[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.]

[0:12] To the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[0:25] Under the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state, under God, one indivisible.
[0:42] All right, so we will now move to agenda item number two to receive public comment.
[0:46] to be having any comment at this time.
[0:49] Please state your name for the record.
[0:58] Chris, film more president,
[0:59] and sci-fi professional firefight association.
[1:01] I'm actually wanted to take a brief moment again
[1:03] and congratulate Commissioner Gordon,
[1:05] new commissioner Martinez, congratulations on your appointment
[1:08] here.
[1:10] I got stated over and over again.
[1:12] Our association, the 230 members
[1:14] that I'm proud to represent.
[1:15] We stand ready to always work with all five commissioners.
[1:19] It takes us as a membership working
[1:22] with the commissioners as well as the command staff to all work together to continue to move
[1:26] this fire department forward, and that's what we've always done ready to do, always
[1:29] open the conversations.
[1:30] I also think it's important that we do take a moment to recognize Commissioner Layenberg as
[1:34] he's leaving in the intravenous impact, he's had over the last eight years, and what he's done
[1:39] for our fire department, leading us to where we are today, I don't think his service can
[1:42] go unrecognized or very proud of the service that he did have with us, so I wanted to take
[1:47] a quick moment to recognize that as well.
[1:49] Thank you.
[1:52] We have any other comments at this time?
[1:59] I'd like to make a motion.
[2:02] I'd like to make a motion to table the balance of the agenda
[2:05] with the exceptions of the gender items 19 and 22 to a date
[2:11] that is suitable, but as soon as practical.
[2:16] The purpose for this is to allow Commissioner Martinez the ability
[2:20] to look at the agenda and the board packet and feel comfortable with this
[2:24] decisions he's making?
[2:28] Second.
[2:29] Second.
[2:32] Okay.
[2:32] Now we'll vote.
[2:33] Or let's discuss.
[2:34] I'd like to discuss.
[2:37] I recognize that Commissioner Martinez has just been sworn in, but there is business to do this month.
[2:45] So when are we talking about having the next meeting?
[2:49] I'd like to propose a date of Tuesday, November 26th at 6 p.m.,
[2:57] available.
[2:59] So, I am not available for that meeting.
[3:01] Beable, Commissioner.
[3:02] Thank you.
[3:03] Thank you.
[3:03] Thank you.
[3:03] I'm available correct.
[3:08] I'm available.
[3:13] Not available that evening, but I am available on Monday.
[3:17] We can't do a meeting on Monday because of the notice period.
[3:26] Monday.
[3:29] My son is in civil air patrol and that's his meeting night.
[3:32] Monday work, Commissioner Pival, Commissioner Martinez, this Monday 6pm work.
[3:41] I have an event on Monday night as well, a paid fundraiser in it.
[3:46] What is a good day for you?
[3:49] I have my weekly prayer groupies on Mondays.
[3:54] I'm the leader of the meeting.
[3:56] One day.
[3:59] So you're not of it.
[4:04] Just for legal purposes, this can qualify as your November meeting.
[4:10] And you could meet early December if you wanted to do the rest of your business.
[4:14] The only thing you may have to unite babies pay bills or something like that, baby.
[4:36] Bills that are expected between meetings.
[4:38] So if anything comes in between now and when you have another one, we would ask that that be paid if it's not going to be next week.
[4:46] Could I add a amendment to your motion?
[4:52] I would include into this meeting items six through 18
[5:06] through 19 and 22 and the rest of them.
[5:11] We can table.
[5:13] Will you accept my motion?
[5:15] It's up to you.
[5:17] And is that to still have the balance of the meeting on Tuesday?
[5:21] Yeah.
[5:21] So I don't think I'm clear on tonight we have four informed commissioners.
[5:28] I'm telling you that I can't be at Tuesday's meeting, which means you would also have four informed commissioners.
[5:35] So we're going to push the balance of this agenda to another day.
[5:38] inconvenience, the command staff and all the people who made it tonight for what reason.
[5:44] We still have four informed commissioners at both meetings.
[5:48] Allow commissioner Martinez, time to review and process and digest these material.
[5:55] He can abstain from anything he doesn't feel that he can vote for tonight, that he doesn't feel
[6:01] informed enough to cast a vote for tonight. We still have four informed commissioners on either day
[6:08] And we're all here now, and the fire department has business that should proceed even though
[6:13] we've had elections and we're bringing on new commissioners.
[6:22] I'm in support of at least tabling some of this.
[6:25] I think there's some business that we can absolutely get done the bills for instance
[6:28] are very important.
[6:29] The two items that the chief has specified most certainly, if there's comfort in your position
[6:38] on those, this is a lot of digest for a new person, so I understand that.
[6:42] some of this for that reason, I think we should honor and respect that to give him ample time
[6:49] to be able to come up, but I think there's a couple of other items on here that we can certainly.
[6:54] Plus there's new business that we need to attend to on Tuesday. We could also agree to table items
[7:01] until the December meeting if they don't have to be actionable tonight. We don't have to schedule
[7:07] another meeting next week to accomplish business tonight. We have other business that we
[7:12] that you'd like to add?
[7:15] The election of officers.
[7:17] Okay.
[7:17] But we can still conduct our business tonight without changing officer positions.
[7:24] I'm just trying to accomplish your business.
[7:26] The opportunity to review all the materials and be comfortable with them and make informed decisions.
[7:33] And he can do that.
[7:34] While we're going from items that, yes.
[7:36] And we can agree as a group of commissioners that if it's important enough, we can wait till December.
[7:42] We understand that item number 19 and number 22 have to happen tonight, but election officers
[7:50] does not have to happen today or on Tuesday for us to accomplish the business we're here to accomplish tonight.
[7:58] We can do that.
[7:59] If I may, and amendment to your motion is, let's go through the agenda.
[8:05] In whatever there's something that I don't feel comfortable, I would request the item to be table.
[8:11] Oh, we're abstained and the vote.
[8:14] And we think that's the reason.
[8:15] Dr. Regular Business on December.
[8:17] I'd be happy.
[8:18] Anything you feel uncomfortable with?
[8:19] I think we could all agree.
[8:20] We can do elections in December.
[8:23] And we can hold elections in December.
[8:25] And still finish our business tonight and get this meeting done.
[8:33] If any thoughts?
[8:37] Commissioner Martinez, you know, is feeling comfortable with?
[8:40] I don't have a problem with, but I want to make sure we've given them ample time.
[8:44] I'm also of the opinion that we probably should have election officers sooner, rather
[8:48] than later.
[8:49] We did all agree in a meeting that we had a couple of months ago that when we do have a change
[8:55] that we immediately open it up and that was probably more than a couple of months ago.
[8:59] Earlier this year, that we opened it up immediately to new officers just to make sure that
[9:03] we give it ample opportunity to the new commissioners if they so wish to run for an office
[9:07] so to be able to do so.
[9:09] So I think that's something that is part of what our should be our new policies if I'm not mistaken.
[9:15] So I'm inclined to lean towards doing it sooner rather than later instead of waiting until December.
[9:20] I don't think that's fair to the district and to the business to let that hold.
[9:24] Can you explain to me how it's not fair to the district, not to change officers?
[9:30] To leave something open and pending if something were to come up.
[9:33] Nothing's open every seat is filled.
[9:36] I understand, but it's also...
[9:38] Okay.
[9:40] Just one thing.
[9:42] If you guys change officers next Tuesday night,
[9:45] that requires different signatures on checks.
[9:50] And there is no way for me to accomplish that with thanks
[9:54] giving being on Thursday.
[9:56] So I'm just.
[9:57] What persons signatures are on checks?
[10:01] The President and the Treasurer.
[10:05] It's neories of signature in your signature, on payroll checks and on on payable checks.
[10:12] That's to do it in December.
[10:15] It's still timely.
[10:17] It's very timely.
[10:18] It's less than a month.
[10:20] That's a timely transition and we can still complete business today, which is what we are scheduled
[10:25] to do.
[10:26] What we've been elected to do.
[10:31] You was just elected.
[10:32] Correct.
[10:33] All of us.
[10:34] I'm just trying to excruciate him.
[10:36] We are going to accommodate him.
[10:38] We'll table, we won't table anything that he'd
[10:40] like for the December meeting.
[10:42] It doesn't require rearranging everyone's schedule
[10:46] to accomplish that very same goal.
[10:50] OK, and we're scheduled to meet on the 19th, correct?
[10:53] Haven't said a date.
[10:54] It's done.
[10:55] OK.
[10:56] Under the calendar rules, it's actually set for the 26.
[10:58] So you'll meet the right, right, right.
[11:00] And that's an intent to item.
[11:01] I didn't know if we had to officially move it.
[11:03] on this agenda for.
[11:09] No, it would. So, we're at the summer meeting date. Is that what we're doing?
[11:15] Yeah. Well, we're still on our motion.
[11:17] Right.
[11:18] But that's what you're discussing.
[11:19] We're going on to another motion to this one.
[11:21] Okay.
[11:22] Okay. So can somebody clarify the motion for me, please?
[11:25] This point.
[11:26] I don't know.
[11:27] So from what I understand the motion is to review the review the agenda and table any item that
[11:36] Mr. Martin, as it's not comfortable.
[11:38] How about I make it simple?
[11:39] I withdraw the motion.
[11:41] Perfect.
[11:44] Is that working?
[11:44] Yeah, you can do that.
[11:48] OK.
[11:49] Moving on to item number three to review the minutes
[11:52] of the prior meetings.
[11:53] Zoom, everyone had a chance to review.
[11:58] Any questions, comments, changes to be made?
[12:03] I'll move to approve the minutes.
[12:06] Second.
[12:07] All in favor?
[12:08] Aye.
[12:09] I'll show you what you would like to be
[12:11] shown as abstaining.
[12:12] I've seen.
[12:13] Yes, sir.
[12:17] Moving on to item number four, to receive a report from Ricardo Martinez of Martinez architects and to take action on district instruction matters, including the approval of any pay applications or change orders related to the district's construction projects.
[12:34] The chief is recommending that we table this kind of get a motion to table.
[12:38] So moved.
[12:40] All in favor?
[12:45] Motion passes by about a five to zero.
[12:53] Okay.
[12:53] Item number five to receive the district's financial report and take any necessary action on district investments and district financial reporting matters.
[13:07] Good evening commissioners, Mike Alvin, finance director.
[13:10] The financial statements for the district for the period ended 1031-24 were included in the board packet and I'll touch on a few key accounts starting with the balance sheet.
[13:20] for the period 1031 and 1031 total cash available was $162 million, included in that balance
[13:27] was approximately $128 million of funds held in investment accounts.
[13:33] As of 1031 property tax receivable totaled $703,000 on the revenue side for the period
[13:40] into 1031 the property tax revenue for the month was $192.00, while year-to-date property
[13:46] tax revenue was 26.5 million, as of 12, 1031, 98.6 percent of property tax revenue budgeted
[13:54] for the 2024 has been collected.
[13:59] Sales tax revenue for the month of October was $4.9 million, a 6 percent decrease compared
[14:04] to the budgeted amount of 5.2 million, while year-to-date sales tax revenue was 51 million,
[14:11] a 1% increase compared to the budget of the amount of 51 million.
[14:16] EMS revenue for the month of October was a 170, I'm sorry, 1.7 million, an increase
[14:21] of 95% over budgeted EMS collections of 850,000 while year-to-date EMS collections were 9.4 million
[14:31] and increase of 10% compared to the budget.
[14:34] Included, what's that?
