Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 01-02 Joint Rural Fire District Meridian City Council Joint Meeting Januarv 2. 2007 The Meridian City Council Joint Meeting with Meridian Rural Fire Protection District was called to order at 5:30 P.M. on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 by Councilman Vice-President Joe Borton. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Charlie Rountree and Joe Borton. Rural Fire District Commissioners: Terry Leighton and Rich Greene. Staff Present: Bill Nary, Ron Anderson, Joe Silva, John Overton, Todd (last name?), Mark Niemeyer and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. o Vacant X Charlie Rountree X X Joe Borton X Keith Bird Mayor Tammy de Weerd Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Bird: Mr. Vice-President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we adopt the agenda as published. Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as published. All in favor say aye. THREE AYES. ONE VACANT. MOTION CARRIED. Item 3. Discussion of the Ada County EMS Ordinance: Borton: As everyone knows the January 15t Ada County passed and now put into effect the new ordinance governing the method and manner of which EMS services are provided throughout the county, which has had a great impact and will have a great impact on the City of Meridian and other cities and their EMS services. To start off the discussion seemed to make sense perhaps that Chief Anderson gives the Council and Commissioners a brief background of what has taken place and then we will go into a discussion on what the options are. Chief? Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 2 of 8 Anderson: Mr. Vice-President to just give you a brief summary of what has happened. Approximately one year ago, Meridian made an improvement to our EMS delivery system and we upgraded our service from basic life support EMT's to the advanced life support, the ALS and we put paramedics on our engine companies. For approximately a year prior to that, we had been working on making that improvement and there is a number of steps that you have to go through to get there, including finding a medical director, a physician who is willing to allow you to work underneath their license and that will oversee your program and provide education and review of what your paramedics doing in the field as well as applying to the state for a license, hiring certified paramedics and buying equipment and supplies necessary to deliver that level of service. All through that process in that prior year we had worked along with Ada County EMS and Ada County operates a transport ambulance service along with ALS service in the county, but quite often because they are not as many ambulances as there are fire stations throughout the Valley that ALS response is a little bit slower than what the fire service response is and so part of the reason why Meridian wanted to make that improvement is so that we could provide a better level of service to our citizens and provide advanced life support within a four or five minute timeframe as opposed to an eight or nine minute timeframe. So, we had been working with Ada County in setting up that system and getting it operating and we had been operating for about a year and things seemed to be going to pretty smooth. As you will also recall at the same time Ada County had some money woes and was struggling with keeping afloat with their ALS program and the number of units that they had on the road and they had gone to the taxpayers and asked for an increase in their mill levy a little over a year ago and that was defeated and was not successful and we hadn't heard anything else from them, but I along with several fire chiefs in Ada County had worked in a committee to help make recommendations about how we could improve EMS delivery in Ada County and there were a number of components to that committee's recommendation that we passed along to the Ada County Commissioners. We had not heard anything in approximately eight months since we submitted that report to the Ada County Commissioners and we had asked them on several occasions what the outcome of that was going to be and whether they were going to look at those recommendations and whether they wanted us to do anymore work. The next thing we knew at the end of November, I think it was November 27th, I learned that Ada County had a new EMS ordinance that they were proposing. When I read the ordinance, I was astounded to find out some of the authority that they were taking away from cities and the authority that they were giving themselves. We immediately requested a meeting with the Ada County EMS director to explain the ordinance to us. He did meet with us, explain the ordinance and when we brought up our concerns and issues with the ordinance he said well I understand your concerns, but we feel like this is necessary and we have the authority to do it and continued to press forward. They had a very short timeframe before this ordinance went to a public hearing. It actually had its first hearing on, I believe it was December 12th and we showed up at that hearing, we testified to the County about all the problems with Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 3 of 8 the ordinance, legally I guess also in the spirit of cooperation which the ordinance was has tones in it that it is supposed to improve cooperation and collaboration it actually does just the opposite of that. Those concerns were listened to at that meetin~ and then they called a meeting for the following week on the 19th. On the 19t there was no discussion, no more public hearing and they passed the ordinance with it going into effect on January 1 st. Last week the Mayor and our City Attorney and myself again met with the director of Ada County EMS and their attorney and one of the Commissioners to find out what the reasons why they felt that it was necessary to pass the ordinance and if there was any possibility that ordinance could be rescinded or amended or anything like that. That is what we would like to talk tonight, I guess. in Executive Session regarding. Borton: Thank you, Chief. I will give you a chance to introduce. I think you have a relatively new Deputy Chief to introduce. Anderson: I have a really new Deputy Chief I would love to introduce. Sitting next to me tonight is Mark Niemeyer. This is his first day on the job and Mark applied - we started recruiting back in October and Mark applied along with about 20 other candidates and he is joining us here tonight and it is interesting enough that Mark is a former employee of Ada County EMS, so he has a lot of intimate knowledge about Ada County EMS and they way things operate there. De