2015-12-21 Fire Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes December 21, 2015 Page 2 • Alternative Funding and Grants: No change from the previous report. Their request for night vision goggles for their pilots was not approved. Quotes were up to $10,000. They will continue to work on this. • Human Resources Division: They were given approval to hire 5 extra dispatchers. Turnover is high. A lot of the applicants are young with children, and working shifts is a problem. They are looking at another fire fighter recruit class around summer. Assessment centers will be conducted for internal recruitments and promotions. • Emergency Operations Division: Captain Wong was recognized as County Supervisor of the Year. They do not have arson investigators, and they haven't had much success at pin pointing origins of brush fires. Their team is small, but they work very hard. • Support Services Division: The 44th recruit class is progressing on schedule. Eight MICT students completed and passed their MICT curriculum. They are actively participating on the Dengue outbreak which is now up to 165. They had to stop using Sparky the Fire Dog due to payment issues with its name. They now have a new state mascot named Poki. 7,296 children completed their Firefighter Safety Guide Booklet. Volunteer Commander Lakin reported that they are happy with their radios. Training includes preserving the scene and evidence. The next captains' meeting will be in February in Discovery Harbor. They have 19 captains and 20 volunteer stations. Honokaa's captain fills in for the vacancy in Laupahoehoe. New Projects: They are moving into community based home inspections and public education, especially for those who utilize their services often. Assisting the elderly with services such as Meals on Wheels helps to alleviate EMS use. They do work closely with the County's Office of Aging. In response to questions about stations meeting national standards, Chief Rosario stated that it's just the staffing. The average apparatus age is 17 years. The mayor has been very supportive. Although, they did not get a budget line item for replacements, every year their supplemental budget for replacements has been approved. In the last 4 years, they replaced 50-75% of their Class A pumpers. They are in the process of replacing one per year. Regarding the accreditation process, their stumbling block is the lack of a training division and clerical staff. There is a lot of paperwork and documentation. Maui is ahead of them, and they are learning from Maui's accreditation process. They are starting dialog with the finance department for contract workers.