JOINT CITY/ ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
August 15, 2007
ATTENDEES
Commissioner Michael McLean, Seminole County, Chairman
Commissioner Susan Doerner, City of Casselberry, Vice-Chairman
Commissioner Jon Batman, City of Altamonte
Commissioner Gary Brender, City of Lake Mary
Mayor John Bush, Winter Springs
Marty Chan, PBAS Representative
David Gierach, Sanford C of C
Steve Glazier, Winter Springs Business
Mayor Bob Goff, City of Casselberry
Mayor Thom Greene, Lake Mary
Mayor Russ Hauck, City of Altamonte Springs
Kim Hengehold, Oviedo C of C
Commissioner Randy Jones, City of Sanford
Mayor Linda Kuhn, City of Sanford
Hank Lander, Casselberry C of C
Commissioner Donald Gilmore, Winter Springs
Jonathon Moore, Seminole C of C
Commissioner Brian Sackett, Longwood
Mayor Tom Walters, Oviedo
ABSENT
Commissioner Carlton Henley, Seminole
Mayor John Maingot, City of Longwood
Tom Marin, Seminole C of C
Councilman Dominic Persampiere, City of Oviedo
The meeting was called to order by Chairman McLean at 3:10 pm.
1. Approval of Minutes
Motion to approve April 18, 2007 minutes by Vice Chairman Doerner. Second by Mayor Hauck. Motion passed unanimously.
Chairman McLean informed the Committee those discussions involving other task forces and sub-committees were removed from the agenda for this month in order to allow more time to facilitate discussion and answer questions regarding the EMS/Fire Study. Those committees are moving forward and at the next meeting progress on those items will be presented.
3. Mosquito Control Implementation – Gary Johnson
Mr. Johnson briefed the Committee on the progress of the consolidated Mosquito Control Program to-date. There is now a Memorandum of Agreement with all the cities that has been executed under which the Mosquito Control Program will be implemented. Another product of this Committee, the Stormwater Agreement (unrelated to Mosquito Control), is fully executed and has been ratified by all seven cities and the County. This will enable us, when opportunities arise, to partner more efficiently on projects related to water quality in our County and in our cities.
A powerpoint presentation was given which covered the current program; the Joint/City Advisory Committee Program (JCCAC); and the In-house Seasonal Program Option.
Mr. Johnson introduced the new mosquito control program manager, Mr. Edward Horvath. The program option at the conclusion of the presentation is one that he developed from his years of experience that meets our needs at a fairly reasonable cost.
In House Seasonal Program Option – Lower cost alternative to JCCAC full-time staffed program; treatment of municipal and unincorporated areas; phase out contracted control services; two full-time team leaders’ temporary techs (April-Sept.) contracted services.
This option would be the most reasonable way to accomplish the program but without the same level year-round, full-time staff. To ensure that the service is delivered as specified by this option, an advisory committee was identified as a requirement of putting this program in place. Mr. Johnson said all the names from the municipalities for the advisory committee have been submitted. With the Memorandum of Agreement in place and the advisory committee set up, the program will move forward into its second year after the budget hearings in September.
Chairman McLean asked if this information has been communicated to the municipalities and what, if any, responses have been received.
Mr. Johnson said Mr. Horvath is preparing some materials for the first meeting of the advisory group where this information will be communicated. The County Manager has had some discussion with the city managers prior to the budget worksession.
Mayor Bush said he has a concern that when this program was presented to this Committee there was a budget and a way to do it; now a cheaper way is being presented. If this is really the correct way to do it, this should have been presented the first time or is this just a result of budget cuts.
Mr. Johnson said the service level and the services will be the same. The delivery method is different and the reason for that is that we now have a professional manager that we did not have the first time around.
Chairman McLean reminded the Committee that efficiency will always be a continuing matter due to the changing of circumstances in the budget situation. However, in this case, this was not a factor.
Mr. Johnson stated that the next step would be to gather the advisory group together and disseminate the data so that the cities will have the full scope of information to share with their elected officials.
Mr. Horvath said this should all be happening within the next 30 days.
4. Fire/EMS Efficiency and Effectiveness Study Report – Travis Miller, Matrix
Chairman McLean asked that while discussing this issue, the Committee keep their focus on being more efficient with product and service delivery and saving taxpayer dollars. With property tax reform, we are in a different world than we were a year ago and we need to look at our environment differently. We need to perhaps consider options or enhancements that might not have made sense prior to the situation we are all dealing with now. There are many routes we can consider to accomplish our goal and we can use this report to get us there. Whatever we come up with, we have to take a mutually agreeable approach or it will not work.
