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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-04-13 Fire Commission MinutesHAWAI`I FIRE COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION MINUTES APRIL 13, 2022 WEST HAWAII CIVIC CENTER 74-5044 ANE KEOHOKALOLE HIGHWAY, KAILUA-KONA, HI CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Kosaki called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. Present: Gerald Kosaki, Chair Benjamin Agdeppa, Vice Chair Gregory Henkel, Commissioner Shon Magsalin, Commissioner Wesley Mattos, Commissioner Gene Nakashima, Commissioner Daniel Paleka, Commissioner Carlene Wolf, Commissioner A quorum was present. Absent: Corey Luke, Commissioner Also present: Kazuo Todd, Fire Chief Eric Moller, Deputy Fire Chief Tyler Benner, County Auditor Dalilah Schlueter, Deputy Corporation Counsel Keyra Wong, Deputy Corporation Counsel Charisse Correa, Secretary PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS (None.) APPROVAL OF MINUTES • Commissioner Paleka motioned to approve the regular and executive session minutes of March 9, 2022. Commissioner Wolf seconded, it carried unanimously, and the minutes approved. Commissioner Magsalin arrived at 9:07 a.m. Commissioner Paleka motioned to amend the agenda to allow the investigation of complaint to be discussed first, Commissioner Henkel seconded, all in favor and it carried unanimously. Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 2 EXECUTIVE SESSION (CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC) Commissioner Paleka motioned to meet in executive session to consider complaints against employees of the fire department, where matters affecting privacy will be involved and for the purpose of consulting with the commission's attorney on questions and issues pertaining to the commission's powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities pursuant to HRS Sections 92-5, (a) (2) (4) (6) and the Hawaii County Charter 13-20 (b). Vice Chair Agdeppa seconded, and it carried unanimously. Executive session convened at 9:08 a.m. Motion to reconvene open session made by Commissioner Henkel, seconded by Commissioner Paleka, and it carried unanimously. Regular session reconvened at 9:50 a.m. Motion made by Commissioner Henkel to table the matter discussed in executive session to after 11:00 a.m., to allow the complainant the opportunity to testify. Seconded by Commissioner Paleka, all in favor, and it carried unanimously. FIRE CHIEF'S REPORT Fire Chief Todd highlighted items from his written report. Detailed reports are on file. • Highlights for March: There was a major structure fire at Uncle Billy's Hotel. A lightning storm started some fires and a lightning bolt struck Station 1/Dispatch radio communication tower, which knocked out the dispatch CAD system and Station 1's electrical power. They had union meetings over the Dispatch Captain position, this has gone out for recruitment, and they hope to have someone selected by the next meeting. There was a farewell lunch for Volunteer Firefighter Lizzy Stabo. • Budget: FY 2022-2023 HFD's total budget is $56,343,977, of which $18,797,158 is grant funded. Their budget increased by $3.8 million from last year. Three (3) new positions created in FY 2022 are funded in the new budget. These positions include a Fire captain in Dispatch, an Information Systems Analyst IV, and an Accountant I. They gained five (5) new positions: three (3) Clerk III positions, a Safety Specialist II, and a Fire Communications Officer III (trainer). 11 part-time Water Safety Officer II positions in South Hilo, Puna and Kau are now full-time positions. FY 2021-2022 total spending through March 31, 2022, is at 88.38% with 75% of the fiscal year completed. Salaries & wages closed at 86.68% in fire and OCE (operating capital expenditures) closed at 101.88%. Mana Road Fire expenditures and the costs of numerous brush fires continue to skew OCE expenditures. BUDGET PRESENTATION Fire Chief Todd highlighted items from their county council budget presentation. • Deanna Sako approved Chief Todd's request to restructure the department's budget. Numbers have changed from 6221-6228; the purpose of this was to move Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 3 things under programs, as previously everything was under fire protection. The goal of restructuring is to align dollars spent towards purpose/source. Breakdown by program for outcome tracking: fire suppression, fire prevention, training, volunteer program, support (auxiliary), grants and other funds. • FY 2022-2023 they are looking at a total budget of $56,343,977. Further changes are expected over the next month. EMS (estimated) budget is $15,749,211, there's currently a bill to increase OCE by $1.2 million. Total contract is $21.9 million. Funding for EMS is 100% provided by the State of Hawaii. Ocean Safety: In Hawaii County, there were about 3 million beach visitors last year. Compared to Maui and Kauai, they do more beaches, they have more towers, but they have the same amount of staff. The other counties have a chief/managing officer, a training position and support staff. They also have 4 or 5 captains and 4 to 8 lieutenants. HFD's goal is to increase Ocean Safety's staff. The biggest issue is OCE vs salaries and wages. They are technically budgeted at 96% for salaries & wages and 4% for OCE. The state froze any expenditures on their budget for OCE, 3% of that comes from the state, so their actual budget for OCE is 1 %. Fire response: Funding is a little over $30 million. HFD has 20 Fire Stations, so that comes out to $1.5 million per fire station. In comparison to other counties — Maui Fire Department's funding is at $42,811,396 for 14 Fire Stations. Kauai Fire Department is at $28,921,245 for 8 Fire Stations. Honolulu Fire Department is at $141,758,816 for 44 Fire Stations. • Based on the total numbers of county paid firefighters, divided by the number of stations and shifts, there is 4.25 paid staffing positions per shift/station. Maui Fire Department has 7.11, Kauai has 5.91, and Honolulu has 8.25. Honolulu has the ability to drop down 70 personnel a day without recall. If HFD had additional personnel, if they could bring their number from 4.25 to 6 or 7, their minimum staffing could remain the same without hitting overtime. Causes of overtime: Sick leave, vacation, major events, FMLA, injury (workers comp), ghost positions, vacant positions, and training. Recess was called at 10:44 am. The meeting reconvened at 10:58 a.m. AUDIT PRESENTATION Fire Chief Todd and County Auditor, Tyler Benner highlighted items from HFD's performance audit. • Chief Todd stated that the first major section of the audit covers two recommendations: HFD works towards CFAI accreditation and that the department develops a master plan. Pursuing accreditation will serve as a foundational building Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 4 block to help HFD meet the department's performance, mission, and public expectations. He stated that their staffing is limited, his goal is to get some officer training and funding to open a Program Manager/Data Analyst position, whose job would be to start the process of getting the department accredited. Developing a master plan would require a third -party consultant and would help HFD establish a long-term vision plan. Recommendation on vehicles: Planning maintenance and replacement. It is recommended that HFD implement a comprehensive vehicle profile. They would need to develop a master vehicle list. Issue is with staffing, they only have six mechanics and no other staff working in the mechanic area for vehicle maintenance. Chief Todd's goal is to have software and a Clerk III position who would track the data. Facility maintenance and repair: The audit covers 20 fire stations, 18 volunteer fire stations, a maintenance shop, 2 warehouses and 15 lifeguard towers. They recommended that HFD work with their fire captains to develop a system to compile and maintain a master list of work order items. Tyler Benner stated that there is a shared responsibility between Department of Public Works (DPW) and HFD. If HFD isn't reporting issues to DPW, nothing is going to get fixed. There needs to be communication from the stations and mechanics up to administration. A master list of facility needs will help gain a better understanding of what is broken, what is breaking and how long it's taking to fix things. HFD could prioritize projects and leverage similar items into more cost effective repairs. Chief Todd's goal is to have a Clerk III who will be in the warehouse to assist with tracking of all repairs and maintenance. They will be getting three clerk positions. One would be located in the West Hawaii Civic Center, this position will be assigned to prevention and would take the role of being their administrative staff in West Hawaii. Another clerk would be assigned to training and will be responsible for setting up appointments and the tracking of all training. The other clerk is intended to be an administrative clerk, who will assist Ocean Safety or will help their warehouse manage orders & replacements, assist mechanics with tracking of vehicles, maintaining the master equipment list, and work with dispatch with recording requests. Staffing recommendations: It is recommended that HFD pilot a relief pool program to control overtime expenditures while better meeting NFPA standards. Mr. Benner went over the report, which showed the five largest categories of overtime: Work on holiday, work on day off rank -for -rank, work on day off, worked over 8, and scheduled overtime differential. Six positions account for over 88% of the overtime: Battalion Chief, Fire Captain, Fire Equipment Operator, Firefighter, Fire Rescue Specialist, and Fire/EMS Specialist II. He stated this isn't any indication that these positions are abusing it, they just represent that composition of the workforce. In FY 2021, the county paid over $7.8 million in overtime wages, $1.6 million in earned sick and $2.5 million in earned vacation time. Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 5 Commissioner Paleka stated that according to the contract, 288 hours are required per year. Mr. Benner responded that it's not required, it's offered. They have to offer each fire fighter 12 shifts per year of rank -for -rank or 288 hours. Commissioner Paleka asked, "On your rank -for -rank overtime, how much temporary assignment do you assign?" Chief Todd stated he doesn't have an answer for that, Mr. Benner responded very little. Chief Todd stated they have the union agreed recall; it depends on the position and a variety of factors. Commissioner Paleka stated that HFD relies a lot on the rank -for -rank overtime, when there is a lot of opportunity for temporary assignment. Chair Kosaki stated that it is a contractual issue. Commissioner Paleka states that the contract says that it's supposed to be for safety and morale purposes, so it's a gray area. Commissioner Paleka states that they aren't giving personnel promotional opportunities. From his contractual experience, in his opinion, the overtime issue needs to be addressed. Chief Todd stated this is one of the reasons why they did the audit, to shed light, to look at the entire process and to see how it effects