[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:07] Mayer? Yes. I did get a few phone calls from people that they could not hear.
[0:38] Gentlemen, good to see everybody. I hope you all had a good father's day. We can.
[0:44] I'm going to call to order the special meeting of Monday, June 22nd.
[0:49] I would first before we move into the business of agenda. I would very much, and I'm very sorry to report that over the weekend,
[0:58] And we had the passing, unfortunate passing of one of our 13-year public works employees, Benjamin
[1:06] Hernandez, our deepest condolences go to his family and to our employees and those who
[1:13] knew him, and I would respectfully request the enjoyment and moment of silence.
[1:35] Thank you, everybody.
[1:36] Let's then move to the Pledge of Allegiance, Mayor Pratem.
[1:40] I
[1:46] pledge allegiance to the flag every night of the states of America, and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God, and divisible with liberty and justice for all.
[1:59] You have someone good to hear us, please?
[2:01] Thank you.
[2:02] Dear God, thank you for allowing us to be here today.
[2:06] As we start this meeting and continuing talking about the budget, please guide us and give us the wisdom necessary to make the choices there will be.
[2:15] will be good for all the people, including the city, and the, um, and God's
[2:22] grant name and pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Councilman.
[2:28] Maybe please have the roll call, Madam Clerk.
[2:35] Council member, here.
[2:49] We have the agenda finalization, I see no changes to the agenda. I would just like to make note that we do have a closed session schedule that we will be going into following our legislative action discussion.
[3:05] So, may we now have the statement of participation by the City Clerk, please?
[3:12] During a special meeting, public comment is the opportunity for members of the public to
[3:15] comment on items listed on this agenda only. The City Council agenda outlined the
[3:20] process for which members of the public could provide public comment for the record.
[3:24] At this time, I will or at the appropriate time. I will read into the record the
[3:28] comments that I received for the instructions outlined on the agenda.
[3:31] So,
[3:36] if you want to go into it, or do you want to just go ahead and have the public comment
[3:41] right now, you don't want to need a reporter or anything from staff.
[3:45] That's correct.
[3:47] So, Charlie's going to be the first one, and we're going to do what we did before we
[3:50] have two phone calls.
[3:51] So while he's doing the first comments, I'm going to make the first phone call.
[4:00] Okay.
[4:00] The first comment is from Shelley Kaplan, dear Mayor Aguilar, Mayor Protem, Gregory, and Council
[4:05] members.
[4:06] I will make this email short, since my last was too long to fit within the three minutes.
[4:10] I want to recap the end of my last email.
[4:13] Given the uncertainties I spelled out, it is always prudent to be conservative.
[4:18] However, reducing staff, especially in public safety areas, is a major step to take that
[4:23] will require time for recovery and will have a direct impact on the primary services
[4:28] the city provides for our businesses, visitors, and residents.
[4:32] I understand that some of the city's reserve funds are needed for cash flow purposes,
[4:37] but the rest is for emergency situations, and this clearly fits that category. Therefore, I am
[4:43] recommending that Council consider using an additional 2 million from reserves for next year's budget,
[4:48] which will allow for some reduction in the elimination of sworn and needed positions for both the fire and police departments.
[4:55] These key services should remain as whole as possible in this difficult time, just as our 911 dispatch operation remains untouched.
[5:04] It is always possible to adjust budgets using the actual revenue and expense information during the fiscal year,
[5:11] and so I would argue to allocate more from reserves at this point in time and reevaluate in the late fall.
[5:17] Actual allocation of the funds should be recommended by the city manager in consultation with the department heads,
[5:24] but I would recommend the focus on public safety staffing as the highest priority.
[5:28] If we are prudent in decision-making and successful in addressing the situation, a vaccine will
[5:35] be available by the 1st quarter of 2021, and more treatment options will be available sooner.
[5:40] Once that happens, we should see a return to a more normal economic and financial situation,
[5:46] and an opportunity to reinstate more of the items being eliminated from the budget.
[5:51] This whole process does give the council going forward, an opportunity to reevaluate annual
[5:56] expenditures and perhaps look at ways to better address some of the basic needs of the city.
[6:02] Thanks for your consideration as you discuss how to allocate resources for the city
[6:06] for the coming fiscal year.
[6:32] Good morning, Mayor Aguilar, Mayor Putem, and Council members.
[6:38] My name is Chiffier Aguilar, and I am a resident of Cathedral City in the Panorama Park area.
[6:42] And on the last council meeting, I was reading a letter and
[6:51] all of you, and I hope that you had the time to,
[7:04] in that letter, regarding, you know, some things that I believe would be better cut than what we're being proposed in public safety.
[7:13] I
[7:18] believe that the higher power came to talk to me and the health across the streets from me, there was a fire.
[7:28] Thankfully, we had enough firefighters on engine 413 to arrive and do a quick stop on that fire.
[7:35] It started to get windy and could have easily spread to the neighbors home.
[7:41] home. So I'm thankful that we had enough staffing to put that fire out.
[7:49] We really want to
[7:50] stress that public safety is important. We, the city, is worked very hard to get that back.
[7:56] And I would hate to lose it.
[8:00] I'm hopeful to use reserves and reevaluate in October whether or
[8:06] not we need to make those drafts that cuts the public safety.
[8:10] You know, I think we need to really
[8:12] look at the police department's budget. In the way that it is right now, policing is
[8:18] going to be changing drastically. I think you're seeing it all over the country and I don't think
[8:24] that we need to make any cuts there until we figure out what the new model of policing is
[8:29] going to look like. So thank you for your time and I urge you to keep public safety the way it
[8:34] is. Congratulations. Thank you, Jeff.
[8:41] The next comment is from Alan Carvalo.
[8:44] Dear Mayor Aguilar, Mayor Protem, Gregory and Council members, I wanted to address our appreciation
[8:49] to the entire council and staff. For the time spent on these emergency council meetings, dealing
[8:54] with a very difficult and challenging time, while attempting to preserve our public safety
[8:59] officers while the economic world's require a serious review. I have in the past addressed
[9:04] my admiration of our public safety officers, the importance of our first responders, especially
[9:09] in these times of emergency during our pandemic. I am always appreciative of the phenomenal
[9:15] firefighters and paramedics, who have always gone the extra mile to make our citizens feel
[9:19] included, cared for, and well-taking care of.
[9:23] I had to call on the ambulance service back in January for what I thought was a heart attack,
[9:27] and their professionalism and personal concern will always be what I remember when they
[9:32] transferred me to the hospital for overnight observation and tests.
[9:36] The young paramedic made me feel like I was talking to an old friend.
[9:40] That type of outreach to our residents during a trip in an ambulance is beyond what is
[9:44] in training. That human interaction helps us in so many ways, as it turns out my health
[9:50] scare was not serious. It's very comforting to know that especially during our public health
[9:55] concerns, we very much need our first responders available and ready to assist our residents.
[10:01] We are so very lucky to have our own police and fire departments in Cathedral City. I think
[10:06] it's very important to preserve the quality of care by utilizing the reserve fund set
[10:11] side to help to fund both fire and police departments. If 2 million was purpose by council
[10:17] to assist in continuing servicing our city residents by all means doubling that to 4 million
[10:22] from the cash reserve would be a better solution. The cash reserve was created to handle just
[10:28] exactly this type of economic downturn and that we are presently experiencing. It seems that although
[10:34] we are uncertain how long we will be experiencing this national emergency, we would be wise to
[10:39] take advantage of this past reserve and compromise public safety at a minimum, sincerely
[10:44] Ellen Carvalho.
[10:59] Terry Appelgate, Cathedral City District 3.
[11:05] It was a very year ago that Tammy Scott reviewed the budget projections for council,
[11:09] and the picture was much different than what we are discussing now.
[11:15] We're looking at a much different scenario.
[11:17] The pandemic has created fear, not just in terms of the disease itself,
[11:21] but also real concerns about the economy.
[11:25] The budget decisions are much harder for council to make.
[11:28] A number of us in the community are concerned about staffing,
[11:32] as the city had made staffing cuts in 2009,
[11:35] and not brought back the level of staff prior to the Great Recession.
[11:40] A couple of us circulated a petition asking for reserves to be spent
[11:45] to protect public safety.
[11:47] While 23 residents find the petition, there are several more discussions that we have with
[11:53] people.
[11:54] Some more hesitant to sign over not being comfortable knowing how much is in reserve,
[12:00] hesitation over how long the pandemic may last, et cetera.
[12:04] They were good conversations that reflected thoughtfulness about the budget overall.
[12:09] A catchment six entitled fire department budget services impact states engine 411 and 413 will run with two personnel versus current three.
[12:23] This will directly impact emergency services to district 1, 2 and 3 with a legend engine 411 and 3, 4 and 5 with engine 413.
[12:35] fires, traffic collisions, drowning, corny aircrafts, and other significant incidents will
[12:43] have delayed or reduced fire and rescue capacities,
[12:50] but I want to hold in on what that
[12:53] actually means. Is this what we want to do during your pandemic?
[12:58] EMTs and paramedics perform
[13:00] life-saving tasks. Paramedics may be called to anticipate someone in the field or administer
[13:06] for Ivy Medication, and they have to insert a chest tube to drain blood, floor, or air
[13:12] to treat a collapsed lung or difficult to breathe in.
[13:16] I mention these types of tests because in the abstract cutting-edge inside from staffs
[13:21] three or two, may sound reasonable.
[13:23] But would you like to be the person or the family member that didn't receive life-saving
[13:29] aids through the budget cuts come right a very thoughtful opinion piece in the you can report,
[13:37] regarding defunding the police.
[13:39] This frame is actually a misnomer
[13:42] as it reflects the campaign to re-allocate resources
[13:45] so that police can focus on criminal activity
[13:49] and not be asked to play the role
[13:51] of mental health counselor, social worker, et cetera.
[13:55] None of us know how long the pandemic
[13:57] will last in its impact to our economy.
[14:00] Currently, our counties know on the California Watchlist,
[14:03] for failing to meet the governor's revised metrics.
[14:07] I think critical.
[14:09] Terry, Terry, this is John.
[14:10] Can you wrap up quickly, please?
[14:12] Your time is up.
[14:14] Sure.
[14:15] I suggest that we have measures to incentivize
[14:20] rather than penalize our businesses.
[14:21] Thank you.
[14:22] Thank you.
[14:24] The next comment is from Julie Osburn.
[14:28] I read with alarm, the article in the Desert Sun this morning regarding the projected 5.2 million
[14:33] dollar deficit the city is estimating.
[14:36] The article states their proposed realignment could cost a number of city workers, including
[14:40] five firefighters and one police officer, their jobs.
[14:44] As a resident, I'm particularly concerned about how that will impact serious crimes in
[14:49] the city and there are plenty.
[14:51] I hope that the city is not considering layoffs for those who have part of the investigations
[14:56] and or who work with the evidence processing for serious crimes.
[15:00] If I ever were to be a victim of serious crime, I would like to take comfort in knowing that advanced matters continue to be handled by competent investigators, employees who are skilled in evidence processing.