He stated that this document from Matrix is not County driven. The steering committee that helped guide the accumulation of information was represented by all the cities and the County.
Also, there were challenges on how the report was released. The information was released by Matrix in a rough draft form. During that time there was a public records request asking for the information in that form. Once that was done, the decision was made to release the information in the draft form to all the members because this is the Committee that asked for the information and needed to consider the information. He reminded the Committee that this is not a consolidation report; this is a systems assessment report. There are many opportunities in this report to help achieve the goals of this Committee.
Chairman McLean introduced Travis Miller from Matrix who gave an overview of the report. Mr. Miller said that there is already a good, functioning wide fire/rescue system. There are issues with that system that the report identifies; both strengths and improvement opportunities that come far short of consolidation.
It is important to recognize that there are things in this report worth considering whether they impact service delivery or whether they are simply financial issues that need to be addressed.
One of the major things that was identified is imbalances in the way services are delivered in the County in the fire/rescue delivery system. Mr. Miller said the cities and the County need to discuss ways of compensating for uneven delivery services especially in today’s atmosphere of tight budgets resulting from property-tax changes. He said if the Committee did nothing else, it should address the uneven delivery service issue.
One recommendation in the study that drew unanimous support was using technology that shows where every piece of firefighting equipment is at any given time. The automatic vehicle location (AVL) system would allow dispatchers to send the closest appropriate equipment to any call, regardless of the jurisdiction. That would require upgrading the County’s CAD system, which the Committee supported.
Mr. Miller said that in addition, there are liability issues, political issues and community pride issues that are all important and need to be discussed before the fact rather than after.
The study also looked at the joint capital acquisition of equipment to get better prices collectively as opposed to separately.
Mark Lauzier, Matrix, gave an overview of the financial methodology part of the study. The study looked at opportunities for MSTUs, either through interlocal agreement enhancements, service delivery agreements between a municipality and the County or even merger options within the financial situation the County is faced with today.
Chairman McLean said he was disappointed that more options were not considered in the study such as city service areas versus rural service areas.
He also stated again that the Committee’s focus should be on improving efficiency in the system and saving taxpayer dollars.
Mayor Bush asked why his fire chief has not requested an AVL system. Mayor Bush feels that this is something that should be done now. Also, he questioned if there was joint purchasing of fire trucks and equipment.
Mr. Miller said that an AVL system wouldn’t work unless all involved had the system. He said it is not currently possible to do a true, closest unit response without AVL. However, the issues with upgrading the CAD system should be dealt with first before going to the AVL system in order for it to work efficiently.
Mr. Miller stated that there are some instances where fire trucks and equipment are currently purchased jointly.
Commissioner Brender said he agreed there should be an AVL system but more importantly there should be an updated CAD system.
Ms. Chan asked Mayor Hauk if Altamonte Springs reduced taxes to their constituents when they consolidated with the County. Mayor Hauk stated that yes, they did.
Chairman McLean said that since Altamonte Springs has already merged services with the County, the Committee could look to them for their expertise.
Mayor Hauk said the County is collecting a separate millage rate specifically for fire service in Altamonte Springs. Therefore, Altamonte Springs was able to reduce their millage rate by a like amount. The City was not forced to roll back taxes and one reason for that is they don’t have a fire department.
Mayor Goff said he was disappointed in the study. He stated that there was one line in the study that said that there were places where the County could better serve it citizens by contracting with cities for services but there is no mention of where these places were. He felt the predilection of the whole study was based on finances. He said it was an economic study not a service study because you do not see recommendations for ways to benefit services; instead for elimination of services.
Mr. Miller said maps could be provided that show those areas that would be best served by which station. The problem is that this is a static conclusion to a very dynamic problem which is why the AVL system, if it can truly be implemented, is the solution for providing true, closest unit response. There are also issues outside of providing the highest levels of fire/rescue service on occasion that may intrude themselves upon the decisions that are made with regard to what is truly the closest and most appropriate unit to respond to an event.
Commissioner Sackett said the original survey that was done in Longwood showed that the citizens were overwhelmingly pleased with the City’s fire department and changing the status quo would be a shock to them. He said they really want to glean ways to make this situation better and also recognize that 50% of their deliveries are to citizens that are not in Longwood and Longwood is not being paid for it.
Mr. Miller said the financial system is clearly an issue. It definitely impacts the way in which decisions are made about where resources go.
Commissioner Sackett said the general consensus of the Committee is not to make this a consolidation discussion but to move forward with evaluating the four most important issues that were pointed out in the study.
Chairman McLean asked the sub-committee, which consists of the fire chiefs from the cities and the County, to work on those four items and then report back to the Committee at the next meeting. Those four items are:
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 17, 2007.
Being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm.