I would like
to call to
order the july 10, 2025 meeting
at 2:00 p.m. Please stand for the pledge of
allegiance.
>>> I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the united states state of america and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.
>> clerk,
please call the roll. [ roll called ]
absent is
board member knight.
>> okay.
>> public comment for nonagenda items.
comments can only be for items not on
the agenda
under the authority of
the opoid
settlement task
force.
seeing none, we'll move into
public comments on the agenda items.
time limit is
three minutes. Anyone in the audience
have
input for agenda items.
seeing none,
marshal, I'll kick the committee business
to you.
>> thank
you, mr. Chairman. Last meeting
we completed the great task
of allocating the funds to the individuals
just for the
board's understanding.
lsf is working directly with entities
to get the
documents in place to get the funding
agreements in and all
the next steps. Where that
leaves us for this year
two funding is outside of the money
that's
for the nonqualified agencies that's
sent to the managing entity,
lsf, we as the county received a portion
directly into our
funds for some of our operations.
at this
point, after the allocation last
year which was some equipment and
a portion
of a truck, rescue
unit, with the new funds received
we
currently
have
$98,048.58 that we're holding right
now.
we're working
with sergeant knight, when he was
here --
just so the board
knows, sergeant knight no longer able
to do
this. We're working with the
undersheriff to get somebody else
designated from the
sheriff's department, if you're wondering
about his absence.
prior to that absence he submitted
one
item for us to
the $98,000, we look at how we support
our
first responders, public safety that
are in the field. Part of that is
training, part is equipment. From
the sheriff's standpoint they
submitted this apex
chemical
identification spectrometer
that they can use in the field to
test for the drugs
that are in there. Four units
cost about
$98,000, $97,921.
this is for four units. Any fraction
of that is
$25,000, for simple math, a piece.
they were looking to see if they could
utilize that and bring
it into the field and see if it works,
test that
out there. In talking with the fire
department,
the things we're always looking at
is there are
always new equipment and other items
that we have --
we can replace, update and
then
there's training. Along with that
training there's
first responder support services,
different counseling and
other things. Training and counseling
for
the firefighters, along with equipment.
we're looking at
those two buckets as to how we
want to allocate the funds this year,
touch different bases. I'm going
to look at
chief roland to see if you have any
thoughts on the fire
side.
>>
since sergeant knight isn't here,
I say we take his money.
just kidding. There's a value for
the analyzer for them. At
least one of them
and potentially get some more if it
works for them.
for us, there's such a big push
for mental health for the firefighter
side right now. I would like to see
for us to take
the remaining portion and
use that as seed money
for some
fire specific --
fire, ems specific mental health.
the specific provider that has
done this before, nothing against
general practitioners, but somebody
that has experience in dealing with
this
particular subgroup. They're special.
so that's kind of my thought on the
remaining portion of it. And how
we allow for
services, that would be a legal
procurement type advice. There are
other folks
doing it now. St. John's county and
a couple others. We could tap into
that. They're already doing
it for them. That's my
suggestion, is tap into those kind
of
people and see if we can either
tag along to theirs or create
our own contract, something
like that. I would like to see us
use that
seed money for the mental health aspect of
the fire service.
>> for the
committee's understanding,
chief --fire chief and I have been
other conversations in other counties,
one in st.
john's. We have another one that deals
more
with the fire department crews itself.
one of
the aspects, even if
it's outside of the opoid funding
is getting
them in the door to train the trainers
essentially on the peer counseling,
to make sure you have
first responders that they've got
the opportunity, if they see
the incidents, they know what's going
on
and know who needs help and they make
the call. Whether it's
one of our individuals there who has
been
properly trained --that's what we're
looking
for, training the individuals to a
higher level
so they can provide counseling services
and identify it.
the initial proposals, getting an
assessment out there, about 50,000.
to chief
roland's point, we have
$98,000. We split the baby and a half
to fire starting to get the
counseling programs in place and the
other to
get the spectrometer in
place.
>> I have questions. On this
initial proposal for $50,000 is
that to go out and do an
rfp?
is that $50,000 for start-up
services? What does that line item
look
like?
>> so it would be professional
services contract.
from the competitive standpoint
of procurement, we can direct contract.
plus, it's
under $100,000. We've been interviewing
a couple
different firms to see how
they deal with it and handle the
individuals. That's where we narrowed
it down to
one. We want somebody who really understands
our
individuals in the field, understand
the situations
up. Jackson hill is different than
nassau.
they need to understand
the stress fact
you have in nassau. That's a
theme, consulting the individual.
we would be looking at
utilizing them based on the current
firms we've
looked at. That's bringing them out
into the field.
it's crew familiarization, doing
assessments, program delivery, building
up the resources. Some
of this first step is a lot of telling
us what we don't know and where the
gaps are
and seeing what we can do. If there
are other
resources we need, those are things
that come
later. That's this first step of let's
do the assessment
and bring them in, get them to know
our guys and
see what additional training support
we need from
this aspect. Particularly in this
case, there
are portions that are opoid-funding
eligible and there are portions outside
of that.
some of this assessment will help
us
know that.