[15:11] I believe it would be a disaster to lose any experience personnel or have cases placed in the hands of anything other than your most skilled employees.
[15:19] After the last layoffs, the Police Department can't afford to lose any more of their people.
[15:24] There must be other places in the city where cost savings can be made.
[15:28] I know there are serious financial impacts from what we're going through, but things are opening
[15:32] up.
[15:33] Certainly the financial situation is bound to improve, and cathedral city will have a bright
[15:38] future.
[15:39] I do believe things will not take too long before they get better.
[15:42] Thank you for allowing me to contribute to the discussion, Julie Osborne, Cathedral City
[15:47] resident.
[15:47] And
[15:50] there, the last comment that I had them is actually not budget-related, so you'll be provided the email with a part of the record, but it's not related to the budget.
[16:01] Thank you.
[16:04] All right, seeing that there are no further comments, thank those who both called in as well as sent their comments to us in writing.
[16:12] Our next item are public hearings. We have no public hearings this morning.
[16:17] Let's now move to legislative actions, continuing our discussion regarding the budget reductions.
[16:24] I did, I believe police is going to be up first today, so we'll start with our police chief.
[16:32] And I did ask the chief this morning if I could beg the Council's indulgence to just take a couple of minutes and address the fireworks issues.
[16:41] Since we've had so many complaints and calls about fireworks over the last several weeks
[16:49] and we'll continue to, I'm sure, but I know our police departments were very hard to
[16:54] try to do as much as possible to mitigate the problem so chief, if you would please.
[17:03] To council members, I know that the fireworks situation in our city hasn't been a significant
[17:11] get one. I can tell you that since May 27, the police department has made seven fireworks
[17:17] related to rest. Last weekend, I began an additional deployment of four officers on Friday
[17:26] and Saturday nights that will run through the Fourth of July weekend. Those officers are
[17:32] working single unit cars from 8 p.m. till 2 a.m. As a result of that,
[17:40] beginning this past weekend, we did make a rest as a result of that.
[17:45] We are also doing operations where we are seeking people that are illegally
[17:52] selling fireworks in our city, and that has also proved successful for us,
[17:58] in additional arrest being made with a significant firework seizures that you all have seen
[18:06] photos of. So we're making a difference and speaking to many people in this community,
[18:14] it's not been like this ever. I'm not sure what has occurred. It could be pandemic-related.
[18:24] people are at home. They've been at home for months now as a result of the pandemic and this is
[18:31] their way of releasing some energy I suppose. We are absolutely doing our very best. I looked
[18:38] into the option of deploying drones in a night operation last week. We had that discussion and I need
[18:47] to seek FAA approval in order to fly night operations in our city.
[18:55] And I'm happy to answer any questions, council, and may have a call.
[18:58] Thank you, Chief.
[18:59] I appreciate that.
[19:00] Any questions, comments very quickly?
[19:04] Chief, over the weekend, I was, of course, hearing a lot of fireworks, and I decided to just take a walk.
[19:13] So I took my docks a little walk.
[19:15] And off of those seniors, I saw firework go off, so I looked and I said, there must be a party going on.
[19:23] So I kept on walking and when all of a sudden there was a vehicle that just took off.
[19:30] Exactly what a firework came off.
[19:34] Now, when I got to the location, there was no party.
[19:37] It was that individual that I'm pretty sure fire the firework and moving vehicle.
[19:43] Is could this be someone that is in their own vehicle moving around different locations and fire them off?
[19:51] It's interesting that you mention that councilman because that has been the case in some of the fireworks activity
[19:56] Is that it is individuals and pickup trucks that are mobile throughout the city
[20:02] They're setting out their fireworks and moving to a different location within the city
[20:06] And that is, that is also something we're looking into and trying to determine who that may be.
[20:12] There may be multiple people.
[20:13] Could this be something a sign of gang relation or gang related?
[20:19] Some kind of drug related issue?
[20:22] It's possible, but until we actually locate these people,
[20:26] I won't be able to determine that.
[20:29] Thank you.
[20:30] You're welcome.
[20:33] When they are arrested, apprehended, is there a significant fine, is this misdemeanor, is it a site in release?
[20:42] I mean, obviously these things could catch houses on fire.
[20:45] We could result to major costs and even deaths.
[20:49] So I hope we have a pretty significant penalty on this here.
[20:53] There are penalties related, councilman, currently in California, there's zero bail.
[20:59] Those particular crimes at the moment are misdemeanor crimes.
[21:03] Therefore, it would result in a citation and release, and that individual will not be booked into county jail.
[21:11] This would be a question for the city attorney.
[21:14] Is there anything we can do to strengthen that?
[21:17] Find for illegal fireworks in the city, Eric?
[21:22] I can't remember.
[21:24] There's nothing you can do to strengthen the criminal penalty and the miscommunity that's set by state law.
[21:32] You could look at increasing the administrative fines and numbers cities have done that.
[21:37] You could all turn it into the look at prosecuting or finding people under the health and safety code as well.
[21:45] While you can increase your fines under the administrative provision,
[21:49] We do run into a practicality problem of being able to actually in what we've been posing
[21:57] the fine.
[21:59] We run into some problems collecting the fine.
[22:01] But we can certainly look at those as alternatively.
[22:04] Is that something Council, Mr. Mayor, would you want to look into in the near future?
[22:08] I would sayly support that.
[22:10] I think you could just add that eventually to a study session.
[22:15] Thank you.
[22:16] Yeah.
[22:16] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[22:18] I just wanted to know, you know, this is, I was surprised to hear on good morning America
[22:24] last week that this is a national problem. It's not just occurring here locally, but it's
[22:29] occurring all over the country when I heard the article and the reports of what's going on,
[22:35] it sounded just like exactly what's happening here. And for the reasons that the chief stated
[22:41] is what's felt is the issue, people are at home, they're not working, they have time you would
[22:47] I think they would be conserving their money, but unfortunately, they're choosing to do it this way.
[22:53] So I do want to point out that although it is a big problem, and I do congratulate the chief.
[22:59] I think we need to continue to do what we can do that the business isn't just isolated here,
[23:06] or feeling like we're alone.
[23:09] But, you know, with that said I do think it is very serious.
[23:12] I do thank the police chief and encourage him to continue and I encourage residents to not be afraid to call in when they see something.
[23:22] I mean, it's helpful when they see where it's actually coming from and report that to the police department.
[23:27] I have assurances from the chief that those calls will be taken seriously and given the proper priorities.
[23:35] So I would encourage people to do that so at least we can address this locally.
[23:38] But if you're interested, it's probably on a website somewhere.
[23:42] There was an extensive story about this issue.
[23:45] They should know why I think I saw it on Friday or Saturday.
[23:48] So, thank you.
[23:49] Thank you, Mayor Virginia.
[23:51] And I just wanted to thank you for your excellent work in doing this, because it's such
[23:55] a pervasive problem.
[23:57] And I certainly want to thank our city manager Charlie McClendon because he participated
[24:03] with me on a conference call with a resident who was frustrated.
[24:07] his dogs are upset, didn't think anything was happening and when Charlie was able to articulate
[24:14] for him the plan, the action plan that you had, he was much more relieved that we're on
[24:19] the case.
[24:21] Thank you so much.
[24:23] Chief, thank you and your team for working on this issue, so let's proceed to budget.
[24:28] Yes, before we proceed, I had a question.
[24:31] Are we going to be making a decision per department or are we going to hold off and making decisions
[24:39] until both departments have finalized their presentation?
[24:44] We're going to listen to the presentations as we did with the other departments.
[24:49] We'll ask questions and then we will arrive at some conclusions.
[24:55] Charlie will summarize for us and then we will move from there.
[24:59] And before we proceed, is it possible to have Tammy Scott?
[25:05] Can I ask her a couple of questions?
[25:08] You can ask her in questions as soon as we complete the department presentations.
[25:11] Would you want to ask the questions now?
[25:13] Before we start.
[25:14] I see no objection.
[25:17] Does Tammy?
[25:18] Sorry, Chief.
[25:30] Good morning, Tammy.
[25:33] I want to ask you a couple of questions.
[25:35] How much time did you take to actually go through the budget?
[25:39] and so you're able to give us a suggestion how much we have to cut into our budget in order to preserve our reserves and remain sustainable.
[25:54] Our weeks, days, Charlie and I met with each of the individual department heads, reviewed their budget, reviewed their line items,
[26:02] reviewed their staffing, priced their staffing, priced individual positions, cost of positions,
[26:08] reallocating of positions, what are in the MOUs, what are our legal obligations for
[26:13] notifying reduction in staff areas that we can have that we could have cuts and minimize
[26:21] delivery of services as best possible given the circumstances, but I have been looking at
[26:28] budget items issues since February, and it's now June.
[26:32] The way we get revenue, it's sometimes
[26:34] is very difficult to see what was going to happen with what
[26:37] was going on.
[26:38] And further, what is going to happen in the next several months,
[26:41] because if you watch a television or listen
[26:43] to the news, as I indicated last week, some of the best economists
[26:46] in the world can't figure out why the market is
[26:48] doing what it's doing because nobody thinks it should be.
[26:51] So I know that's a long answer, but that's
[26:54] a lot of time has gone into it.
[26:56] So in other words, you didn't come out with his numbers just you just woke up one day and said, okay, if this is the numbers, is that correct?
[27:03] Oh, no, sir.
[27:05] Okay, so there was a lot of work with you and all the department has, including Charlie, to come up with all these numbers and the suggestions, correct?
[27:13] Yes, sir.
[27:14] Now, can you tell me a little bit of security if we don't make such cuts?
[27:21] Well, I think Charlie probably put a best last week that
[27:26] We're looking at about $9 million a change in our adopted budget from a year ago as far as a reduction.
[27:34] Of that $9 million, only about six of it is actual cuts to recommended cuts to the various
[27:40] department staffing and operational cuts.
[27:44] So there's $3 million that we're using from other internal service funds and things like that that we can't go on forever.
[27:49] So, when we start at $92 million in our general fund budget right now, and if we don't do the cuts that you can do the math and you take the $22 million,
[28:01] you might as 9 million that brings it down to 13 million.
[28:05] If it continues and or we have a second wave, and frankly, I don't see any indication where businesses are necessarily going to be completely shut down.
[28:14] But you could have businesses fall in the situation where the business themselves has a bunch of COVID-19
[28:22] cases and the business can't literally, can't literally open or stay open to provide services
[28:27] to include city staff, to include public safety and those kinds of things.
[28:32] So if this continues or even a diminished economy of some sort, we're at $12 million.
[28:38] We need between 7 or 8 million, 8 million better to survive, to pay our bills on a regular basis.
[28:44] You will not get through another year without doing cuts, period.
[28:48] And it's going to be a hard recovery, it's going to be very slow recovery to get if we go down to 12 million,
[28:54] to get back up to the 20 to 25 million dollars.
[28:57] We're talking, it took us 10 years to get back here to this level.
[29:01] It's not going to happen overnight and God forbid if we have another
[29:05] down turn in the economy like we had 10 years ago, we're not going to recover anything for
[29:10] the second economic downturn, whether it's pandemic related or not.
