Minutes 10-04-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that a lot of recommendations in the consultant's report are good and valid, but there are some implementation issues that were recommended that he takes serious issue with. He said that the relationship between field workers in Orange County has always been very good. The working relationships in the field have always been very good. He said that the problem over the years has been with the administration and leadership roles of the various agencies. He thinks that it is ridiculous to build nine new EMS stations when there are fire stations strategically located that can easily have additions to accommodate an ambulance and share those resources. The key to the success of that is setting the expectations early and putting it all in writing. Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that he agreed with Dan Jones. He said that when they were building new stations they did ask if a bay should be built in the station but were shot down by the county. He said that there is no need to build those new stations when bays can be added on to existing stations. SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy agreed with Dan Jones and Bryan Baker and said that South Orange Rescue Squad currently co-locates at least one Orange County ambulance and sometimes two or three. He said that the problems that have been experienced are entirely with the lack of expectations being set. Going forward with a clear understanding up front can resolve all of the potential issues. Commissioner Yuhasz said that this demonstrates to him the need to address the question of how Emergency Services and first responders are to be managed in this County. It is time to define the expectations. He asked if the Emergency Services Work Group should take this on. Commissioner McKee said that this may be something to look at but he is reluctant to expand the scope of the work group at this late date. He said that there is a contract negotiation in progress with Orange Rural Fire Department at this point with the county. He said that Orange Rural wished to have a contract that is spelled out, delineating all responsibilities, etc. Commissioner Yuhasz said that managing expectations has huge policy implications for the County. He thinks that it needs to be done on a countywide basis to have a consistent policy among all of the departments and a clear expectation among the departments, County Commissioners, and the citizens regarding the role of all three entities. Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that his recommendation is not to take it in front of the Emergency Services work group but with the Fire Chief's Council because there are other members on the Emergency Services work group like the Sheriff's office and police departments that are not familiar with this topic at all. He said that the first responder program needs to be ironed out. Commissioner Foushee agreed with Chief Baker and said that she does not think that the Emergency Services Work Group is the place for this to occur. Commissioner McKee agreed and said that the work group was given very specific directions and objectives. He would like to move forward with the objectives and sunset the committee. Commissioner Hemminger said that this issue needs to be resolved and the County Commissioners need to endorse that it should happen. Chair Pelissier said that everyone is in agreement that this issue needs to be addressed and Michael Talbert needs to work with the fire chiefs for an outline toward their goals. Michael Talbert said that there is a pending agreement between Orange County and Orange Rural and it does address some expectation issues, compensation, and sharing of locations. It is in legal review now. The hope is that this will be used as a template. Michael Talbert made reference to contracts and said that on June 5th, three contracts were cancelled — North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. All three of those were given a