>> following question,
is there any
evidence-based curriculum,
standard procedures specific to firefighters,
first responders
that we know of? I mean, I understand
you're talking
to other entities that are working
in
other jurisdictions. Is there any
evidence-
based programs out there that are
specific to
our first response community? Do we
know if the entities
we're looking at are utilizing evidence-
based criteria or
treatment modalities?
>> I can't say.
>> I don't know.
I'm not a subject matter expert in
this by
any means.
>>
there's not a specific section that
says
when you go to training, this deals
with firefighters.
I think probably what is
happening is the firms that are involved
in
it now have
been in it a couple
years and learn from firefighters
deal with
and their practices. That's the folks
that are successful
in it now. They've gone out and
dealt with the firefighter issues.
is there a
specific training at particular schools?
I don't think so.
>> is there -->>
I haven't found
any.
>> is there an industry
standard from nfa or anything like
that
in regards to firefighters or first
responders that
we know of?
>> national
fire academy?
>> yes. >> none from
the nfa. The nfpa
is evolving into the physical portion
of it already.
that's been announced for years. They're
just now
getting into the mental health aspect
of it. It's all
over the place. What is
specific needs
for us, that's the challenge. There's
not a one size fits all.
>> right.
>> nobody --there's not a clinical
or
curriculum that I know of in any school
right
now that offers
this particular --certified in this
area.
we're going to get our board
certified. That's not happened yet.
could it? Lord probably knows.
>> to answer your question, yes. I
couldn't tell you what they
are. That's not a specialty area that
we focus on, but there are national
models out there and evidence-based
practices. As chief roland says, these have
been
developed over
time. I know there's an organization
in
jacksonville that we talked to during
covid
that focuses on this population --
ems, firefighters, police. When you're
talking about training peers, like
firefighters peers, it's one of the
most important
pieces. That's your sustainability
piece to have that.
the mental health first aid training
that
we've been implementing since 2014,
which is
an evidence-based mental health training
program, there
are modules for law enforcement and for
ems as
part of that.
years ago when we were doing that,
we had
some of those who retired fire
department personnel who we trained.
when we worked with that
population, we had people trained
for veterans, we have our veterans.
that's part of
that sustainability piece. There are
evidence-based
training curriculums out there for
training how
to --with mental health, how do you
recognize it and
respond, et cetera. They have that
module. There's probably
more. I haven't looked into it as
much as greg
has. They exist. I couldn't tell you
what they are, but
they're developing.
>> the shield
program is one.
>>
yes, thank you.
>> that was one I
--yeah.
>> I think
it's based out of indiana,
but it is an actual
program. I know
it's used with law
enforcement and
there's training for them. That could
be something
to look into.
>> another
question, chief
roland, is this
direct therapeutic intervention or is
it more broad
scale recognition counseling support
service based
or is it actual direct
therapeutic intervention?
do we know? If we don't know, that's
fine.
>> that's one of the things --when
we
looked at the needs, we have a
broad spectrum of needs. So there's
somethings that are going
to fall in
that can get into the settlement funds
that are
eligible here. We have the other parts
that will come out of
other funding sources. It's probably
going to be a program
that whatever we do it's going to
have
to have multiple funding sources to
get it through at
the end of the day. It's an evolution.
I mean, the thing is going to be it's
the
spectrum of where we hit in different
areas. Once we do
the assessment and see what's going
on in the field, there
are somethings in the training that
know how to deal
with individuals and
there's somethings about dealing with
it themselves after dealing with individuals.
>> absolutely. >> over the past
couple years our peer support
program
which is very active and robust was
led by
the
nation
al fire bureau and the chiefs.
you asked about the other
interventions and pieces, I want a
very robust program whether we move
to peer counseling
or meeting with somebody. So we can
call somebody that
has the capability of making that
intervention sooner than later.
>>
right.
>> so
that's --is that going to be right
out of the gate?
maybe not. It depends on the funding.
when this mental health
program, we foresee it in the
fire department as --
it's a great resource, but I don't
know
of a single fireman that's
going to pick up a phone and call.
it's not going to
happen.
>> right. >> if we have field
personnel,
whether it's a firefighter or the
officer
that recognizes that a
co-worker is struggling with something,
we need to
have them be able to pick up the phone,
not
to headquarters,
but to somebody has worked and they
know
and recognize it and say, hey, we
think
so and so is having an issue.
can you come see us and that person
can
respond. Similar to our annual health
and
wellness physical that we do, we have
a
robust program. That program is strictly
hipaa compliant between the
member and the --we don't see any of
the results.
if they see something that is critical
in nature,
they take the initiative
and coordinates the care of
that member. We only
get aggregate -- we have ten firefighters
that
have high blood pressure.