[29:15] So the responsible thing to do for this survival of this business, of the city as a business,
[29:21] of your existing people, of the community, of services, of the retirees, is to do the appropriate
[29:27] cuts that are being, that are being, and the magnitude of what's being recommended.
[29:30] Thank you, Tammy. Councilman, we need to proceed to Mayor, this is a very important question.
[29:37] I'm not just asking this question just to waste time, so they're a very important question.
[29:42] But we have an opportunity as we've done with the other departments, Councilman, ask questions and have an intensive discussion after the department presentations.
[29:49] Okay. So I would just ask that you hold your very worthwhile questions until we get to that point so we can be consistent as we have with the other departments.
[29:58] Okay.
[29:58] Thanks, please. Thank you.
[30:00] Chief,
[30:16] thank you, Mayor. First,
[30:19] I would like to say that in looking at the budget cut proposals from the police department itself, I was able to come up to a 10% level, which is almost $1.9 million without affecting any layoffs within the organization.
[30:43] As we continue through the working process with both Miss Scott and the City Manager, we ended up at a almost 15.5% budget cut proposal.
[30:59] And what that includes in looking at the positions themselves,
[31:07] how will that impact the organization?
[31:09] The first position is responsible for filing of criminal cases.
[31:18] They do quite a bit in redacting and selling cases, which are required by statute, as well
[31:25] as purging cases.
[31:26] To give you an example of where we are with the purging of old cases, we are currently in
[31:33] the year of 2000-2001 in purging criminal cases.
[31:38] So we are about 19 years in the rear on that particular project.
[31:46] They're also responsible for processing our traffic citations, writing letters of correction.
[31:53] So if a mistake is made on a citation, a letter of correction is required to the court before that appearance date.
[32:01] They're also responsible for processing all of our misdemeanor citations.
[32:04] So as the officers write the citations in the field,
[32:08] they go into the people that hold position number one,
[32:12] and they process it for court filing at a later time.
[32:18] They also process our parking citations
[32:20] through turbo data, maintain the cow photo
[32:23] and cow ID machines and the mobile fingerprint readers,
[32:27] as well as have a responsibility
[32:30] for our Uniform Crime Report stats.
[32:33] At the end of each year, I provide council with a prime update for the calendar year, and that is where the uniform crime report stats come into play when I provide that information to this council at the end of each calendar year.
[32:52] The second position to be discussed is ultimately responsible for the processing of all of our evidence in permanent cases.
[33:01] It is a very significant position within the organization that individuals responsible for
[33:11] processing of some crime scenes.
[33:14] Generally, if we have a major crime scene such as homicides, we will call in the county
[33:20] for that.
[33:21] They have a much larger crime scene processing group that we can utilize.
[33:26] But when it's all said and done and the scene has been processed, our person is responsible for maintaining the chain of custody of that evidence, making sure that we and the detectives have all the evidence that they need in place in order to file that case and ultimately get a successful conviction for the crimes that do occur in our city.
[33:49] The other component with that position is they are responsible for handling all requests from
[33:56] allied agencies, where it becomes a major component is a reclastic come through the district
[34:03] attorney's office.
[34:04] There are filing of criminal cases, they require evidence to be brought in on almost all of
[34:08] our criminal cases in order to prosecute that individual during the trial of that person.
[34:15] So again, they are responsible for that chain of custody and making sure that that evidence gets
[34:20] to court properly and gets back to our evidence room properly.
[34:28] And lastly, it's imperative that they maintain accurate records with our evidence that we
[34:35] do process.
[34:40] The third positions responsible for our fleet maintenance, that individual make sure that
[34:46] of our vehicles, our service, that they are functional so that we may deliver that service
[34:51] to the community.
[34:53] There's nothing worse than having to respond to a call for service from one of our community
[34:57] members and our vehicles are not functioning properly, where we have to switch out or send
[35:03] a different unit from a further location to assist that resident.
[35:09] This person is also responsible for our sex offender registrants, our cannabis business processing,
[35:16] They handle our court run, what the court run is, is our filing of cases, mostly our misdemeanor
[35:23] cases that get processed through the court.
[35:25] This individual takes those cases, once our records division has finished the court
[35:33] packets, and they make sure it gets to court on time.
[35:36] They are also involved in the taking of evidence to the Department of Justice Crime
[35:42] for processing that could be DNA,
[35:46] things of that nature that they're responsible for.
[35:52] We also utilize this person on critical situations.
[35:54] We will call this individual out on a major case
[35:58] that we may be an extended period of time,
[36:01] where this individual is able to bring items to the
[36:06] commander-on scene to make sure that all the individuals
[36:10] on scene have what they need or get us additional equipment
[36:13] that we may be lacking at the initial response.
[36:18] Position four manages our records for all soren and non-sworn personnel
[36:23] as it relates to training.
[36:26] As you know, and I believe we will see a significant change in
[36:32] policing in the next year and beyond.
[36:36] That's going to change what our training requirements will be.
[36:39] That's going to a lot of that will be mandated by law.
[36:42] It currently already is mandated by law.
[36:45] What our officers are required to do training wise.
[36:50] This position mandates, our schedules mandated
[36:53] in the central training courses for all of our personnel.
[36:57] It's a key position for me to go to and ask if we have training needs.
[37:03] If there are state requirements in place,
[37:06] that I need to make sure that we are in compliance with, that person's significant in that
[37:13] role, so that we can maintain proper training records of all of our employees.
[37:19] They also monitor subpoenas for officers and dispatchers when the Attorney's Office
[37:24] issues subpoenas.
[37:25] They come to this central location within the police department, and that person is able
[37:30] to make sure that the proper service is occurring
[37:35] for the officers to be notified that they have a court case pending.
[37:43] Also, they are responsible for the compliance and all areas
[37:45] of training and training records as I stated earlier.
[37:49] And they're also responsible for submitting training reimbursements
[37:52] through California Post.
[37:54] That is where we attend training,
[37:56] and we get reimbursements back from California
[37:59] for a lot of the training that we attend,
[38:02] which does bring back additional revenue into the city.
[38:08] Position five is responsible for preparing payroll
[38:12] for the police department.
[38:15] Handels all administrative requests within the police
[38:19] farmer out of the office of the chief.
[38:23] Handels paperwork preparation for all concealed
[38:26] carry permits.
[38:28] Most of that is related to retirees who are eligible
[38:32] for their CCWs.
[38:35] This person also maintains all personnel files for the police department, so they are responsible
[38:41] to make sure that our P files are current and up to date.
[38:47] Also issues all identification cards to not only new employees, but also current employees
[38:53] and handles a new higher paperwork between the police department and human resources.
[38:59] position six produces weekly reports to police personnel. This is something that I have utilized
[39:07] in our fight against the fireworks. As this council knows, I was able to produce this
[39:15] person was able to produce a document to all of you to show the level of activity in our city.
[39:22] By mapping it, you are all able to see that the fireworks issues are occurring throughout
[39:28] the city. It's not just one location that we're dealing with. This person provides investigative
[39:34] support during criminal investigations, significant to homicide investigations. We have this
[39:40] individual at the station running records, running social media, doing all kinds of things behind
[39:50] the scenes for our detective bureau in order to be successful in the investigation of the crimes.
[39:59] significant component for us in the three homicides we had after I first arrived.
[40:05] This individual was key and us being able to ultimately solve all three of those homicides.
[40:17] In addition, creates and distributes flyers, collaborates with Riverside Church Department,
[40:22] Palm Springs, other allied agencies here in the valley.
[40:26] We are able to get one of its flyers and bulletins from other agencies to our city.
[40:32] Perhaps we have a crime trend that is occurring in the city of India through this position's
[40:37] collaboration with other equals and other agencies were able to get a heads up on certain crimes
[40:45] that may be headed our way and perhaps be proactive in preventing that type of crime in our
[40:50] city.
[40:52] Lastly, provides here in Stats for me, which I ultimately provide to the City Council, and that's what I was referring to earlier with our year and report that you all like to see that we have a drop in crime, hopefully.
[41:09] And that's my recap on those positions Mayor, and I'm happy to answer any questions.
[41:13] Thank you Chief, appreciate the report and the update.
[41:17] I'd like to take the Mayor's prerogative to start with a few questions and comments if I might.
[41:23] Yes, sir.
[41:24] And then we'll turn it over to my steamed colleagues.
[41:28] First, let me say that I am absolutely opposed to any further reductions in personnel and department.
[41:34] For a lot of the same reasons that we've already heard.
[41:37] But even with a 10% reduction, and I'm assuming that the 10% reduction and the million nine
[41:46] that that number reflects does not include the fact that there are seven unfilled positions
[41:54] in the department that are not going to be filled. Is that correct?
[41:59] Correct, Mayor. Part of my 10 percent reduction would be not filling the deputy chief position
[42:05] for at least this budget year. Okay. So I just want to confirm that. Thank you.
[42:11] So, that still leaves us below the National Police Association standard of one officer for
[42:19] 10,000 population, and we're right on the cusp of that.
[42:26] So, that's a huge concern for me, based on the fact that we have taken great strides to get to
[42:33] this point, and I can leave with a nominal reduction, but I cannot live with anywhere else.
[42:40] Now, I do how we ever think that there may be other potential areas for savings that we should
[42:46] look at.
[42:47] I know you may not have the chance for today, but I do think that it's not at all inappropriate
[42:52] to go back to the unions and ask them and let them know, we're faced with this alternative
[42:57] here, which is more japonian than the possibility of your giving us something back.
[43:04] So I really think that we need to, you know, technically, staff can figure out how to do that.
[43:09] think we need to go back and have that discussion. I also think that and if you've done this,
[43:15] let me know that there may be some folks in the department who might be close to retirement
[43:21] and perhaps an incentive for them to retire and replacing those positions with less cellary
[43:31] qualified candidates might be aware to go. So I think we need to investigate that and look at
[43:39] going forward. And then the other, the last question I had was related to our contract
[43:45] with Desan Ospreings. So we do dispatch for Desan Ospreings.
[43:50] Is that, is that contract a, basically, we cover all costs, or is that a revenue producing
[43:57] contract?
[44:00] Your fresh, my memory. It's a cost recovery.
[44:05] Okay, so that's, it's a mutual contract, okay.
[44:10] Yes, sir.
[44:10] Thank you.
[44:11] So those are my questions.
[44:13] We'll not proceed to other council comments.
[44:16] Your questions.
[44:16] May I pretend?
[44:28] Thank you, Chief, for going over your list.
[44:32] And I understand we're trying to be somewhat sensitive because we're not just talking about
[44:38] widgets, we're talking about people and the great work that they have done and continue to do for the city.
[44:46] So I just wanted to maybe ask you a few things.
[44:50] I'm not really going to take a position right now.
[44:53] At least I don't intend to because I,
[44:54] I mean I think we're going to do that all together.
[44:57] But so there is talk.
[45:00] Or there is a chart.
[45:05] And it does show besides the unfilled positions that does show a sworn cut.
[45:12] That's correct. So, my understanding is, and you can film the blanks, please.