[14:36] Yes, yes, included in the October EMS revenue was a one-time payment or receipt of charity
[14:45] care program funds of 687,193 dollars. That's an annual Texas.
[14:55] Cherry's carries federal funds,
[14:59] those of the federal funds.
[15:03] Interest income for the month ended 1031 was 528,000, which is 3% above the budgeted amount of 515,000.
[15:12] While year-to-date interest income of 5.5 million was 1% above the budgeted amount.
[15:18] Overall, for the 10-month period ended 1031-24, total operational expenses amounted to 65.1 million, which is 898,000, or 1% below the budgeted amount of 66 million.
[15:34] Questions about that? Is that what you were expecting for the charity care?
[15:42] It was sold to us as a much greater amount, right?
[15:50] Significantly more. I think it was to begin at 5 million with the federal feds taking a haircut at like 50% and then it was 60 then it was 70 and the haircut just kind of got to mine.
[16:03] So that's what it's, there's a total pool of money that's available for all of Texas.
[16:09] And so
[16:12] the charity care program is, it is a, so this is for our fiscal year 2023.
[16:20] And so it's a, it's a look back, but essentially what it's for is anybody who's at 450% of the poverty line or below.
[16:29] Then, did you take our system, doesn't evaluation on the propensity to pay, and then no bills
[16:35] that run, and then takes that total dollar amount, pushes it up to the feds.
[16:40] There's a lot of paperwork involved in it, and then they issue the state, a set amount
[16:46] of money, it's then dived up by volume to all the agencies that participate, but you have
[16:51] to be a local government city municipality, something like that.
[16:55] So, is our participation optional?
[16:58] It is optional.
[17:01] Yes,
[17:04] ma'am.
[17:04] I mean, so far that was, it wasn't as painful as we thought it was going to be.
[17:11] It's the audit that obviously get painful, but we'll see when those days come.
[17:17] But again, it's a lot less than the two and a half million we were expecting.
[17:22] A lot less.
[17:25] That was what? Six hundred.
[17:28] Six hundred and eighty seven thousand.
[17:59] I'm going to abstain from that because involves federal funds.
[18:04] Thank you very much for your report.
[18:06] Can I get a motion on the floor to approve the financial report as presented?
[18:12] So I'm moved.
[18:13] Thank you.
[18:14] All in favour?
[18:15] Aye.
[18:24] Now we move on to item number six to pay the district's bills, including approval of commission
[18:28] and expense reimbursements, is everyone at a chance to look at these outside of Commissioner Martinez.
[18:36] Any questions or comments on the bills?
[18:42] You said you have one?
[18:43] There you have one.
[18:45] There we go.
[18:46] Since there's no questions, can I get a motion on the floor to pay the district's bills as presented?
[18:52] All in favor?
[18:55] Upstate.
[19:01] Moving on to item number 7 to review discuss and take action regarding amendments to the district's budget.
[19:05] We have nothing there, moving on. To review, discuss and take action regarding the use of a consent agenda for future meetings.
[19:16] I'd recommend that this one get table. Do you have to ask that we develop a consent agenda and you're going to discuss which items you want to consent?
[19:22] I think given that Commissioner Martinez is pressed to the agenda, we should probably hold off on this one.
[19:28] We can explain to Commissioner Martinez what a consent agenda is.
[19:32] how it works. I think he's aware of it. Oh, so are you familiar with the consent agenda or no?
[19:40] Who's explained? Okay, so we absolutely. So a consent agenda would be items on the agenda that are
[19:45] routine that there's not things that the commissioners would normally have to discussion on for example
[19:51] minutes or perhaps bills or other items that are simply routine. And then if there's an item
[19:57] that the commissioners want to discuss that's normally on the consent agenda, you would motion to pull it off
[20:02] consent agenda, and then you could always take action on that.
[20:05] It would allow for your meeting on the ones that you know we're going to be consent to move a little more quickly through those items.
[20:12] Basically, it takes some of the perfunctory things and bundles them up, and we approve them all at once.
[20:20] That's the fucking out developing one.
[20:22] I can see what this would do when we do take this up.
[20:25] You guys think it's all think about which items you want on the consent, and then which ones you don't go through it that way.
[20:32] moved to table this week.
[20:36] On favour?
[20:38] Aye.
[20:39] I should pass the slide vote.
[20:41] Five to zero.
[20:43] Moving on to item number nine to receive an
[20:45] Operations report from the Cipher Fire Department.
[20:48] In your packet, we have just the notation that there were no
[20:51] incentive awards for the month.
[20:52] Now we've got our commendations for the month for our
[20:55] members that people felt especially moved to send things
[21:00] And on your packet on page 91, we have a letter that we received from Kenneth Lee.
[21:06] I was a retired captain from Cali Met City Fire Department in Illinois.
[21:11] Thanking our crews for the work that they did.
[21:15] You can read that one, but this is recognizing Aaron Sloper and Jacob Howard.
[21:20] And then we've attached the letter and a photo of the reunion with the patient who survived because of their actions.
[21:28] We would also like to commend Jeff Wallace.
[21:34] He, we received another contact from the community,
[21:39] Caitlin Garner, to recognize Jeff Wallace's information,
[21:45] and then Nate Blue, sorry.
[21:48] They wanted to stop by the station.
[21:51] Their child wanted to see the far trucks and the ambulances,
[21:54] and Lieutenant Wallace and Nate Blue took the time
[21:57] to show the children the trucks and ambulances when it was not a normally scheduled PR that
[22:02] they want to above and beyond to do that and she wanted to make sure that they were
[22:06] recognized for doing that.
[22:11] The next commendation is for Caleb Jordan and Tracy McCabe turned to my seven-year
[22:16] trail.
[22:18] Medic six responded to a high-utilized patient that has special protocols in place and
[22:22] attempted to deter frequent 911 use with seven calls since October.
[22:27] or the call notes, state of the patient had GI tract issues.
[22:32] This crew did not delay an urgent assessment.
[22:34] On the arrival, took the concerns seriously.
[22:36] Instead of just taking for granted that this was a frequent caller,
[22:41] recognized that the patient was having a heart attack,
[22:44] and then transported the patient to the hospital
[22:48] that the patient requested, instead of the one
[22:50] that we have in our protocols, to transport them to.
[22:53] So just, they were only on scene for 13 minutes,
[22:55] So recognizing the fact that the patient was having a stemming and the attention to details
[23:01] is highly noted for Caleb Jordan and Tracy McCabe.
[23:05] Next one is for Ephrenganzolis and Kendra Bryant.
[23:08] You may remember, we recognize Kendra Bryant last month as she's one of the permanex that
[23:13] has decided to stay home to spend more time with her children.
[23:18] But on the second recognition in two months, but this was from our law enforcement partners,
[23:23] which is extremely rare.
[23:26] We received a phone call from a deputy in reference to medic eight.
[23:30] They were dispatched to assist the sheriff's department with a site call.
[23:33] The deputy stated that prior to EMS arrival, the female site patient was uncooperative and non-compliant with family members and deputies.
[23:40] Upon arrival, EMS crew in particular, Kendra Bryant, was able to establish rapport with the patient,
[23:45] diffuse the situation and get the patient to agree to transport.
[23:49] So, the deputy wanted to recognize that that level of care,
[23:52] the concern and the professionalism of the crew demonstrated when not all, you know, sight patients
[23:58] are treated with that respect and dignity.
[24:01] So, he took the time to call and that does not happen often.
[24:05] Our next one is Lydia Garza, Emilio Garcia and Brian Waller.
[24:11] This was received from a set-track employee, so also outside of our organization.
[24:15] They were writing to express their gratitude for exemplary service, provided by our team
[24:20] response to a family emergency at a separate employee's residence, his sister had suffered
[24:27] a seizure, prompting his mother to dial 911 and one, Medix who arrived on seeing
[24:31] not only highly professional, but also demonstrated exceptional compassion and dedication
[24:34] to their duties.
[24:37] So extreme recognition for the female medic who took exceptional care of the employee's sister.
[24:46] And then we have a recognition of a commendation from an MS supervisor to an engine crew
[24:54] as suppression crews in the employee named Kyle Steadman.
[24:57] Medican engine three are unseated at junior high school.
[25:00] Patient is 11 year old male with oppositional defiant disorder and autism.
[25:06] The school staff and Cipher ICPD were unable to calm the patient down,
[25:09] therefore he was eventually handcuffed.
[25:11] Once he was handcuffed, Captain Sedron was able to obtain a rapport with a patient and help keep him calm.
[25:17] Once all person know were outside and deciding on transport details, Captain Sedron had been in the back of the ambulance with a patient.
[25:23] He wrote in with a patient, which is something also that is not very common for us to help in.
[25:29] But because he was having an influence on the patient, it made a difference.
[25:33] So we just wanted to recognize Captain Sedmond for really setting an example by writing in on the medic unit when his position is truly on a fire truck.
[25:46] Next, we'd like to recognize Captain Paul Riley, who's in the MS training department.
[25:52] We've included his article that he co-wrote that was published in Jim's magazine called this death of scope evolution to execution and I included the article there for you all to read.
[26:02] So, extremely happy when our members get to be published and gems is a highly recognized
[26:08] EMS magazine.
[26:10] So, very, very pleased to do that.
[26:13] So, I have.
[26:15] Congratulations to all.
[26:22] So, quickly, the only thing I have is that we have released the ten new paramedics there now
[26:28] doing their field training.
[26:30] And one of our field paramedics are very first cardiac arrest ever.
[26:35] She got pulses back and the patients still alive so that was really cool her literally her first ever
[26:42] So that was cool and then the other thing is Captain Casey Sturgis again from the MS training division
[26:47] She will be presenting at Texas the MS conference this week and so everybody was heard luck and now we've done lots of work on her presentation
[26:58] It was brilliant the first time we read it, but we've really dialed it in and so I know she's gonna make us proud
[27:08] The generator communications that we've been working on, the Cummins Part arrived and it's been installed, the generator works and everything.
[27:17] We're going to do the tie-in date is set for December 3rd, so that's where we have to turn power off to the communications center, rely on the UPS, and then do some other things for them to get this tie-in.
[27:30] So that's a critical date, and just as a heads up, we're working on a replacement of the
[27:37] older generator that's at communications, so sometime here soon you should be seeing something
[27:44] on that too. The 11 month warranty walkthrough was done at New Station 1. There's a report in
[27:51] and Ricardo's paperwork. The trees were trimmed here at 10, 7, 10 if you haven't noticed.
[27:56] We put new carpet was installed at Station 11 and floor padding was put in for the work out area.
[28:03] We launched a new work order page on the member site to try to make it a little bit easier for the members to get to the right group when they want to report an issue.
[28:15] So we'll see how that works.
[28:18] The facility maintenance group is finally up to full staff.
[28:21] We have a new employee named Matthew Soto that started in the facility maintenance group.
[28:26] The annual Bay Door Maintenance has been completed.
[28:29] In the warehouse, there's some new messaging gates that were put in.
[28:32] They're not operation yet.
[28:34] They should be next week, but it's all part of the warehouse improvements and security stuff
[28:38] that was put in with City Gate, which is still a little bit of our ongoing process, but
[28:43] should be done this year.
[28:47] through a motor vehicle accident, car hit the pole in front of Station 6, the electrical service for the whole station was damaged.
[28:57] So the station went off power, but the generator fired up so it stayed on power.
[29:03] But we had to replace the whole underground service to the whole fire station.
[29:09] So now it was a $10,000 roughly $10,000 expense.
