPD Officers are being trained for this. She has made community outreach a high priority. She cited Targets support of our new bicycle patrols as one indication of the good results she has seen so far.
10:05 pm (about):
Meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting will be Tuesday, July 7, at the El Cerrito Open House Senior Center at 7:30 pm. Agenda highlight will be a presentation on the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency. Bring several friends.
List of Attendees at 6/23 meeting of the Services for the 21st Century Committee-of-the-Whole:
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