A
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
FEBRUARY
22, 2008
The Lake County Board of
WELCOME
AND INTRODUCTION
Mr.
Gary Kaiser, Director, Department of Public Safety, stated that this
presentation would be a little different from what the Commissioners had seen before,
because they were going to display a lot of the things that they used out in
the field and have the staff explain to the Board what they were doing. He explained that the entire scenario that
morning would be based on an incident action plan that they wrote for every
event that they had, which was part of the National Incident Management System
for disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and plane crashes. He stated that they would be given the
complete picture of what the plan was, how it was going to be executed, who was
responsible for what, and how it flowed.
He also pointed out that the personal accountability tags that they were
given were what they used when people arrived on the scene, and the incident
commander collected and maintained these tags to keep track of exactly how many
people were on the scene and where they were.
He specified where in the room (or the parking lot) the Commissioners
would go for each presentation throughout the program to give them an
unprecedented, in depth view of what the Public Safety Emergency First
Responders did.
COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS DIVISION
Mr.
Greg Holcomb, Communications Technologies Manager, commented that the
Communications Systems Division budget was $20,793,022, which looked large but
their capital outlay, which contained their new radio system this year, was the
majority of the budget for 2008. He
reported that some of the revenues that came in were from 911, cable
franchising, and other emergency services fees, which made up about half the revenue;
some interest income on reserves; and fines and forfeits from the surcharge
from traffic violations. He commented
that the beginning fund balance was rather large this year because due to the
legislature, they carried over some funds for some 911 system replacements that
were going to have to happen. He also
went over the operating expenses for both systems and technology, including
cost and maintenance of towers, phones services, electric services, and lease
agreements.
Ms.
Harryette Hannah, Database Coordinator, went through the process for addressing
a new subdivision, including naming the street and receiving a record that
would be shown if 911 was called.
Ms.
Laura Nichols, Systems Database Manager, explained that they were responsible
for issuing all addresses in unincorporated areas and several of the cities,
maintaining the master street addressing guide, and maintaining the database
for telephones and addresses of the streets.
Mr.
Bruce Thorburn, 911 coordinator, stated that cable television was in transition
right now and that legislation passed last year that went into effect July 1
moved local authority for all intents and purposes away from issuing franchise
agreements and given to the State of Florida, Department of State. He specified that by July 1, 2009 all cable
customer complaints would be going to the Department of Agriculture, but until
that time, they were still required to receive complaints, but with no
enforcement authority. They also had to
ensure that all Department of Revenue records were met and that the backup
material was done, which was filed twice a year. In order to show the Board the difference
between where they had been and where they were going, he displayed an old analog
911 key switch and commented that analog would soon be gone and replaced by
digital and computer equipment. He then
stated that instead of having the hand set and all the other equipment, it
would be replaced by a computer screen and a wireless headphone with a mike,
enabling the operators to have their hands free to do other things. He also stated that the system would change
from being a fixed-address technology to triggering a blinking dot on a
map. He mentioned that sometimes the
milepost marker on a highway was used to determine who was responsible and the
contact point for an emergency call from a cell phone caller who was on a
highway.
Mr.
Gustavo Marquez, Communications Specialist, stated that they covered repairs,
exchanges, warranties, broken clips, antennas, and other cell-phone use
maintenance and reviewed 600 pages of cell phone bills. He stated that they had a new radio service
coming in, which resulted in new radios, new portable units, and the
maintenance on those. They also had to
maintain the towers and equipment for emergency preparedness.
Mr.
Holcomb talked about some of the significant challenges that they were facing,
which included a database that did not coincide with the Property Appraiser,
the Tax Collector, or the GIS system in the County; revenue uncertainties due
to future lost 911 revenue; rising of fuel costs; maintenance contracts; and
staffing, especially with “ONE-DEEP” position responsibilities.
FIRE
RESCUE DIVISION
Mr.
John Jolliff, Deputy Fire Chief, stated that a majority of their budget went
for personal services, and the operating expenses that were in the budget
covered things such as utilities for the eighteen fire stations; apparatus
repair and maintenance; and fuel and oil for the fleet. He stated that they responded to a call every
35 minutes in the County and covered 1,022 square miles of unincorporated
area. He mentioned that the normal
station rounds by an on-duty Battalion Chief who spent 30 minutes at each
station took on average 6.5 hours to cover 100-136 miles.
Ms.
Kara Miller, Fire Lieutenant/Paramedic with Lake County Fire Rescue in the
Lieutenant
Bobby Ford stated that all employees in the field were dual certified, which in
addition to being a state certified fire fighter, they were also an EMT or a
Paramedic. He noted that they handled
natural disasters and vehicle accidents, where they might use hydraulic
operations to cut open the vehicle or start medical care.
