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A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to close the public hearing. VOTE: UNANIMOUS A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to approve and authorize the Chair to sign both resolutions regarding legislative matters, which are incorporated herein by reference. VOTE: UNANIMOUS The Board of County Commissioners indicated that they would like to schedule a meeting to talk with their local legislators. Presentation by EMS Director Nick Waters John Link made reference to a newspaper article, which included statements indicating that with the cuts in the County budget it would be unsafe for certain functions in the EMS department to be conducted. He asked Nick Waters to clarify this because he thinks that full and correct information should be provided to the citizens. Nick Waters said that the article talked about the maintenance and condition of ambulances as recorded on the County's maintenance record. He said that it was not the County's maintenance record, but a software package that the squad uses to relay what they see as deficiencies with the trucks when they inspect them. It allows them to report anything that needs to be repaired. The second issue was that a wheel fell off a truck. This is true and they are concerned about that. He immediately called the County's Risk Manager and they investigated the incident. Though the cause was inconclusive, they did say that it could have been prevented had the truck stopped when they first heard or felt the noise. When the County changed to modular ambulances, they did that with the intention of having prolonged life of the units. They asked that three units be considered in next year's budget. Nick Waters said that they have been doing some research getting prepared for a meeting with the Board of Directors on June 27`h to talk to them about some operational issues. One issue is abusive driving by some of their members, which leads to mechanical problems. From December 6 to June 13 there have been 95 people driving these vehicles. During the same period of time, there have been 230 reports of some type of problem (burnt out light bulbs to brake failure). One third of those were generated by four people. There are some issues that they will address with the squads at a meeting next Thursday evening. Operationally, it is not critical that they replace these three trucks and he does not have a problem with delaying the purchase of these three vehicles. He does not think that it poses a hazard or safety issue for the EMS service. The vehicles are only as safe as the drivers. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has a significant amount of trust in Nick Waters and his EMS operation. He emphasized that the article was written by the News of Orange and that other articles have been written by the News of Orange, which have been untrue. He would like to write a letter to the News of Orange and set the record straight. He is proud of Orange County's EMS program. Commissioner Carey agreed that this was a lack of responsible journalism. He asked that Nick Waters analyze the reports coming in for repairs to see if there is a safety problem and the extent of the problem. Commissioner Brown clarified that reporting is only part of the program and the newspaper article does not indicate that the other part of the program lists the corrective action taken for each reported repair. The article does not address the quality of service provided to Orange County by EMS. Nick Waters assured the Board that he would work with the Manager to bring an ambulance replacement schedule forward.