Agenda - 09-13-2011 - 1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ATTACHMENT 4 95 8/16/2011 Honorable County Commissioners, There are a few topics addressed in the fire study listed as weaknesses that we would like to address at the meeting on September 13th. The first being strained relationships between county agencies and fire and rescue agencies. Based on comments at the budget work sessions, there appears to be interpretations that the fire and rescue administrations do-not cooperate and -work together. This is far from being factual as the strained relationships are between county employees and the emergency responder agencies than operate in the county. Through lack of information transfer, sudden and unexpected reversal or denial of documented comments -by county staff, the relationships with the Chiefs has become strained. Secondly, the elimination of management positions due to budget restrictions needs- to- be reworded to "elimination -of management structure ": This -is particularly vital to -the- fire departments because we lost a dedicated Fire Marshall that worked directly with all the-fire departments. The rank structure has been removed, forcing all director positions under one - person -and centralizing authority -thus creating delays in work and decisions. Centralized control over decision- making eliminates the benefit of varied experiences and opinions-being utilized to make sound decisions. -It reduces the ability of key team members to take ownership - in the outcomes of change and it narrows the focus of change to just the opinion of the one in -harge. In today-'s stressful economic climate, we need to utilize the expertise of everyone we can in order to better serve the citizens in the most economical way possible. Lack of understanding of our past will destine us -to repeat our mistakes. Call processing delays is also listed as- a weakness in our system. Currently the communications center still uses paper run cards to- determine which department responds to an address. There is technology available that fixes all these issues and will speed up the call processing time. The lack of available data to quantify this should also be questioned in depth. There needs to be a -more active role in communicating with the fire and rescue departments -on software issues. There are programs that allow ease of operation for emergency services and the responders that include computers on emergency vehicles that show dispatches, but we need collaboration with ES about these products to make sure software we are currently using in house is compatible. This will reduce additional expense to the citizens by eliminating duplications in equipment and standardizing the purchase. We would also like to discuss the need for additional telecommunicators to ensure effective and safe call taking and dispatching of public safety units. Current telecommunicators are overloaded and the potential for mistakes is excessively high. EMS response delays are an issue countywide. Improvements have been seen by the fire departments on this topic. But, there is still a need for more EMS units. South Orange Rescue Squad (SORS) brings in volunteers to staff transport units when the county depletes its ambulances. Often times they are sent to Wal -Mart in Hillsborough for stand by only to be released without getting an opportunity to respond to a call. Priority is given to the county EMS trucks and it appears to be common practice to respond a county unit from UNC to the northern part of the county instead of utilizing the stand by unit already in Hillsborough This is one of quickest ways to get rid of volunteers