[29:14] That was submitted to insurance.
[29:16] Insurance will look at subligating that out to the driver.
[29:22] And I think that's it.
[29:26] Yep, that's going to be his closing statement every time.
[29:29] So get used to it.
[29:32] Just a question.
[29:35] We're, if somebody hit a pole, the underground lines you said,
[29:38] were had to be replaced.
[29:41] So the poll in our response civility start
[29:45] and the utility company end.
[29:49] Obviously at the poll.
[29:50] So where it comes off, where it's tied in.
[29:53] So the electrical comes in, it comes off the poll
[29:57] into a conduit, and that's the point.
[29:59] Thank you.
[30:00] Conduct runs down, underground, and then it goes to that meter.
[30:05] So it's not at the meter.
[30:07] On at the meter. So the electric company came out and they seen that the underground was damaged.
[30:14] So they cut it and said, y'all got to get electricity and get this fixed, a child's problem.
[30:24] Yeah, I think utilities differ on that, like a gas company, is that your meter?
[30:30] Yeah.
[30:32] Is that it?
[30:34] Is that it?
[30:36] Okay.
[30:37] All right.
[30:37] Thank you.
[30:39] That's it again.
[30:46] A couple of things from the suppression side.
[30:48] We've finally finished all the promotional processes for the upcoming year.
[30:55] We've certified the driver operator in the lieutenant's list.
[30:59] The captain's list should be certified and put out tomorrow.
[31:04] The volunteer fire training academy is still ongoing.
[31:08] We're at five members now.
[31:10] We lost one.
[31:10] I believe I told you all that last month, but one left for personal reasons.
[31:15] So we're down to five members in it, and we have 16 full-time firefighters starting December
[31:22] the second.
[31:28] Do you have anything?
[31:29] She's pleased.
[31:31] All right.
[31:31] I request to go last for the administrative vision.
[31:34] You might have noticed some toy boxes out for the toy drive.
[31:39] We did in the year benefit renewal for HR, looking at different changes of 457 plans.
[31:46] Obviously, we've worked through promotions.
[31:48] And you know, one of the city gates thing was looking for single point of failures.
[31:52] And so through this whole promotional process, our new HR, our new team,
[31:55] and the training chief of our suppression have helped.
[31:59] And the last captain's test, they did probably 90% of the work.
[32:02] So I was able to, you know, through the, through the driver lieutenant and captain passed on some of that stuff, so we'd have some more people training those. So that was good.
[32:12] We've updated the city gate plan at the request to Commissioner Piva. We've put some pictures in there.
[32:18] You guys shall have a copy of those. We've got it at our front desk if the community wants it as was requested.
[32:26] Another single point of failure will talk about when I get to the city gate report is our
[32:31] new GIS person and some great work that the staff has done to help us out.
[32:37] Commissioner Sturtsl, Mike and myself, two interviews this week for the ERP system, which
[32:42] is another budget agenda.
[32:45] Mark Sostman, IT director myself, will attend next December, the first week in December
[32:50] of that chief's technology conference in Oklahoma City.
[32:54] And last but certainly not least, I want to go last today,
[32:57] because last meeting there was a request to play a video,
[33:00] and I think we've got that video tuned up.
[33:03] So, a lot of one here.
[33:03] Please, please, play.
[33:06] But we'll send a city and host, Dr. Oweith.
[33:09] Oh, we didn't pay for the non-commercials, sorry.
[33:13] Partmen home for her and Bella,
[33:15] and a quick stress-free morning commute,
[33:17] that lets him chase his career and his chase buds.
[33:20] Find everything you chase at WestcheeseDistrict.com.
[33:24] Mr. Ronnie is joining me in studio to tell me more about it.
[33:28] We have one of these at once a month.
[33:30] I didn't realize that we were coming up on another one so fast.
[33:32] What's this month's topic?
[33:34] This one was like an absolute bucket list for me personally.
[33:36] I got to go to the Houston Air Show and fly with the blue angels,
[33:40] the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the UK fighter jet.
[33:43] Did you pass out?
[33:44] I did.
[33:45] I did.
[33:46] Yes, yes, very common and so like for me this shows about science and this is like the
[33:51] Ass the most ultimate like poster for science right a fighter jet engineering physics a pilot with a background in STEM
[33:58] And getting to showcase that was really awesome and speaking of passing out
[34:02] I'm gonna have you remember the term glock and I might quiz you on it afterwards. Oh, I'll pay attention. Let's check it out
[34:18] Now you're probably wondering how did I end up here? Well, let's rewind and start at the beginning
[34:48] piece in air show this year but we're taking it to another level. We're hanging out with
[34:51] the blue angels highlighting a hometown hero Amy who's the fire chief of the side fair fire
[34:56] department and I'm going to get to ride along with these guys so let's have an amazing time.
[35:07] To start our day off we're going to get briefed and learn about what we have to look forward to
[35:12] by Tamar Perez and Amber Southern Crew Chief. We have some photos in front of you
[35:17] and so we can kind of go over them as we see them but first things first today you're going to
[35:24] Connor O'Donnell has he has a lot of flight hours. He is my favorite person fly with a fly
[35:28] with him pretty often and he is extremely good at what he does. We see all of this blue or
[35:34] blue, black and yellow stuff, right? There is no attached to the blue of the drones. Do not pull,
[35:39] do not press, do not touch with the exception of one thing and I'll go over that in a second. This is
[35:43] your ICS and your box. This larger knob right here, so they kind of stacked, right? And then we'll
[35:48] individually. The larger knob is your hot and cold mic. This is essentially a very intense workout.
[35:58] So if you treated it as such and kind of use the tools that I'll give you here and a little bit
[36:01] you're breathing and you're squeezing techniques. If you're breathing technique it's called the Hickman
[36:04] over so it's the sound of an H and a K so it's the K out and H in so I'll do it a couple of times and then
[36:12] we'll do it together. The point of all this is to keep the blood and like the blood keeps the blood up
[36:18] And if you breathe too much, you can call size of ventilation.
[36:20] And if you breathe too slow, all of the G forces kind of going,
[36:25] kind of squeezing your lungs, it can end up looking like this.
[36:28] So you go, and then that's when the pastel happens.
[36:33] All right, so okay, move it, here we go.
[36:40] So.
[36:42] Splattering.
[37:11] That was so exciting.
[37:14] And you were about to do something that very few people get to do.
[37:16] How are you feeling?
[37:17] I'm so excited.
[37:20] Yeah.
[37:20] I'm nervous a little bit and I'm really extremely nervous.
[37:23] Yeah.
[37:24] Same.
[37:24] I'm right there with you.
[37:25] I just want to kind of back up and say congrats on winning your award fire chief of the year in Texas.
[37:30] Thank you.
[37:31] How did that come about?
[37:32] Was it a total surprise to you?
[37:34] It was a complete surprise to me.
[37:36] I was nominated by some person that went my department and I didn't know that.
[37:42] So the first time I saw that was when the ballot came out from the Varchage Association.
[37:45] and saw my name on it and was completely taken aback and we were you know talking
[37:50] off camera and you keep talking about the community and I think that's kind of
[37:53] what stands out. It's not about roles or titles or egos. It's about the
[37:57] community and so it's really nice to see that. Tell me a bit more about your
[38:00] fire department, how large it is. I mean stations you have a little more
[38:03] details there. We cover 160 force for a mile. We currently have 13 fire stations,
[38:08] we do fire and DMS. And in the next five to eight years, we'll add another, you know, eight
[38:15] stations to our department. You're involved with some courses at a local community college
[38:19] around fire science. Tell me about what fire science is, and if someone goes into that course
[38:23] work, what they would learn there. So at Longstar College, they have both parametric and
[38:29] associates degrees and fire suppression, associates degrees. And what it does is it gives you
[38:34] building construction and it tells you like the science of fire and and where it comes from so that you get the how and why behind the going into a burning building and you know being able to evaluate a structure before you go in to say you know like how much time
[38:50] do what I have before the group collapsed, that's kind of stuff.
[38:54] And then with Permanentism, it teaches you not just how to be a Permanentic, but it
[39:00] is going to give you like management skills.
[39:02] So, Permanentism prepares you to be a supervisor, those kinds of things.
[39:06] So, they recently started and associates the Bachelors Program at Lone Star to do emergency
[39:12] management.
[39:14] Education was never a priority.
[39:16] And in the last few years, you've seen more and more departments requiring a formal education, in order to promote, it's not just who needs the best paramedic or who's the best firefighter anymore.
[39:25] I think that's so cool, because my whole thing is it's like science everywhere around us, including fighting fires and preventing fires, and it's nice to see that in a organized fashion, and it's so cool that you're involved with that program there.
[39:38] Once again, congrats on winning your award, and then any final thoughts before you head on this amazing adventure?
[39:43] I'm just I'm so excited to do this, you know, it is such an honor. It's an honor for me. It's an honor for my department, and then, you know, it's an honor to meet you.
[39:51] Like, here's a huge personality, lots of followers. It's such exciting.
[39:55] Well, I'm going to be asking you for some advice because I'm flying you after. So, please, please take some notes and tell me how to do it.
[40:14] And then live out your dreams. Do something that makes you happy.
[40:18] make your life a commitment to your community and all that will come.
[40:36] Energy level is as high as when she left.
[40:40] So I think that votes well for me. I'm excited. It's encouraging.
[40:44] And we're going to chat with her and see how her experience was.
[40:47] Unbelievable. Absolutely. Once in a lifetime smooth sailing.
[40:53] It was beautiful. I mean, watching the water, how smooth it is.
[40:58] I mean, going through the clouds just absolutely amazing.
[41:03] Connor, do you just gave the ride of a lifetime to Amy?
[41:06] And I'm really looking forward to my ride.
[41:08] You're blue angel number seven.
[41:10] Tell me about what that means and what you're doing.
[41:12] I think that's it.
[41:13] The video goes for another ten or so minutes.
[41:15] You don't need to see her passing out.
[41:17] No, it does not show her passcode.
[41:20] That's, that's classified.
[41:27] But gross.
[41:28] You can be by Wingman any time.
[41:31] That's it.
[41:33] Great job, guys.
[41:35] Congratulations again, Chief.
[41:37] Probably your accomplishments.
[41:39] Good night.
[41:45] I wanted to say thank you for sharing all of the great things that are happening in the department.
[41:50] That's really good for us to hear.
[41:52] It is the reason I'm here to support the great work that happens every single day in the department.
[41:59] And in that video, I heard them talking about commitment to community and leading without caring about what your role, what your title and letting go of your ego, and I appreciate you modeling that for all of us, and I hope that every person in this room does that from all of the commissioners to everyone who's doing great work and to your whole command staff, your real model for us to aspire to. So thank you.
[42:26] Thank you very much.
[42:29] Talk about somebody else.
[42:31] Okay, do we have any questions or comments on the report?
[42:35] Can I get a motion on the floor to approve?
[42:37] Yeah, sure.
[42:42] You said that we're going to have 16 more firefighters
[42:46] Starting in the summer of the second.
[42:50] Is there a special ceremony?
[42:52] Are we going to be invited?
[42:54] Or how does it work?
[43:05] Typically,
[43:08] we try to pick a good time when we've hired several people, whether it be from
[43:15] the MS or from the suppression side, and we've also started including personal from
[43:21] the other departments as well, but we typically do a batch pinning, hopefully within three
[43:27] months or so after they join the department, they're able to bring their family, a family member
[43:33] are bad, John, I'm going to recognize everybody that's joined in that whatever the last time
[43:39] we had a bad spending. So we invite everybody. We also invite everybody that received a promotion
[43:45] during that time period as well. So it's a good opportunity for everybody to be recognized and
[43:50] that their families be a part of it. Like January, we've already talked about, we're trying to
[43:56] I'm like January some time.
