Public Safety (Subcommittee of the City Council)

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES Wednesday April 11th, 2018 Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Department 509 Laurel Hill Road, Norwich 7:00 PM Committee Members Present: Alderman William Nash, Alderman Joseph A. DeLucia, and Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick Committee Members Absent: None Administration and Staff Present: Chief Patrick Daley, Norwich Police Department; John Salomone, City Manager, City of Norwich; and Christopher LaRose, Assistant General Manager, Norwich Public Utilities. Volunteer/Central Fire Departments and Others: Occum Chief Bob LaChapelle; Taftville Chief Timothy Jencks and Deputy Chief Tom Jencks; Norwich Chief Scott Merchant, Captain Mike Dzavit, Kyle Seitz, Brendan Johnson and Christopher Paige; East Great Plains Chief Keith Milton; Laurel Hill: Deputy Chief Jerry Strange, Michael Carlos and Jerry Martin; Yantic Chief Frank Blanchard, Captain Bob Allen, Lieutenant Raymond Henry and Ryan Mocek. Citizens Present: Jerry Martin of 19 Gilette Road and Mike Dzavit of 248 Browning Road. I. Call to Order and Quorum: Alderman Nash called the meeting to order at 7:23 PM. There was a quorum present. II. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of Wednesday 14, 2018 Alderman Nash motioned, seconded by Alderwoman Philbrick, to approve the Wednesday 14, 2018 meeting minutes. The motion passed unanimously. III. Correspondence: None. IV. Citizen Comment: a) Jerry Martin of 19 Gilette Road wished to thank all fire fighters that worked on the Boyd’s Junk Yard fire right around corner from his home. He stated the fire fighters did a great job working together in unison and made me very proud to be a Norwich citizen.  b) Mike Dzavit of 248 Browning Road asked if there was any additional information available on the connectivity issue he had brought up at last month’s meeting. He feels as though it keeps getting pushed back. Alderman Nash said he made a call to Leon regarding cars and was told it’s being worked on. He said he would try to get a more specific time frame. Mike added that this has been going on years he is just trying to bring this issue to the attention of the right people who can get it solved as the city has plenty of IT resources through NPU but it seems like every time the connectivity issue is discussed no one knows who to bring together. Lieutenant Raymond Henry added that he had gotten an email with an October end date, while it isn’t ideal but if Mike wishes he can get in touch with Josh. Jerry Strange of 120 William Street stated he had gotten a time frame of April 23rd for the server completely installing bridge by end of May depending on workload via Josh, through Erin, down to himself. V. Old Business: a) Apparatus/ Equipment Financing: – Chief Frank Blanchard state Yantic will have specifications ready on 20th. VI. New Business: a) Norwich Public Utilities Update – Assistant General Manager Christopher LaRose reported they expect to have the pressure tank update done in 4-6 weeks at worse case. NPU also may be taking the Fairview tank offline for a few weeks starting next week, but they will let dispatch know; need to install new air system. He added to assist with the departments’ IT issue what NPU needs is a documented list of what needs to be accomplished and then they can go from there. b) Emergency Mgmt: Michael Carlos reported on behalf of Emergency Management that membership is on the rise. They hosted an open house last month with a lot of people in attendance who was interested in joining. Emergency Management also held a certification class last month that had a good turnout. c) American Ambulance: None. d) Norwich Police Department: Chief Patrick Daley reported they have one new officer in training. The department executed a couple drug related search warrants in the previous month and they are continuing to focus on the opiate epidemic. They are also continuing to address speeding and are in middle of distracted driving campaign; all of which are being funded through state of CT. e) Fire House Status Updates: Taftville: Chief Timothy Jencks reported they currently have 40 members and had 45 calls last month. He said he spoke to Hathaway earlier today and everything went to contractor for their firehouse addition. Taftville has a meeting with sales representative from Pierce and their specifications are almost done. East Great Plains: Chief Keith Milton stated they had 102 calls last month, 4 new members and about 50 active. They are holding a regular training the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. The department’s apparatus went through routine maintenance. Chief Milton stated their truck specifications are about complete they’re just doing fine tuning. He said they are waiting on one more quote for the egress on the side of the building. Laurel Hill’s 75th