2020-02-12 Fire Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes February 12, 2020 Page 2 Commissioner Yawata pointed out a non -substantive change on page 1 of the executive session minutes. Commissioner Henkel motioned to approve the minutes as amended. Commissioner Agdeppa seconded, and it carried unanimously. 4. FIRE CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Rosario told new Commissioner Agdeppa that they could schedule a meeting so he could provide more information on the Fire Department. Chief Rosario highlighted items from his written report: Budget: Their current budget situation deals with lack of funding for overtime. They are not in a budget shortage because of anything they have done improperly. Next week, Accountant Lorenzo will present a report to the Finance Department. They have staffing shortages that the BC brought up. Moving forward, they started recruit classes. They now have three ongoing recruit classes. It takes about a year for them to get their boots on the ground because of their extensive training. They look forward to being fully staff. As he has brought up previously, they have tried to get the County Administration to hire 10 more recruits so that when someone retires, the boots are on the ground. The response he got was, "What would you do if you have more bodies than positions?" In response to an inquiry from Commissioner St. Ambrogio about transferring from another department, Chief Rosario stated that they have an Intergovernmental Program. Rules state that they have to drop back down to firefighter recruit. In Hawaii County, they have to be EMT qualified. The process is not hard, but they have to move when there is an opening for firefighter recruitment. Chair Yamada asked if they could separate manpower in their budget and show what it would cost for minimal levels. Chief stated that they already have separate budgets. He explained moving the firefighter recruit positions from vacant to temporary. They also do this for dispatchers. Recruiting and maintaining dispatchers is very difficult. Chair Yamada asked the Chief if he could comment on BC Bergin's concern about the lawsuit. Chief Rosario stated that it is still in the court system. Until the matter is resolved in the courts, the Mayor said he cannot do anything. Deputy Corporation Counsel Masuda stated that it is with the Appellate Court. Until the court decides, it is at a standstill. The Chief cannot make any statements because it is on appeal. Any statements the Chief makes is irrelevant. He will get the information for the commissioners. ✓ FY 2019/2020: Chief stated that this year, all overtime was taken out from all the departments' budget. The budget is separated into salaries and