2020-10-14 Fire Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes October 14, 2020 Page 2 year. His greatest concern is that DLNR will not be funded, and therefore not contract with the County of Hawaii for water safety officer services at Kua Bay and Hapuna. Those are long-time water safety officers of our community that work every day there. Hapuna is the most dangerous beach out there. He can't imagine not being able to provide the services. He will be at the legislature again, even though he will be a private citizen. He thanked Commissioner Henkel who was on the commission when he was hired as Fire Chief and bringing back his experience. He again thanked the commission for the service they provide and the honor to allow him to serve his community. Chief Rosario highlighted items from his written report: Budget ✓ FY 2019/20: County -wide they are okay because they got an influx of CARES Act Funding that's helping to offset a lot of shortfalls due to Covid. They are still in talks with the State regarding their EMS contract and reduction in funding. They are looking at a 2.5% reduction from the general funds portion of their budget which is approximately just short of a million dollars. When they first looked at the State EMS across the state, the cuts were so large, that they were looking at three to four EMS units being shut down. His goal is that they don't shut down any EMS units. ✓ FY 2021-22: County Finance just had their budget kickoff where all departments received their directives which included no new positions and a 5% budget reduction. They had this same directive last year, but they could only cut about 0.2%. Their budget is nearly 90% Salaries and Wages and about 10% other. Their budget is due on October 30, and the process goes to June. They will also submit supplemental budget requests. They want the County Administration and the Council to understand their needs. They are also concerned about cuts by the State for EMS. Chair Yamada asked what the Fire Commission could do to assist or promote their budget submittal. Chief Rosario stated that the most important thing that the Fire Commission could do is to give public testimony during the Council hearing around April. Their goal is to keep their water safety officers and maintaining their State EMS budget. In the past, the Chair and Vice Chair provided testimony to the Council in support of their budget. Commissioner Paleka entered at 9:19 a.m. Alternative Funding and Grants: ✓ The Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation which provides a lot of donations to the Hawaii Fire Department, is currently working with SalesForce, providing the County with Covid-19 related protective equipment. The Fire Department is a