[43:59] I appreciate that.
[44:01] If we can participate, that would be done great.
[44:07] Commissioner McKinnon has participated in the last few.
[44:12] And then speech, she normally just has a very good speech that she does.
[44:17] So it will be the same kind of thing.
[44:18] The commissioner has get invited.
[44:19] Let you know about it normally.
[44:20] The board meeting ahead of time.
[44:22] But as soon as we have a date, we can do it because I need travel.
[44:26] is a touching ceremony. So if you can't attend, please do.
[44:31] I will be happy to. If I'm not requested to make a speech, it'd be better.
[44:36] I'll continue it. No worries.
[44:41] No other questions.
[44:43] Commendations.
[44:45] So we have a bunch of guys that did a stand-in job.
[44:48] And what we're doing with the board is approving their recognition.
[44:56] So it's commendation, but how does it work for them? How does it have to do?
[45:00] So those go into their personnel file and any time anything is considered because they don't have raises per review, but they, their supervisors and upper, upper, upper echelon review the personnel as far as different things for different departments. For example, any MS, you know, they look at, you know, outcomes and things like that through QA, QI, and so those are in their personnel file for taking into consideration.
[45:29] if ever it need be.
[45:33] And then that's true. So we also, we have annual awards where people get
[45:38] recommended for EMS of the Year, that kind of thing. We also, at least one month, they've
[45:45] not two months at the Chamber of Commerce, they allow us to recognize a person from the department,
[45:52] whether it be EMS or suppression to recognize in front of the Chamber for something that has happened
[45:58] the previous year for good things. And when we don't necessarily know something that happened
[46:03] out in the field, those commendations also factor in for us for picking those awards.
[46:11] You know,
[46:13] there being no further questions. Can I get a motion on the floor to
[46:17] approve the report as presented? The move.
[46:22] Thank you. All in favour?
[46:25] Motion passes by a vote of 5 to 0. Great questions.
[46:29] Commissioner. Great questions. We'll take up item number 10 to receive an update regarding the board of commissioners policies and procedures manual. I believe this is probably something we would table.
[46:42] Can I get a motion to table?
[46:46] All in favor? All right. Motion passes by about 5 to 0.
[46:56] What's going on?
[47:00] Okay, so this is for item number 11.
[47:02] All right, yes.
[47:03] Item number 11 is to receive an update from the Department regarding the
[47:06] Cypher implementation plan.
[47:10] All right.
[47:10] She's clearly saying I got to work on this together.
[47:14] So we're trying to put together most of the chief's
[47:16] Police.
[47:16] We kind of talked about having a way to show progress in the city
[47:20] Get report.
[47:21] And so chief's police worked on kind of put it
[47:23] Template together to show exactly how many items were
[47:27] to complete how many are ongoing, how many are not started
[47:30] at the name of progress.
[47:31] And we're here to solicit some feedback
[47:34] because for instance, the Amelts issue, right?
[47:39] We've added the two peak amelts,
[47:40] so essentially that's done, but the second part
[47:42] of the recommendation is continue to monitor.
[47:45] So we're just trying to work out what language we need to use
[47:47] for those items that have been completed,
[47:50] but are all going to be continuously monitored
[47:51] through the future, right?
[47:53] To give an accurate representation of actual work created.
[47:56] The other kind of caveat to this is the additional fire stations, right?
[48:01] We don't want those to be handed, you know, there's a lot of variables that are involved with that.
[48:06] So to look at the complete work, that although is a recommendation, it's probably not one that's going to be incomplete for a while.
[48:13] So those are just two concerns and the other thing would say the ERP system.
[48:17] What we're going to try to do is break out something like the ERP system and then make a Gantt chart.
[48:21] So we're at this ERP consultancy selection phase.
[48:26] The next phase is going to be this many months and this many months.
[48:29] So on key projects like that, go through identify those key projects
[48:33] and put some timelines together for those bigger projects.
[48:36] That's kind of what we're thinking on that.
[48:40] So I don't know if there's any feedback on that capture everything, Chiefs, please?
[48:43] I think so.
[48:45] Like Chief Women said, we're really just looking for what do y'all want to see?
[48:49] out of some sort of progress report,
[48:51] some way for us to report to y'all
[48:53] on a monthly basis of where we stand
[48:56] with the implementation plan.
[49:01] It can get kind of lengthy.
[49:02] When you start breaking out all the findings
[49:04] and all the recommendations,
[49:06] we can break it up about projects,
[49:08] we can break it up by the status of each recommendation,
[49:15] it's several ways to look at it,
[49:17] but this is just a few of the things that we were thinking,
[49:21] I think this is the only page.
[49:23] Yeah, the other piece has a lot of our own notes
[49:26] about which project is where, and so on and so forth.
[49:30] The bottom bar graph there, it's everything
[49:34] that was completed, and then you see all the findings
[49:38] that it's referring to underneath it.
[49:41] On the next pages, it kind of breaks out
[49:44] what each finding where it falls and it doesn't
[49:49] We have to be by days, we can just break it out by, these are all the findings that are completed.
[49:55] These are all the findings that are in progress.
[49:57] These are all the findings that we haven't started yet.
[50:02] Some different ideas for y'all to just kick around and let us know how y'all want to
[50:07] most of that they tell on that monthly.
[50:10] The Commission Martin, as I know, you're new to the commission.
[50:15] That plan is the review that we discussed this afternoon.
[50:18] And this is our response, Commissioner Sturtsle, myself, Chief Police, a bunch of us worked
[50:23] on.
[50:23] This is how the department plans are implementing the recommendations made by the
[50:27] company.
[50:33] So, the chart at the bottom here is pretty busy.
[50:37] There's a lot going on there.
[50:38] I'm struggling to understand it,
[50:46] like, not muskills are very limited.
[50:49] What needs to happen, there's the finding numbers need to probably be lined up more.
[50:55] They need to be lined up more with each bar.
[51:01] But really, in truly, there's really not that many that have been completed.
[51:05] A lot of them are ongoing and monitoring.
[51:09] And then that could be another category that we could add.
[51:12] I think you'd close up saying that it was the medication, you know,
[51:17] utilization hours for the medic unit.
[51:21] They recommended that we watch the hour, the usage.
[51:23] We added two medications. It kind of fixed the problem a little bit, but it's something that we need to continue monitoring as time goes on as population increases and call volume increases.
[51:33] So that's going to be something we're just never going to stop. It's always going to be an ongoing thing that we need to monitor.
[51:40] Essentially, how would you like to see the data, is it just on, is there another category
[51:46] we could add?
[51:46] I think that for me the most impactful is the pie chart for trackings, and is there another
[51:53] status you'd like to see, yes ma'am?
[51:55] So I'm looking at the phases at the back of the book, and we talked about what would occur inside
[52:01] each A's, which I guess represents between a year or two years, right?
[52:07] Some phases are two years, and others are a single year.
[52:11] And I think when we did not, the initial phases were every two, and then because of their inability
[52:17] predicts out to the future, we kind of gave some leeway to what that implementation actually
[52:22] looks like.
[52:23] Because I've looking at just the recommendations in this way, I don't really see the work
[52:29] represented, but I do see it represented in the phases. So I'm wondering if there would be a report on how we're advancing each phase rather than maybe each finding.
[52:42] Okay. Okay. Or even by year, these are signed for 2025. This is where we're offered year and this maybe this is how we are for the project.
[52:49] You may have some findings that aren't in phase one aren't in phase two, so you wouldn't need reporting on those, right?
[52:56] and it just clotters that line to Commissioner Circle's point.
[52:59] There's a lot of data there, but it may not be things that we need to know about inside
[53:03] a particular phase.
[53:05] So I don't know if these are finalized or if we still have some work here or-
[53:10] The dashboard was just kind of a way.
[53:14] Obviously, we want to make sure we hit every mark.
[53:16] And so this is just a tracking way to display the data.
[53:19] So you guys can see the progress.
[53:21] That's a word of laughter.
[53:22] Are you using a project management type of software application or now okay, I think we could
[53:30] All right
[53:31] Yeah, because I think and like to Commissioner Gordon's credit on this is setting it into a simple p-m-ing
[53:39] type with you know
[53:41] What do you call it the
[53:43] milestones
[53:44] Objectives and goals and then set them into phases. I think for us
[53:48] We don't need to always need to see the big big picture at this point
[53:52] We can, if it's necessary, and I think probably an annual review would be good, but I think from a monthly standpoint that would be a little too cumbersome for you and everyone else.
[54:01] We could look at it from a phase and phase completion standpoint.
[54:04] I'll look at some research in this PM software that's.
[54:13] I'm still still fixated on the bottom here.
[54:16] I just want to understand.
[54:21] So on the axis, on the left there, you have, I think that represents days, right, zero to 400, right?
[54:29] So if I see something, you know, there's a little blue one there that says 84 has 84 above it.
[54:36] Does that represent something that is complete or you're in day 84?
[54:41] It's completed after 84 days.
[54:43] So these represent completed at the bottom.
[54:46] And a lot of all the zeros were just really statements of facts.
[54:50] And since this has been made, we've pulled the statement of facts out of the completed,
[54:55] it made it less, less jumbled, give you a lot less information.
[55:00] It cut the findings in half pretty much.
[55:02] When you remove all the zeros, which was really just a statement that city gate was making about the department.
[55:11] You know, they made a comment about the IT division as adequately staffed, okay, so that was completed.
[55:21] But we don't know that it will be marked as completed or just a statement.
[55:25] It's not like we did something new to accomplish that task.
[55:30] There was no action.
[55:32] Right.
[55:33] So we pulled it out since then.
[55:35] So it's not considered completed in a completed category anymore.
[55:43] But I was just notified by our excellent HR director that we've got some PM software we can use.
[55:49] Thank you, Danbury.
[55:51] And SuperMount.
[55:58] I mean, I like the top two.
[56:03] If we can maybe make the bottom one a little bit more readable and understandable.
[56:08] I don't know if there's an opportunity to provide data to support it.
[56:15] I think there is, I think this was just a, what does this dashboard look like?
[56:18] But I certainly think that we can provide the data in the report or a way so we can see it.
[56:25] There's so many colors going in there. I can't tell which one,
[56:29] these 350-day items, which findings they actually relate to.
[56:34] So maybe if it's just, you know, help us out with what the ones that are all zeroes.
[56:41] And then I'll clean that up and then we'll add the finding number to the actual bar.
[56:48] Third, lightest purple on that.
[56:52] All right.
[56:54] If we're done with that, I just, this is kind of just a GWIS or thank you.
[56:57] You know, one of the things that City Gate helped us understand are the single point
[57:01] and so Travis Template was a new GIS employee hired and what he's done is taken census data and you know even when city gate tried to come in and get census data for the district specific they had a lot of trouble doing it ended up using a lot of census data from the county in a lot of our demographics and so as we work for the GFOA budget award all that we need to have demographics in our budget so Travis went in he's looked at a number of different things
[57:31] things. I was going to run through for these. This is highest education. I was the color changes
[57:42] or intensity. And he went up to, I think it was 22 percent on this particular one. But let's
[57:48] go to just go over one.