[45:17] The proposed cut is not a line, police officer necessarily. The proposed cut has to do with a member of police management that would actually be not laid off but would be retiring.
[45:32] That's correct, and would be then maybe even brought back or could be used on a contractual basis as needed.
[45:42] Yes, sir.
[45:42] So I think this is important because the news is saying, we're proposing a sworn cut and we haven't clarified anywhere.
[45:52] Well, what does that actually mean?
[45:55] So could you maybe kind of clarify that?
[45:57] Absolutely. One of our commanders and I have had discussions regarding the potential of retiring.
[46:05] This particular commander is in charge of the Mark 43 Cadd RMS implementation that I believe
[46:12] this council approved back in 2019. That is most likely at least a 12-month implementation
[46:20] process. So the discussion with that particular sworn member has been that to consider retiring.
[46:28] And then I would need that individual back as the project manager to complete the implementation,
[46:35] which would probably take up to 12 months. So that is some dialogue that I have had. That does not
[46:41] necessitate a layoff of any sworn member of the police department. Okay. And so, and of course,
[46:49] any loss hurts, but I'm sure that person takes care of other areas now, but you believe that
[46:57] the remainder of your management team, including you, are going to be able to adequately
[47:03] split up those duties and be able to perform the necessary work, at least for now while we're in this
[47:08] crisis period. My hopes would be we could maintain for a year and then at the end of the 2021
[47:16] budget cycle I do have the opportunity to effect those promotions and get upper management reinstated
[47:26] within the organization. I already be running without a deputy chief and bringing a commander
[47:32] back in a 1960 capacity once that commander's project had ended, then I would have, I would
[47:39] be down a deputy chief and a commander at that time.
[47:42] Which I think is important to note because I don't think at least for me that we would be in the position or
[47:49] Or would be wanting to look at any type of a permanent cut or getting rid of positions, but we're just talking about at least temporarily.
[47:56] This one would not be a layoff would be some other arrangement correct.
[48:01] So then you kind of went over the
[48:05] The sticks propose non-sworn. It's on the chart. There are non-sworn. You're being very tactful. You're not saying any actual positions, but I, my guess would be anyone in your department would be able to look at the list of things that would be affected, and I can kind of tell which positions are being looked at. So a couple of questions or observations. Some of the items that you listed are much in a similar way of some of the,
[48:35] items that we're in finance that we're discussed in that you list things that really have to be done to be able to make the process work.
[48:46] The police department is not just the officers on the street handling the call and then they get back in a car and it's over.
[48:53] There's a lot more that has to be done and people do expect to have criminal prosecutions.
[49:00] prosecutions and justice when they are victimized.
[49:04] So that's very important that we follow through.
[49:06] When you make a rest, you put people in jail.
[49:08] You're not done.
[49:09] You're just beginning.
[49:10] You have timelines to meet.
[49:12] So there are some things on the list that concern me about those.
[49:16] And I think they're probably the rest of the council.
[49:20] And so you kind of went over what the six positions did.
[49:24] And I understand that.
[49:27] I also am assuming probably certainly that no matter what happened, you and whoever is left in the department are gonna do the best they can do and prioritize and make sure as much as possible gets done.
[49:44] I think we're all concerned though that we have a certain level that we have managed to scrape our way to and we don't want that level to be seriously eroded.
[49:56] understanding that if finances don't recover, everything's going to eventually, you know,
[50:03] get, get cut. So I guess what I would ask, and not trying to put you too much in the spot,
[50:11] but each of these positions has certain things that they do, but sometimes, well, when we cut,
[50:19] and it's we're looking at in another department that sometimes some of those duties can be
[50:26] divvied up to other people and sometimes they they can't because of a specialty or they
[50:36] already do other duties that aren't necessarily mentioned. So you know you're looking at six positions
[50:44] And I mean frankly looking at some of them and just even my experience in other departments.
[50:53] I don't know exactly what each one of them does, but some of the duties and let's just throw one out,
[51:01] like scheduling training those types of things.
[51:04] You know, sometimes those can be handled as other duties with other people.
[51:09] Maybe not as well, and it's very, and of course, that area has grown over time.
[51:14] I know we're required training in that type of stuff is harder, but we're just talking
[51:18] about scheduling sometimes that's something that's not a crisis has to be done right now,
[51:22] but it can be done.
[51:24] You know, have you looked at those, I guess what I'm asking is have you looked at all of those
[51:27] duties, and you have a priority list on some of them on, you know, I could actually, if I had
[51:36] If I had to, I could squeeze by without some of these or some of the others, are there some other duties?
[51:43] I think I had heard that some of these positions can are certified or qualified to fill in for dispatch.
[51:51] But I don't hear that anywhere in the discussions.
[51:54] And I think that type of thing is also important.
[51:57] So could you maybe take a moment?
[52:01] I'll try to recap your question, sir.
[52:04] The reality behind any direction of this council to conduct any layoff within the police
[52:11] department would certainly require me to reimagine and look at all of the job duties
[52:19] entailed in these positions.
[52:22] That's not necessarily something that I have ready to present at this moment.
[52:27] that's certainly something that I have given significant thought to since this discussion began
[52:35] six or seven weeks ago. I do have some of the people in these key positions right now,
[52:43] do have also the ability to dispatch for us. As you know, as part of my
[52:57] some vacant positions. So those particular people are key to me in the ability to staff our dispatch center.
[53:05] I have to look at the next 12 months if I'm going to hold open for dispatch positions moving forward.
[53:12] I certainly would need those individuals in that capacity to certainly dispatch for us at key times so that we continue to maintain the service levels that our community expects.
[53:26] I think I answered this question.
[53:28] Well, I think so, but the problem you kind of leave us as a council in is that, of course, none of us want to cut any public safety.
[53:37] But the public safety are the big money departments.
[53:39] And I appreciate what you have said that with the cuts that you're able to make without any of these scheduled personnel cuts.
[53:48] My guess would be the commander cut is still is in your budget savings because that's not necessarily a layoff even though shows on our chart as a layoff.
[53:59] So we're really talking about these six non sworn positions.
[54:04] And the problem that I see is that although no one would disagree that each one of those fulfills necessary functions,
[54:17] You really, we have an all or nothing scenario in front of us, and now you're a mystery that some of them also dispatch, which we have placed as a priority in the police department recognizing that it's just as officers that there's you just don't function without having adequate dispatch.
[54:37] So, yeah, I mean, I'm less scratching my head because, you know,
[54:44] where I think the tendency, at this point, is going to be, again, I wasn't going to
[54:50] necessarily talk a little bit about what I'm feeling is that none of us have an appetite for
[54:55] really cutting public safety, but if we were to look and we will eventually be there if things
[55:04] turn around is to, well, instead of all six, is there some variety where one or two would go,
[55:15] and those duties could be redistributed, and I'm not getting any feedback, so if you don't have it,
[55:23] you don't have it, but I would say that if these discussions should continue or if we're not able
[55:33] to reach some type of answer.
[55:36] Today, these are the types of things I think would be helpful
[55:38] for us to be able to make a decision.
[55:42] I mean, nobody wants to split the baby,
[55:45] but we're left with these all or nothing scenarios.
[55:47] It's very difficult for us.
[55:50] Yeah, I certainly can prioritize,
[55:52] I think that's what you're asking me to do.
[55:56] When I look at the six positions,
[55:59] some are difficult to fill their job duties.
[56:06] So, if I'm being asked to go one through six by priority, I'm prepared to do that.
[56:14] If that's what you all would like me to do at this time, or I can do it at a later time.
[56:20] I'll leave that up to the council.
[56:23] All right, well, I'll tell you what.
[56:25] Let's wait and hear what the other discussion and questions and see if we get around to that, but it's good to know that at least that's available for you.
[56:31] I can certainly do that, sir.
[56:32] Thank you, Mayor, for what you have.
[56:34] Councilman, good to have us.
[56:35] Was in the queue.
[56:36] You want to go next?
[56:38] Good morning, Chief.
[56:39] Good morning, sir.
[56:40] Well, first of all, thank you for all you hard work.
[56:42] I know that going through the budget is now the easiest thing.
[56:45] And I just wanted to ask you some questions regarding your career.
[56:48] How long have you been in the employee and life forcement?
[56:51] 31 years.
[56:52] So, have you gone through cuts, budget cuts within your time?
[56:57] Yes, sir.
[56:58] Okay. So, I am talking to the right person, I know it.
[57:02] Now, through those cuts, I'm sure you have explored all options as to the employees that we do have,
[57:11] which ones would be like my colleagues mentioned.
[57:16] If you were to do with 10%, you mentioned that you probably will not have any layoffs.
[57:24] That's correct.
[57:25] Okay, so you have some, you have made some cuts in other areas in order to come up with a number.
[57:33] Have you thought about about the importance of our SWAT team?
[57:40] If we, I don't know, I don't know if we can, because what I've heard and talking to people,
[57:45] including someone that has been in line forcement for a while as well.
[57:50] We can actually not even contract, but call our shares department, and it will be free.
[57:59] Is that correct?
[58:01] In case we need to, this one team?
[58:03] In a mutual aid capacity, that's ideally what would happen.
[58:08] What is the cost of the SWAT team between over time, training, and all the materials, everything?
[58:18] Do you have an idea?
[58:20] I'm sorry I'm asking you this without having done any work, but just on the top of your head.
[58:26] Well, I believe my line item slot is 25,000, and that's for equipment and ammunition
[58:37] things of that nature.
[58:38] To look at it from an over time perspective, since I have returned in February, my request
[58:44] for SWAT training is that it be completed in lieu of a duty day, where we're not acquiring
[58:53] over time to go to SWAT training. Both Palm Springs and Indio, you know, we are a joint team.
[59:00] It's not just SWAT for the City of Cathedral City, but I would say overall it's not a
[59:08] significant expense to the city, but does allow us a significant resource in times when we need it.
[59:16] So, I would say looking at it overall probably less than 60,000 per year.
[59:24] Okay. That could possibly save one of the positions, couldn't it?
[59:29] Potentially.
[59:30] Okay. One of the things that I'm moving to do is,
[59:34] like our city managers did, he took a pay cut.
[59:38] I'm willing to also take a pay cut to help try to help some of the employees to give it
[59:43] And also, my discretionary income is going to be $5,000 as a correct choice.
[59:52] I'm willing to also cut that in half in order to save one of the positions either in five.
[1:00:00] Or with you, so I am willing to do that. Now, out of that 10%, again, all the employees that could potentially be laid off.
[1:00:14] I'm sure there's one or two that will definitely make a big difference if they were to remain correct.
[1:00:21] Yes, sir.
[1:00:22] And now, one of the issues that we heard was that
[1:00:28] before prior to laying off some of the employees,
[1:00:32] we have to give him a 60-day notice prior to laying them off.
[1:00:38] Is that correct, Tammy?
[1:00:39] Sorry.
[1:00:41] It varies from bargaining unit to bargaining unit,
[1:00:44] but in many cases, that is correct.