Mr. Chuck Blinco, Fire Lieutenant/EMT
and a member of the Special Operations
Response Team (SORT), stated that the group has three fire stations dedicated
to Special Operations and 29 firefighters who had to meet a minimum of 500
hours of additional training to get their foot in the door for Special
Operations, including a 160-hour course in hazardous materials, which prepared
them to deal with anything from drums on the side of the road to the
methamphetamine drug lab response that they currently did with the Sheriff’s
Office, as well as courses in search and rescue operations and building
collapse.
Ms. Kathy Edwards, Firefighter/EMT at
Station 109 in Clermont, serves as a Public Education Coordinator and a
Juvenile Firefighters Intervention Network Coordinator and educates the public
in fire safety issues. She showed some
equipment they used to educate children and special-needs adults, and some of
the programs that they had available were “Get To Know Your Firefighter,” which
was utilized in the day care facilities, and “Get Out, Stay Out,” for grades
kindergarten to second grade, where they put the children in a simulated
environment to teach them the importance of escaping and staying out of the way
of a fire. She stated that that they
also had programs for kitchen fire safety for homeowners’ associations, which
was adapted for the special-needs adults at Sunrise ARC, and did 25-30
community events, open houses, and parades utilizing the Fire Safety House.
Mr. Jolliff related three significant
challenges of their department, which were staffing issues, continuance of
progress toward compliance with established industry consensus standards, aging
infrastructure, and fleet replacement and maintenance upkeep.
OUTSIDE DISPLAY OF SPECIALIZED
APPARATUS AND EQUIPMENT-
COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS AND FIRE
RESCUE
The Commissioners were taken outside
in the parking lot for a demonstration of some of the fleet and equipment. Mr. Rob Richardson, Radio System Coordinator,
directed everyone to a portable tower system, which he related that Homeland
Security asked Lake County to host for 18 months and which was integrated into
their system. He reported that this
tower was worth $150,000 and that it had a five-channel trunking system and was
used for special events. Mr. Richardson
stated that they had large generators in case the generators from the towers
failed. He also related that manpower
was one problem that they were facing, and one of their goals was to increase
their staff.
Mr. Jim Dickerson, Assistant Fire
Chief, Operations, stated that
ANIMAL
SERVICES DIVISION
Ms.
Marjorie Boyd, Director, Animal Services, stated that during her twelve years
with the County, she had seen a lot of change and growth. She reported that in 2008, her budget totaled
a little over $1.8 million, with over $1.4 million of that going for
staff. She commented that they drove
over 57,000 miles every quarter and that it was a large area to cover,
resulting in a fuel expense of more than $67,000 for over 25,000 gallons
annually. She also pointed out that a
lot of calls ended up taking more than one officer and several hours. She stated that they handled about 18 court
cases every month at a cost of $1,200. Other
expenses included $2,000 monthly for animal feed and $3,000 per month for
utility services at the shelters. She
related that one puppy or kitten could be linked to over 500 million births in
seven years and that Lake County Animal Services handled a larger variety of
animals than any of its surrounding counties.
They averaged a call for service every six minutes and a field response
time of 37 minutes for the officer to respond to that call.
Ms.
René Segraves, Assistant Director, reported that in 2007, they had 13 animal
control officers for the field operations and two dispatchers. She showed a map that divided the county into
four zones and showed in green the areas that they currently serviced, which
she remarked was just about the whole entire county. She related that their animal control
officers were certified in many areas by the State of Florida and could issue
courtesy notices, written warnings, or even citations; and they were also
certified in chemical immobilization (dart gun), which was a last resort to
catch an animal that could not be captured by any other means. She reported that in 2007, they received over
21,000 calls.
Mr.
Tim Horschler, Animal Control Officer, pointed out an exhibit of an aggressive
Burmese Python named “Big Bertha,” that was one of ten that they had to take
care of at their shelter, who was over 18 feet long and weighed over 140
pounds.
Ms.
Segraves related that they had over 900 calls in reference to livestock, which
were cattle or horses that were running loose and destroying property, and when
the officer responded, they would do their best to safely confine that animal
and call for a livestock rig. She also
pointed out that they received over 800 calls in reference to neglect and
cruelty and showed some contraptions that they confiscated with the animals
still in them at the time. She specified
that they had over 900 injured animals, including birds, eagles, sand hill
cranes, and zebras and had responded to over 4600 calls about loose or stray
animals, such as dogs, cats, chickens, and pigs. She explained that their officers also
attended training classes, such as the large animal rescue class.
Mr.
Horschler displayed some of the equipment used in their large animal rescue class
and related that they took day and night training courses, in which they
learned how to get large animals out of sticky situations, such as when a horse
or a cow were stuck in the mud. He
showed what they used to right a trailer when it was turned on its side.