[57:53] So this is one of the percent of population below poverty level. So
[57:57] you can graphically see it. And I think that helps. The poverty level is 22 percent in the
[58:03] report 24 percent based on the census.
[58:07] So, as we get into some of these other ones, if you get, this one is a medium household
[58:13] income, past 12 months, you can see how the territory is broken down by different socioeconomic
[58:23] statuses.
[58:25] Good.
[58:25] And this is population by race.
[58:29] And so, in this particular one, the majority, the 51 percent, or the highest, excuse
[58:34] raise per census tract is represented and then there's higher intensity based on the highest numbers.
[58:41] So just a little bit of extra stuff that we were able to glean from a city gate report.
[58:47] So I think we probably are trying to do a lot more of these type work so we can better understand the community we serve.
[58:56] That's just kind of for your information.
[58:58] Thank you.
[59:04] Questions?
[59:12] Okay.
[59:12] The city and the gate implementation plan is presented.
[59:19] Shall move.
[59:21] Second.
[59:22] All in favor.
[59:28] Motion passes by a boat of five to zero.
[59:31] Now we'll take a bite of number 12 to review.
[59:33] Discuss and take action for the sale.
[59:35] Or just those little surplus or salvage property,
[59:36] which we do not have moving on.
[59:39] I remember 13 to review and take action on the ratification of continuing
[59:43] contract with my burger, Goggen, Blair and Samson.
[59:48] What this is, and this is really items 13 through 16.
[59:51] This is something we do every year. This is to engage with the law firm that
[59:56] Harris County uses for collective delinquent taxes. This also imposes
[1:00:00] Those are the penalties for payers who taxpayer should pay after June 30th. And this is to collect the attorney's
[1:00:08] fees back, because the way this law firm works, they work on a contingency fee basis. And if we
[1:00:13] were reimbursed for those additional taxes that they take out for fee, we would lose the 20% that they
[1:00:18] take. So this imposes an additional penalty of the attorney's fees so that the taxpayer is a paying
[1:00:23] as well. So, this is something that we've done every year. The reason why we go with this law firm
[1:00:29] is because Harris County is of them and our tax would be too small for a law firm to be interested.
[1:00:35] So, when we go as a group with Harris County, there's a economy of scale there. Unless you have any questions,
[1:00:41] there's no cost to this for you because it's already recovered from the taxpayer at the time when the tax lawsuits are initiated.
[1:00:47] Do you have
[1:00:51] any questions?
[1:00:56] No.
[1:00:59] So would we just, would we approve?
[1:01:00] Excuse me.
[1:01:01] Thank you very much on the floor to approve agenda items 13 through 16.
[1:01:06] All in favor?
[1:01:07] Aye.
[1:01:09] Motion passes by a vote of 50.
[1:01:11] Now we'll take up item number 17 to review and act to approve covered applications and prohibited
[1:01:16] technology policy based upon model policy developed by the Texas Department of Information Resources.
[1:01:22] This one's also mine.
[1:01:23] So the legislature in 2023 established a certain software that was going to be prohibited.
[1:01:32] Everyone's calls it always calls it the TikTok ban.
[1:01:34] There's actually other software that's included in that.
[1:01:37] And there's also hardware.
[1:01:38] There's certain hardware that's made by Chinese companies and other companies that is prohibited
[1:01:42] technologies that are not allowed.
[1:01:44] I believe, and I'll let you for my own speech.
[1:01:46] I believe that the department's already implemented this previously in the policies and in the
[1:01:53] when the law first came out.
[1:01:55] Unfortunately, we were required to weigh until the Department of Information.
[1:01:59] The Department of Information Resources actually issued the model policy
[1:02:02] for us to adopt.
[1:02:04] So this is an embodiment of that policy,
[1:02:07] but just, you know, it's already been implemented by your department.
[1:02:09] Unless I mean Chief Adam will know for Speak Creole.
[1:02:12] This policy was based on the model policy,
[1:02:15] which has to be adopted technically by yesterday.
[1:02:18] Right.
[1:02:18] So it was adopted by the department yesterday.
[1:02:22] But we have had in place, Mark Sassman and his IT group have been working on a management
[1:02:29] system to remove band software from department issued phones and that kind of thing, but they
[1:02:35] have had in place for many years, firewalls and restricted access to the department's networks
[1:02:42] and things like that that were already in place even prior to this.
[1:02:45] So when IT reviewed this, they requested a few changes, but even said, we're already doing all these things.
[1:02:55] So.
[1:02:55] And just because they're also doing it on the public side, like the public Wi-Fi, like needs to also have to take that premium as well.
[1:03:01] So that's not that we need that as well.
[1:03:04] And the way this works is they issue each year a list of prohibited technologies and software.
[1:03:10] And it's on the DIR website for us to look at and implement it here.
[1:03:16] So it's a denim A to your policy and that way we did it as the denim so it can be changed whenever DIR decides they need to update it.
[1:03:25] Correct.
[1:03:25] They add new technology here.
[1:03:30] Have any questions?
[1:03:32] Can I get a motion on the floor to approve the covered applications of prohibited technology policy?
[1:03:36] That's presented.
[1:03:40] Can we get a second?
[1:03:45] I'll give it a second.
[1:03:46] All in favour?
[1:03:49] 2.
[1:03:50] 2.
[1:03:51] I'm an abstain.
[1:03:54] Question passes by about a 4-0 with Martinez abstaining.
[1:03:58] 3-0.
[1:04:00] 5-0.
[1:04:01] 5-0.
[1:04:01] And Martinez abstaining.
[1:04:04] Moving on to item number 18 to review, discuss and take action.
[1:04:07] I'm approval of expenses related to upcoming training classes, course materials, training, equipment, and related expenditures.
[1:04:13] Just like the commissioner's know, I registered all the commissioners for safety and then reserved rooms
[1:04:19] For all the commissioners, the room block was very full at the time, so they are two room
[1:04:28] Sweets for the commissioners. So there was no single rooms available
[1:04:34] Anyway, they're all reserved for safety. Yeah, literally it was I don't even know that it was an hour. Yeah
[1:04:42] Yeah, ridiculous.
[1:04:48] So are we sharing room? We all have one
[1:05:03] That is what we're doing and we're drawing out of the hat, so it's just two of you.
[1:05:07] And whoever it's doing, it's two lines up, that's how it's going to go.
[1:05:12] Can I get a motion to it for a week?
[1:05:15] So moved.
[1:05:19] Thank you.
[1:05:28] Yeah, go for it.
[1:05:31] So a question.
[1:05:33] You said it's a security conference?
[1:05:35] No.
[1:05:35] Safety, so in your stack that Chief Clements gave you earlier with the budget and your uniforms and stuff
[1:05:42] I included the last magazine that safe D put out, so safety is the state organization for emergency service districts and
[1:05:50] So I included in your stack of stuff that just to see their
[1:05:55] Little flyer thing and in it it talks about their conference and you said is it February. February. You have
[1:06:02] exact dates.
[1:06:22] Yes
[1:06:26] It starts Wednesday morning instead of Wednesday afternoon now,
[1:06:37] but got back at Calhary.
[1:06:50] I just took commissioners.
[1:06:51] And we had the required trade.
[1:06:57] We explained the training requirements also.
[1:07:02] Each commissioners required to have six hours of training every two years.
[1:07:06] And this is part of that.
[1:07:07] There's other training that you and I will discuss after the meeting.
[1:07:09] But this is the one that's required for the commissioners for every two years.
[1:07:13] And this is satisfied now.
[1:07:23] You'll get your sit down.
[1:07:25] For sure.
[1:07:27] It's not that I opposed to training.
[1:07:29] If there's more that we have to do, I'll be happy to.
[1:07:34] Prisma Martinez also.
[1:07:36] I just texted you the information on the conference.
[1:07:40] I'm going to motion on the floor to approve expenses related to the upcoming training.
[1:07:45] The move.
[1:07:47] On favor.
[1:07:48] Hi.
[1:07:49] Motion passes by about a five to zero.
[1:07:56] Moving on to item number 19.
[1:07:57] to review, discuss and take action regarding any emergency requests, capital requests and
[1:08:02] operational requests received from the department.
[1:08:05] The one thing that we do have, I apologize for the text being so small, it's just a lengthy
[1:08:09] lengthy, lengthy spreadsheet, but Commissioner Martinez is what we talked about a little bit earlier.
[1:08:14] Our annual EMS bid that we put out for our EMS consumables and some equipment.
[1:08:19] This is the bid for it.
[1:08:22] We're requesting that the complete bid be approved by the board, and then we will purchase
[1:08:27] from the lowest qualified bidder.
[1:08:31] If you look at the top, it has the different companies and the prices for each of the items.
[1:08:38] And then what will happen is if we need that item, then they go through and they look at what is the most cost effective and go with that vendor.
[1:08:46] I think that by what you explained earlier today, I have enough information to vote on it.
[1:08:52] Thank you.
[1:08:52] there's 13 vendors we send it out to nine returns and these are these are the
[1:08:58] compilations of it. Just like in our center for the minutes for the record the way you do
[1:09:04] this is you you sort of do all the best and you accept them and then you notify the winning
[1:09:08] better and for some reason in the future that better is unavailable do we go to the next
[1:09:12] one down in the list is that how that's structured yes if that product is not available
[1:09:18] or whatever reason then we go to the next lowest qualified better and then the next
[1:09:24] low as qualified bear and so on.
[1:09:29] The other thing that this is allowed us to do
[1:09:31] is that because even still since COVID,
[1:09:34] there are restrictions on allocations of products,
[1:09:38] for example, normal saline right now,
[1:09:41] based on what happened with the hurricane and backster.
[1:09:45] So it allows us to order from several different vendors
[1:09:48] so that when allocations occur,
[1:09:50] that we can then order from multiple vendors
[1:09:52] and get allocations from several vendors.
[1:09:54] If you're only ordering from one vendor when they start allocating numbers and you haven't ordered from someone else,
[1:10:01] they will not allocate any of that commodity to you because you haven't ordered from them previously.
[1:10:09] Now, prices do fluctuate since COVID, it's not totally guaranteed.
[1:10:16] We do lock in a lot of the pricing for a year, so we don't have those increases throughout the year by doing this as much.
[1:10:25] Any other questions or comments?
[1:10:30] Okay, can I get a motion on the floor to approve?
[1:10:33] As president?
[1:10:36] Second.
[1:10:37] All in favor?
[1:10:38] All right.
[1:10:39] I should pass this by about five to zero.
[1:10:42] Now we'll take a bite number 20 to review discuss and take action regarding matters related
[1:10:46] to a district enterprise resource planning system.
[1:10:52] Even Commissioner Sturitzel free.
[1:10:53] Feel free to jump in whenever you want this.
[1:10:58] So, Commissioner Stewart's myself, Mike Abend, the Fire Chief help us write the RFP for the
[1:11:05] consultancy to begin the search for the ERP system.
[1:11:08] So, this will be for everything from procurement all the way to inventory finances, financials
[1:11:15] and whatnot.
[1:11:16] So, we put together the ERP, we solicited bids, we'd have to reopen the bid because we didn't
[1:11:22] offender's respond.
[1:11:24] We did have the second vendor respond last week.
[1:11:27] Our evening earlier this week, we interviewed them,
[1:11:30] and we had the final scores here.
[1:11:32] And I'm willing to ask the board for approval
[1:11:36] for ERP advisor's group to be the consultant
[1:11:38] for the ERP system.
[1:11:40] And I'll, the commissioner, start, so take it for me.