I suspect this will be similar
to mental health problems. We don't
want to
be involved in it, but we want a one-
stop shop.
that's where we want to go. We have to
know
where we are to see where we need
to go.
>> absolutely. >>
that's kind of why this money
a --
>>
uh-huh.
>> I agree with the comment
you made earlier about rather than
funding for --
going back to
ncso requests,
to just see how it's working for the
other county. That's probably a good
use of that. Let's see
if it's working.
>> was
there any
supporting justification
evidence of how many times they run
on calls,
if they need this type of equipment,
where the
other resources are? You may know
that, deborah, from your perspective
of where this
level of resource falls.
do we have it anywhere around here?
is it
nowhere around here? Because, I mean,
a
field speck is a pretty robust
piece of equipment. There's a training
component that goes with
that as well. Do you know that, deborah?
>> I
am aware of this company and they
provide
the training when
you
purchase. That will be included in
the pricing. The other
thing I can say is this is a
better product than
the one
that --this is newer. The one
that jso, the
funding they were given for those
devices, was a couple years ago. This
is just a newer product on the market.
the database
for the drugs
is significantly better,
more robust.
it's able
to --[ inaudible ]
especially
if they're doing --I don't know these
numbers off the top
of my head.
like drug
checking on --instead of having to
go back to the lab. Obviously they
could
do it here and have lab confirmation,
but that
could take
weeks. [
inaudible ]
>> the
emergency room too, if a person is
taken to
the emergency room, more quickly identifying
what
the person has taken.
>>
any supporting evidence on volume
of calls
or anything
like that?
>> I don't believe so.
I don't have the call volume on how
their calls break out through dispatch
for them.
>>
these questions are not because I'm
opposed to anything.
it's just me trying to understand.
when we're trying to
build longer term capability and capacity,
we
want to work towards
something versus just --
>>
a call might be a dd call and
when they get there there's drugs
all over
the place. The call volume might not
reflect how often they might need
to test.
it's probably underreported.
>> I
would anticipate so. Yes, I
would anticipate
that.
>> generally they're
about 120,000 calls a year coming
out
of the sheriff's department. That's
all types of
calls, all types of things. You never
know what you're going for. On the
outside,
not knowing the operational component,
this
is --my vision is this is a
tool that the sergeants get
and they call for him and he's got
the tool
to do
it.
>> it's one
of those tools people put in
a tool box and, when you need it,
you need it.
we don't have the capability to recognize
those kind of drugs.
if there are other
hazard materials, it can tell you
what it is and what it's not. If this
particular one
is that sensitive, then I think it's
just another component that, when they
get there
and say we don't know what this white
powder is, they
need to call us.
then we can try to figure it out.
>> right.
>> everything is white powder. >> of
course.
>> so that would be better
for us.
>> the
last thing is with the --
it detects over
23,000 different substances and can
detect up to
100 feet away. You're not touching
the white
powder. You're staying safe just in
case you don't get contaminated with
anything.
>>
if it turns out to be that useful
of
an item, then maybe in years to come
we budget for that
for hazmat. Just another tool they
could use to
help
with services.
>>
just one additional one. I know
that our other
awardees gave us an update how the
dollars
were used and the benefit and that type
of thing. Do we
have that same ask with
these dollars?
>> so the advantage of the
fire department being over here and
the fire funding went to
them. We can provide update
s to the board to make sure --
craig, you
know the scopes
and --
>> when we have
to use it, it's because something
bad
is happening. For us the tool
is working great, better
than the endoscopies we've had in
the past. People are using them.
>>
that's
good.
>> other items sometimes we
bought the
new and improved and it sat there.
>> right. >> that is
working well. As far
as the
ambulance, they're
securing --[
inaudible ] that hasn't been firmed
up yet. That's
still a work in progress.
that money is still sitting there
waiting for
the july contract. Get
on somebody's work list and
then send it
off.
>> we're looking at
doing a remount
and cutting down the
timeline. We talked about
the tax payer expense and it's expensive.
remounts are a cheaper process to
go without
any diminished
quality
essentially. [ inaudible ]
>> any other comments? >> good questions.
>> thank you.
>>
ready for a motion?
>> I would like
to make a motion that
we split the money, split the baby --
>> 50% each.
>> --50% each to fire rescue
and ncfs.
>> for
the proposal as submitted.
>>
yes.
>> second? >> yes. >>
motion by dr. Pagel and
second by alissa
myatt. All in favor say
aye. Those opposed say no. Motion carries.
anything
else, marshal, on the agenda?
>> that
was
the last item
today. Then we've got a period that
we'll let the new contracts get
in place. I don't know what the
next meeting was
scheduled. We'll look at
that for agenda items august 14th.
high probability we might not have
anything for
that meeting. We'll get the contracts
in place and get feedback from
the results of the funds that have
been implemented.
>> anything else? Meeting adjourned.