[1:00:46] Okay, so if we were to talk about and negotiate possibly the 10% initially within 2-3 months from now, we are going to find out more likely what the extent of the damages of revenue that we have experienced in the city.
[1:01:12] Would you be ready to increase from 10% to 15% immediately in case things do not change?
[1:01:22] Yes, sir.
[1:01:23] Okay, that was one of the things.
[1:01:28] Now, I guess that's all my questions.
[1:01:31] Thank you for how work again.
[1:01:32] I know it's a difficult decision and it's a lot of hard work.
[1:01:36] Thank you.
[1:01:37] Thank you, Councilwoman.
[1:01:41] Good morning, Chief.
[1:01:42] And I just wanted to reiterate from my own thinking.
[1:01:46] So the proposal you were making was describing 10% cut
[1:01:51] that didn't unfold into any layoffs.
[1:01:56] Then you had a job description of the six positions.
[1:02:01] I'm not in law enforcement.
[1:02:03] They all seem essential to me.
[1:02:06] And that you are willing to prioritize those six positions
[1:02:11] And Mayor Protein had seemed like it is all or nothing, and I would benefit greatly from knowing what your priority list is.
[1:02:22] You know, I am loads to make any cuts in public safety, but my background has been in education, and I know fiscal solvency for school districts is paramount.
[1:02:35] I mean, they have to run, we have to teach the kids.
[1:02:37] We have to keep our residents safe.
[1:02:40] So my responsibility, as I look at it this morning,
[1:02:44] is to ensure that the public is safe,
[1:02:49] and that the city remains solvent.
[1:02:50] How to do that, you know, I don't know.
[1:02:55] It seems like it's all in, I think,
[1:02:56] and that can't be the solution.
[1:02:58] So I would appreciate if you have a priority,
[1:03:02] let's get a sooner rather than the later.
[1:03:04] Thank you.
[1:03:05] Thank you, Councilman.
[1:03:06] Councilman Kronowali.
[1:03:07] Thank you.
[1:03:08] Thank you.
[1:03:08] Thank you, Chief, for that.
[1:03:11] I feel the same way my colleagues here, you know, we've all campaigned and first and foremost
[1:03:16] as public safety here on Cathedral City until that anyone go at the police department
[1:03:21] at this time when it's in these trying times just to be unproductive.
[1:03:29] We hired you Chief to run this department two times and we hired you because the ability
[1:03:34] to lead for it any challenging times and you've always told me when I asked you a question,
[1:03:40] what if this happens, you said you're prepared. So I trust you explicitly in your decisions
[1:03:45] and who you should cut, I wish you cut, but the 10 percent, I'm leaning the 10 percent
[1:03:51] seems more than fair with your department. So with that being said, thank you for what you
[1:03:57] Thank you.
[1:03:58] Thank you.
[1:03:58] Thank you.
[1:03:59] Thank you, gentlemen.
[1:04:00] Other council comments?
[1:04:01] I have a one more that I missed.
[1:04:04] Just to clarify one of the questions that my colleague Raymond Gregory mentioned.
[1:04:10] So regarding the sworn officer, it is not a position that this is a police officer that
[1:04:18] is out on the streets fighting crime that is going to be cut.
[1:04:22] Is that correct?
[1:04:23] Correct, sir.
[1:04:24] It's not a cut of a sworn officer.
[1:04:26] it would be a retirement and then that individual being brought back to manage the Mark 43 project.
[1:04:33] Thank you.
[1:04:34] You're welcome.
[1:04:36] Okay.
[1:04:36] Thank you.
[1:04:37] So what I would like to do is I would just like to list three or four points that I believe we have.
[1:04:43] Agreement on and then Charlie, if you would either support that or say no that there are other areas that I may have missed.
[1:04:50] And of course any council members as well.
[1:04:53] So, just to confirm we are not going to fail any devagan positions?
[1:04:59] That's the proposal and that's included actually in the 10 percent.
[1:05:03] And that's included in 10 percent.
[1:05:07] That we are not going to lay off not going to lay off any sworn personnel.
[1:05:13] And that is correct as well, mayor.
[1:05:17] Thirdly, that we are going to work to prioritize the non-sworn personnel, a list of
[1:05:25] potential folks who may be at risk and to have a report back on your priority of those
[1:05:35] affected positions, including a recommendation on the one retirement for the management
[1:05:42] position?
[1:05:44] Correct?
[1:05:46] Any else?
[1:05:51] I'm sorry.
[1:05:52] Can you speak up?
[1:05:53] I think the chief indicated that he could actually prioritize those for you now.
[1:06:01] Proceed.
[1:06:04] So in a 1 through 6 order, 1 being the most significant, that would be the evidence technician.
[1:06:17] Number 2 would be the crime analyst.
[1:06:21] Sorry, so these are in order of retention?
[1:06:24] Yes, sir.
[1:06:24] Okay.
[1:06:27] Sorry, please can you start over?
[1:06:29] Yes, sir.
[1:06:30] Evidence technician.
[1:06:31] Number one.
[1:06:34] Crime analysts.
[1:06:34] Number two.
[1:06:38] The record analyst.
[1:06:39] Number three.
[1:06:42] Excuse me.
[1:06:43] Tracy, you're right and it's all down, right?
[1:06:44] And I'm not going to try to keep up right now, then.
[1:06:46] All right, thank you.
[1:06:47] Sorry, sir.
[1:06:49] Start over, sir.
[1:06:52] I'm sorry.
[1:06:52] Say the last one.
[1:06:53] What number was it?
[1:06:55] Did I last give?
[1:06:56] Number three, record clerk.
[1:06:58] Number four, police training coordinator.
[1:07:04] Number five, office assistant.
[1:07:09] And number six, PSA.
[1:07:19] And as I stated earlier, mayor in the 10% proposal, those are not included in that 10%.
[1:07:27] So that would take me beyond the 10% proposal.
[1:07:33] Thank you.
[1:07:34] You're welcome.
[1:07:36] You'll see no other questions.
[1:07:37] And just for some context, in terms of the math,
[1:07:39] I think this might be important to you and I looked at the actual net general fund costs because
[1:07:46] that already had built in the notification periods and all that kind of thing.
[1:07:53] Those six added together as 500,274 would have to be added back in if the decision was
[1:08:01] to retain all six.
[1:08:02] Thank you.
[1:08:03] Thank you so very much for everything you do for us.
[1:08:06] I really appreciate it.
[1:08:07] Thank you.
[1:08:07] And if you could, if you could stay, thank you.
[1:08:12] Before, well, the fire chief is moving up to the podium
[1:08:15] and getting ready for his presentation
[1:08:18] as we move to the fire department.
[1:08:22] I did want to make just one observation.
[1:08:25] And that is that one of the items that I know that I would
[1:08:31] need before we make any final final decisions
[1:08:34] is we made several decisions I believe last week when we talked about the other departments
[1:08:40] and I think we largely agreed with the recommendations with some exceptions.
[1:08:47] And so I think, and I don't know, Tammy, if you're prepared to give us that number today,
[1:08:52] but I think knowing what the magnitude is of those decisions that were made
[1:08:59] Yes.
[1:09:00] Has on the amount of the dip into the reserves?
[1:09:05] I can give you that right now.
[1:09:07] Okay.
[1:09:08] As long as I read these back at the end of the last meeting,
[1:09:12] so I'm assuming that I got them correct.
[1:09:15] It was to eliminate funding for the sponsorship
[1:09:18] of the Palm Springs International Film Festival,
[1:09:20] that puts you 50,000 to the good.
[1:09:23] On CVEP you moved the funding from CVEP
[1:09:26] from the Greater Coachella Valley chamber contract two CVEF, so that was a zero cost there.
[1:09:34] And the other two items were to report back to you with a plan to what would be necessary to complete the overall fee study,
[1:09:45] which in the long run we believe will pay for itself, but over the short term will require some additional resources to do that.
[1:09:52] That is not ready yet, but I think that the effect, you can assume the effect on the current budget is zero and we'll report back in the future what needs to be done there.
[1:10:06] And then also at zero was to keep code enforcement coverage as close to seven days a week as possible by redeploying the remaining personnel there to come as close as possible to covering seven days.
[1:10:22] So with all of that, you're actually $50,000 to the good at this point.
[1:10:28] It explained what that means.
[1:10:29] That means that you have decreased by $50,000, the amount of reserves that would need
[1:10:35] to be drawn down.
[1:10:37] As opposed to what was the original recommendation, which was a total of $22,2,467 draw down.
[1:10:50] That's the number I was looking for.
[1:10:51] Or 2021, that would decrease that number by $50,000.
[1:10:56] It's just where you stand right now.
[1:10:59] And the number I just gave you for the six positions
[1:11:02] in the police department would then increase it up by,
[1:11:05] if you went all the way, 500,000, 274.
[1:11:11] Thank you, Charlie.
[1:11:11] Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot there,
[1:11:13] but I wanted to get that on the record.
[1:11:16] And I'm trying to do the math as we go along.
[1:11:18] So if you see me, it's the calculator
[1:11:21] on the phone, I'm not reading my email or anything.
[1:11:25] I said, Chief, welcome, please proceed.
[1:11:29] Mr. Mayor, thank you.
[1:11:30] With your permission, I'd like to take my mask off.
[1:11:31] Of course.
[1:11:32] Thank you.
[1:11:33] And we're social distancing, I can breathe better.
[1:11:36] These fire department masks are especially designed to keep out very fine particulates.
[1:11:43] Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro-Cham and Council, it's my pleasure to be here today.
[1:11:48] And I've committed, I want to thank you for the comments that you sent in about the
[1:11:51] Department about the good work that they do out in the field.
[1:11:54] I've been here seven weeks now, and I can't tell you how impressed I am with the quality
[1:12:00] of the firefighters, captains engineers, the leadership of the Tainchees, and the type
[1:12:08] of calls they go on and the service they provide.
[1:12:12] What's before you today is a proposed reduction in the fire department of $1,759,49.
[1:12:20] to
[1:12:24] achieve that, we would eliminate one battalion chief, six firefighters, two of which are vacant,
[1:12:32] so that would be five layoffs. One battalion chief and four firefighters would position to be eliminated.
[1:12:47] that would take the staffing from 14 to 12 because 4, 11, downtown and 4, 13 in the
[1:12:56] north end would go from three person staffing to two person staffing. So we're 14
[1:13:03] now that would drop to 12 and on the shift where we lost the battalion chief it
[1:13:07] would go to 11. The third factor is there's no overtime for the other two
[1:13:13] So when ever they are off, then that shift would also drop to 11.
[1:13:19] That's really what we're looking at here.
[1:13:22] In addition to the $650,000 was in the operating budget,
[1:13:29] we can handle for a year.
[1:13:31] We'll just hunker down and buy the bare minimum and do the no training and just hang in there.
[1:13:37] But the reduction in services is pretty drastic, and you and Chief Olsen over the years have built the department up to three O staffing with shift of time chiefs, which is where you need to be.
[1:13:57] You really don't want to go back from that if you can help it. If we need to do it temporarily, this is a way to do it.
[1:14:02] Now, I know that you read the calls every day.
