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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRFA 2015-06-10 Item 1 - Draft 5/13/15 MinutesCity of Tukwila Minutes Regional Fire Authority Annexation Steering Committee May 13, 2015 Call to Order Co -Chair Kathleen Wilson called the meeting to order at 1736 hours. Committee Members Committee Members Present: David Cline, City Administrator; Moira Bradshaw, Senior Planner; Joe Duffie, Tukwila Councilmember; Verna Seal, Tukwila Councilmember, Chris Flores, Tukwila Interim Fire Chief, Jerry Thornton, Tukwila citizen representative, Jessica Jerwa, Tukwila citizen representative, Larry Rabel, Captain Kent RFA, Brian Snure, Attorney for Kent RFA Board, Ray Shjerven, Captain Kent RFA, Local 1747 Union President, Jim Schneider, Kent RFA Chief; Mike Denbo, KCFPD 37 Commissioner, Board member of Kent RFA; Kathleen Wilson, Tukwila citizen representative; Dawn Judkins, Local 2088 Union President of Tukwila firefighters; Merle Brooks, Tukwila Firefighter; Roxanne Knowle, Senior Real Estate Manager for CBRE; Marty Grisham, Battalion Chief and Emergency Manager for Tukwila; Don Tomaso, Tukwila Fire Marshal; Christian Faltenberger, Facilities Manager, Westfield Southcenter; Mark Segale, Segale Properties; Mitch Snyder, Battalion Chief, EMS Officer; Vicky Carlsen, Tukwila Deputy Finance Director; Chuck Woolley, Tukwila firefighter; Peter Wojcik, Tukwila Fire Captain; Jeff Nichols, Tukwila firefighter. General discussion /questions /follow -up emergency management (EM), fire prevention services David Cline explained that if Tukwila annexes to the Kent RFA, there are certain functions currently performed by the Fire Department that the City would still need to perform. These services would be ongoing expenses that the City could either contract with the RFA for or hire staff to perform. Although the Committee doesn't need to make a recommendation on this, we want the Committee to understand the impact of annexation on these functions and get their feedback. Emergency Management: Senior Planner Moira Bradshaw led a follow -up discussion on the pros and cons of keeping emergency management service in -house rather than contracting with the RFA. Chief Jim Schneider stated that EM would stay local whether we keep the service in -house or contract with the RFA. Tukwila would have an EM manager who would coordinate the City's response to its own emergencies. If contracted to RFA, the RFA would hire and employ the EM manager and consult with Tukwila on that person. If contracted, Tukwila would not lose control of coordination and management of events. Tukwila Councilmember Joe Duffie asked why join the RFA if we already have the staff to perform these services? Regional Fire Authority Annexation Steering Committee Minutes Page 2 of 4 May 13, 2015 Kent RFA Union President Ray Shjerven stated that if the service is by contract with the RFA, there would be more resources available to assist with an event. Battalion Chief (B.C.) Marty Grisham stated that contracting would bring more resources for training and exercises. Prioritization of resources for events that go beyond the City's ability to manage, will be done on a regional level. Faltenberger stated that when he calls Tukwila for resources for drills, the response he is given is `when we have time, we will help with an exercise.' Faltenberger stated that he's hearing that with the RFA, there would be additional resources available for drills. Permitting: B.C. Don Tomaso explained that the focus of Fire Department permitting and plan review are both public safety and firefighter safety. Faltenberger asked what would change if Tukwila were part of the RFA? B.C. Tomaso responded that there would be depth to handle workload. Illness, training and vacation makes it difficult to meet the work load. He indicated that if Tukwila contracts for services with the RFA, there would be depth in staffing, which would allow for backfilling, to stay on top of the work load, and the ability to pipeline new staff if there is a vacancy. Faltenberger asked about staff per capita with RFA compared to Tukwila. Chief Schneider stated that there would be a levels of service such as plan review, permit response times and inspection time frames. While Tukwila has the option to pay for more staff now, with the RFA, there would be depth in staff available to backfill when current staff is out. Faltenberger asked if system would change. Chief Schneider said that the one -stop permitting center could still take place at the 6300 building in Tukwila and that the computer tracking /permitting system would stay the same and there would be no change. Standard of Cover (Level of Service) Kent RFA: Captain Larry Rabel used a PowerPoint presentation and gave a basic explanation of level of service (LOS). LOS measures the performance of the system. What is accomplished 90 %, or 9 out of 10 times. For firefighting, the objective is to prevent "flashover" from occurring. On the EMS side, objective is to prevent brain death. Both flashover and brain death can occur quickly so it's important to arrive at an incident prior to these events happening. The basic components of fire service LOS is distribution, concentration, and reliability. Distribution is the placement of resources in a way that allows the RFA to achieve LOS