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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_Miscellaneous_11/09/1992_Fire-Rescue Task Force VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA Post Office Box 3273 . 357 Tequesta Drive Tequesta, Florida 33469 -0273 • (407) 575 -6200 Fax: (407) 575 -6203 �3 0 � 4 C H COUtA T E Q U E S T A F I R E - R E S C U E T A S K F O R C E M E E T I N G M I N U T E S N O V E M B E R 9, 1 9 9 2 I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL The Tequesta Fire - Rescue Task Force held a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, November 9, 1992 in the Village Hall, 357 Tequesta Drive, Tequesta, Florida. The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. by Chairman Wade Griest. Task Force members in attendance were: Chairman Wade Griest, Vice Chairman Robert Mortimer, Councilmember Ron T. Mackail, Mervin Crockett, Alec Cameron, Dr. Stanley Jacobs, and Hal Hutchinson. Mayor Earl L. Collings was also in attendance. Staff members present were: Village Manager, Thomas G. Bradford; Joann Manganiello, Village Clerk; Police Chief Carl Roderick and Deputy Building Official, Steven Kennedy. Thomas Rodth arrived at 4:33 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA o Mayor Collings desired to comment before Agenda Item III. o Boardmember Crockett asked to comment before Agenda Item III. o Village Manager Bradford asked to comment before Agenda Item III. 0 Chairman Griest stated he also desired to add some comments, as well as expressing comments given to him by Glenn Kloiber. o Boardmember Hutchinson asked to give a Round 2 Report in response to Mr. Bradford's Fire Rescue Report. o Boardmember Jacobs asked to answer things from last Fire /Rescue Meeting. Recycled Paper Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 2 --------------------- Boardmember Rodth moved to approve the Agenda as amended. Councilmember Mackail seconded the motion. The vote on the motion was: Mervin Crockett - for Ron T. Mackail - for Wade Griest - for Robert Mortimer - for Dr. Stanley Jacobs - for Alec Cameron - for Hal Hutchinson - for Thomas Rodth - for The motion was therefore passed and adopted. o Mayor Collings stated he would: 1) try to get the Tequesta Fire /Rescue Task Force back on track; 2) have strong remarks to make to the public; and 3) equally strong remarks to make to the Task Force. Mayor Collings stated he is appalled at the amount of bickering and personal acrimony which has surfaced in what should be a thoughtful, objective analysis of our fire /rescue services. It almost, from the very beginning, seems that two sides have been chosen, with one side trying to respond to the concerns of whether there is a better way to buy fire /rescue services for Tequesta to allow the Village more control of its future and minimize the heavy cost. The other side has thrown up every possible objection to any change, with personal, bitter attacks which limit any objective study environment. Written complaints have stated that the Task Force is "stacked ", and that one Task Force member and Mr. Bradford desire a Tequesta Fire /Rescue Department regardless of the cost and whether or not services are comparable. Mayor Collings stated he has neither read nor heard anything that would cause one to come to those conclusions. He expounded on other challenges and complaints by citizens that the Task Force members were not qualified to do a study of fire /rescue service and rebutted those complaints by naming the credentials of the Task Force members. He assured the public that the Task force are fellow citizens with no hidden Agendas - therefore, the public, as well, should put away any hidden Agendas they might have. Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 3 --------------- - - - - -- Directed to the Task Force, Mayor Collings stated: the Task Force may have more time to study the issue than they expect and asked if they had called Palm Beach County Fire Chief Brice to see what latitude they have, and suggested they ask Chief Brice to make a presentation to the Task Force; questioned why the Task Force decided against going out for bids when the Task Force's most knowledgeable member, Fire Chief Mortimer, felt bids should be sought; to say that Jupiter Inlet Colony will not be sharing in startup costs because they haven't the money is not a sound reason. Perhaps a Fire Enterprise Fund could be created; - suggested that the Task Force re -align itself in an objective, task - oriented study of these and other subjects with all members working for a common goal. If there are disagreements on the Task Force, they should be worked out within the group and not use them to feed negative outside opinion. III. ESTIMATE OF PRIVATE SERVICE PROVIDER COSTS OF FIRE /RESCUE. Village Manager Bradford distributed to the Task Force copies of a report on estimated cost of contracted service, as requested by the Task Force at its last meeting. (See attachment). The report reflected salary /wages; overtime; educational incentive; FICA taxes; retirement; life /health insurance; worker's compensation; and employee physicals - totaling an overall savings for a complete fiscal year of $105,435 or 13.8 %. This scenario assumes Tequesta provides all operating supplies, living quarters, and vehicles. Boardmember Hutchinson stated he saw no profit margin included in the analysis. Mr. Bradford answered he did not know what the profit margin would be, but that according to information he has reviewed, it has been discovered that the profit margin is very thin in contractual services of this nature (i.e., 1- 2%) . Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 4 --------------------- Councilmember Mackail felt it was necessary to leave no stone unturned. Therefore, he felt it imperative that outside bids be sought so the Task Force could make an intelligent decision and choose the best option available. Vice Chairman Mortimer stated he felt it would take approximately three to four months to implement a fire department. Therefore, the some members of the Board felt they might even have until May, 1993 to receive bids from outside providers, stating that they felt more comfortable with the Village in control of the station, apparatus and other miscellaneous equipment. Mr. Bradford stated he was overly conservative about the timeframe, since it would be his job to do the implementation. IV. CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF FIRE /RESCUE OPTIONS FOR TEQUESTA AND JUPITER INLET COLONY. o Chairman Griest stated that after much survey and research regarding fire /rescue, it