Weerd: Well, welcome Mark. Niemeyer: Thank you, Mayor. Rountree: And we expect you to be able to resolve this issue now. Bird: Charlie - poor guy. This is his first day on the job. He might not come back for the second day. Borton: Welcome Mark, we are glad to have you here. I turn it to Commissioner Greene or Leighton if either of you have some comments or thoughts from Rural Fire Commission on the ordinance and its impact on your services. Greene: My name is Rich Greene. I am the Chairman of the Rural Fire Protection District. I think the major concern that we have as a District and because of our joint power's agreement; the District has spent a lot of taxpayers' dollars building fire stations in cooperation with the city that has been gracious enough to man those stations. The major thrust of that and those decisions and that construction is that we wanted to improve the level of service for everybody within the city and out in the District. We just feel and the whole intent of putting paramedics on the vehicles were to get down to the four to five minute response time. There is no way at the current level of Ada County for them to do that. Once you are outside of that four to five minute response time, especially in the Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 4 of 8 heart attacks and especially in strokes, you diminish the ability or the likelihood that the individual will recover and if he does there is liable to be lasting affects. So, I feel we have spent a lot of time and effort to improve the service and Ada County for whatever reason has decided to undermine that. I don't really know where they are coming from and I wasn't privy to the meeting the other day, so I don't know what their reasoning, but I just don't feel that what they are doing is enhancing a service. I am also concerned that the city can probably just ignore if they choose to or pass an ordinance, but since they do have control of EMS and the districts, I would hate to see them start dictating what you can do in a district and then lower the standards so that we have two levels of service. One level in the city and another one in the district just doesn't seem to be appropriate or in my opinion it just lacks any credibility. I mean we are here to serve our constituents who pay the taxes and anything that is done to diminish that I don't understand. It just doesn't seem to be appropriate and it doesn't seem to be very mature from my perspective. So, that is about alii have got to say. Do you have anything Terry? De Weerd: Mr. Vice-President. Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: Just to give an overview, last week we did go and meet with the county as Ron has indicated and we went on behalf of Council and the concerns that were raised at our last meeting, with the comments that the Clerk's Office provided, the minutes that we also provided to the Commissioner. We went with the purpose of understanding what problem this ordinance was to address and what specifically was broken. We also had a chance to get some clarification on a couple of the key points I think that Council had a concern over in who is in charge in the field? You know, what the intent of that was and a couple of other items and I think that both the Chief and Mr. Nary had written those down. I didn't bring my notes tonight with me, but what I did suggest at the end is that we write the - that the Chief write a letter outlining each of those concerns and that we get their written response because their response really did address some of the key elements of it. But, I want those in writing. Also, the Chief brought up the medical director and the decision-making aspect of that and Commissioner Yzaguirre seemed very open to looking at that format and looking at a new proposed structure that he wanted the Chief to make a proposal on and that he would then discuss that with the director of EMS as well as his attorneys and fellow Commissioners and at this point we will have a new Commissioner that had also indicated that he was very interested in finding some middle ground on this. So, I think we walked away from that meeting and for the Commissioners' benefit as well feeling that there was some good clarification provided. I don't know if we are all the way there yet and certainly our attorney has some - has worked with the Chief on some avenues that can be explored. Our ultimate goal again is the direction of both the Rural District and the Council is service to our citizens. Last year when we added Station No.4, we made the commitment Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 5 of 8 when we hired those personnel to put paramedics, the ALS onto our fire engines and that was an ideal time. It didn't cost our taxpayers additional money. These are personnel that we needed to put on anyway and it has tremendously improved the service to our community at low cost and that is what the key underlying point is when we went to that meeting is they stress the service to their constituents. Well, their constituents are ours and the Rural Districts and that is the underlying and the motivating aspect that we went to talk to them to get clarity. So, we have a partnership with them and they said they did not have any issue with Meridian. They said their concern was primarily in the service for ambulance and each of those we don't have any issue with them on. So, we are committed to working together to try and find that compromise or medium ground. I think first we just need to write that letter and really get in writing what their response is to know where we are at on some of the key elements that they said were misinterpreted. Is that an appropriate summary, Chief? Anderson: I think that is a very good summary, Mayor. There are a couple of issues that are still pretty critical. The one issue that they did clarify for us in the ordinance is a couple of places where it talks about to perform standby services that you have to have a license from Ada County and when you read the ordinance, it talks about that in two different sections. The director of Ada County EMS said that it is not his intent to make us get our personnel licensed or to get a license from them, however, as Bill Nary read that that could be interpreted two different ways because it is spelled out two different places in the contract. So, they did agree to clarify that. As far as some of the key sticking points - the key sticking points really are this medical directorate that they are requesting or not requesting, demanding that our medical director belong to and that their medical director would have ultimate final authority over and that medical directorate will have a major impact on such