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Home My WebLink About11/06/2001 Adjourned Meeting 322 CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 6, 2001 - 7:30 A.M. 129 NORTH 2 STREET - COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1. ROLL CALL Present: Council: Mayor Mary Place, presiding, Council Members Clarence Barnett, Henry Beauchamp (present after 7:50 a.m.), Lynn Buchanan, Larry Mattson (absent after 8:50 a.m.), John Puccinelli (present after 7:40 a.m.), and Bernard Sims Staff: Fire Chief Al Gillespie, Cindy Epperson, Accounting Manager, and City Clerk Roberts • 2. REVIEW OF NFPA 1710 RULES • Fire Chief provided information regarding the Standards Chief Gillespie outlined the history of the NFPA 1710 rules: • Experts in the field have determined what the standards should be • As the standards came forward, several municipalities within this state voiced objections; however, the International Fire Chiefs supported the document • In May, the vote was taken to approve the NFPA standards • In July, the standards were appealed by the California League of Cities and other organizations • The appeal went before the Standards Council, however, the appeal was not accepted and the standard was signed and goes before the NFPA Board this month • Some letters were sent by the National League of Cities objecting to the standards because they did not have any representation, and this standard takes away from local authority • This is only a standard at this time; there is no mandate by law to participate. However, if OSHA adopts it, it becomes a law • Fire Chief initiated discussion regarding response time Chief Gillespie stated that the second part of the standards has to do with response time. The response time includes the time the apparatus leaves and when it arrives at the scene. It also addresses jump time, which is the time from when the call was received to the time they leave the fire station. This standard says that you should respond within four minutes from dispatch to the time of arrival 90% of the time and the jump response time should be within one minute 90% of the time. The Yakima Fire Department has done time averaging and we feel we have a fairly good average response time, which is four minutes and 20 seconds. He reported there are always things that could be done to improve our service. We broke down our response time in graphs, using our data from January to the middle of last month. We responded on an average slightly above 323 NOVEMBER 6, 2001 —ADJOURNED MEETING the 4.2- minute time for everything besides EMS calls. Compared to the 90% that NFPA is setting as a standard, we are only meeting that standard 34% of the time on fire calls. For EMS calls, we are meeting the standard 62% of the time. That gives our average call time as about 4.2 minutes. He stated that increasing the number of crews would improve the response time because when a crew is out of the fire station, a crew from another fire station has to cover their area. He informed Council that there is one standard for municipal career fire departments and another one for volunteer fire departments. • Fire Chief responded to questions Chief Gillespie answered questions about: • False alarms • Response to EMS and vehicle accident calls • Service to proposed and recently annexed areas • The location or relocation of a fire station, particularly as it may relate to the time delay caused by trains; • Staffing • Sprinkler systems • Using the fire engines to respond to medical emergencies, due to lack of staffing to send a rescue vehicle and keep the station manned. Council Member Buchanan lobbied for requesting financial support from the County and the Airport for operating the fire station at the airport, believing that it could save the City one million dollars per year. A suggestion was made that with the Armory at the airport, the Federal government may provide for fire service. Council Member Puccinelli reminded Council that we would still have to pay for half of the fire protection services at the airport since the City is half- owner. • Fire Chief spoke about improving fire protection services and his recommendations Commenting that he is not advocating adoption of the NFPA 1710 rules, Chief Gillespie reported that when he looked at.the staffing issue, he found that the call volume increased from 1,034 to 6,654 since 1974. Our staffing level decreased from 69 to 59. There has been more safety standards that limit what we can do with our staffing. Comparing Yakima to cities similar in size, Yakima has a per - thousand fire fighter ratio of .81 while the other cities' average is 1.5. In 1975, Yakima's ratio was 1.36 and in 1978 it was at an all -time high of 1.4 when the city limits and population were smaller than what it is today. He advised Council that staff would like to strive to become an accredited fire department or follow the Washington / Oregon deployment guidelines, for which he would seek Council support. He also recommended determining a responsible staff level and response time for fire and EMS calls. His third recommendation is to establish a timeline to meet those staffing goals. The Finance Department helped him research potential funding options, which were listed in the staff report. He • emphasized that whether or not the City adopts the NFPA standards, the staffing level needs to be improved, whether we do it gradually one person at a time or all at once. Council Member Puccinelli responded that with the geographic changes in Yakima, we should hire people for EMS calls and stop sending the fire engines on medical calls. (Council Member Mattson absent after 8:50 a.m.) 2 324 NOVEMBER-6, 2001 — ADJOURNED MEETING • Cindy Epperson reviewed the funding options Cindy Epperson, Accounting Manager, reviewed the potential funding options: • Business and Occupation Tax (maximum allowed is 2% on gross sales) — . does not generate adequate funding • Voted Utility Tax — would require a 4% increase • Voted Operating Tax Levy — would require an annual vote and need 60% validation • Levy Lid Lift to go to $3.60 per- thousand property tax — would not generate sufficient funding • In -lieu tax on City Utilities — up to 33% • She commented that there is no easy way to annually generate an additional $3 million. • Audience participation • Ron Johnson, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, agreed with Chief Gillespie's assessment that improvement in staffing needs to be made. In the 24 years he has worked for the City, the staffing level has decreased and at the same time, the City has increased in area and population. He reported that they support these proposed standards, both as fire fighters and as a national organization. He doesn't believe that accreditation will take the place of NFPA 1710 standards. He stated the Union would support the City's funding efforts for this endeavor. Referencing Council Member Puccinelli's idea about a rescue vehicle, he stated that could bring in revenue by billing insurance companies. Lynne Kittelson stated she served on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the fire Department and endorses all the things the Chief said. We need to look at our Fire Department as a unique department. It is important that these are the only people who don't run away from a dangerous situation; they run into it. She stated that other non - essential services may have to be reduced in order to improve this vital service. 3. ADJOURNMENT BUCHANAN MOVED AND SIMS SECONDED TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 9:10 A.M. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote; Mattson absent. _ i � a READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY: ', _,,_� ' cou • L MEMBE`" DATE i0 CIL MEM DA E ATTEST: k(',U1 5 A 4e-6--U 4 4.4, CITY CLERK MARY PLACE, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Karen Roberts. An audio tape of this meeting is available in the City Clerk's Office 3