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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-02-13 Fire Commission Regular Minutes HAWAI‘I COUNTY FIRE COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 13, 2013 WEST HAWAI‘I CIVIC CENTER CALL TO ORDER Chair Taniguchi called the meeting to order at 10:14 a.m. ROLL CALL Present: Toby Taniguchi, Chair Byron Moku, Vice Chair Laurie Bass, Commissioner Gregory Henkel, Commissioner Carol Kitaoka, Commissioner Kimo Lee, Commissioner Luahiwa Namahoe, Commissioner Excused: Kaloa Robinson, Commissioner A quorum was present. Also present: Darren Rosario, Fire Chief Renwick Victorino, Deputy Fire Chief Wayne Krug, Volunteer Fire Chief Lincoln S. T. Ashida, Corporation Counsel Josie Pelayo, Secretary APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Namahoe moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS Î None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JANUARY 9, 2013 Commissioner Lee moved to approve the minutes. Commissioner Bas motion, and it carried unanimously. FIRE CHIEF’S REPORT BUDGET: Chief Rosario reported that they continue to work on managing the current fiscal yearÓs budget. They have expended about 61% of their budget. They had about a 1% overage in overtime. This is attributed to shortages of MICT personnel, as well as the Kona brushfires. They expect to be in the black HawaiÒi County Fire Commission Meeting Minutes February 13, 2013 Page 2 year. Robert Belcher (department fiscal agent) will be at the next meeting to explain and answer any questions pertaining to the budget. On January 18, they met with County Finance on the departmentÓs FY 2013/14 budget. They were asked to justify the increase in overtime salary and wages which has increased every year for the last three years. They have also added a supplementary budget for two Class A pumpers. They are working with the MayorÓs office to get unfunded positions funded. Additional meetings will be held with Finance. Information on the budget is relayed to the districts during monthly staff meetings. ALTERNATIVE FUNDING AND GRANTS FY 2012 SAFER Grant: Have not yet received word. FY 2012 Assistance to Fire Firefighters Grant Application: Have not yet received word. FY 2013 CDBG Grant for Waiakea Quint: Have not yet received word, but application was sent to the next level of review. Capital Improvement Projects Kawailani Fire Station Replacement: CIP project put into proposal last year. Met with Council Member Fresh Onishi the beginning of February. They are proceeding with land acquisition, which is being donated by DLNR. It is off of Haihai Street, somewhat in line with the current station. They continue to work with the Mayor and Finance to see if they can get the project proposal accepted. Land acquisition is the biggest hurdle. Hpuna Water Safety Tower: Still waiting for DLNR approval to put beach. This will be on DLNRÓs February 20 meeting agenda. The draying vendor is ready and waiting for word to deliver. 2013 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES UPDATE: Chief Rosario reported that last month he visited eight companies. He met with Council Member Onishi to discuss the Kawailani station replacement and other things. He wants to have face to face meetings with every council member in their district according to their schedule. He does not put time limits on the station visits. Chair Taniguchi Chief is very busy, thought his visitation scheduled was aggressive, and appreciated his efforts to visit the men and women at the stations. Regarding expansion of Ocean Safety coverage, Chair Taniguchi asked about the status of Act 190. Chief Rosario stated that the signs have been placed in all county beach parks. The Legislature monitors this closely. They have a contract with the State to guard Hpuna. For the expansion of Ocean Safety, his goal is to allow for HawaiÒi County Fire Commission Meeting Minutes February 13, 2013 Page 3 two Water Safety Officers to be on duty at each tower on every given day. This will allow them to expand into the anticipated Jet Ski Program. Commissioner Henkel stated that the most popular ocean recreation areas in Puna are outside the CountyÓs jurisdiction. He asked if the situation might be improved in the future. Chief Rosario stated that their task is to guard the CountyÓs beaches. Chief Rosario reported that he and other chief officers attended two private business (Hawaiian Airlines and HMSA) luncheon meetings. They are a big partner with HMSA with the people they serve. Hawaiian Airlines talked about their expansion in HawaiÒi and plans for the future. Any increase in tourism will have to regards to public safety. Regarding his participation with community meetings and appearances, he attends most activities that take place during t HUMAN RESOURCES DIVISION Recruitments Internal: The Fire Equipment Operator position will be filled by Fire Hazmat Specialist Jay Igawa on March 1, creating a vacancy in that position. Fire Medical Specialist Patrick Springer was promoted to driver which created a vacancy for that position. They have an established list for Fi when a vacancy comes up, they will be able to fill the position. The position for Fire Auxiliary Services Officer opens on February 14 and closes 23. They have a projected assessment date of May 17. The earliest they could put a person in the position is June 1. Fire captains are currently doing temporary assignment in that position. It gives the candidates the ability to see what the job entails. This is a very important Battalion Chief handles all dispatch and communications. nd Open-competitive: The 42 Firefighter Recruit class is projected to start May 1. They are working with the Department of Finance to make sure they can cover their salaries for the last two months of this budget. Filling the positions will reduce overtime a year from now when they get their assignments. Two dispatcher positions were filled on February 1, and the third will start on February 19. EMERGENCY OPERATIONS DIVISION Operations: The CST, Combat Support Team, through the HawaiÒi Army National GuardÓs Hazardous Materials, Weapons of Mass Destruction Team do drills with all jurisdictions throughout the State. HawaiÒi CountyÓs drill is scheduled for March. Battalion Chief Kosaki is the lead person. Generally, the chief officer and the militaryÓs officers come up with a scenario incident, an response drill. They