[1:11:44] Yeah, so what we're looking for here
[1:11:48] approval to engage a consulting firm to assist us identify the best ERP system package for us.
[1:11:58] There's a lot of products out there. These guys are more familiar with them than we are than any one of us is.
[1:12:08] They're going to come in to a need assessment figure out what best fits us. There's a lot of solutions software solutions out there.
[1:12:17] But not all of them are geared for what we do.
[1:12:23] There's systems that are geared for manufacturing concerns,
[1:12:27] and we obviously don't make anything.
[1:12:29] We're essentially a service business.
[1:12:31] So we need a suite of modules and a system
[1:12:34] that will capture the needs of this department.
[1:12:39] We carefully evaluated these two two people who submitted bids.
[1:12:45] One is a for-profit enterprise, the other is a non-profit enterprise.
[1:12:53] There was, to me it was a pretty clear choice, the ERP advisors was just stronger.
[1:13:01] I think actually more engaged and more interested in our project.
[1:13:07] They've been really responsive.
[1:13:09] GFOA is a non-profit.
[1:13:12] They're bid was a little lower but they're going to give us less hours and when we look at the credentials of the people who would be working with us, they're just not as strong, frankly.
[1:13:25] So, ERP advisors has a really talented staff.
[1:13:32] There's one guy, for instance, I think his name was Zach.
[1:13:37] He's a CPA and he used to work in Ernst and Young for eight years, so he and I could certainly speak the same language.
[1:13:46] He could certainly speak the same language with Mr. Abund, but their whole team brings you know, a vast array of knowledge.
[1:13:58] So I don't know what more.
[1:14:00] I think to Commissioner Sterkel's point, their technical specialist spoke my language.
[1:14:08] They seem to reattune in the fire service, they knew the up and coming topics of the fire service.
[1:14:14] I think if they've got his base cover, they've got the fire service cover. I felt very good with this selection.
[1:14:21] Yeah, and they've done this for other fire departments, so we're not their first client.
[1:14:26] And one of the things I think is really good about this ERP advisory group is South Metro and the West outside of Denver.
[1:14:34] They grew and almost doubled in size at the same time.
[1:14:36] They were doing their ERP implementation for them.
[1:14:38] Now, I think that was mostly through consolidation.
[1:14:41] But nonetheless, growth is growth, right?
[1:14:43] So I do think that they've got the experience that we need for this project.
[1:14:48] If we engage them tonight, when did they say they would be in a position to start with the January?
[1:14:53] Yeah, well I discuss with Erica yesterday our intention to let the board we were
[1:15:00] I think they're eager to start and I think we could kick off an introductory call, you know, as soon as next week for the holiday of it, since we get back from the holiday.
[1:15:14] We have a lot of planning to do around the system. This is not, this is something we have to own. This is not something somebody does for us.
[1:15:25] it's going to be our system. We have to own it. There's going to be a group of us as a
[1:15:33] steering committee working to take ownership of each phase of it. It's going to touch
[1:15:39] on a lot of the operations of the department. It'll be fully integrated. It's going to
[1:15:46] encompass everything from payroll to, you know, I think, I think even in your, in your world,
[1:15:54] it's going to, it's going to touch on some things there. So procurement, quarter master, all those things.
[1:16:00] So it's going to be a big project, it's going to, but it has to be our project.
[1:16:06] You come as, how many people are on the team of this company? How many people are assigned to your project?
[1:16:11] I believe they had 35 total people, 28 or 35, so we have one person we work with directly,
[1:16:19] that's the young gentleman, and then they'll be a firefighter, a fire service person
[1:16:24] over him, and then there's a hierarchy of folks, so they've got 35 employees that we can use.
[1:16:32] So they do this for multiple types of businesses.
[1:16:34] That's correct.
[1:16:35] Yeah, and they just happen to have a kind of a niche with special district fire services.
[1:16:40] So most of it's been in the Denver metro area, which most of the fire departments there, except for the city, Denver, are special district, and they did put your valley authority, which is Fort Collins, a smaller department, but they've done south metro is a much bigger agency.
[1:16:55] How is their fee structure set up?
[1:16:57] So I think their bid was 3304...
[1:17:01] Yes, what I ended up looking at was the hourly rate, right, and they were 205 versus 275 for GFOA.
[1:17:08] And they did quote more hours, but it's not too exceed type ERP or excuse me or request.
[1:17:15] So there's was a little bit higher, but I think give us more.
[1:17:19] I think the quality is there.
[1:17:21] I think they're going to give us much more qualified staff.
[1:17:23] I think GFO has its purpose, and I think if we were a, you had public works, we had utilities,
[1:17:28] and all those other things.
[1:17:29] I mean, this phase would have, I think it could be a good use, but I just, for a work of
[1:17:34] course, probably not the right one.
[1:17:34] you said they work with Denver and I don't know Denver a lot to call it a law but I'm
[1:17:38] guessing it's something somewhere they they're familiar with the fact that we'll either
[1:17:41] need to bid or buy the software from some kind of a prove vendor site. We will discuss that
[1:17:46] with them I know they did discuss. Yeah it was in the bid but we'll also they did discuss the number of
[1:17:54] clients that they have relationships with that they can get discounts from but they're not in
[1:17:59] they're not networked with anyone. I was going to be my next question I mean we need to make sure
[1:18:02] if they have the independence that we need for that?
[1:18:03] Yeah, they both, both these, I think that's really why when we solicited the bid, we didn't get a lot of feedback because we were looking for specifically independent vendors.
[1:18:12] I think we got that.
[1:18:13] Thank you very much.
[1:18:13] By the sake of Commissioner Martinez and the public, can you explain why we need this?
[1:18:17] I think that this is kind of the next evolution of the organization.
[1:18:21] It's stepping up our game into the finance into the business process.
[1:18:25] You know, we've done what we could with what we had up until now.
[1:18:28] But it's time that we invest a serious amount of money to get a system that is operational for the whole department from, you know,
[1:18:35] soup to nuts. I mean, the whole place fully integrated system that you're being, you're familiar with your pieces.
[1:18:45] Question. So, what you're saying is that we're going to be like $300,000 for a firm to comment,
[1:18:51] tell us which one is the best system that we need to acquire?
[1:18:54] Yes, and no.
[1:18:55] That's going to be part of it, but the other piece of it will be a
[1:18:58] a business review, so they're going to look at all of our processes and
[1:19:01] a process analysis, fix any process, do a mapping of what the process would
[1:19:05] look like after its fixed, will come back to stakeholder groups, then
[1:19:10] they're going to shop, they're going to shop to software, bid, the software,
[1:19:16] then they're going to help with the implementation also.
[1:19:18] So it's full both sides until we've got the implementation of either going through
[1:19:23] implementation. I think when Chrysler Sturts last, essentially, what the ballpark cost was, they
[1:19:30] had up at 1.5 for the software that for the agency's size that we're looking for.
[1:19:34] That was going to be my next question. Now, the thing that what I know from previous experiences
[1:19:41] is that you buy a software for millions because this is a big, big system. Then what really
[1:19:48] Heels the deal is the costumersations.
[1:19:52] We start changing things, estimations, estimations.
[1:19:55] Yes, we definitely had that conversation.
[1:19:58] That is going to make it millions and millions.
[1:20:02] So I would just be cautious about it.
[1:20:04] Yeah, and we'd love to include you with your previous experience.
[1:20:07] We'd love to have you help out with the project.
[1:20:10] Yeah, we spoke at length with them about trying to minimize
[1:20:13] is customization to the fullest acceptable.
[1:20:17] That's where it does get expensive, and that's where maintenance
[1:20:21] of such a system becomes expensive, too, right?
[1:20:24] Every time they push out a new update,
[1:20:27] you have to work through the update with to all your
[1:20:30] customizations, right?
[1:20:32] So, yeah, you want to try and minimize customization
[1:20:35] to the fullest extent possible.
[1:20:36] And I think to not add any surprise when it comes,
[1:20:40] Certainly when the system is implemented, it may take an FTE, it may take someone running that software to make sure that we are up and going in the future.
[1:20:49] So, even if it tells us, a human resource behind it, on going basis.
[1:20:55] And this is obviously a firm that has the most experience in assisting fire departments and such.
[1:21:01] Because they are helping us map out process, whatever.
[1:21:04] that, and that's a head of going out to bid, that's going to assist a bid much, much more.
[1:21:10] Yeah, I think they're going to pay a more very clear picture of what we need, and they discussed
[1:21:15] a full gamut of experience that they have working with fire-serve, fire districts,
[1:21:19] and I'm not worried about it at all. And you're saying our foreign contact is a former EY guy.
[1:21:23] Yes, that's it. Okay, that gives me some comfort as well, too.
[1:21:26] Yeah, I just been excellent, and when we did get the bid back initially,
[1:21:30] they were calling, checking on it, making sure.
[1:21:33] I mean, I think there's a value of something
[1:21:36] that wants the business, and I think they certainly do.
[1:21:41] What's the timeframe for their work?
[1:21:44] I think probably about 18 months is what we've kind of mapped out,
[1:21:48] just informally.
[1:21:49] I don't think we've had that training
[1:21:51] of some conversation exact time lines yet.
[1:21:55] I think there'll be a huge help.
[1:21:58] I've seen so many companies go down the path
[1:22:01] implementing at ERP system and they wind up costing way more than expected and also don't necessarily
[1:22:09] deliver what the organization really wanted.
[1:22:15] There's some of the older systems that first came in to exist and back in the 90s and
[1:22:20] 2000s like SAP and Oracle.
[1:22:23] Those are huge companies, but they're not right for us.
[1:22:27] What their solutions are, are not what we need.
[1:22:30] We need something in what we would call the tier 2 realm of software providers, because if you go down to a path of an SAP or an Oracle and try and shoe that into what we do here in this department, the numbers would be unaffordable.
[1:22:52] We also have a need for this because we're using an accounting system that is on its last
[1:22:58] leg.
[1:23:00] Great planes is, you know, we need to update.
[1:23:05] So we have a very near-term need within what two years, Mr. Robin, two or three.
[1:23:12] So we have no choice, frankly, we have to do something.
[1:23:17] But
[1:23:23] question of curiosity, why did they get, why did GFOA get a number eight in 9.2?
[1:23:28] When we have, we have the level 2 scoring off, so we can review it. It's just different.
[1:23:38] That was the, yeah, so if you turn it in mind.
[1:23:41] That was 148 of 162.
[1:23:44] They submitted that for us?
[1:23:46] No, they did not submit initially.
[1:23:48] And then when we called to ask, was there something wrong with the bid?
[1:23:52] I wasn't submitted because we'd had a previous relationship with them.
[1:23:56] I've taken a class, I took a class with the guy who was going to do the implementation
[1:23:59] stuff and we called and we asked him about it during the interview and he said essentially
[1:24:03] that they don't do a lot of bid work and even if there was a big firepower like San Antonio
[1:24:08] or Dallas they probably wouldn't have even returned it either so they just didn't do a lot
[1:24:12] of bid work and we had to call it.
[1:24:14] Then open it back up because we did specifically want to solicit their business or when
[1:24:20] I'm coming here, but they didn't get it done in time, so.
[1:24:24] Or it is interesting.
[1:24:25] Okay.
[1:24:26] Frankly.
[1:24:27] Okay.
[1:24:28] Yes, and the chief is correct.
[1:24:30] They didn't get it done in time this this time after we opened it up for that.
[1:24:34] Do you have any further questions or comments?
[1:24:38] Okay.
[1:24:38] Can I get a motion on the floor to approve ERP advisors?
