2012-09-12 Fire Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes September 12, 2012 Page 2 BUDGET They had their budget meeting on Monday with the Finance and Budget Directors for the upcoming fiscal year 2013 -14. They got a directive for no increases and to look for areas to cut. Needed items would go on a supplemental budget. They will submit a supplemental budget which continues their fire apparatus replacement schedule and request funding to allow them to get two additional lease purchase contracts for two additional fire apparatuses. The other supplemental request is to refund 15 fire fighter positions currently approved, but are unfunded. They requested it last year. They have spent a lot of money on overtime due to lack of manpower. Currently, they have 41 vacancies, 15 of which are unfunded. They will also put out a supplemental budget for funding of a 3,000 gallon tanker. A new FFA fire code requires homeowners in areas without water infrastructure to provide water for fire fighting. If they provide this water source required by the code for fire fighting in the districts, that would alleviate the concern. They want to put a fire apparatus tanker in nine generalized districts. The Mayor agreed to this program. They currently have a 3,000 gallon tanker going to the Pahoa district. The tanker that is in Pahoa will be moved to a different place. In Ka'u they have a brand new 2,000 gallon tanker, although the requirement is for 3,000 gallons. They have other smaller tankers in the area that will suffice for the total 3,000 gallons. They will be looking at the budget line -by -line and look at areas that they can make cuts. They have been doing this for the past three years, and they are pretty much down to just paying salaries and wages and minimal operational costs. There is not much where they can cut more, unless they cut back on training and prevention. The Finance Department is very open, and they have a good rapport. They were fortunate to be allowed to hire 18 fire fighter recruits, although their vacancies are higher than that. Chair Taniguchi asked if they could bring in people from other departments, such as, "risk management," to testify on the costs "for" and "for not" funding certain budgeted items. Chief Rosario stated that he has not done it, but thinks the Finance Director would be open to it. Chief Rosario further reported that their current budget is in effect with no problems. He is working with the State to maintain funds in their EMS budget. They met with Dr. Linda Rosen who handles their EMS budget, and they got approval to hire an EMS captain to assist with the workload in their EMS office. Right now, EMS training is from KCC, but they are moving to provide their own training. They are working at being self- sustaining. • ALTERNATIVE FUNDING AND GRANTS ➢ FY 2012 SAFER Grant: They put in an application for 15 positions.