City Council Committee Agendas

Public Safety Meeting June 5, 2019 Attendee: Richard Brocksmith, Iris Carias, Mary Hudson, Mark Hulst, Jill Bourdreau, , Gary Molenaar, Melissa Beaton, Erin Moberg, Chief Jerry Dodd, Chief Bryan Brice, Peter Donovan and Assistant Chief Bryan Harris. Approval of Minutes: Council Member Hudson made a motion to approve the minutes, motion seconded by Council Member Hulst. Councilmember Brocksmith requested the following changes: Bottom of page 3, under the library section, the agreement has been worked on since 2018. Motion passed with changes. Hiring Process • The transition to the Ambulance billing resulted in only 14 viable candidates from Central Valley. The department started January 1st one short. • The department received a resignation from a Paramedic effective May 31st. This resignation created a second firefighter/paramedic position opening. • The department has made an offer to a viable candidate from the existing list. Upon acceptance and completion of the pre-hiring medical and psychological, the newest candidate will be on shift August 1st. • The department is currently in the middle of the offer process with a firefighter candidate. Upon successful completion of the hiring process this candidate will start on July 1st. • Battalion Chief testing is occurring on June 25th & 26th at Salem Lutheran Church. Received 1 internal candidate and 13 external candidates. • Potential opening coming forward in our Administrative staff. • Nurse Educator started on May 16th. EMS Update • Billing contract is currently with System Design. Chief Brice is currently researching alternative billing solutions as there are issue with customer services and timeliness in their processing time. Looking at an ambulance billing company that is being used by the City of Bellingham. Chief will be bringing forward a staff report to change billing companies. • Chief Brice handed out a recap of last month’s billing status – and handed out an updated amount for May billing. • Chief Brice will be bringing forward to council a request to purchase a new ambulance. Gary Owens will be at Council to address any questions. The cost of a completely outfitted ambulance is $290,000. Fire Hydrant Agreement  • Chief Brice brought forward an agreement to move the ownership of the hydrants to PUD. PUD board approved the contract with one change – the contract will remove the need for PUD to provide insurance to their hydrants. Chief Brice will bring it back to council on June 26th. Operative IQ Overview • Assistant Chief Harris to demo the Operative IQ logistics program. It manages all the EMS supplies – especially narcotics. • This new program allows us to track the narcotics and meet DEA standards for narcotic control. • Additionally each apparatus has a locked keybox where narcotics are stored on the vehicle. Every paramedic employee has an individual ID for tracking purposes. Good of the Order • Councilmember Hudson meet with other local City Council members to discuss the current situation regarding Homelessness. The goal is to get all the City’s on the same page. The discussion was on a variety of topics including housing, etc. Adjourn: 6:51 pm