2012-03-14 Fire Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes March 14, 2012 Page 2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Moku moved to approve the minutes of February 8, 2012, regular and executive sessions. Commissioner Henkel seconded, and it carried unanimously. CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Darren Rosario came before the commission and highlighted items on his written report: BUDGET Their fiscal year 2012 -13 budget was received back from County Finance. It is set at $37.3 million, an increase of 1.8% (percent). The County Council has the budget and will review it. On April 2, the Department of Finance will conduct a mock hearing in preparation for going before the County Council. They are studying the budget and want to be prepared. • ALTERNATIVE FUNDING AND GRANTS The SAFER Grant pays 100% for positions for two years, and the county takes over after the two years. They put in an application for 32 positions. On Saturday he flies to Baltimore to do a peer review of the SAFER Grant. This is a good opportunity for him to see how FEMA reviews the grants, and this should help them in the future. The Peer Fitness Committee pretty much completed all evaluations. The Pahoa fire apparatus is proceeding. Capital improvement Projects: The Makalei Fire Station is about two months ahead of their anticipated August 1 opening date. The Na`alehu and Pahala volunteer garages are going out to bid, but they are awaiting Public Works to put the project out to bid. The Punalu`u lifeguard tower build time will take about 6 -8 months. The new tower will be able to be secured, and it will be more appealing to the area. They will also have a tower in the north end of Hapuna. • HUMAN RESOURCES DIVISION They have had a lot of movements and recruitments. The Fire Communications Supervisor position was delayed to May 1 because the company who does the certification has been unable to do it. • EMERGENCY OPERATIONS DIVISION Operations: They had two major brush fires. One was along the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway and one in Waikoloa. Since then, they have received a lot of inquiries from landowners on how they could get their neighbors, who are not