their bottom line. Mr. Benner stated there is a strong correlation between sick and vacation and the overtime being paid. As it stands right now, rank -for -rank is a big consideration, but working on day off is larger than the rank -for -rank. Commissioner Paleka asked what would address that, Mr. Benner stated the relief pool. Recommendation that HFD follow and enforce internal controls to limit rank -for -rank overtime to ninety-six hours for each quadrimester. Mr. Benner stated that he wants personnel to know that they are not looking to gut out their contractually guaranteed overtime. They are looking to minimize the overtime that might be incurred above and beyond that and preserve the capacity for the emergency incidents that they face. Chair Kosaki asked about the largest categories of overtime. Overtime work on day off is the highest percentage, maybe the department could look at assigning temporary assignments, instead of bringing personnel back on overtime. This would cut some costs. Mr. Benner explained the relief pool. A relief pool will provide HFD with a more flexible staffing model to help balance the everyday needs of the department with fluctuations that are incurred because of callouts. Benefits of a relief pool would reduce employee burnout, costs related to callbacks, and scheduled leave. Commissioner Mattos asked if the relief pool would eliminate the TA process. Mr. Benner stated that it wouldn't eliminate it, it would eliminate instances of it. There's still going to be capacity beyond what the relief pool is going to meet, they would still need to invoke the rank -for -rank and would follow operational norms. Recess was called at 12:09 p.m. Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 6 Commissioner Paleka left the meeting at 12:10 p.m. The Meeting reconvened at 12:40 p.m. Financial recommendations: It is recommended that HFD develop budgeting benchmarks to assist county management's understanding of budget requests. Chief Todd says they are actively working on this, but stated that they need to do a better job. Long-term goal is to be able to get into the budget, figure out where they are, what it costs to maintain equipment, apparatus, stations and costs for training. With more funding and staffing, they will start making progress on this. HFD's funding was compared to other municipals serving communities of similar size. They are the only department that is fire, EMS and ocean safety. In comparison to Tacoma, similarities include full time positions, fire positions, EMS positions, and the population. If you look at the budget, differences include their overall budget was about $36 million more, fire budget was $29.5 million more, they have twice the administrative staff to do the same amount of work and they run less fire stations. Their county spends 30% of their budget towards fire and EMS services; our county spends a little over 10% for fire, EMS and ocean safety services. In comparison to Kauai, their county funds 12% of their budget just towards fire services. In comparison to the police department, their budget is $72 million and its $30 million for fire services. Chief Todd stated there's a slight disparity there. His goal is to bring this to the public view. To change things, they asked for a business manager position and clerical positions, they need the administrative staff to make a difference. Over the last 2 years, HFD will have close to $7 million worth of donated items from the Sayre Foundation. Chair Kosaki stated in regards to the wish list, personnel should be asking for things they need, rather than what is wanted. Chief Todd says the goal is for the department to be able to fund all normal operations without having to rely on charity to fund it. He believes expansion of the mission is something the Sayre's Foundation could work on, like new technology, focus more on volunteers or other programs like the junior lifeguard program and other community programs. Chair Kosaki mentioned that the Sayre's Foundation has $20-$30 thousand in their bank for the junior lifeguard program. Chief Todd stated that HFD is not doing the junior lifeguard program this year because it was pushed too far back due to COVID, but the program should be back next year. Deployment recommendation: It is recommended that HFD evaluate their volunteer program to enhance the incentive for participation, develop organizational structure and support roles, and invest into volunteer infrastructure and training. Currently they have only 2 paid positions for 150 volunteers to help them with training and everything else. There has been some discussion about having volunteer support personnel, not just volunteer firefighters. Mr. Benner stated that the volunteer firefighters are valued and they need to be formally fit into in the organizational chart. Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 7 Training recommendations: It is recommended that HFD sets a number of training hours annually for each employee based on their position title and training needed to maintain proficiency and develop better tracking. Chief Todd stated that they have a training BC and the Clerk III position will help with this. He will also request for a funded recruit training officer position. Waste, fraud, abuse recommendations: Addressing the improper use of resources at county facilities, will build public trust. It was noted in the audit that personnel were plugging in their personal electric vehicles at the fire station. Chief Todd stated that this will be discontinued, a memo was sent out to the station stating it is not acceptable, and they are in the process of finalizing policies and procedures. CHAIRS REPORT ON MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE COMMISSION Chair Kosaki stated that an incident was brought to his attention regarding a recent FEO exam. Personnel who passed were given a notice to reply within 7 days if they intend to continue with the assessment portion of the promotional process. Two individuals did not notify the chief within the 7-day window. After the 7 days, these two individuals expressed that they wanted to go back on the list to be considered for promotion and move on with the assessment, which the chief allowed. A grievance was filed by someone else on the list, who had complied with the 7-day window deadline and had heard about these two individuals being put back onto the list. The remedy was to take those two individuals back off the list, who then later filed a grievance to get back on the list, which the union denied. Chief Todd stated that there was a rush on this. As an administration, they want to take care of their personnel; they also want a bigger pool because it gives them a better opportunity to get good candidates. They felt that the time limit was arbitrary and did not consult with the union prior. He stated that was a mistake on their part, they are resolving these issues and will be sticking to their policy and procedure. They are learning from their mistakes and they will do better in the future. Chair Kosaki stated that if personnel are on vacation when notices go out, the captains should notify their personnel. He advised, the best thing you can do is be consistent, not necessarily fair, what's fair to one, may not be fair to another. He stated when you make a policy, stick to it. As a former union representative, the union doesn't usually get involved in the promotional process, as long as it's fair. Commissioner Mattos stated that instances like this creates a snowball effect. Commissioner Nakashima left the meeting at 1:32 p.m. Commissioner Magsalin asked where they're getting this information from. Chief Todd encouraged the commissioners to be representatives for their districts and visit the stations. He mentioned that there are fire stations in their districts and there Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 8 might be concerns. Being an advocate for the repairs and needs is more than welcome. His goal is to be as transparent as possible, he believes transparency and consistency equals trust. Chair Kosaki stated that part of their job, as the commission is to review and evaluate the fire chief. When personnel contacts him with information, he's obligated to address it and give the chief an opportunity to explain the situation and defend himself. Chair Kosaki mentioned another issue regarding the promotion process. There was a Fire Rescue Specialist assessment, the notice stated that a 12-foot rescue board would be used during the assessment, but there was a 10-foot rescue board instead. Chair Kosaki stated that if you say something on the notice, the department should adhere to that. No grievance was filed, but it was brought to his attention. Chief Todd stated that West Hawaii is using 12-foot boards and East Hawaii is using 10-foot boards. They conducted the assessments in Hilo and West Hawaii personnel weren't used to those boards. They will work on that and in the future, they will state, "We will use a rescue board for this assessment" on future notices. Deputy Chief Moller stated that he has been tasked with revamping the promotional process. What they thought was well established past practice, is not necessarily well established. The 2 individuals are grieving to go back on the list where they were ranked or they want the entire list thrown out because the process that was followed was never consulted on. The union won't represent those individuals, but allowed them to represent themselves. He stated that it is convoluted; he had good intentions, and takes full responsibility. They are currently working on a new process for all promotions, it will be sent to the union for approval, then go to the floor for any revisions. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Fire Commission meetings at Council Chambers: Chief Todd stated that the 2nd and 4th week are the better weeks to schedule meetings at the Council Chambers. In the future, it would be best to schedule a year in advance and choose a specific day. Chair Kosaki stated the Fire Commission needs to change its rules to allow more flexibility with scheduling and allow complaints to be submitted within 90 days, instead of 60 days. DCC Wong will come up with the language for the commission to review and vote on at the next meeting. ANNUAL EVALUATION OF FIRE CHIEF TODD KAZUO • Chair Kosaki advised the commission to review and complete the evaluation template and email it to Ms. Correa and he will compile it later. The evaluation is due in June. Hawaii Fire Commission Regular Session Minutes April 13, 2022 Page 9 ACTION ON EXECUTIVE SESSION MATTERS • Investigation of complaints ✓ HCFC 22-01: Complainant did not attend the meeting she alleged that an EMT violated the privacy of her family by disclosing details of her sister's emergency. The commission will review correspondence at the next meeting. Commissioner Henkel moved to table this matter, seconded by Vice Chair Agdeppa, and it carried unanimously. ANNOUNCEMENTS The next meeting is scheduled for May 11, 2022, at 9:00 a.m., in the Aupuni Center, Conference Room, 101 Pauahi St., Hilo, HI. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 2:05 p.m. SUBMITTED BY: CHARISSE CORREA, SECRETARY APPROVED BY: GERALD KOSAKI, CHAIR