also do training for their personnel. Special Operations Rescue: Equipment donated by the Sayre Foundation arrived and passed CouncilÓs resolution. One of these is dive computers for their rescue specialist HawaiÒi County Fire Commission Meeting Minutes February 13, 2013 Page 4 which tracks stats on their dive. They are doing training this month. The Sayre Foundation has also provided funding for upcoming dive rescue training. Two dive personnel will be sent for further training to become dive rescue trainers. This will allow them to become self sufficient and not have to rely on outside sources. Ocean Safety: There is a House and Senate bill going through the Legislature regarding the creation of separate bargaining units within HGEA Safety Officers and State Law Enforcement. Safety Committee: They continue to meet, and their goal is to have a safe place to work. SUPPORT SERVICES DIVISION EMS Bureau: They were approached by the TV show ÐLiving in Par broadcast and promote monthly safety tips on the show. In January they highlighted heart attack awareness, February is CPR, and March is stroke awareness. They are also going to the schools for a pilot project called ÐHands Only CPRÑ for the students. The American Heart Association put out the program, and now they want to give back to the community by helping the students in case the need arises. Regarding the laptop computers, they received 15 new laptops fro the medic units. A separate USDA grant will allow them to purchase 15 laptop computers and desktop computers for the EMS stations. These will be backup computers for additional use and reporting. They are mandated to provide the patient care report in a timely fashion to the doctors. It is uploaded on the computers and sent to a database where the hospital doctors can download the reports. Training Bureau: They continue to be very busy with the firefighter recruit classes. The class is transitioning into EMT this month. Deputy Chief Victorine is working with State Civil Defense on a training course this week for hydrogen fuel incidents. They will be training about 122 of their members. Captain Okinaka is working on ways to better manage the departmentÓs training records. Their goal is to coordinate the needed training of personnel in a timely and efficient manner. Volunteer Training Bureau: Chief Rosario reported that the volunteer training officers have been doing CPR and AED training this month for the volunteers. Volunteer Fire Chief Wayne Krug reported they started CPR and AED training in February. They will also be doing defensive driving training this month. Back in November 2012, they formed a committee to work on Standard Operating HawaiÒi County Fire Commission Meeting Minutes February 13, 2013 Page 5 Guidelines. They want it to parallel the departmentÓs SOGs. They went through the whole thing and gave the write-up to the Chief for his review. The next volunteer meeting will be on February 23, at 10:00 a.m. in Laupahoehoe. Information can be obtained through their website at: www.hvfc.net. Chair Taniguchi asked if they could provide statistics on call-outs that the volunteers participated in. Chief Krug stated that each station keeps its own log book. He will ask the captains to email information to him. Chief Rosario stated that information is in their EMS, but they donÓt have an IT person to extrapolate the information. The incident log he gives to the commission includes the volunteers. Chair Taniguchi stated he was not looking to add more work for the department, but wanted the information so he and other commissioners could have a sense of how often, volunteer personnel are Ðtoned outÑ or assisting in other ways. Prevention Bureau: Chief Rosario stated that they have a vacant fire inspector position. They did recruitment but did not get anyone who was qualified. They have personnel who are doing temporary assignment in both East and West HawaiÒi. Chief also reported the bureau was pretty busy this past month with three structure fires and assisting police with a murder investigation. Their canine assisted in the investigations. Prevention Chief Andrade and newly promoted Captain Todd partici one-week courtroom testimony class on Oahu. This course allowed them to see how to prepare for fire related investigations and court proceedings. They are now passing on the information to their personnel. Dispatch: They are replacing their Solecom dispatching system with Intrado, and it appears to be going well. A complete changeover is targeted for June. Auxiliary Services/Warehouse: The Makalei station still has some items coming in. Nothing major needs to be fixed or repaired. Radio does not work in some areas of the station, and Chief Honda is working on correcting t Maintenance Shop: With approval from the Information and Technology Director, they are closer to providing computer connectivity in their maintenance shop. This will help with record keeping of the departmentÓs fleet. A mechanic for Kona was denied during the last budget cycle. He again brought this up with the Mayor and pointed out that maintenance of their apparatus and equipment would improve if they had a maintenance shop on the west side, also. NEW PROJECTS/BUSINESS: The invitation for bid for two new Class A pumpers closes on February 20. It replaces the fire truck in North Kohala and Waimea. In this current budget proposal, they have a replacement for HonokaÒa. HawaiÒi County Fire Commission Meeting Minutes February 13, 2013 Page 6 COMMITTEE REPORTS Budget and Finance (Committee Chair Taniguchi): No report. Office Management and Staffing (Committee Chair Taniguchi): No report. Rules and Policies (Committee Chair Lee): No report. Public Relations (Committee Chair Henkel): No report. Training and Education (Committee Chair Namahoe): No report. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Taniguchi announced that the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 10:00 a.m., Puna Conference Room, Suite 1501, HawaiÒi County Building, 25 Aupuni St., Hilo, HawaiÒi. Items for next monthly meeting agenda should be submitted to Chair Taniguchi or Ms. Pelayo. Collection of files and documents. Î Done. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Lee moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Namahoe seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned a SUBMITTED BY: JOSIE PELAYO, SECRETARY APPROVED BY: TOBY TANIGUCHI, CHAIR