[1:14:07] Over the two and a half years, all of 18, all of 19, and half of this year, today,
[1:14:15] 16.21 emergency calls per 24-hour period.
[1:14:19] Of those calls, 75% are rescue and EMS.
[1:14:25] 10% are public service and 3% are fires.
[1:14:31] We often hear NFPA standards of one firefighter 2,000 to 1,000, you know, these kinds of numbers don't resonate with me that well, because I have a hard time equating, you know, we're not a population of certain amount of people when we have all these visitors and guests, and so I have a hard time with the 1,000, you know, 1 firefighter 1,000, what I like to think of is rule.
[1:15:00] Versus urban, are we a rule fire department that runs with one in two people? Or are we an urban department that runs with three and four?
[1:15:08] That's a better way to look at it. And the third and most important part, also, is your ISO rating, insurance service organization, comes in and rates the fire department every three years for as its capabilities.
[1:15:20] 40 percent of that is the water supply. We have excellent water supply. 10 percent is a
[1:15:27] ability to dispatch. We have excellent dispatch. 50 percent is firefighting resources.
[1:15:34] Manpower personnel and equipment. We reduce that side of the equation and we're right now
[1:15:41] in an ISO rating. They just sent us the information to start the process for the next three
[1:15:46] We're at a class two or a class three right now.
[1:15:50] We're at low class three.
[1:15:53] If we lost these positions, my
[1:15:58] judgment would be that we would still stay a class three.
[1:16:02] But it would be at the top end of a class three.
[1:16:04] We could go to a class four.
[1:16:06] Now what does that mean?
[1:16:07] The difference in these classes determines the amount of commercial insurance premiums that the commercial industry has to pay.
[1:16:14] So if you have a business, a manufacturing facility, the insurance rates are based on the ISO rating for the Fire Department's ability to put out the fires in these types of businesses.
[1:16:26] Not so much residential.
[1:16:28] There is a small impact to the residential insurance, but it's really an insurance for that the insurance companies use to base how much insurance they need to fire insurance they need on a property.
[1:16:40] So we're close to a two, we're in the three, we'll probably, if we were to make these cuts.
[1:16:47] My guess is we would stay in a three, but we could drop to a four.
[1:16:53] My objective, of course, would be to try to get to a two or a one over the next few years.
[1:16:59] If you think of the, I like to look at our area here, very similar to Beverly Hills.
[1:17:07] Everybody hills is a class one fire department.
[1:17:12] We're class three.
[1:17:14] Could go to class four.
[1:17:15] You make these types of reductions in staff.
[1:17:17] It's going to impact the daily operations.
[1:17:20] Now I can go into what all that means, but we're going to be
[1:17:23] waiting around for firefighters to show up on other engines.
[1:17:26] Because that ambulance, those ambulances,
[1:17:29] they're key to this organization because they give us firefighters
[1:17:32] to do the firefighting when we need them.
[1:17:34] They provide the most excellent outstanding transport
[1:17:37] services in the valley, in my opinion, to the hospitals, because the paramedics on these ambulances
[1:17:43] are with that patient from start to finish all the way to the ER doctor. And they're very
[1:17:50] skilled because of that. We're saving lives because of that. So when you drop from a two
[1:17:56] person, three person to two person, and you keep your ambulances at two, you have four people
[1:18:00] at those two stations. But those ambulances are gone 44 percent of the time. They're not
[1:18:06] available because they're running emergency calls, because 75% of our calls are EMS calls
[1:18:12] and a lot of them are transports. So you're going to be forced to have a two-person
[1:18:20] engine company, respond to a major incident traffic accident, medical emergency, fire, rescue,
[1:18:31] with two people. They can't do anything with two people. All they can do is set up and
[1:18:37] establish command and call in the cavalry, which are the other engines that are here,
[1:18:44] which would have five more. You'd have three on the truck and two on the engine, maybe
[1:18:48] two on the other ambulance unless it's on a call at the hospital. So that's the reality
[1:18:54] of it. And we can do it. We can survive its plane, the odds, really. What can happen with
[1:19:07] this level of reduction?
[1:19:12] Thank you, Chief. I appreciate those comments. We'll move to Council of comments in just
[1:19:16] one moment. I did have a couple of questions, please. First of all, I was going to mention
[1:19:22] the insurance services office issue and the impact that a decrease in our rating could
[1:19:32] have on our businesses, which are already suffering. So I think any risk and losing
[1:19:37] that number is problematic for me. Now I also have a question and perhaps you can answer
[1:19:44] this if not I think Tammy or Charlie Kim. When we acquire the safer grant with additional
[1:19:50] firefighters. If we make any reductions, does that impact our grant? Is that kick in any repayment
[1:19:58] provision? Was it put a set risk of losing marble medicine from that grant?
[1:20:05] My judgment would be this. I did this in Palm Springs during the Great Recession. We had
[1:20:11] to say for grant that we could not fulfill the obligations of that grant. And because we were
[1:20:17] fiscal emergency, which we are here as well.
[1:20:22] We would, first of all, we're at the very end of that safer grant.
[1:20:27] The money that we're going to, it ends in February, okay, so we don't have much
[1:20:31] long to go before that safer grant is over.
[1:20:34] The revenues coming in from that grant is diminishing very quickly.
[1:20:39] Like 20,000 last month, next month, the B-18,000, and then presence is going to drop to nine,
[1:20:43] and it's going to go by October we zero amount of revenue.
[1:20:47] So we're really not benefiting much from the safer grant any longer.
[1:20:50] We've already got the benefit from it.
[1:20:53] My fear is this, if we were to reduce surf staffing to reduce the number of firefighters
[1:21:01] that does not allow us to meet the terms of the safer grant, then the next time we go
[1:21:07] for a safer grant, we're going to be at a disadvantage.
[1:21:10] Now, it's certainly understandable if we need to.
[1:21:14] Now, none of the firefighters that are listed are safer grant funded firefighters.
[1:21:18] They're further up in the chain.
[1:21:21] So, that does help us that we're not actually laying off a safer granted funded firefighter.
[1:21:26] We're reducing our overall capability or overall staffing level.
[1:21:30] And safer does not look at minimum staffing levels.
[1:21:34] It looks at the firefighters that were hired under the grant
[1:21:36] and are they still employed unless they will still be employed?
[1:21:40] Thank you Chief.
[1:21:41] Okay.
[1:21:41] We'll go next to Councilwoman Land, who was first in the queue followed by Mayor Protem,
[1:21:46] who was second in the queue.
[1:21:47] Councilwoman.
[1:21:48] Thank you very much for your presentation.
[1:21:50] And I just wanted to clarify for myself.
[1:21:52] So the five positions that you're talking about,
[1:21:56] that amounts to about $850,000 in terms of their commitments as I would.
[1:22:04] actually for the for the for the year 2021 once we back out the notification periods and all that
[1:22:11] what it actually saved us was 554602 that was for all five back out the battalion chief just for the firefighters
[1:22:19] it was 37612 okay and and so in that proposal it is that's that's an all or nothing I love that phrase but that's an all or nothing
[1:22:28] It's this is the this is what we're considering or none of that. Well, no. Okay. Okay. The target for me and and this this staff was 20% reduction.
[1:22:42] Prior to that chief Wilson had actually prepared a 10% reduction and that included dropping from 14 to 12.
[1:22:53] two hundred and seventy three days a year and not laying anybody off. Now I don't
[1:22:59] I haven't run the numbers on those to to know what the cost savings is but it
[1:23:05] it seemed to be a way to one not have any layoffs but you're still going to drop to
[1:23:12] twelve depending on who's off that day.
[1:23:19] Councilmember Lam and Mayor with your permission so that everyone understands what that means.
[1:23:26] That means you would still have the ability to assign 14 to a shift, but you would not fit
[1:23:32] backfill with over time when somebody was off either because of an injury, an illness, or
[1:23:38] a vacation day. So you would have varying numbers from day to day, and that's integral to even
[1:23:44] getting the 10% target, and you put that in place by a policy decision.
[1:23:55] So, so you would have the ability to staff to 14 or 13 if you still eliminated one of the battalion chiefs,
[1:24:03] but you would only backfill with overtime when it was going to drop below 12.
[1:24:07] And that's about 273 days a year, you're going to not be at 14.
[1:24:14] Okay.
[1:24:15] You'd be less than 14, but no less than 12, because if three people were off, we have
[1:24:20] to recall one person for over time to keep this mapping level at 12.
[1:24:26] I see.
[1:24:27] That's a more measured approach.
[1:24:30] It still doesn't really help us.
[1:24:32] It helps our odds on the types of calls and the numbers and what day it's going to happen
[1:24:37] but it's not as draconian a measure as as eliminating seven positions.
[1:24:44] All right, thank you. Thank you.
[1:24:48] May you pretend please.
[1:24:49] Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council.
[1:24:52] So you actually got right into my biggest question here.
[1:24:55] I two of them and one of them was what were the personnel costs versus other savings.
[1:25:00] And I think you covered that that the personnel savings is about $550,000.
[1:25:10] And the other had to do with the safer grant and staffing.
[1:25:13] When we actually did this two year budget, there was a lot of discussion about the staffing required by the safer grant.
[1:25:21] and at the time we were being told we being the council that we had to stay at a 14 staffing
[1:25:30] because that was part of the safer grant and that meant we had to approve which we ended up doing
[1:25:36] massive amounts of overtime because although we had the staff if everybody is there every day
[1:25:42] and not a training and not sick and not a vacation to do that level that maintain that level required
[1:25:50] massive amounts of overtime. So, a lot of us weren't really very happy about that, but we ended
[1:25:58] up approving that because we needed to maintain that for the safer grant. So now we're getting
[1:26:05] told something a little different. Well I understand the circumstances change that were in a
[1:26:10] financial emergency, although I would raise the question to the city manager as if we'd declared
[1:26:15] a financial emergency and maybe we should so that we have to make sure that we are covered
[1:26:22] if they do come back, maybe we did in all of that initial, but I don't remember that actually
[1:26:27] being a financial emergency. So that would be something to please follow up on. But so I respect
[1:26:34] that that circumstance has changed and I'm not trying to rehash the past and you weren't here.
[1:26:40] But I do think the reason I bring that up is I do think that there is some merit to
[1:26:47] having a little more flexibility in the policy where we would have a goal of having
[1:26:55] 14 every day, but we would set a floor.
[1:26:59] My experience in public safety is that's super common where you have a floor, but especially
[1:27:05] While you're building staff or trying to maintain staff is you have a goal that is your ideal and then it gives management some flexibility as to how you're doing on your overtime budget, whether you're going to fill in when somebody's out or whether you're still above your floor and you believe because of whatever circumstance or whatever shift or whatever day of the week it is.
[1:27:35] management is my experience very good at this type of thing, they're able to then say, well,
[1:27:41] I think that we will be able to get by today without filling that one with overtime and over time,
[1:27:49] that adds up to pretty substantial savings.
[1:27:54] So, so I don't know if you have some comments.
[1:27:57] Well, I would like to just clarify a little bit on the safe for because there's a component of it
[1:28:02] I'm not sure of, and this is what, the last week that Chief Wilson was here is he and I did,
[1:28:08] there's several reports that go into the safer reporting.