Ms.
Segraves told about some of the educational programs that their division did at
schools, civic organizations, and homeowners associations to educate the public
on how not to get bitten by dogs. She
mentioned that they received two awards because of their innovative programs
from the Florida Animal Control Association (FACA) and the National Association
of Counties (NACo). She related that
they responded to the fires in
Ms.
Tiffany Phillips and Ms. Michelle Perrier, Animal Shelter Technicians,
explained about some of their shelter operations. Ms. Phillips stated that in 2007, Lake County
Animal Services was visited by more than 29,000 individuals inquiring about
either adoption, reclaiming their own animal, or on many occasions relinquishing
animals that were strays or could no longer be cared for. The shelter staff consisted of nine shelter
technicians, three euthanasia technicians, and one on-staff part-time
veterinarian. Ms. Perrier explained that
in 2007, Animal Services received up to 15,400 animals, and each animal went
through a standard check-in procedure, which included scanning for a microchip;
then an adoption process after they determined that it was friendly and
adoptable; and given its first set of vaccines.
She related that once the animal was adopted, it then went through a
series of pre-surgery tests, including a heartworm exam, parvo check, and
feline leukemia check; further vaccinations; and spay or neutering in their own
in-house clinic performed by their on-staff veterinarian and shelter veterinarian
technicians. She pointed out that as a
result of the monumental success of their in-house spay and neuter veterinary
clinic, their adoption rates had increased over 70 percent, which has enabled
Animal Services to extend their public assistance, beginning with their rabies
vaccination program in which nearly 900 dogs and cats were vaccinated during
the last two sessions. Ms. Perrier
related that Lake County Animal Services was the first in the nation to
establish and operate pet friendly shelters where the owners and their pets
could be evacuated and housed safely in the same shelter during a natural
disaster, and they currently operated eight pet-friendly shelters with one
backup shelter. Ms. Phillips added that in
2005 they were awarded the NACo Achievement Award in recognition of their
innovative pet-friendly shelter program.
Ms.
Boyd stated that one of the most significant challenges for their division was
that their facility was overcrowded, since it was originally designed for 12
employees and 8,000 animals per year, and they currently had 31 employees
handling 16,000 animals a year. Their
other two significant challenges were increased response time due to
EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT DIVISION
Mr. Jerry Smith, Director, Emergency
Management Division, stated that their main mission was to make sure the County
was prepared, and they did that with a team effort of all the different
departments across the County and partnering with the municipalities and
different agencies in the County and the State.
He pointed out that they collaborated with their partners, coordinated
the issues, and facilitated them for all of their residents. He also noted that they were one of the few
divisions that were responsible for all 300,000 citizens, pursuant to Statute
252. He commented that he thought they
were a bargain for the Board, because 40 percent of their budget came from
grants. He stated that through grants
and with the cost of two personnel from the general fund, they were able to
fund four full-time personnel, one part-time person, and volunteer expenses. He stated that some of their operating expenses
were for the satellite phones and the reverse 911, public education materials,
and reprographics for training materials, grant applications, forms, and other
printed material. He pointed out that
they had more people registered for special needs shelters than they had room
for, but typically they did not always fill those beds up. He stated that they had nine weather stations
strategically placed throughout the County, so they would know whether it was
safe to send someone out in a particular area.
They were excited that they had a conference call bridge, because they
formerly had to pay a provider to be able to do that, and that enabled them to
be able to keep their cities and other partners informed about what was going
on. He explained that they had those
conference calls repeatedly during hurricanes.
He also mentioned that they had some small household generators.
Mr. Smith talked about some of their
programs, stating that after Hurricane Katrina, they started the Public Shelter
Registry Program, which had buses pick up people who did not have dependable
transportation to take them to a shelter and back home when it was safe. They were a huge proponent of NOAA Weather
Radios, and one of their new programs, Disaster Ready Communities, aimed to get
people to start thinking about personal responsibility for preparedness. He also noted that coordination among all the
municipal jurisdictions and agencies was a big undertaking involving hundreds
of entities.