[1:24:42] So moved.
[1:24:46] All in favor?
[1:24:47] Aye.
[1:24:48] Question passes by about five to zero.
[1:24:52] Okay, four, 14 is the same.
[1:24:56] Thank you guys for your work on that.
[1:24:59] Moving on to item number 21 to review discuss and take action regarding the district's
[1:25:03] VFIS annual low sap payment.
[1:25:06] Just to explain a little bit what low sap is, low sap stands for a length of service award
[1:25:10] program.
[1:25:11] It is basically a very small type pension for our volunteer firefighters, so we have a policy
[1:25:20] on active membership and then based on the active membership for the year, they get low-sap
[1:25:26] credit.
[1:25:27] You can earn up to 20 years of credit, which would allow a volunteer firefighter who has
[1:25:32] 20 years of service to earn $500 a month, basically in low-sap payment, which is a tiny
[1:25:39] portion to recognize their length of service with the department.
[1:25:42] So it was something that was implemented years and years ago by the department,
[1:25:49] and when
[1:25:50] these commissioners came in, the program was behind in, I guess, level of contribution.
[1:26:01] So we moved from an organization that was out of New York to VFIS, a glad filter insurance
[1:26:09] group, which VFIS is volunteer farm and insurance fund, they do a lot of insurance and
[1:26:14] most of that programs throughout the entire country for those type things.
[1:26:18] But we do an annual payment based on active membership in the program, retirees in the program,
[1:26:25] and then an actual estimate.
[1:26:28] And this year, they're asked for the actual lowest up as $411,073,000, and then their administrative
[1:26:36] of services 14502. So what they do is they take care of sending out the monthly checks
[1:26:43] for each of the retirees and then they also keep up with all of the government paperwork that
[1:26:49] is required to be turned in on this. So we're asking for a total of 425,975 dollars for the annual
[1:26:56] that payment. This should move us. We're at about 94.3% as of last year, if I recall. Yeah, I
[1:27:05] see Mr. Havana nodding his head. This should move us pretty darn close to 100% of that. What I
[1:27:12] call the accumulated benefit obligation, they have another term for it. So just for context when
[1:27:19] and robbed myself in America arrived here.
[1:27:24] The funding level was in the around 80% maybe low 80s.
[1:27:29] And we committed to funding this to 100% by the end of our term.
[1:27:37] And this represents a small monthly stipend for volunteers
[1:27:41] when they turn age 62.
[1:27:45] 65?
[1:27:47] Yeah.
[1:27:47] I think they get $500 a month, which is the maximum they think they can receive under IRS rules.
[1:27:56] So it's just a little something for all their years of service when they're in retirement.
[1:28:02] So we wanted to make sure.
[1:28:04] All five commissioners supported fully funding this initiative.
[1:28:12] That's the, that's the background.
[1:28:16] Question.
[1:28:17] So, a volunteer firefighter needs to work for how long to receive the benefit.
[1:28:25] So, they can invest in five years, so at five years, they will get $20 dollars for a
[1:28:32] year's worth of active service credit, our active member policy requires 60 hours of writing
[1:28:40] a fire truck and then additional for a person under 20 years.
[1:28:45] requires 60 hours of riding the fire truck and then additional 16 training hours on a quarterly
[1:28:52] basis. And if they are active and meet those requirements for three quarters out of the four
[1:28:57] for the year, they receive an annual service credit. And that gives them $20 payment. But
[1:29:04] they have to have five years' besting. So they'll get $100 when they hit 65. It also guarantees
[1:29:12] ten years worth of payments to someone. So if a member turns 65 and they start receiving
[1:29:20] their payments and something happens to them that money then for that remainder portion
[1:29:26] of the time up to ten years then goes to the spouse or beneficiary if it was a child
[1:29:33] beneficiary.
[1:29:35] Is it 20 years to achieve the full $500?
[1:29:39] 20 years is the maximum amount of service.
[1:29:42] So our active member policy actually reflects that.
[1:29:45] So after you are 20 years of service with the department and low set qualified, meaning
[1:29:49] you've met 20 years worth of low set time, we then reduce your number of hours that we require
[1:29:57] you to staff.
[1:29:58] So it goes down to 20 hours of staff.
[1:30:02] Question. So, this 425,000 goes to VFIS.
[1:30:09] Correct to their pension division.
[1:30:11] And they're going to take care of our volunteers from now on.
[1:30:16] Well, this is the annual payment.
[1:30:18] So, we pay them every year to do this.
[1:30:22] And this will send you the, I'll email you the last actual report so you can take a look at that.
[1:30:30] you can see where we are and we'll show you the number of active members, retirees, and then
[1:30:35] they have an actual report that we get annually that goes towards our regular financial
[1:30:42] audit.
[1:30:46] So, they service the trustee of the funds.
[1:30:54] They're essentially insurance company, they're investing the funds, and then it's just like
[1:31:01] other pension.
[1:31:09] All right, they may be the servicer, a bank, a bank in New York, is that what
[1:31:16] you say?
[1:31:24] So who does HR?
[1:31:29] And you check the volunteers that we have and what they're supposed
[1:31:32] to receive with this numbers. And they make sense.
[1:31:38] So in a quarterly basis, according to our active
[1:31:40] member policy, on a quarterly basis, we review their time that they've staffed fire trucks
[1:31:45] and their training hours, and we do a quarterly report, and the way our policy is set up,
[1:31:50] if somebody does not meet active member requirements for one quarter, they receive a letter
[1:31:55] that notifies them that they are on probationary status.
[1:31:58] Hey, you didn't meet the points for the quarter.
[1:32:00] If they have a second quarter that they are not active in the year, or fourth quarter, first quarter,
[1:32:07] matching quarters like that, then they get a second letter that inactivates them.
[1:32:11] So they have a warning system that lets them know, you know, hey, you have the potential to
[1:32:16] lose your, your loss at qualification for the year, if you're not active for the other
[1:32:20] three quarters of this year.
[1:32:22] They also have the ability to go on to two programs, target solutions which tracks all
[1:32:28] of the training hours and then fire manager, which tracks all of the staffing hours, so that
[1:32:32] they can monitor those in real time for themselves too.
[1:32:36] Thank you.
[1:32:39] There being no further questions, can I get a question on the floor to approve the district's
[1:32:42] if I assign you a low set payment.
[1:32:45] Second.
[1:32:46] All in favour?
[1:32:47] All in favour?
[1:32:49] All in favour?
[1:32:50] 5 to 0.
[1:32:52] Now we move on to item number 22 to review discuss and take action regarding the replacement
[1:32:56] of three medic units.
[1:32:58] To what?
[1:32:59] This is a proposal to it approved to replace three medic units as a part of our normal
[1:33:07] replacement. So in the just to bring our body up to speed, the Department has 33 physical units
[1:33:16] that have our name on them. We run basically 26 licensed units. Some of these units are
[1:33:24] one of them up for sale. We have some for every amount. We have some to get fixed and all
[1:33:31] But this is the normal, this will be a replacement for our just our attrition of our units.
[1:33:40] So in 2025 we'll have a estimated, there'll be eight units that will be red tagged for sale or liquidation,
[1:33:48] because they've met their service life for us.
[1:33:52] 2026, it'll be up to 16.
[1:33:54] Now some of those will go away, but for sale, because they've already been remounted,
[1:34:00] but these will be brand new units.
[1:34:02] So we're asking, as a project cost, it's $1.6 million,
[1:34:08] $7,048.50, the units will be purchased from Serves,
[1:34:17] which there'll be Hortons, there'll be the same ambulances
[1:34:20] that you toured today, that exact ambulance,
[1:34:25] and that will be off a barboard.
[1:34:27] I'm sorry, HGAC.
[1:34:32] question. Sorry.
[1:34:36] Yeah.
[1:34:36] Right, fine, answered.
[1:34:38] Wait until we receive these?
[1:34:41] These will probably not be here until 2022.
[1:34:45] So as of right now, in since COVID, everything is drawn out.
[1:34:52] You ordered our fire truck for years.
[1:34:55] And ambulance, can any where be from a year and a half to two and a half years up to three years
[1:35:04] So this company here is one that we work with before, so where we bought these other
[1:35:10] ambulances.
[1:35:11] They've already at the beginning of the year, they're already trying to procure chassis
[1:35:15] force to see if they can speed things up.
[1:35:21] But that's still to be seen.
[1:35:24] So question why only three well, it's just part of the
[1:35:36] Attrition that we're doing we're not trying to over buy we're not trying to under buy so in the next year and the other thing that goes into this to we have what's called a rebound program
[1:35:46] So once an ambulance is the one you tour today is a new style
[1:35:51] So it came in brand new box everything. So once that hits the criteria for us to replace
[1:35:59] We will take that Amons and we will send it and we'll pull the box off of it the patient compartment that you were in
[1:36:06] And we'll put it in a chassis underneath it and we will repaint it and everything
[1:36:11] So this year we have three more of those
[1:36:15] There's there's there's one of them that's going to be that's waiting on parts to be delivered now
[1:36:20] Y'all have approved one to go to Horton and we'll come to y'all with two more, so
[1:36:26] There's going to be three other
[1:36:28] ambulances that technically will almost be brand new
[1:36:33] When they come back to us and by doing the rebound program we say
[1:36:38] Usually a minimum since we've done it. We've saved somewhere around about $2 million doing that and our model basically is as we buy a brand new unit
[1:36:48] We run that chassis until it's due for replacement.
[1:36:52] We send that off to get remounted.
[1:36:55] It'll have a new truck put underneath it.
[1:36:58] The whole new Ford F550.
[1:37:00] Be repaint it, come back.
[1:37:02] 95% of it will be looking new.
[1:37:05] And then we liquidate it.
[1:37:08] So because I'm...
[1:37:09] I'm asking because you said 2026.
[1:37:12] And then we're talking about eight new stations
[1:37:16] in the next few years and so in 2026 we have two more stations absolutely so in the
[1:37:24] 2025 budget we have four more medic units that are allocated for expansion units so when
[1:37:34] we figure out the station situation the land and we have that a little more dialed in
[1:37:41] Then we will come and figure out the, hopefully the, the delivery times of these next units to be able to fulfill those fire stations.
[1:37:53] So that's already, that's in the 2025 budget also.
[1:37:57] But we don't want to pull that trigger right now because we don't want those just sitting here if you want to call it that.
[1:38:04] So we want to try to, when we expect our next fire station to be online.
[1:38:12] They're waiting on land.
[1:38:16] We're about to finalize three deals.
[1:38:21] Like the Telgui, Louetta land is not, that's not something that we have projected to build currently.
[1:38:28] So the Wilburn Elementary, which is Cypher SD, which should come.
[1:38:33] That's very close.
[1:38:34] That'll close before the end of the year.
[1:38:35] Yeah, that'll come next month.
[1:38:36] There's a question on the, they had a question.
[1:38:38] Cypher SD had a question on the survey, but that should close next month.
[1:38:43] And then we're looking at probably in 18-month build,
[1:38:47] but we do, I guess, next month we'll take up
[1:38:50] if Ricardo has a proposal for services for architectural services
[1:38:55] because we need to work on the plans.
[1:39:00] You know how much time you normally build into the process
[1:39:03] for the plans and design phase?
[1:39:05] That's six months before we start a financial session.
[1:39:07] Then what you typically see?
[1:39:08] So that's a two-year process then.
[1:39:10] If six months on the architecture side of things,
[1:39:12] and then 18 months on build.