[1:28:11] One is a quarterly report, and then one is our finance report to get the reimbursement
[1:28:17] money.
[1:28:18] When he and I did, the logged in and did the finance report, it was very simple, click down,
[1:28:23] click down, click down, fill in the blanks, this and this.
[1:28:26] And it asks the question, how many firefighters do you have total?
[1:28:29] And with the retirements that we just recently had last month, we'd gone down from, I think, 40 or 41, 42 to 40.
[1:28:39] And he told me we can go one more to 39, but for all kinds of stuff a safer is going to happen.
[1:28:46] Now, what that means, I don't know, because it's just one number plugged in there.
[1:28:52] But the fact of the matter is we're very near the end of the safer grant.
[1:28:55] It could jeopardize it.
[1:28:57] My preference would be to not lay off anybody to maintain the levels that we can so that we can
[1:29:04] actually say next time when I got to fill that form out, we have this many people and not
[1:29:09] and we can probably afford to lose one and we may get one out of retirement quite possibly
[1:29:16] here in the next three to six months.
[1:29:18] And so that would put us at that floor for the safer grant that we would not have jeopardized that grant.
[1:29:26] It's going to be over in February.
[1:29:30] And we'd be in a position to reapply.
[1:29:32] What I would not want to see us do is come back and reapply after we reneged on a grant once.
[1:29:37] They're not likely to provide that a second time.
[1:29:42] Yes, thank you very much.
[1:29:43] So again, I know we weren't necessarily talking final answers here.
[1:29:47] But when I look at this, I will just say that, well, for the public safety swan, which would include police swan in the end to me and the firefighters, both your paramedics at EMTs.
[1:30:00] You know, one thing that's kind of lost is how much work goes into hiring, training, certifying, equipping, all of these people. And so, there is also, besides the notice cost, there, if we, then later now come back to put them back on, you got that huge burden that the council has to overcome at the city. Financial burden, besides the fact of trying to find,
[1:30:30] Highly qualified people out here in the desert can be a problem, I'm trying to look for diversity or
[1:30:37] Macolar bilingual and all the different things that we've tried to do. So this deeply disturbs me when I see the proposals to cut
[1:30:45] actual line officers
[1:30:49] Besides the fact that we have the reduction in service
[1:30:52] What I think makes a lot of sense to me and I would hope the council would would give it serious consideration
[1:31:01] is flexing that policy, though, so that we first do the best that we can with our existing
[1:31:08] staff, and we give management the discretion to try to find savings where it can be done on days
[1:31:16] and scheduling, and those types of things by setting 12, and instead of a 14 with the goal being
[1:31:22] I don't want to lose sight, I don't think anybody does, that being the proper staffing,
[1:31:30] but without having to just automatically fill over time and without management really having that discussions.
[1:31:40] Thank you.
[1:31:41] The Councilman Gutierrez.
[1:31:42] Yes.
[1:31:43] Well, Chief, thank you for all you hard work as well.
[1:31:46] I know has taken quite a bit of your time.
[1:31:48] We're going through all this budget.
[1:31:49] Now, the first question is going to be for either Charlie or Tammy.
[1:31:54] Can you guys tell me, what was the last time or what department in the last four years
[1:32:00] has received the largest increase in money, why is it for the department?
[1:32:13] I can't answer.
[1:32:14] I'd have to go back and actually do some calculations to determine on a monetary basis.
[1:32:20] I do know that since I've been here, which is, you have to go back six years, that the most personnel added to any department has been in the fire department, and that was an intentional thing.
[1:32:31] I think on the part of the policy makers to try to get to where we achieved that 14 person staffing, so we've added 10 positions to the fire department in the last six years.
[1:32:46] we're added when we received the cannabis funding and we're able to take some money out of that
[1:32:54] to add and then the other six with the safer grant. Okay, now one was the last time that
[1:33:01] we operated with Eminem of 12, what year, how long ago has it been?
[1:33:10] Well actually it's more
[1:33:11] recent than that because when I came here in 2014 we were operating with 12. That was
[1:33:19] prior to the addition of those 10 personnel.
[1:33:22] And I think the first batch of those that were hired
[1:33:26] was in 2016 or was it 17 with 16.
[1:33:30] So it would be 2016 and prior.
[1:33:34] So for about four years, we have an operating
[1:33:36] with minimum 14 for about four years now, approximately.
[1:33:42] Great.
[1:33:42] That's correct.
[1:33:43] So between, I think the first, the most recent round
[1:33:46] cuts with 2012, so between 2012 and 2016, we probably
[1:33:50] operated with around 12 on most occasions.
[1:33:55] Since 2016, we went up to that first batch of four,
[1:34:01] put us up to 13, and then when we added the safer
[1:34:05] grant that took us back up to 4G.
[1:34:09] Now, some of these potential layoffs.
[1:34:16] These firemen, are they also paramedics or EMTs?
[1:34:21] Where are they?
[1:34:21] I believe two are EMTs and two are paramedics.
[1:34:26] Your counsel goal was to, well, Chief Wilson was to reduce a number of paramedics and bring in more EMTs.
[1:34:32] And so he's done that.
[1:34:34] The last, based on the rule of, you know, last in first out in the organization at the lowest rank.
[1:34:44] the firefighter to our paramedics and to our EMTs.
[1:34:51] Out of our entire force, how many are paramedics?
[1:34:56] Currently?
[1:34:56] I think all but four.
[1:34:58] All but four?
[1:34:59] I think so.
[1:35:00] And monetarily wise, my wife.
[1:35:02] Do they make a lot more money if you were a paramedic than EMT?
[1:35:07] Not necessarily.
[1:35:08] I think that what's in Senate pay?
[1:35:11] I wouldn't characterize it as a lot.
[1:35:14] I think it's about between 10 and 15.
[1:35:16] Yeah, for the skillset you're getting,
[1:35:19] the difference between a paramedic and an EMT is pretty significant.
[1:35:25] My personal feeling is you want as many medics as you can at the lowest levels,
[1:35:29] and at the highest levels you don't need to have paramedics,
[1:35:31] at the time chiefs level, for say,
[1:35:34] or maybe even at some captains, maybe half medic pay.
[1:35:37] But for your engineers and firefighters, you want paramedics.
[1:35:40] It's much as possible, because they can all do the job, especially in an organization like
[1:35:45] this, where you transport, you're not just passing it off to a private ambulance company
[1:35:51] to take it from there.
[1:35:52] You're actually providing a continuity of care from the beginning all the way to the emergency
[1:35:56] room doctor, and I've learned this from armatics, just since I've been here, how valuable
[1:36:03] that has been from the senior medics.
[1:36:06] That's a critical component that no other fire department, other than the COVID communities that also transports has as well.
[1:36:14] Now, one of the things that I'm trying to get to here is that we have currently, we have three man-pertruck fire truck.
[1:36:24] And they're all paramedics. Then we dispatch most of them. Then we dispatch the ambulance in both of them, our paramedics.
[1:36:34] Now, when there's a call, like you mentioned earlier, a very high percentage of those calls are medical aids.
[1:36:42] So we're dispatching five people that are paramedics to a medical aid call.
[1:36:50] I believe that's a little bit, of course, we are getting really high quality of care, but at what cost.
[1:36:58] And we're getting five paramedics for medical aid, which is assist to a lift assist.
[1:37:06] Some of the fell off their bed or they can't get up.
[1:37:10] So we're dispatching five paramedics.
[1:37:14] So one of my goals is trying to see what we do to reduce the cost and the new future with
[1:37:21] that.
[1:37:21] understand and my response to that would be fully staff with the three person engine company
[1:37:28] and a two person medic, you may have five because we still have some EMTs but that's the soon
[1:37:32] we all five are paramedics and they're going to transport that first of all on the lift assist
[1:37:37] that's a public service that's a public service okay so the engine goes back in service right away
[1:37:42] but on a emergency medical emergency that ambulance is going to transport the patient so now you're left
[1:37:48] with three, but they're still in their first in area to handle the next call, and that's probably
[1:37:54] going to be 75% of the time, a medical emergency.
[1:37:57] And now you're down to three, and you're going to need three to do most procedures on an advanced
[1:38:02] life support incident.
[1:38:05] Now, you were, you retired from the City of Palm Springs, correct?
[1:38:08] That's correct.
[1:38:09] The operate under AMR.
[1:38:12] Now, what is the cost to the city when they operate under AMR?
[1:38:17] So, the way it works in Palm Springs is much like here.
[1:38:21] I started the Paramedic Program in 2001 with three paramedics.
[1:38:25] One on each shift.
[1:38:27] It has blossomed to all the way up to Deputy Chief.
[1:38:30] It's a paramedic.
[1:38:32] There's reasons for that.
[1:38:34] Part of the reasons is on the recruitment side.
[1:38:36] You can take a pool of 7 or 800 candidates and get it down to 70 applicants.
[1:38:41] Something manageable if you make a paramedic the standard that you're going to hire.
[1:38:45] and we want those. But in Palm Springs, they provide the advanced life support for the patient
[1:38:52] and then wait and wait and wait for the ambulance to come. Sometimes it's right there. Oftentimes,
[1:39:00] it's not. It's 20 minute wait. They're doing their thing with the patient as waiting for the
[1:39:05] transport and then they pass the patient over to the AMR ambulance who then takes that person to the hospital.
[1:39:12] So, the Fire Department receives no revenue from that, none.
[1:39:18] What the Fire Department gets, because AMR is charging the patient for the supplies used
[1:39:23] and the drugs and the IV bags, those are then reimbursed to the Fire Department.
[1:39:29] Once a month order gets placed, to AMR, it's drop ship to the Fire Department, so there's
[1:39:33] no autopocket expense for the ALS and EMS products that have been used on the scene for a
[1:39:41] that they can build for.
[1:39:43] So there's no money that comes in.
[1:39:45] Now, what AMR does is all those times that they missed,
[1:39:48] they're time limit, and we're sitting there waiting,
[1:39:51] where the firefighters are sitting there waiting,
[1:39:53] they have to pay a penalty to the city.
[1:39:55] The penalties are small.
[1:40:00] 60,000 the air may be.
[1:40:02] Not much.
[1:40:04] Yeah, because one of the things that I talked about in the past was
[1:40:08] to actually get to conduct the study to see if what would it take to transition our ambulance
[1:40:16] department to AMR in our city in order to attempt to save about $1.5 million give or take.
[1:40:25] We would have to go back and talk about the figures but that was one of my big things that
[1:40:30] I talked about.
[1:40:31] But the council vote in no.
[1:40:33] Right, and what you would do is you basically give up two, four for shift times.
[1:40:40] So you give up 12 firefighters and be left with the remaining.
[1:40:45] So you'd have to do that.
[1:40:46] You give up 12 of your firefighters.
[1:40:48] That could be used for firefighting and rescue and traffic accidents and everything else.
[1:40:53] So that's just a, if you've got rid of the ambulances, you'd have to eliminate 12 firefighters that do firefighting.
