2021-09-21 Fire Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Fire Commission Minutes of September 8, 2021 Page 2 Budget ✓ FY 2021-2022: The County's spending through July 31 is at 21.80% with 16.66% of the fiscal year completed. S & W closed at 22.52% in Fire and 20.38% in EMS. OCE expenditures closed at 29.82% in Fire and 13.88% in EMS. Staffing has been affected by Covid exposure. The State's 2020-21 reimbursements for EMS is current to March, and they expect the remaining submittals by September 31. ✓ Alternative Funding and Grants: The National Forest Service Grant with 50/50 matching funds for $50,000 is still pending. They are working on the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation grants. Human Resources: Promotions were made for Fire Radio Dispatcher III. Five new Fire Radio Dispatcher I started on September 1. Emergency Operations Division: Their overall call volume has increased by 9% in the past 5 years. This holds a similar trend with population growth which is hovering around 8.4% in the County of Hawaii. There has been a big upswing of Rescue/EMS calls, nearly 11 %. Three -fourth of all their calls are for EMS. Much of the calls could be associated with Covid-19. The Fire Department is very diverse and includes Fire, EMS, Ocean Safety, and even helicopter. Commissioner Kosaki stated that nationwide, no fire department can compare to the services that Hawaii County provides. Chief further reported that he has been visiting stations around the island and meeting with personnel. They had an incident in Ka'u where a volunteer was burned. All PPEs were worn, and they are following up with personnel on the injuries. Their vaccination rate is over 70%. This is not a medical issue. For most people it is a political ideology. Personnel have talked about leaving the department over the vaccination mandate. He doesn't think they will get 100% compliance, perhaps 90%. Vaccination is voluntary, but testing is mandated. They are trying to do their own testing, but the Mayor said it will be the same county -wide. The Mayor said if they are not vaccinated, they must have weekly testing. Commissioner Kosaki stated that with an unvaccinated fire fighter in Queens with Covid, you would think more fire fighters would get vaccinated. Commission Mattos stated that he worked on the set of the Love Island TV show, and they had mandatory testing on rotating dates. He questioned what the problem was with fire personnel. Chief Todd stated that they need to be tested if they are not vaccinated, and they have to get tested on their own. If they don't get tested, they cannot come back to work, and that causes staffing issues. HazMat personnel will be doing Confined Space Training in October. They continue to work on CAMEO training.