anniversary is coming up in August and they will be having a breakfast fundraiser May 6th 10-12 at Billy Wilson’s with all proceeds going towards the 75th anniversary. Yantic: Chief Blanchard reported they had an increase last month with 70 calls average is about 50. Their truck specifications go to finance on schedule. They have been running into an issue with Engine 32 which will be a $2,200 expense on replacing lights as the replacement lights are quartz. Raymond at fleet told the chief he can’t keep repairing the existing lights. Chief Blanchard said they would reach out to the city manager next week as their budget is already finished. Yantic has ongoing training and held a rec. class last week that was attended by many of the departments. They are very close to completing the Fire Marshall Abatement to the station as they had the final meeting with their architect last week. Chief Blanchard said they should be good in about a week to get everything over to finance. Laurel Hill: Deputy Chief Jerry Strange reported they currently have 35 members and 15-20 calls so far this year. They are in the process of replacing their camera and the department rolled out Target Solutions as an online training tool and it seems to be very popular. It allows members to create PowerPoint’s in less time and gives more time for hands-on work. Laurel Hill submitted their truck specifications in February. Currently their ETV and squad truck is at the city garage for inspection. Occum: None. Norwich: Chief Scott Merchant reported Norwich has normal calls the past month, member Joe Bradley is still the in fire marshal class and they’ve had no major breakdowns. Upgrades have been made to both stations for vehicle exhaust. He said their specifications are almost finished. Chief Merchant reported the reversed 911 system was tested but he’s not sure on the results. Norwich Fire Department is working on putting together a tanker task force to eliminate confusion in future; Chief Milton has put together a list of tankers in area about how system would work and he has forwarded to that to Chief Scandariato so they may work on it together. VI. Other: a) Alderman Nash asked about having volunteers involved in EAP system with counseling at no cost to volunteers and was told while the city can offer counseling for critical incidents there would be a charge for follow- ups. He said Mrs. Marks is looking into what we can do in the future to eliminate this cost. b) Chief Daly stated he was approached by Driscoll about 16 state municipalities that are participating in a class action law suit again ‘Big Pharma’ regarding the opiate epidemic. The goal in this lawsuit would be the pharmaceutical companies found at fault would pay money back due to losses. Chief Daly stated the department is treating all opiate deaths as clients and criminal investigations and that he supports corporation council’s’ belief that Norwich should get involved in the lawsuit. He said while it won’t fix the ultimate problem it will help pay compensate for a lot of the thing the city and department has had to do. The committee has until May 14th to join the lawsuit and he added there are currently two law firms competing to represent the municipalities pro-bono. Alderman Nash moved to suspend the rules at 7:45 PM. He moved to add Opiate Lawsuit to the Agenda under Other, seconded by Alderwoman Philbrick and Alderman DeLucia. Alderwoman Philbrick asked if we get involved in this lawsuit is there any cost to the city? Chief Daly told her there is not. Alderwoman Philbrick also asked where the recouped funds would end up. Chief Daly state he believed they would go into the general fund as it would come through as a class action settlement; it would be up to the council where to appropriate the funds. City Manager John Salomone said they would be able to stipulate wherever they want the funds to go but it’s likely something there wouldn’t be an answer on until the lawsuit is settled. He also added that whether we chose to actively become part of the class action suit or not we will likely receive some type of settlement in the case of a positive result as the class action covers all municipalities in the state. Alderman Nash asked if we know how the percentage is split up for compensation. Chief Daly state since we are in the top four for opiate deaths in the state he believes Norwich would receive a higher percentage but he also would make that argument for the city. John Salomone said if we chose to become involved he will find out the specifics.  Under suspension of rules Alderman Nash put forward the motion to recommend to the City Council to be in favor of participation in the lawsuit, seconded by Alderman DeLucia and Alderwoman Philbrick. VII. VIII. Adjournment: Upon a motion by Alderman Nash, seconded by Alderman DeLucia, the meeting was unanimously adjourned at 7:49pm Respectfully Submitted, Katherine Rose