[1:40:59] It was just a way to analyze things and to see if there was possible savings.
[1:41:06] I think the model that you have here, you're really fortunate that you have this transport service.
[1:41:13] The revenue from that offset the cost of those firefighters.
[1:41:18] And it's a good benefit to the city, the model that you're running under right now.
[1:41:25] Thank you.
[1:41:26] Thank you, Chief.
[1:41:26] Appreciate it.
[1:41:28] Can someone kind of have all the comments?
[1:41:29] questions? I'll be real brief. Council is pretty much touch-based on everything to be discussed,
[1:41:37] but when the appreciation of Council in the good tier is looking at the bottom line,
[1:41:43] you know, you just can't put price on life. You know, when you have five permedics going out on a call,
[1:41:48] just recently we had a accident on the freeway. But there were six people injured,
[1:41:53] two babies died. You know, what if a multiple accident happens here? Just not one person gets an
[1:41:59] you got three or four, you're going to need those five paramedics and not to show up with five
[1:42:03] paramedics, I think, which would just be harmful to the city. So I just think proper management
[1:42:10] watching over time and
[1:42:15] showing good faith in keeping everybody working and, like I said, the
[1:42:19] over time is what I'd like to see trim down a little bit and to keep everyone working so that's
[1:42:24] it. Thank you. If you were to drop your staffing to 12, it's doable. We're going to drop our
[1:42:30] staffing on a daily basis, three quarters of the year or more, that will then also save
[1:42:35] in over time, of course, by doing that.
[1:42:39] And it's a stop gap measure, but it's not the drastic measures of laying firefighters off.
[1:42:46] So over time is more of the management control.
[1:42:51] Over time is not a management discretion.
[1:42:55] When you need 14, and a guy takes off, he gets another person gets over time.
[1:42:59] We have no choice there.
[1:43:01] So what we're saying is, if you drink a drop down to 12,
[1:43:06] we're going to over time in that 12, if a third person takes off,
[1:43:11] to make it 11, we're going to hire back somebody,
[1:43:14] but we're not hiring back three.
[1:43:16] We're only going to hire back two on over time.
[1:43:20] Thank you, Chief.
[1:43:21] Sorry, you're basically, you know, I think drastically reducing
[1:43:27] that is not necessary at this time.
[1:43:29] We don't have a crystal ball.
[1:43:30] We don't know what's going to happen three months, six months, a year from now.
[1:43:35] So I think, which would just be cautious, what's going to happen in the future, wait three
[1:43:39] four months, and reevaluate.
[1:43:41] Yeah.
[1:43:41] Our discretionary overtime, which Chief Wilson is pretty much already curtailed.
[1:43:45] We don't send a battalion chief off duty to the training officers in Riverside anymore.
[1:43:50] So we have no representation there.
[1:43:52] No travel and training has been in place anyways, but they've already reduced the amount
[1:43:56] of overtime.
[1:43:56] And the only real overtime that's in the department is when people have to attend a special
[1:44:02] meeting off duty.
[1:44:04] Some of our captains are very excellent captains, they represent us at the county MS meeting.
[1:44:09] We pay for that per hour rate for the six or eight hours at the meeting.
[1:44:15] And the rest of it is pretty much going to be just left to the minimum staffing at whatever
[1:44:19] levels you determine it to be.
[1:44:22] All right.
[1:44:23] Thank you, Chief.
[1:44:23] Well, I think the message is quite clear from the majority of council that we do not have an appetite for any layoffs, particularly in this department.
[1:44:35] I would also add that, and I made this point last time when we had this discussion that I've had personal experience.
[1:44:44] My families have personal experience with both MR and with our own department.
[1:44:49] And there it's absolutely no comparison.
[1:44:51] I would never want to reduce the quality of care for our community based on what I personally experienced with all the efforts.
[1:45:00] On springs and maybe what they've done there to improve the quality of service, that certainly wasn't apparent in my case.
[1:45:06] And I just frankly do not believe this is time for us to be making these kinds of changes.
[1:45:11] We did all receive an email from a particularly large business.
[1:45:15] In our community that talked about how since they've reopened in May, their revenues have been extremely good,
[1:45:24] which we believe is perhaps the indication that we might be able to recover our revenues more expeditially than we are predicting in our numbers.
[1:45:33] But regardless, I think the message is very clear and thank you very much for your presentation, Chief.
[1:45:40] That's early?
[1:45:42] Mr. Mayor.
[1:45:43] Yes, I'm sorry.
[1:45:44] I've got.
[1:45:44] But with that, are we open to entertaining to allow the policy to move to 12 and allow management of flexibility?
[1:45:53] that was my intent by looking at increasing efficiencies.
[1:46:01] Charlie,
[1:46:08] Charlie is figured over there.
[1:46:10] I would remind the council that we do have a closed session schedule that we will be adjourned to shortly.
[1:46:17] Okay, I was just going to give you a sort of a math summary.
[1:46:21] And unless I made a mistake somewhere,
[1:46:25] which maybe Tammy can catch me if I did.
[1:46:27] Okay, so you're 50,000 dollars to the good over here already from the decisions that you made the other day.
[1:46:38] If you keep all five positions in fire, that requires a drawdown of reserves of 554602.
[1:46:48] If you keep all six of the positions that were discussed in police, that requires a drawdown
[1:46:57] of 500,274, just which totals 1,554,876, which is pretty close to the, when you take
[1:47:07] the 50,000 off of that, you're really right out of 1,000, which is pretty close to the question
[1:47:11] that Council Member Lam asked me about last week.
[1:47:16] So the answer to that would be that would be the effect of that, what I already went
[1:47:21] over to.
[1:47:22] Now just for discussion purposes, if you only went with the top three in that priority list,
[1:47:29] instead of 500,274 drawdown, that requires a 224,887.
[1:47:35] So that puts your reserve draw down at 729-989, then.
[1:47:42] Make less the 50,000 that you already say.
[1:47:45] I'm interested.
[1:47:47] All right, thank you.
[1:47:48] Thank you to the staff for your work
[1:47:50] and preparing for today and presenting.
[1:47:53] These are really difficult decisions
[1:47:55] that we're making and that you're having to make
[1:47:57] and your departments.
[1:48:00] And so we are very empathetic, but we understand
[1:48:03] that we're coming out of the other end, much stronger.
[1:48:08] Have you said that, a city attorney?
[1:48:09] Would you please read to us the closed session items?
[1:48:14] I'd be happy to do that, Mary.
[1:48:15] You have one item on your closed session for today.
[1:48:18] It's a conference with your Labor Negotiator.
[1:48:21] The Labor Negotiator is Charles McClinn,
[1:48:23] in your city manager.
[1:48:25] And the groups you'll be talking about are listed on your agenda,
[1:48:30] inclusive of non-represented employees. That concludes my report.
[1:48:36] Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay, we're going to adjourn the close session.
[1:48:48] I would prefer to be staying here.
[1:49:05] Following our close session discussion. First I'd like to ask the city attorney for a
[1:49:11] quick report and then we'll go from there.
[1:49:16] It's just a city journey.
[1:49:18] Thank you.
[1:49:19] The city council did have one item on its closed session.
[1:49:22] The agenda was meeting with its Labor Negotiator Charlie McLean and your city manager.
[1:49:28] Council received a briefing and had a discussion and gave direction to the city manager with regard to those items.
[1:49:35] There was no portable action out of the closed session.
[1:49:40] That concludes my report.
[1:49:42] Thank you.
[1:49:43] Thank you very much.
[1:49:44] I appreciate that.
[1:49:47] Okay, following our discussion on the budget under legislative actions, do we have any action
[1:49:54] recommended by the City Council?
[1:49:56] Yes, Mr. Mayor.
[1:49:57] Mayor.
[1:49:57] Pro-Champ.
[1:49:58] If I may, I know the City Manager took some notes and had been provided so I'd like to
[1:50:03] go ahead and make a motion and then you can please.
[1:50:07] if anything to add.
[1:50:11] I'm Mr. Mayor, I move approval of the recommended budget reductions
[1:50:14] to the fiscal year 2021 budget in the amount of $9 million,
[1:50:19] $32,064.
[1:50:21] It authorized the use of reserve funds in the amount of $2 million,
[1:50:25] $827,397,000, the fiscal year, $19,20 budget.
[1:50:31] In the amount of $2,420,667, the balance of the fiscal year,
[1:50:37] or 2021 budget, but with the following changes.
[1:50:41] Number one, we eliminate the funding for the sponsorship
[1:50:44] of the Palm Springs International Film Festival,
[1:50:47] which should net us $50,000 in the plus.
[1:50:52] That number two, we move funding in the amount of $25,000
[1:50:54] from the Greater Coachella Valley Chamber of Commerce
[1:50:58] contract to fund CVEP.
[1:51:00] Number three, that we bring back a plan to council,
[1:51:04] including necessary funding to complete
[1:51:05] the comprehensive fee study and number four that we keep code enforcement coverage as close as possible
[1:51:11] to seven days a week and number five that we keep our fire personnel and do so by drawing
[1:51:20] down on reserves and the amount approximately $554,600 in two dollars. Number six that we
[1:51:31] Restore funding for select police personnel, first of all, make no
[1:51:36] no sworn cuts in police personnel, but that we restore funding for
[1:51:44] the non-sworn personnel, so that we restore funding for the evidence
[1:51:48] technician position, the crime analyst position, and the records
[1:51:52] clerk position, and do so by drawing down on reserves,
[1:51:57] amount, approximately $224,887, that the Council take a 10% reduction in Council salaries for
[1:52:10] this upcoming fiscal year, which should net us a gain of about $6,500.
[1:52:17] And for the fire department that we affirm that fire staffing while an ideal goal is
[1:52:24] 14, the overtime floor will be changed so that we will have a floor of 12.
[1:52:31] That's my motion.
[1:52:32] A second.
[1:52:33] So we have a motion and we have a second.
[1:52:36] Under discussion, do we have any clarification or questions on the motion?
[1:52:40] Seeing none.
[1:52:41] Maybe we have a roll call, though, please.
[1:52:42] Council member Lam.
[1:52:44] Yes.
[1:52:45] Council member Guzietta's.
[1:52:46] Yes.
[1:52:47] Council member Carnivali.
[1:52:48] Yes.
[1:52:49] Mayor Pro Tem Gregory.
[1:52:50] Yes.
[1:52:51] Mayor Aguilar.
[1:52:52] Yes.
[1:52:52] Thank you everybody for your vote and for your hard work and deliberations on this very, very important topic.
[1:53:06] It doesn't feel real good actually to have completed this whole process because it involves, as we pointed out earlier,
[1:53:17] changes to folks' lives, but we will do all we can for those who are affected to help them with the
[1:53:25] appropriate resources that we have access to.
[1:53:30] And we look forward to coming out of the other end of this and re-evaluating our position
[1:53:35] in a few months and to continue with our highest priority, which is the maintenance of customer
[1:53:43] service at our highest level possible. So having said that, thank you again, stay safe, stay
[1:53:50] home, be well and we will see everybody Wednesday afternoon.