things as hiring, who we can hire, what the testing standards will be, what kind of continuing education those folks would be required to take and what standards they will be held to. There are a number of underlying tones in the ordinance that pretty much says that Ada County still has sole authority over all medical issues. So, there are still a number of key issues in the ordinance that while there was a glimmer of hope that Commissioner Yzaguirre indicated they would be willing to listen to; their EMS director and their attorney seemed intent and set on those things are necessary and we have to have them. I guess that would be my summary of kind of how that meeting went. Borton: In your discussions did you get any remarks from them about if the goal was always to make sure to provide the greatest service possible to the citizens? With regards to the medical director do they have stories or situations where they have run into problems of inconsistent hiring or training or staffing amongst county verses city that this is supposed to alleviate? Anderson: Mr. Vice-President as the Mayor indicated they made it quite clear that they don't have any issues with Meridian. They think that Meridian has a Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 6 of 8 high level of standard that the folks that we have hired are good paramedics. They mainly alluded to issues in other parts of the county. De Weerd: Or nation wide - sorry Mr. Vice-President. (Speaker unknown): Ron when you say Meridian did they intend to mean just the city or did they mean the city and the Rural Fire District, our whole service or do you know? Anderson: I couldn't honestly answer that. (Speaker unknown): Because that gets to questions that we have had and questions that Rich brings up about where are we with our joint powers and do we have second class citizens in the rural verses the city, which is not right? Nary: Mr. Vice-President I didn't get the impression from them that they draw any distinction. Now, they may at some other level, but at this meeting and maybe Chief Anderson might have had a different perspective, but I didn't get a sense from either Director Hagen or Commissioner Yzaguirre that they draw a distinction between the city and the rural district as two entities that are one entity. I think that when they were talking about Meridian, I think that they met the department that is managed by Chief Anderson and I don't think that they draw that distinction. I think that the parts of the discussion that were a little hard to follow was that as Chief Anderson pointed out a number of these discrepancies and some of it is really interpretive and their attorney did agree that it was interpretive - that they don't read it the same way that we do or maybe the 100 people that came and testified against it do. I think we might have pointed that out, but for example the circumstances about being in charge of mass gatherings and the medical oversight. That is all they said they intended to be in charge of was the medical needs of individuals either at a critical incident or mass gatherings and not necessarily wanting to be in charge of the incident itself, but yet the ordinance isn't very clear. They issue on standby like the Chief pointed out. In one section it said it is unlawful to provide standby service without a license. In a different section of the code it says that you don't need a license to provide standby service within your district. But, yet there is no reference in the section that makes it unlawful. So, it is some drafting issues, which of course happen when you rush things through and don't get opportunity to get them discussed and all that. They were at least willing to listen to those types of changes. I think the issue of applicability within the city verses the district wasn't really discussed because it is much more of a legal issue than it is that. I don't think Commissioner Yzaguirre or Director Hagen really wanted to talk about that particular issue on the applicability. They still believe that they have the authority, but they didn't as the Mayor said they didn't raise any examples. In fact, they said it was more in anticipation of potential future issues of consistency of service, but they didn't have any specific examples of service issues today with Meridian or anybody. They just said it was - you know as Chief Anderson Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 7 of 8 pointed out that all of the districts and all of the Fire Chiefs agree that consistent medical care across the city and county makes sense and they all supported that, but they all believe that that occurs today and that through the way the system is currently operating, the way the medical directors of the different agencies work together that all of that is happening and yet, there was some compelling need to make this change and this ordinance and create this medical director in a different format than what currently exists today, even though what exists today works. They didn't really have much to that other than their attorney commented that they have spent a lot of time in drafting and tried to put together an ordinance without getting much resolved and this was the way to get people to the table to talk about it. I have prettied that comment up. Borton: Council, any questions? De Weerd: Good job, Bill. Bird: Mr. Vice-President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: Hearing no more discussion, I move that we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 67 -2345( 1 )(f). Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to go into Executive Session. Roll Call Vote: Bird, aye; Rountree, aye; Borton, aye; THREE AYES. ONE VACANT. MOTION CARRIED. De Weerd: Rich, you will need to make a motion to go into Executive Session and then (inaudible--). Greene: I make a motion that the Meridian Rural Fire Protection District go into Executive Session based on the number that Keith wrote. Nary: 2345( 1 )(f). Leighton: Second. Greene: It has been moved and seconded to go into Executive Session. Hearing no further discussion I will call for a roll vote. Roll Call Vote: Greene, aye; Leighton, aye; Meridian City Council Joint Meeting January 2, 2007 Page 8 of 8 ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Item 4. Executive Session per Idaho Code 67-2345(1)(f): EXECUTIVE SESSION: Bird: I move we come out of Executive Session. Borton: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to come out of Executive Session. All in favor say aye. THREE AYES. ONE VACANT. MOTION CARRIED. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:02 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 2-/ blOt DATE APPROVED , fJ~Si"eI'VT Joe /?;"I-~