Agenda - 12-03-2012 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 1 3. Discussion on Fire Protection Aqreements between Fire Departments and the 2 County 3 Commissioner Hemminger asked if there would be two separate contracts — ones that co- 4 locate and ones that do not. 5 Michael Talbert said that they are working on one contract to co-locate an ambulance at 6 an existing fire station. The other contract will be for fire protection, rescue, and first responder 7 with all fire departments. He would see these as two separate contracts. 8 Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that the easiest way to do this is to come up with 9 standard language and standard clauses. 10 SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy said that this can be done on one inclusive document with 11 check boxes for the services that each franchise provides. He agreed that the co-location is 12 one document and the provision of services is another document. 13 Commissioner Yuhasz said that he wants to make sure they do not end up with 11 14 different contracts. 15 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro 16 contracts and these have been cancelled. She said that she is not sure they should wait until 17 the Orange Rural contract is finished because there may be some concerns. She wants an 18 update on the contract process with these three departments. 19 Michael Talbert said that the proposed contract with Orange Rural is the co-location of 20 one ambulance and not a contract for fire protection. This is a separate contract for the three 21 departments of North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. He said that staff will be coming 22 back to the Emergency Services Work Group on October 16th with a recommendation for the 23 work group to consider. If the work group endorses the plan, staff will continue meeting with 24 the state, management, the Boards of the entities, and will schedule a work session between 25 now and the end of the year with the idea that if it all works out there could be action as early as 26 the first meeting in January. This would be early enough for the changes that need to be made. 27 The first step is the work group endorsing this. 28 Commissioner McKee said that the 112 homes that were a Class 10 rating was the driver 29 in this issue. These homes were at risk of extreme increases in their insurance or no 30 insurance. 31 32 Michael Talbert said that he distributed a newer contract tonight for the three 33 departments. There must be new contracts in place by July 1, 2013. He went through the 34 North Chatham contract. The first page is similar to the 1992 contracts. 35 The changes come on #3. Chatham County spells out the correction percentage they 36 anticipate on the taxes and how they are going to pay the departments at the first of the month 37 following the collections. The County currently pays once a quarter, so it would be a change. 38 Item #4 says, "shall provide adequate fire protection services and will provide necessary 39 equipment personnel and other resources as determined by the North Carolina Department of 40 Insurance." It goes on to say that, "the district will maintain at least a rating of 9s." This puts 41 the burden on the fire department to maintain that rating. It goes further to define rescue and 42 first responder, and fire is already defined by the state statute. 43 Item #7, the contract with North Chatham calls for an annual audit by a certified public 44 accountant, which is then turned in to the County Commissioners by December 1St of the next 45 year. The County's contracts do not currently call for an audit. 46 Item #10, in the event that the fire department is dissolved for any reason, it spells out 47 how the assets of that fire department would be distributed, where they would go, and how they 48 would be used within the existing district. This is not currently part of the County's contract. 49 Item #11 is completely new and goes into the idea of hold harmless and insurance.