Measure P Committee Meeting

Measure P Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes December 1, 2016 The Measure P Oversight Committee Meeting was called to order by Fire Chief Tim Marrison at the hour of 5:30 p.m. at Los Banos Fire Station No. 1, 333 7th Street, Los Banos, CA. Committee Members and staff present: Mark Bodley; Gerry Giesel; Eric Popish; Diana Thurston; Tim Marrison, Fire Chief; Gary Brizzee, Police Chief; Mason Hurley, Assistant Fire Chief; Kim Tomas, Staff Accountant; Sonya Williams, Finance Director; and Mary Lou Gilardi, Administrative Assistant. Chief Marrison welcomed everyone and started the meeting off by explaining that the reason we called this meeting was because, at the last meeting, there were some concerns about waiting too long in between meetings to review all the information. Agenda Item I Chief Marrison introduced Kim Tomas, Staff Accountant, to review each of the Quarterly Reports with the Committee. Kim Tomas reviewed each of the Quarterly Reports beginning with FY 15-16 4th Quarter. She explained that the City is still going through their audit, and once the audit is complete, a Final 4th Quarter Report will be generated. Revenues will be up in the final report because of the true-ups that happen. She explained the revenues for both Police and Fire comparing what was budgeted to the Year-to-date Actual. Kim also reviewed the expenditures for both departments noting that Measure A still had employees being paid from it in Fire and Police. Both Police and Fire have miscellaneous revenues that consist of grant funding for the air cards and strike team reimbursement for those individuals that actually go out on strike team assignments. Kim also explained in detail how the sales tax revenues are always two months behind and how true-up is done at the end of the year. If anyone has any questions, she’d be happy to answer at this time. Committee Member Giesel wanted clarification on the revenues that we are waiting for, and if those are to offset some of the expenditures. Kim Tomas explained that there might be something more on the pension expense which gets completed through the audit. Expenditures are pretty solid, waiting on revenues from the State. She went on to review the Expenditures for staffing, supplies & services. On the 1st Quarter Report FY 16-17, Kim explained that there is a lot less revenue. She reiterated how the sales tax payments are received with pre-payments for the quarter and then true-up at the end. She also explained if the true-up comes in after our recognition period, it is recorded in the next fiscal year. Supplies and Services expenditures are at 60% for Police and 33% for Fire due to a network server replacement that is happening with IT. Fire has only expended 1% of their Capital Outlay because the money budgeted is for the fueling facility and that will begin very soon. Chief Marrison explained that in February we will release the RFP and most of that money budgeted will get expended. Kim Tomas indicated that the two biggest things to note are that we don’t have any more personnel being paid out of Measure A/K. Those individuals have been moved back into the General Fund. And we added a police officer out of Measure P per the Ordinance for Year 12. Diana Thurston asked if we’ve seen any of the tax dollars for Hobby Lobby? Sonya Williams explained that will take a while to see on the reports since they are behind when they present them to us, and we don’t know how they will be filing. She assumes that they will be filing quarterly. Diana mentioned that she felt we probably lost a lot of sales tax income when we lost Lowe’s. Finance Director Williams reassured her that a lot of those sales tax dollars were picked up by Home Depot. It wasn’t as large a hit as one might think. She also indicated that we are expecting great things from Hobby Lobby. It was moved by Diana Thurston, seconded by Mark Bodley to approve the 2015/16 Preliminary 4th Quarter Measure P Report and the 2016/17 1st Quarter Measure P Report as submitted by staff. Motion carried unanimously. Agenda Item II Chief Marrison explained that the Fire Department and Police Department had received a Homeland Security Grant for $50,000 to purchase a split fuel tank 3000/1000 gallon to replace our 500 gallon diesel tank. The RFP came in at $90,000 to put that tank in. We knew that the grant would not be enough money for the project so there was money allocated in our budgets to cover the rest of the cost. The tank is ordered. The Permit to install will be approved on Monday, and the tank is scheduled to be set on 12/13/16. Tim explained the entire process of placing the tank here at our facility. Once the concrete is poured in the back, the tank will get slid over on the new foundation after February/March. All fuel for public safety will be on generator power, and we will have a secure facility for both Police and Fire to fuel up their vehicles. This project will benefit 2 both departments greatly. Only Police and Fire will use this fueling facility unless we have a disaster in the City where Public Works may need to use. This convault will have a cardlock so that every employee that fuels up will be tracked. Later on down the road, we hope to have a canopy over the fueling area to protect our employees from the weather. Tim also indicated that when the concrete is poured, the center will be left open for the tower to be built. We’ll know more in 6 – 7 months to see if Measure P will be healthy enough to start the training facility. Committee Member Giesel asked if there was a cost savings for the fuel. Chief Marrison stated that there is some cost savings. After some discussion among staff and committee members, it was stated that the fuel costs will probably not be that substantial because they are distributed among various accounts. He also informed the committee that since his last Big 5 Meeting, there was another $2,800 available that other jurisdictions did not use so we got