standards throughout the area. Concentration is the number of resources needed in order to match the risk in the communities. Reliability is the availability of units to deploy to an incident. The RFA monitors these components of LOS to see how they are performing to ensure that they are providing appropriate levels of services. Post consolidation of Tukwila into the RFA, the RFA would provide LOS compliance with the 2014 Standards of Cover adopted by the RFA. They would evaluate the 2008 Tukwila Master Plan recommendations, update the capital facility and equipment Regional Fire Authority Annexation Steering Committee Minutes Page 3 of 4 May 13, 2015 plans to include Tukwila, evaluate current deployment of resources, and adjust as necessary to provide the best fit by taking advantage of economies of scale. Accreditation shows that the agency has set levels of service, has strategies to meet those service levels, and they have been reviewed for reasonableness. Continual improvement is required to maintain accreditation. The budget determines level of service. If Tukwila joins RFA, we would be folded into RFA standards of service and continual improvement. Kathleen Wilson asked where concentration of incidents in Tukwila is. Captain Larry Rabel responded that concentration is in retail sector and the streets around the retail area, and the 1 -405, I- 5 interchange. Faltenberger asked about financial impact to end user in RFA due to RFA model. Captain Larry Rabel indicated that there has been a decline. Tukwila Fire Dept. Chief Chris Flores distributed three pages of graphs that show response times and the 90% reliability figure for the four stations. He reviewed Tukwila's current level of service and showed that response times are similar to the RFAs. FD CARES program B.C. Mitch Snyder used a PowerPoint presentation to describe the RFA's FD CARES program. FD CARES stands for Fire Department Community Assistance, Referral, and Education Services. The program started by looking at incidents that shouldn't be in the 911 system. The program has grown well beyond what they thought it would be. They wrote a plan that demonstrated what the program would look like and how to it could be implemented. King County has a good 2 tier EMS system; meaning basic life support (BLS) and advanced life support (ALS) services. FD CARES adds a 3rd tier. The program addresses non - emergent incident responses, navigates patients to lower cost care facilities, addresses high utilizers of the 911 system and high users of emergency departments, and improves the continuity of patient care. The high utilizers are people who use the 911 system 25 times or more times in a 12 month period for non - emergent medical requests. In order to identify who these people are they've had to clean up their data entry. Driven by the Affordable Care Act, insurance payments are shifting from volume to value. The shift is away from a fee for service model. Financial reward is going to systems that improve health in an illness prevention model rather than simply treating people once they are sick. The RFA uses firefighter EMTs and registered nurses to provide the services of FD CARES. They are working with dispatchers to train them in how to determine when a call really is an emergency and when the FD CARES program would be a better response. FD CARES uses smaller vehicles, carries different equipment, and carries prevention devices including hand rails, slip rugs, grips, etc. They work with patients to help prevent future calls for aid including connecting them to other resources and giving them appropriate equipment. They will also reconnect with patients with follow -up visits. The RFA is connected to a crisis clinic and can transport patients there rather than the ER. Regional Fire Authority Annexation Steering Committee Minutes Page 4 of 4 May 13, 2015 If hospitals have a high readmission rate for pneumonia, CHF, acute MI, COPD, etc., they will be fined. FD CARES is partnering with hospitals to follow up with these discharged patients so they don't have to be readmitted. In putting this program together, they reviewed 5 years of data to identify potential patients. They looked at where repetitive calls happen and have built relationships with individuals and agencies, and attend senior wellness events. Calls happen frequently at assisted living centers. Non - emergent response is more cost effective for lower acuity medical requests. Utilizing this FD Cares results in reduced repetitive use of 911, reduced costs because of unit reliability, versus staffing additional emergency units, and therefore improved response times. There are cost savings for hospitals and emergency departments as well through reduced admissions and readmissions, reduced numbers of uninsured patients, reduced overcrowding, improved patient outcomes. Hospitals want to work with regional organizations for these types of programs rather than dealing with multiple agencies. Governance group: Senior Planner Moira Bradshaw spoke about the upcoming sub - workgroup to address governance. City Administrator David Cline wrapped up with letting the group know that the next meeting will start talking about the financing mechanism. Adjournment At 1945 hours Co -chair Seal declared the regional fire authority steering committee meeting adjourned.