Minutes - 20080909 - Work Session

Browse Search

Metadata

Thumbnails

Annotations

Commissioner Nelson asked about the follow up on the more serious incident, the Linden Road incident, where a circular saw was used, which created sparks. Colonel Montes de Oca said that in that particular case, the fire department took the rescue squad out of the scene to continue the extrication. He does not know the follow up as far as changing operations, training, or admonishing the rescue squad. He said that, in past administrations, these types of incidents have fallen on deaf ears. He said that the staff is very frustrated because over the past five to ten years, they have tried to get control of the organization that was uncontrollable. Commissioner Nelson asked for examples of how the staff has tried to get control of this uncontrollable organization. Captain Kim Woodward addressed this question. She said that she has been in her position for about two years, and in those two years, most of the admonishments or the discussions have been verbal. There have been a few emails, but there has not been any formal sanctioning. There have been some issues with leadership until Colonel Montes de Oca came on board as the Director. Colonel Montes de Oca said that in the file that he has with some information, he found two letters—one from Major Tapp and Major Snowden —which alluded to a lot of the complaints and concerns prior to his arrival. Commissioner Nelson said that he is not insinuating that anyone made anything up, but he is concerned that there were these problems and there was not, what he would consider due process. Commissioner Nelson made reference to the issue of redundancy and said that he has always been told that in emergency services you want redundancies built into the system. Now he is being told that the redundancies are not needed and that it is not efficient. This is contrary to what he has been told and his own personal vision for the way he has always seen emergency services. He asked why redundancies are now not the way to go. Colonel Montes de Oca said that he meant to say that there are currently ten fire districts and two municipal fire departments and all of them provide extrication rescue services. There is redundancy built into the system, and then some. He said that part of the franchise parameters are that if there is an organization with redundancy, it would be better served to look at the services and match them up with the need of the community. The need of the community right now is not extrication rescue services, because there are in excess of 17 stations that provide these services. Commissioner Nelson said that he can see the point. However, the Sage report was discredited, so there is not a clear picture of what needs to be provided and where. He does not think that it can be said that this station is a redundant station and should not be there. He does not think this is a good argument. Commissioner Nelson asked why Colonel Montes de Oca did not give the rescue squad a written statement laying out the problems, the deadline to fix the problems, and the course of action. Colonel Montes de Oca said that this was the purpose of the preliminary report, to show areas in which there were infractions. He said that the intent of the following meeting with Commissioner Foushee and Chair Jacobs was to work with the rescue squad over 60 days to look at the infractions, the training, and to develop an assessment. He said that, at every step of the way, there was incomplete or non-existent information so that a determination could not be made. Commissioner Nelson said that his concerns are not with the issues, problems, and concerns laid out in the memo because he has no way to assess the legitimacy of those. His concern is with the process that led up to the termination on June 271h. He said that he has never seen anything like this without things written down.