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2019-11-12 Handwritten MinutesCity of Okeechobee, November 12, 2019 Meeting Minutes taken during the meeting by Lane Gamiotea I. CALL TO ORDER The joint workshop was called to order by the Okeechobee Board of County Commissioners Chairperson Burroughs at P.M. at the Okeechobee County Historic Court House, Room 270, 304 Northwest 2nd Street, Okeechobee, Florida 34972. A. The invocation was offered by Father Shevlin B. 1 i c Pledge of Allegiance was led by Burroughs II. ATTENDANCE CITY COUNCIL Mayor Dowling R. Watford, Jr. Council Member Wes Abney Council Member Monica Clark Council Member Bob Jarriel Council Member Bobby Keefe Staff: City Clerk Lane Gamiotea Attorney John Cook City Administrator Marcos MontesDeOca 190111ilki'[9161uhU 14191 IL Chairperson Terry Burroughs Commissioner Bryant Culpepper Commissioner Bradley G. Goodbread Commissioner Kelly Owens Commissioner David Hazellief Staff: County Attorney Becky ???? County Administrator Robbie Chartier County Deputy Clerk Jeff Shain County Deputy Clerk Paula Polksken Present Present Present Present Present Present Absent (out of state, trip planned before meeting set) Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present III. Consolidation of Fire Protection Service in the Incorporated Area of Okeechobee County TB instructions for public comment. City expectations. Nothing will be decided tonight. We don't even know if we want to do this. DW appreciation for use of chambers and hosting workshop. History idea originally proposed during the budget workshop, agenda item to look at some type of agreement with the county to take over the fire department. Just as you had a discussion at your meeting about a workshop, it wasn't a unanimous decision. This is new to us, idea been around for quite a while. Discuss where to go from here, get ideas of information we might need from you and vice versa. Admin's and Fire Chiefs have met a few times to work out some of the issues and get information..... DW provide you with a level of service information (BOCC not provided copy) thought you were provided a copy of this, reading through this on what we have, received Oct 31, 2018 to 2019, aid given, response time 3-4 min avg. list of number of calls through Oct of this year, 1,218. Reviewing plans total reviews approx. 35 and 85 inspections generated from those reviews. Events _ involved in. BTR inspections 206 avg. generates 325 inspections, give you that base where we are, sure your chief has the same information and has provided it to you. Not speaking for the council, this is our level of service and want to maintain it. Early stages of this. Open to respective boards and compile a list of questions we both can work on and my council has comments to make. Start with the Council, appreciate the comments made at the BOCC. MC is it okay for the county to answer questions. What is an ISO how determined, the City is a 3. Explain more and that's part of the level of service. TB that's ok question. Ralph risk management, looks at dept and county, fire dept operations, training, communication, public education, each area has a formula in it and then the final score. We are at a 3 also. MC include city info in the county iso? Ralph the hydrants are only counting the county ones for the county iso. Automatic aid will now be counted. MC when there's a medical call, does the county send a fire truck when in the city. Ralph based on level of the call, engines have ... we don't send a fire truck on all EMS calls. Clark gives example of a call. Nov 12, 2019 Joint Workshop with BOCC, City Clerk minutes taken during meeting, Page 1 of 4 BJ main reason is strictly financial. Lot of money spent on the fire, think we can cut that, even though we're are city residents were county residents too. Service both areas on EMS why not the fire too. Here to rep the city residents business decision on that, we aren't unhappy with our fire dept at all. We've drawn from the reserves to balance the budget and we need to meet our needs without the reserves. I want them to do it all, fire, ambulance and plans and inspections. TB fire, EMS & inspections. BJ would like you to do it all and take over the taxing of it all so we can view the amounts so I can make an intelligent decision. BK not at this time. WA the city county work together that will benefit both, keep level of service for less amount then yes. Maybe a consultant is needed to come up with an amount. MC concerned with our 12 employees and take care of our people. DW we? Collectively..... DW we would like to know the costs to the tax payer for this service. In my opinion that's the only way we can evaluate if its cost effective. You may need more information from us. Lean towards a fire tax rather than a contracted service probably, decision has not been made yet. MC I want to look at all the options not just the one Jarriel wants to look at. DW easiest may be to have the county figure out what the cost would be and then