that amount allocated towards our fueling facility project as well. Marrison stated that this concrete is not only serving for the fueling facility, but the training tower as well. Committee Member Popish asked if the training tower was still waiting on the budget? Marrison stated now that the Captain is out of Measure A, that fund should build up a lot faster now. We'll sit down with Sonya during our budget process to see where we are and whether or not there is something that can be budgeted for in July 2017. Agenda Item III Chief Marrison stated that a Review of the 20 Year Expenditure Plan was put on this agenda so that the committee could see what has been accomplished and what's left to accomplish. We are in year 13 of this plan, and we have accomplished the majority of the items we said we wanted to do. Basically the only things left on this plan are the facilities. The employees have been hired, the equipment on here has been purchased, the MDTs - the technology and vehicle maintenance, that is something that we see annually. We will still have annual occurrences, but as far as one time purchases, we are pretty much done with the exception of the facilities. Chief Brizzee and Chief Marrison will sit down to review what we will need for the next 10 year plan. For example, on year one of the 20 year plan, we spent $90,000 to purchase SCBAs. So those units are 13 years old now. We need to look at what the life span is on that equipment, and at some point, it might be something that we put in the next 5 years to replace those units. We have them serviced and tested annually, but maybe at the 15 year mark, we might want to look at replacing those again so that we have some good reliable equipment. 3 We wanted to have the committee see where we were on this plan so that you can answer to the citizens of our community. We have done what we said we were going to do. There was a little bit of a down side when we had to use the facilities money for manpower for a few years, but other than that we met our 20 year plan. It was mentioned by a committee member that the citizens approved the redirection of our monies to cover for manpower during the recession. It was also inquired by one of our committee members when we would be able to hire more employees? Chief Marrison stated that we haven't added any new personnel for some time, with the exception of the police officer that was added this year that was in the Measure P 20 Year Expenditure Plan, but look at how many people we took out of Measure P in the last couple years and added to the General Fund. The General Fund has accepted a number of employees that it didn't have a few years ago. We're hoping that the General Fund continues to grow and stay healthy. All of our Departments need to hire more personnel. With the development happening, all these new homes being built will be paying Community Facilities District Fees, and when all of these homes are built and sold, the fees that will be paid will hopefully be able to fund more Public Safety employees in the future. Chief Marrison stated that we are hoping that the recovery continues because all the Departments are hurting for more staff. Agenda Item IV Committee Member Reports: Committee Member Thurston stated that in reviewing the report, she feels very good about Measure P and everything that has been accomplished. She also indicated that she has not ever heard one thing negative about Measure P. Committee Member Bodley stated that we were very fortunate that Measure P passed because it was the same time that we had the drop in all of the economy. At least there was some funding to keep police and fire going, maybe not at the level we would've liked it to be. Committee Member Giesel complimented staff because they have presented the facts very well to the committee by providing them with all the pertinent information. He also mentioned that he just came back from a Museum meeting and he understands that Fire Department is putting together a History book. Giesel deferred that back to Chief Marrison to report. Committee Member Popish indicated that he is familiar with the Training Tower Facilities, but he inquired about the Police Facilities. 4 Agenda Item V Chief Brizzee advised the committee that the Police Department has been in their current facility since 1969. It is our number one priority to build a new Police Station, and we have seen more progress in the last 12 to 18 months than we've seen in years. Brizzee thinks that in his career, he will see a new Police Facility. We are in negotiations with a landowner. Finance Director Sonya Williams interjected that they are actually trying to get approval from Council on next Wednesday's agenda to start negotiations with a landowner to purchase the land for the Police Facility. If that does pass and Council approves it, they will begin negotiations for the purchase of the property and begin looking at designs and everything for new Police Station and talking about bonding out. Chief Brizzee continued that once we get through negotiations with a landowner, a needs assessment can take anywhere from 6 - 10 months, bids for construction, 18 months or so later, you will have a new $30 million facility. In regard to staffing, there are currently no open Police Officer positions. We have one guy that just started the academy on November 28th and he'll graduate in May. We just swore in a new officer on November 16th, and we gave a conditional offer to another trainee who graduates from the academy on February 14th. His employment is contingent upon his graduation from the academy. Unfortunately, the dispatch center has been taking hits. Chief Brizzee explained that one dispatcher just had to have an emergency appendectomy today. We just hired a new dispatcher, but they take 12 weeks to train, and we are currently recruiting for two open positions. Its a struggle. It seems like we gain a few and then lose a few. We just heard a rumor that one of our police officers