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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-09-01 Joint MtgJOINT MEETING GROTON TOWN BOARD, GROTON VILLAGE BOARD, AND GROTON FIRE DEPARTMENT SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 AT 7:00 PM ThosePresent: Town Board: Don Scheffler, Rick Gamel, Kelly Smith Village Board: Chris Neville, Betty Conger, Jean Morey Fire Department and Others: Lee Shurtleff, Lester Coit, Ben Nelson, Steve Foot, Chuck Rankin, April Scheffler. Don Scheffler opened the meeting and asked how things were going since the last meeting. Lee Shurtleff - After the last meeting we went back over the notes and tried to trim down a lot of the information that we worked on a couple of years ago. (He handed out a copy of what they had come up with.) We tied together a little of the history, the educational requirements, the call volumes, what some of the challenges and changing demographics are. Then I put in a section that kind of outlines where we've been over the last few years, one thing being that we did certify so that we could teach EMT classes in house. We are looking to renew our certification and offer classes locally. The daytime ALS was created in the mid-90s and was shared with the Village Clerk's Office and over time the call volume has increased to the point where it was dominating the job. Recruitment activities are ongoing with limited success. In June when the Village budget started the Village hired a fulltime person who's split between the Streets and Water Department and is available as a driver from morning until evening. That has worked out very well. We've covered that big problem that we had in the spring where we were unable to respond sometimes because of the lack of a driver. The second thing that has occurred since we last met is that with the daytime EMS/Clerk moving on to another position, the Village has hired two fulltime advanced level people. One started on the 12th of August and one started on the 16th. They are covering six days a week from 5am to 5pm. We've also continued to work on increasing the core of per -diem that will work for us. We've lost one but we've got interest from at least three, possibly more. We're trying to walk through the Civil Service process to see if we can expedite those applications when they come in. We've got continued interest in that. We are attempting to cover nights and weekends with assigned basic EMTs and drivers, but are not always successful. There are nights when we continue to have holes in the schedule. One of the advantages that allowed us to be able to hire the two critical care people that we did was the fact that because it was a municipal job, they were attracted because the inclusion in the State Retirement System and the ability to get health insurance. So, that's something that is to our advantage. Sometimes we think that being affiliated with a municipality may not give us the flexibity sometimes in the hiring processes, but on the other hand there are some benefits that are attractive. The last thing is that I wrote down some things that we talked about at our board, some issues and questions that we want to look at in the long term and do moving forward. We're working on it. I would mention that ironically, in the last three weeks we've covered for Four -Town about a half a dozen time and taken transports where they were overloaded with Joint Meeting - Town, Village & Fire Dept. Page 2 of 4 September 1, 2015 calls. We've done some reciprocal work the Dryden two or three time where they were loaded with calls and then we actually had a call where we ended up in Cortland County for TLC. So, the stress is all over. I think that one of our fulltime people came to us from Four -Town. I don't know if that caused them some stress, but probably will in the long term. That's part of the vicious circle that we talked about last month; we up the pay a little bit and somebody moves here, then someone is going to up the pay on us. I had a talk with Slaterville's president last week and she indicated that the Town of Caroline is now moving to hire per -diem help on behalf of the Slaterville ambulance because they're down to one paramedic most of the time. They're talking about a rate of about $23.00 an hour, which is way higher than us and I said, do you understand what that does to the market? She said, yes, but the fact is that we don't know if we can attract anybody to Slaterville with the volume of calls that we get without offering significantly more than some of the others are paying. Rick Gamel asked to clarify if they were covered six days a week for 12 hours. Lee Shurtleff and Lester Coit said that they said that they were, plus a driver and that on Monday and Wednesday they were covered around the clock. Jean Morey asked if the newspaper article after the last meeting had generated any interest and Lee Shurtleff said that he had not heard one comment about the article. Lester Coit said he had talked to five ALS people interested in coming here to work nights and/or weekends because they have jobs elsewhere, but they still need to get through the Civil Service process. He, Lee Shurtleff, and Chuck Rankin explained how the process worked and that it was very slow and how frustrating it is. Lee Shurtleff thought that maybe they could talk to the people at Civil Service to see if there was a way to expidite things, however the problem remains that there will probably never be enough trained people to fill all the vacancies. One problem is that once they reach this level of training they realize with just a little more, they can move on to better paying jobs as nurses and physician assistants. Discussion took place on whether someone could be hired provisionally until they get through the Civil Service process. It was explained that the process also checked all of their credentials and qualifications and that they had to pass a test. Rick Gamel thought that it was better to have someone to respond even if they weren't the top of the list rather than no one. Lee Shurtleff said that the Town of Caroline at one point considered hiring them as an independent contractor, but then the problem arises concerning malpractice insurance and who provides that. Chris Neville pointed out that just having someone versus nobody, could also be bad if unqualified people are giving improper care. Lee Shurtleff said the other consideration is that we have to remain in good standing in the regional system. Technically, you are working under the extension of the physicians' medical privileges. Sometimes we have people who get restricted because they haven't met their continued education requirements or they get a call that is reviewed because of a perceived error that has been made. I know a half a dozen people who have had their privileges limited by Central New York or are suspended. There's no way to resolve it until the doctors decide their going to allow it to resolve on a regional level. That can be a little