was his recommendation that the Village of Tequesta, along with Jupiter Inlet Colony, develop their own fire department, and contract with North County Ambulance for rescue services, with Interlocal Agreements with Martin County and Palm Beach County. o Boardmember Crockett commented on Mr. Bradford's Fire /Rescue Report and Boardmember Hutchinson's response to the Report. Some of his remarks were: He felt any analyses of 'equal and better' and 'comparable' would be subjective, with the only objective measurement being the insurance rating (Class 4); With his review of salaries, Boardmember Crockett felt that, with the exception of Palm Beach County, the Bradford Fire Rescue Report was in line. He pointed out further that the main difference between Mr. Bradford's Report and Boardmember Hutchinson's analyses of the Report were Boardmember Hutchinson's overhead costs for administration of $200,000. He was in support of a Tequesta fire department with sixteen permanent personnel, contracting with North County Ambulance and Jupiter Inlet Colony, but with Jupiter Inlet Colony paying part of the startup costs. Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 5 --------------------- Councilmember Mackail left the meeting at 5:40 p.m. Village Manager Bradford estimated that additional administrative costs could be increased legal expenses (no more than approximately $5,000 /year), and part -time secretarial services no more than $5,000 /year), with no other impact on administration. Chairman Griest commented on a mis- statement printed in last week's Palm Beach Post which stated that the Tequesta Fire Rescue Task Force had concluded that it was too expensive for the Village to develop its own independent fire /rescue department. Mr. Griest wrote a letter of correction to the Post, making the Post aware that the statement was false, and insisted that a corrected statement as appeared in his letter be printed immediately. A correction was printed, but mis- quoted by the Post. o Boardmember Hutchinson presented the second portion of his analysis of Mr. Bradford's Fire Rescue Report (copy attached). 1) Boardmember Hutchinson felt the Village Manager used an inaccurate method of projecting sick time use; Village Manager Bradford agreed a mistake was made relative to sick time: the calculation was made based upon the historical sick time used by Tequesta employees. 2) he felt the Report failed to project any expenses for time off due to injuries suffered in the line of duty; Mr. Bradford agreed the Report does fail to do so, but that it was unnecessary, since he compared the overtime number to other departments, the amount of which exceeds other departments to which he compared. The same applied to training. 3) he felt there was an unbudgeted expense item omitted of overtime for personnel on alarms after hours; Mr. Bradford felt budgeting for overtime was unnecessary relative to after - hour alarms since it would be used rarely. 4) he felt training needs of the proposed department were omitted as well as expenses for personnel attending training courses; (see number 2 above). 5) and with a similar error in vacation time calculations; Mr. Bradford stated his report was generous relative to vacation time. The IFAA contract in Palm Beach Gardens was used as a guide, using their format for vacation time on a monthly basis and calculated out. Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 6 --------------- - - - - -- Chairman Griest stated he was told by Chief Iaconna that Palm Beach County has no record of service calls for Tequesta before 1989. Battalion Chief Fredrickson commented from the audience stating that all records were manual up to that time when the computer system went on line. That type of data was not tracked on a computer at that time. Hard copy records do exist but it would take much time - consuming digging in the archives to discover the specific data requested. Validation from October 1, 1991 through August 31, 1992 show that there were 1095 calls from Station 11 within the geographic area of Tequesta for fire and EMS, with perhaps a 5% error in address and physical boundaries. Chairman Griest stated he had a comment to refer to the Board from Mr. Kloiber, a local citizen. It is Mr. Glenn Kloiber's opinion that Tequesta should not opt out of PBC F /R. V. ANY OTHER MATTERS A. Village Manager Bradford reported he had approached the Village Attorney regarding any requirements relative to bidding for services. The Village Attorney stated that, to his knowledge, there is no State Statute or Village Ordinance which requires a municipality to bid out any service they may want, except for architectural, engineering, and landscape architecture services. B. The Board determined to move the Fire Rescue Task Force Meeting originally scheduled for November 25 (the day before Thanksgiving) to Monday, November 23. C. The Board discussed reconsidering their previous decision not to formally seek bids for outside contract fire rescue service. Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 7 --------------------- Boardmember Rodth moved that outside informal quotes be sought from Wackenhut, Palm Beach Gardens, and anyone else, to provide manpower to provide fire and EMS support for Tequesta for the startup period 1993 through five years. Boardmember Cameron seconded the motion. The vote on the motion was: Mervin Crockett - for Wade Griest - for Robert Mortimer - for Dr. Stanley Jacobs - for Alec Cameron - for Hal Hutchinson - for Thomas Rodth - for The motion was therefore passed and adopted. VI. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Mr. Mayo, representative for Entire Properties, Inc. stated he would like to see Tequesta maintain its present level of service for fire rescue. He questioned why Mr. Bradford stated there would be fifteen person fire department if an outside service is used, when there are actually only ten. He also felt the wage scale as presented in the Tequesta Fire Rescue Report needed to be re- visited. Boardmember Jacobs left the meeting at 6:58 p.m. Fire - Rescue Task Force Meeting Minutes November 9, 1992 Page 8 --------------- - - - - -- VII. ADJOURNMENT There being no other matters before the Board Boardmember Rodth moved that the meeting be adjourned. Boardmember Hutchinson seconded the motion. The vote on the motion was: Mervin Crockett - for Wade Griest - for Robert Mortimer - for Alec Cameron - for Hal Hutchinson - for Thomas Rodth - for t; the meeting was adjourned at 7:00 P.M. � Respectfully submitted, Fran Bitters Recording Secretary Date Approved: ATTEST: ann Manganie&Ao Village Clerk