has recently applied for a position with UC Merced, and it's true. We can't compete with the wages and some of the benefits that they offer. We anticipate that there would be no reason that they wouldn't hire him. On another note, Police Department has some new cars. Crime is down from last year. Activity is pretty consistent, but the criminal activity is down. We are doing a lot of pro- active stuff that registers as a call, but crime in the sense of gang shootings and things of that nature are down from last year. Committee Member Thurston inquired about domestic violence. Brizzee advised that they just had their Peace for Families March the other day. He indicated that domestic violence calls were up very slightly. We had 15 - 20 events last year for the first 11 months of the year compared to this year in the first 11 months. Thurston indicated that there has been in increase in last 12 months rapes. . . there have been a couple rapes within the last 2 months. She is involved with Valley Crisis Center. 5 Brizzee agreed that they have all been reported. They are not stranger abduction cases. Generally these calls are an acquaintance, a former spouse, or boyfriend or significant other. Valley Crisis Center is a big partner of ours. We rent them their office space in the annex for $1 Thurston added that there needs to be more education on this topic and any chance for any type of classes, she knows that the Valley Crisis Center would be happy to partner with the Police Department on these. Fire Chief Marrison spoke briefly about the terms of the Measure P Committee Members. When appointed to Measure P Committee, it is for a 3 year term. Three of our members terms will be expiring on December 31st (Arlene Cardoza, Tom Neeb and Gerry Giesel). We have received letters from Tom Neeb and Gerry Giesel expressing an interest in continuing to serve on the committee for another term. However, Arlene Cardoza will not be renewing her term. The City has advertised for committees and has received three applications for vacancy. Chiefs Brizzee and Marrison will be reviewing the three new applications to make a recommendation to Council. In regard to the History Book that the Fire Department is putting together, Chief Marrison indicated that 28 years ago when he started with the Department, he collected all pertinent information relating to the Fire Department. He has had boxes of information and articles in his office for years, but not a lot of time to put together. He became good friends with Charles Sawyer, and at one point, joined the Museum Board to get as much history as he could. He also interviewed a lot of the old volunteers who are now deceased and got pictures from family members. We are working with Dan at the Museum right now and he has been fantastic. A little bit of an update on Station 3. There is an annexation being proposed by a developer. It is a great annexation, and one that needs to happen. The problem is that the annexation along with the number of other annexations in our City is outside the National Standard Response Area. The City is having a hard time annexing and building in an area outside of our timely response area. We're in negotiations with the developer to help us build Station #3. If Developer will put his fee money up front to help us build Station #3, and when he builds the houses, he won't have to pay any of those fees then because he'll already have paid it. That's basically what we're asking him to do, but there are some issues with an amenity fee that the developer does not want to pay. That amenity fee was adopted back in 2008 so this fee is nothing new. Station #3 will probably be in the area around Place Road behind Home Depot so it will cover both the east and south ends of town that are currently outside our Response Area. If this deal with the developer falls through, we may have to rely on impact fees and Measure P after the Training Tower gets built. We're always looking and trying to figure out how to build that Station as soon as we can so that we can start covering that portion of town. 6 Marrison added that our call volume has increased from last year's 2500 calls to the first 11 months of this year; we are already at 2620 calls for service. Chief Marrison believes we will be pushing 2800 to 2900 calls this year. We had a pretty significant fire yesterday at 3 a.m. This fire could've been devastating. We put the fire out quickly. Luckily we were able to put the fire out before it involved with all of the material inside the building. Chief named some of the most recent fires we have been responding to. Chief Marrison will be working with Finance next month. Homeland Security has allotted $104,000 to Merced City Fire Department and City of Los Banos Fire Department to purchase decontamination trailers. Its a mobile unit, to where if we have multiple people contaminated by a chemical or a terrorist attack, then we can roll this trailer up, people can walk in one side, strip down, and get a shower, walk in another room and put on some clothing and walk out the other side. We can do hundreds of people in a matter of an hour. Merced Fire Department has ordered their trailer, and they should get theirs in the next month. Our trailer would come out of 2016 Homeland Security monies, so it hasn't been approved by the Feds yet. By the end of December that will be approved. Our goal is to make the purchase and Homeland Security will reimburse. Giesel asked if this unit would serve the surrounding communities like Dos Palos and Gustine. Chief Marrison indicated that's why Los Banos and Merced are getting them because we are centrally located on each side of the County. It would be for operational area use, its not owned by us. It would be used wherever it might be needed. Chief Marrison advised that Asst. Chief Hurley got his new truck today. It was approved in the July budget. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Tim Marrison Fire Chief Measure P Min161201.doc 7