[1:39:14] Maybe because you guys are doing somewhat of a, I mean, you have to repeat, but, you know, you have the familiar, you already maybe can be sure in a little bit.
[1:39:23] See, if I did have one question, you're going to pre-pay on this, we're going to get a ball under your, you're going to pay at the end.
[1:39:28] I'll pay at the end.
[1:39:29] Perfect.
[1:39:30] So, great.
[1:39:30] Thank you.
[1:39:33] In the other thing, Commissioner.
[1:39:34] So, this isn't like we just, hey, we need three right now.
[1:39:37] We, we have the vision for the next 10 years staggered out, essentially, Gantt chart style that says, okay, this is our trigger point.
[1:39:44] Sometimes we move a little bit early because the
[1:39:46] chasties get bought up and we need to move on a certain one.
[1:39:50] But overall we have the long-term plan for
[1:39:53] medic units fill in the stations and then if we bring
[1:39:57] online an infill station and then we've got
[1:40:00] some stations have two medic units and maybe we bump one out.
[1:40:03] And part of coming on board with a system we can
[1:40:06] explain what that looks like a little bit better because
[1:40:09] I know it's a lot to absorb right now.
[1:40:11] We do have every year we do analytics on all the apparatus that we have, so which is like
[1:40:18] knowledge and hours basically and age, so we take that and we renew that every year which
[1:40:23] is usually in April and then we can come up with where we're standing, so is it something
[1:40:29] that's normal or we can do three or four or is it something to where hey we've seen a trend
[1:40:35] where we need to go to five or less, you know, so, but we take those analytics every year and then we,
[1:40:43] you know, we take that information and then we make a decision for the budget for the next year.
[1:40:52] Also, just on the bid process, just to let, you know, our cap is anything over $50,000 has to be a bid item or meet bid specifications.
[1:41:01] So, on page 153, where references HGAC contract or Bible or contract, those are two different
[1:41:09] organizations that go out and do bids on different items that satisfy our bid process.
[1:41:15] So, we belong to both of those organizations so that that meets our bid requirements
[1:41:20] so that we don't have to physically bid those ourselves.
[1:41:26] Are there questions?
[1:41:31] Can I get a motion on the floor to approve that we're placing a three medic units?
[1:41:35] to a moved second all in favor motion passes by a vote of five to zero moving on to item number 23 to review
[1:41:44] discuss and take action regarding matters related to the district's mobile generator bid solicitation
[1:41:51] what table come
[1:41:55] make an official move to table
[1:41:58] second all in favor all right
[1:42:02] I should pass this by about 5 to 0.
[1:42:05] Moving on to 24 to review, discuss and take action regarding new station construction matters.
[1:42:17] So we'll table that as well. Can I get a mission on the floor to table?
[1:42:23] So I'll move to table.
[1:42:25] All in favor?
[1:42:26] All right.
[1:42:31] I had questions.
[1:42:33] Go ahead and ask a question at the time.
[1:42:37] New stations.
[1:42:38] Yes.
[1:42:39] And you're saying that the architect takes about two years to build it?
[1:42:44] So, our contracts previously have been for a 12-month build on a fire station.
[1:42:50] Currently, station six is one year overdue, and station one was two years overdue, but
[1:42:55] station one was really during COVID.
[1:42:58] So, in talking to the contractor, what they've said is because of supplies and contractor
[1:43:03] issues that really you're looking at, not at 12-month build, it's more of an 18-month build
[1:43:09] as far as once the construction person gets assigned.
[1:43:12] Now, we generally use the same station design that has already been done for the last two
[1:43:20] stations, but one of the things that we've discussed about doing this is, Ricardo, as the
[1:43:27] ability to make a 3D model of the station.
[1:43:30] So we want to make sure we know where all of the outlets are, and where all of the cabinets
[1:43:37] are and the drawers and those kind of things so that we don't have as many change orders
[1:43:41] that have occurred, and then we talked about changing from a regular bid process to construction
[1:43:48] manager at risk, also to change the actual process, so there's more upfront work between
[1:43:53] the owner, the construction company, and the subcontractor to make sure that everybody is on
[1:44:00] the same page with each piece of the puzzle, so that somebody doesn't come along and say,
[1:44:05] You know, you've got a piece of red iron where I need to put my, you know, gear washer
[1:44:11] dryer, which is what has happened with us at Station 6.
[1:44:15] Can we do something with all that world thought process and the fine, what is that we need,
[1:44:21] and then replicate it in the eight places that we need to build stations?
[1:44:26] So the main design of the station is definitely done.
[1:44:31] like we have the floor plan has been finished where we ran into some problems with
[1:44:38] station six was like like particular like where the plug was or how was subcontractor
[1:44:44] interpreted the way the actual project language was written and so we're hoping to clear
[1:44:50] all of that part of it up in the beginning of the project now by doing the construction manager at
[1:44:55] so this
[1:45:00] For all in the same room, and he can say this is how I understand it, and we can say, no, that's
[1:45:04] not how it's meant at all. So by doing the construction manager at risk, it should cut down
[1:45:09] on the, I guess, more questions, because we had the same specs for station six and station
[1:45:14] one generally. And when you look at certain features, they're done in different ways, because
[1:45:20] it was interpreted in a different way by a subcontractor.
[1:45:24] The problem, in the past, what we've done is we've used a competitive seal proposal model. So with
[1:45:29] That proposal, what happens is the architect draws all the plans, and then it goes out to all the contractors, and then they all come back with their solicitation, and that then starts the process of them building it.
[1:45:43] The construction manager at this project is different.
[1:45:46] What it does is the architect will get about 50% of the way through the plans, and then you go out and you engage contractors.
[1:45:53] So you'll have five or six solicitations to the different contractors.
[1:45:58] They'll all come back saying, we think we can build this project.
[1:46:01] We think this will be the cost and we think this is where you're headed with it.
[1:46:04] Then for the remaining 50% of the project, the contractors directly involved with the architect
[1:46:09] and the construction team and any one of the commissioners who are going to be involved in that.
[1:46:13] And everyone drives together in the same direction.
[1:46:16] And they're the very end.
[1:46:18] The contractor gives something called a guaranteed maximum price.
[1:46:21] And at that point, they say, this is what it's going to cost us to build your project.
[1:46:25] And if for any reason, it goes over that.
[1:46:27] That liability is on the contractor.
[1:46:29] If it's less than that, there's a savings generated that comes back to us.
[1:46:34] There's also a lot greater transparency.
[1:46:37] You see very early on all the subcontractors that are selected.
[1:46:41] You can even exclude subcontractors that you've had a problem in the past
[1:46:45] or ones that you particularly like.
[1:46:46] You can identify that.
[1:46:48] We'd like you to solicit from these contractors.
[1:46:49] So it really helps you get a better quality and much more involvement in the process to build the station so it's that'll be new for us
[1:46:56] It's not the way we've done it in the past
[1:47:02] Our concern the way I see it is that
[1:47:05] We need to respond to a call within
[1:47:11] 5 to 7 minutes
[1:47:14] Right now we're struggling because we we can get there
[1:47:19] We're too far so we need to build the stations
[1:47:24] But if it takes two years because we're doing all these things, which I'm not saying we don't need them, it's great that we have them.
[1:47:32] But then is, why don't we build two at the same time?
[1:47:38] That's a plan.
[1:47:39] That's in the budget that way.
[1:47:41] There are multiple stations that they two per year.
[1:47:44] Because the other part of that is we don't want to build too many stations at one time, because that requires additional hiring.
[1:47:50] So you don't want to hire have to say, oh, I have to hire fifty firefighters or you know 20 paramedics all at one time because you're still trying to get a quality product on what we hire
[1:48:02] Thank you.
[1:48:05] Other questions?
[1:48:08] Okay.
[1:48:09] I for the last vote.
[1:48:10] I was going to call another vote.
[1:48:12] Let's read you the vote.
[1:48:14] So all in favor?
[1:48:16] Aye.
[1:48:16] Motion passes by about five to zero.
[1:48:18] Thank you.
[1:48:20] Moving on to 25 to review, discuss and take action on any district matters,
[1:48:23] which seemed to be included on the December 20th, so well, we're changing that date, being
[1:48:28] agenda.
[1:48:32] So, election of officers, got it,
[1:48:41] all matters table tonight.
[1:48:53] I
[1:48:57] proposed it, 2006.
[1:49:00] Uh-huh.
[1:49:06] So, you'll be out of the country, right, for the 19th, he'll be out from December 9th through
[1:49:13] the 25th, 9 to 24th.
[1:49:21] So he's going to have to be a remote participant.
[1:49:30] We have to have a forum here, really,
[1:49:32] all parts of the last week.
[1:49:34] A little change in the agenda, but we can make other.
[1:49:36] And just clarify, this has to count or mouse.
[1:49:39] He can vote.
[1:49:45] Would you be able to do it remotely on the 19th?
[1:49:50] Is that for everyone else?
[1:49:52] That's what's in my calendar, so apparently, I'm good.
[1:50:31] Okay,
[1:50:39] I'm moving on to item number 26, I'm not sure if you see her, but to review
[1:50:44] discussing the action regarding the district engagement agreements with real estate consultants.
[1:50:49] There you are.
[1:50:55] That expires at the end of every year, hear me okay.
[1:51:01] That expires at the end of every year and so the current.
[1:51:05] We just ask you to renew the surface agreement for another year, none of the terms have changed.
[1:51:13] Can we add that to the December meeting agenda?
[1:51:22] That okay with you.
[1:51:23] This fine.
[1:51:24] Yeah, no.
[1:51:25] I can completely understand.
[1:51:28] We'll move to table in officially.
[1:51:32] All in favour?
[1:51:33] Aye.
[1:51:34] Motion passes by a vote of five to zero.
[1:51:39] All right.
[1:51:39] Moving on to.
[1:51:47] I'm not in member 27 to receive a report from BD Realty Advisors regarding the district's
[1:51:52] field state matters.
[1:51:53] And I think it probably should be in close session.
[1:51:58] All right.
[1:51:58] Well, the time is 759 and we move to close session.
[1:52:03] Thank you.
[1:52:10] All right.
[1:52:10] The time is 903 and we are back in open session.
[1:52:13] Can I get a motion on the floor to approve all additional earnest and payment earnest
[1:52:19] payment, earnest money payments for the property on Telgi and Moena?
[1:52:23] Absolutely.
[1:52:23] I want favor.
[1:52:26] I don't know.
[1:52:27] Motion passes my vote if I'm zero.
[1:52:29] Can I get a question on the floor to approve the authority for the real estate committee as a
[1:52:34] discussing co-session regarding 9616.
[1:52:38] I want favor.
[1:52:41] Motion passes by vote if I'm zero.
[1:52:43] Last motion to approve the variance requested for Autism purchasing the land on Fairbanks more
[1:52:48] Houston.
[1:52:50] Some move.
[1:52:51] Second.
[1:52:52] One favor?
[1:52:53] Thank you.
[1:52:54] Motion passes by about of five to zero.
[1:52:59] No further.
[1:53:00] We have no further.
[1:53:01] It's a nine respect.
[1:53:03] No.
[1:53:04] Oh.
[1:53:06] Any public comment?
[1:53:07] Anyone.
[1:53:08] Okay.
[1:53:10] They're being no further business.
[1:53:12] Can I get a motion on the floor to join the meeting?
[1:53:14] The move.
[1:53:16] All in favor.
[1:53:17] Okay.
[1:53:17] The end. Congratulations.
[1:53:21] First one.
[1:53:22] Great job, guys.