we could decide do we want to do it as a contract or as a fire assessment. Impression was for us to cut the millage, to do that you'd have to go to the fire assessment. TB — BOCC have comments? KO information to come back to us, I need to see, original decision needs to be at the city, the county absorbing that service, ISO effected, lot of areas of finance, will it impact the insurance rates, need to look at the employees not our job to absorb but the city has asked us to look at it and we should. Level of service, county have to add to that base to continue what the city provides. DW we have some of those costs, pension liability could be as well as other factors, different pension system. KO what needs to be bargained, what doesn't, which pieces of our union contract are we opening up? Agree with the mayor if we don't take all 12 employees then there will be employees have to be retired out. What if any of the city pension would the county absorb. BC respond to Clark question on county fire truck when ems is dispatched in the city. Have some concerns churches and nonprofits and what would that amount be, many located within the city. Pension plans different how do we reconcile that. Response times, huge concern with that. Equipment and buildings. PBC has 38 cities, saw many taken over by the county. Most didn't have benefits. Disparity in starting salary how do we reconcile that. 1. Provide best level of Service. 2. Run the dept best to citizens efficiency 3. Cost to our residents. What does the city want to do and hopeful we can work through them. BG BOCC didn't' covenant the city fire department the city came to us, no one wants to cause harm over this. Would it be prudent for us to get a consultant firm to do a study as an outside source that can do the study and come back with a report and let us know what their recommendation is. Do it, don't do it, or how to do it. 2nd is this something that should be left up to the voters of the city, put on the ballot. Let the city voters decide through doing due diligence rather than by the city council. DH heard a Ito of good questions go back with staff, schedule another meeting with answers to these questions. BJ hire somebody in 2017 research $40,000 and got their recommendation and as far as it went. If we can get a figure back from the county we can decide, cant see spending a lot fo money on it. Nov 12, 2019 Joint Workshop with BOCC, City Clerk minutes taken during meeting, Page 2 of 4 BK looking objectively, leaving politics out of the discussion. Why we exist. Fire service has been just as long. City since 1915, county since 1917. City provided fire services in the county for a while. Don't understand need to have separate dept but here we are in a small rural area with duplicated services. We've come here prematurely without a solid unified offer from the city. The county fire chief is here and believe he's smart enough to figure out what is necessary to provide the same level of service and provide that costs to us. We should present this is what we'd like to do. Chief can provide data and numbers to the BOCC. City Council is looking at adjusting the tax rate for duplicated services to our residents. Think we should just put ti out there. Unify our voice and say we want to consolidate the 2 departments. DW we discussed that this workshop was probably premature at this time. Do you think $ amount to fund the city can be provided by your staff? TB I think its something we could provide. Everything is driven by numbers. This is complex, pension, level of service, equipment all are intertwined but with our staff and yours they should be able to provide this information to us. Consultants are interesting animals thye do things for money but provide a value in that they will provide a view that's objective. Anything si possible to bring forward. What do we need to do to go to the next step. The next step is NOT consolidation. The end game is determined by the city council. TB open to public comment, state name and address and keep it to a minimum of 3 minutes. Mark McCarter First Baptist Church pastor, our church can move money around and figure it around. Concerned with small churches and nonprofits. Smaller ones don't have that much flexibility church. Corner stone, 441 north, former mission of first Baptist. Fire Assessment was one of their contributing factors to close their doors. With bringing in new businesses, housing, would there be any consideration to lowering the amount of the assessment or $0 to churches and nonprofits. Loy Mershermer, Presbyterian Church follow up with Pastor Mark comments. Safeguard of the church from any civil control. We all know what happens when taxes don't get paid Federal judge said tax contains the power to destroy, he protected the federal govt from being taxed based on that same scripture and foundation of the founding fathers very powerful constructional ..... Joel R???? thing I don't get is the newspapers keep calling this a merger but think its more a take over, can the county takes over the city would the fire fighters have a job. Think it should be up to the voters, if I had to vote today I'd probably vote no. DW letter received from the ECO into the record from them [insert content from letter]. Karen Brass, City resident, not as an employee of the county, depends on that dept blessed punctually there's no way the county could have gotten there in that time. Number of older homes in the city. The money is a concern, show realistic with the money we have an incredible dept, historically the mergers with the city and county depts. Hasn't gone well. Right now I just can't see a compromise over a beautifully level of service and working dept. Are our county employees capable, I'm sure but don't know why we need to put this .... Jerad Akins, live in the city, county fire fighters. Save the city money, what's it going to cost in the county? How much money will it increase to have the same level of service in the county as the city provides? How much would the assessment increase? What would it benefit or go up to? DW ... TB .... Akins if it going to save you that then what Linda Pearce commercial property, taxes are $9,0000 per year now. But the county is going to put the tax on me I depend on that money to pay the taxes etc if I have to go up in rent then I'm going to lose them. Small businesses struggling as it is, if they can't afford the rent what's going to small.... If get rid of the fire dept then why not the entire city why not your jobs. Hoot Worley 395 SW ???? appreciate each of you holding this the ECO doesn't have a bone to pick with the city fire dept. the $600,000 savings has been the amount. If you try to swallow this elephant in 1 bite you all will choke on it, do it in small bites. City needs to ask the county to take over the fire fighting in the city. I own properties in both. I lived here when we didn't have trained employees to provide property ems services. If the city could save $600,000 to $1 million you could use that money to pave old Hillsborough Ave or lower my millage rate. There's not economic of scale to compare it to. When Walmart came it here it was the same thing it put people out of business. Incumbent on the council to decide. Don't know who prices this first. Ask the BOCC what it would take to provide the fire service. Don't want to see the city go away. How could you not consider the savings. You've had a consultant who looked at the numbers and at an unbiased way. The county might come back and say it has to cost this much. Daniel Sarocco (sp???), county firefighter, hear people in the community is some fear, worried about their loss of care, better care, scared for themselves that fear is understandable. Say without a doubt the 50+1- are Nov 12, 2019 Joint Workshop with BOCC, City Clerk minutes taken during meeting, Page 3 of 4 capable to do their job we do it because we love our jobs not to be millionaires. Careers of the personnel at the city if the merger happened, I could assure you is if we combine and anyone looses their jobs, real fear to not put roofs over your childrens heads and food on the table. Put a priority on this. TB back up here do you feel you have enough information? To ralph enough to provide answers by the 26th. Think I can ask some of the new questions. No other questions you need to ask the city. Ralph level of service = by the 26th we can have that discussion on that particular information. BOCC discuss it on the 26th first then once we feel comfortable with a proposal we could provide that to you all (CC). DW their staff will come up with the number to provide this service, present to BOCC on 26th then if the BOCC has questions, need more when they get to the final figure it will be provided to the council. BC the city paramedics why not on staff as the county does. DW you all provide that service already. BC what if the city did their own transport and the county assess a cost by incident. City has own paramedics. Would that be a cost that is greater or lessor? You may want to research that and see if that would be better method. KO information from the city on their capital. DW have, cost the county to acquire it will it be given to us.... DW that would be discussed.... Our staff would be glad to work with your staff in any way. TB clear understanding of what we're going to do, need assistance ask. KO set another workshop yet? TB No determine that at the 26th DH next meeting going to create a lot of questions. BC can Robbie get city EMS? Yes. Then have the mayor look at hiring 6 medics and an ambulance. I owe it to know what its going to cost the county. TB we'll have more on the 26th so we can have one on one conversations. BJ came to the county to get facts and figures. Some of the comments from the citizens made tonight, we don't know yet don't jump to conclusions. VI. Adjournment Chair Burroughs adjourned the workshop at 7:16 P.M. Nov 12, 2019 Joint Workshop with BOCC, City Clerk minutes taken during meeting, Page 4 of 4