bit of a challenge. And in some cases we have let people go because of our concern about the liability that comes with it. Don Scheffler said he hated to have a different level of care during the night versus during the day but was there any way we could at least get enough basic people to cover the night hours? Lee Shurtleff said that you could do that, but the system is going to drive that advanced help being sent to you automatically from other agencies. Around 50% of the time you really need that advanced help. Joint Meeting - Town, Village & Fire Dept. Page 3 of 4 September 1, 2015 If we raise the pay to compete with the Town of Caroline, it would just continue to force people to raise the pay. Lee Shurtleff thought that we needed to be more strategic on how we go after them. It's just like these two that we hired, they probably took a pay cuts to come here but it put them close to home and got them some benefits. Then some of the others that come to us on the overnights, they run all week long in the services that they are in and when they take the part time job they like the fact that they could come here and get a full night's sleep or only run one call. If you contrast that with a new guy this wouldn't be enough action for them and it wouldn't be a great place for them to gain skills. You're almost looking for somebody who has been in the system for a few years and might be approaching that "tired" stage, like the dollars, but like the laid back atmosphere. Some people though won't come here because there's not enough activity. You need to play to those types of strengths rather than just raising the pay; if you can get somebody some additional benefits they might not get somewhere else. Discussion took place on the Town perhaps hiring a third full time person and how that might be done. It was thought by most that it would be better to leave it as the Village doing the hiring and the Town perhaps paying the Village, similar to how it is done for the Joint Recreation Program. The problem still remains, where to find enough people. Discussion took place on how we could recruit more people. Although some places to advertise were pointed out, it was said that the people with the right qualifications can go pretty much wherever they want. It was also pointed out that the ones who would come per -diem for weekends or nights, would be working other for other full time agencies and these people sometimes don't show up because the primary agency comes first if they have to work overtime. Lester Coit said that if they went to four fulltime people that they could cover all but 25 hours a week. There would be a jump in the personnel budget from around $130,000 to upwards to $200,000. Again, where would you find the people? Lee Shurtleff asked if the Town and Village could take on an increase of a $25,000 or $30,000 increase in the budget. Rick Gamel thought there are places we could lessen our spending in both the Town and Village and come up with 24-hour around the clock ambulances. Lee Shurtleff said he was still hung up on whether they could find the people. He said that if you could find the people, the good of it would be that is the Town and Village were collectively paying $200,000, it would still be half of what Trumansburg is paying. They are in the $400,000 range with very similar services. The problem is they are hiring EMTs and drivers. This would be conditioned on us, the Department, still providing volunteer drivers and still having the additional basic people. Don Scheffler said they would basically be looking at $40,000 each and they would have to find that money in their budgets. This would definitely put everyone over the tax cap. Rick Gamel said he wasn't talking about raising taxes necessarily, but taking it from someplace else. Betty Conger said the Village was pretty close to the bone now. Chris Neville said he wasn't going to be the one to make a 15% tax increase. Lee Shurtleff said there seems to be an interest in more per -diem people coming on, so maybe it would make more sense go half way and share a third full time person and see how that works. Chris Neville asked if the service has improved and Lester Coit said that it definitely has between the two that were hired and the driver. Jean Morey asked out of the volunteers in the Fire Department, how many are EMTs and ALS. She was told there were ten EMTs and one ALS. She asked if there was training required to be a driver and was told that they were trained when they got here on the driving and also taught Joint Meeting - Town, Village & Fire Dept. Page 4 of 4 September 1, 2015 CPR. It was explained that many Fire Department volunteers just do not have the time to the number of hours of training required for the Fire Department and then add on more to become an EMT. Four out of five of the Fire Chiefs are running ambulance calls on nights also, driving or working in the back. Lee Shurtleff said that they would be working out their budget to submit to the Town within the next few weeks and asked if the Town wanted them to consider putting on a third full time person. Don Scheffler asked that they work the budget out with another person and without to see what the difference would be. Mr. Shurtleff talked about certain budget items and the costs of things, such as replacing ambulances, equipment, and drugs. The joint discussion ended with: 1. The Fire Department and Village looking into the possibility of hiring a third fulltime person and what the cost would be. 2. A joint press release may be made to inform the public and/or an ad or Shopper insert to inform the public of the problems facing the ambulance service and announce that they are seeking people to work on the ambulance. When the joint dialogue ended, the Town Board had a discussion with the Town Clerk about the dog enumeration by mail that her office was getting ready to conduct. She showed the Board what was going to be mailed out to people. Some constructive suggestions were made by the Board, which the Clerk said she would change or add to the paperwork. A rabies clinic will also be held at the Town Barn on October 10th to make it easy for people to get rabies vaccinations for their dogs before licensing. A deadline of October 31 St would be set for getting unlicensed dogs licensed. After that date, any dogs found to be unlicensed by the Dog Control Officer would be charged an additional enumeration fee. A Board resolution would be needed to set the enumeration. The Clerk suggested $10.00 and the consensus of the Board was that they would pass a resolution at the September 8th Board Meeting for this amount. The Town Board set Budget Work Sessions as follows: Wednesday, September 9 - meet with the Highway Association at 3:30 pm meet with the Highway Superintendent at 4:00 pm Thursday, September 10 - meet with the Town Clerk at 4:30 pm meet with the Court Justices at 5:00 pm The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm April L. Scheffler, RMC Groton Town Clerk