Mr. Sean Loughlin, Disaster
Assistance Coordinator, stated that one key component of their budget was the
Emergency Management Preparedness and Assistance Trust Fund (EMPA), which was
funded from a surcharge on homeowners’ and business insurance. He related that some of the items that were
on the scope of work for this fund were to work statewide to decrease their
shelter deficit, coordinate mitigation activities, coordination and
collaboration, National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliance,
participating in the State Hurricane Exercise, and communications with Florida
Division of Emergency Management. He
also noted that the planning component was one of the most time-consuming parts
of their job, particularly with submitting the applications for the Hazard
Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and the County Emergency Operations Plan. He mentioned that the Comprehensive Emergency
Management Plan, which was the framework from which they operated, would be
updated this year as well. He reported
that they currently had
Ms. Dottie Jackson, Emergency
Management Specialist, stated that the Special Needs Registry was one of her
planning areas, and specified that Florida Statutes required all County
Emergency Management agencies to maintain a database of special needs
persons. She related that they had three
special needs shelters and worked closely with the Health Department in
reviewing applications for the special needs shelter. Another area of her planning activities was
with the Health Care Facility Disaster Plans, and all 86 healthcare facilities,
such as assisted living facilities, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities,
licensed by the State of
Mr. Thomas Carpenter, Emergency
Operations Manager, stated that the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
was started after the terrorist attacks of 2001, which was a strategic,
systematic approach to domestic incident response and that it was applicable
across disciplines and jurisdictions. He
related that they have formed a partnership with Lake-Sumter EMS, the Villages
Department of Public Safety, and Sumter County Emergency Management to form a
core instructor group to teach all the required training with a very aggressive
schedule for 2007, which has gotten good feedback. He also talked about the EOC (
Mr. John Walton, from Volunteer Lake,
talked about the program for disaster-ready communities, which included mapping
the neighborhood, preparing a contact list, taking care of people who needed
treatment in their own neighborhood, and going through a 9-step checklist with
items such as taking care of loved ones, shutting off water at the house main,
sharing information gathered by teams, and placing “HELP” or “OK” signs in
windows. He commented that the key to
the program was to keep it simple to present and to activate.
Mr. Smith went over their significant
challenges, which included need of a dedicated EOC, special needs shelters and
supplies, storage, and future technology upgrades. He related that another one of their
significant challenges was to get people to be prepared. He also mentioned that they did not have
generators large enough to attach to their shelters.
OUTSIDE DISPLAY OF SPECIALIZED APPARATUS AND EQUIPMENT
–
ANIMAL SERVICES
Ms. Marjorie Boyd gave the
Commissioners a tour of some equipment and animals, including a horse, goats,
and dogs pertaining to animal services.
She pointed out that because of the
CLOSING COMMENTS/ANATOMY OF AN
EMERGENCY CALL
Mr. Kaiser summarized that they have
presented the many diversified functions that Public Safety performed on a
24-hour basis. He explained that the
Anatomy of an Emergency Incident would describe the critical thought processes
that their emergency responders carried out when they were responding to an
alarm.
Ms. Joanna Buchanan, Communications
Supervisor, Lake-Sumter EMS Communications, related that this would be a
vehicle accident located in the County at US Hwy 27 and CR 561, with reports of
multiple vehicles, numerous calls being received, and several injuries. She mentioned that they were a secondary PSAP
(public safety answering point), meaning that the 911 calls that came in had
already gone through the Sheriff’s Office or other agencies. She commented that with this type of
incident, all four of their 911 lines and four administration lines would be
ringing. She explained that the first
thing that was important was confirming the location and getting a phone
number. She specified that they then found
out exactly what was going on, what kind of vehicles were involved, whether
there were any hazards, whether anyone was pinned in the vehicle or thrown from
the vehicle, if everyone appeared to be conscious, and any obvious injuries
such as serious bleeding, and they ensured the caller’s safety. She related that they would be constantly
updating the call at that time with the information received and would dispatch
in multiple units. They also would look
to see if there was any type of mutual aid that they could request from another
agency or county to see if they were closer to assist and give all the
pertinent information to the corresponding crews to help them paint a picture
before they got there. She continued to
explain that once the units were on the scene, they were getting information
back from them and requesting assistance from specific responders. If there were several patients, they would
then call the hospitals and look into the possibility of other means of
transportation, such as air support. She
pointed out that this was just one call, and they were still working all the
other calls that were going on in both counties.
Mr. Braxton Bisceglia, Fire
Lieutenant/EMT, Lake County Fire Rescue, commented that he would have 30
seconds to figure out what to do about this call and mitigate the scene. He stated that their immediate responsibility
would be to gather the information, repeat it back to Ms. Buchanan, and put on
the bunker gear. Upon arrival at the
scene, he would give an initial report, including the number of vehicles; the
type of vehicles that were involved; any hazards; any fuel leakage; the number
of patients and their status, which would determine the level of MCI (Mass
Casualty Incident); and any road blockage.
He explained that he would then establish a command system and determine
if there was any extrication that would be involved, in which case he needed to
decide if he was going to use a fire extinguisher or a hose line. He mentioned that since there was a horse
trailer involved, he had to contact animal control and special operations. He also noted that he was constantly talking
to his dispatcher. He related that they
then would try to de-escalate the call, clear up the scene, and get the road
opened, and when everything had been taken care of and secured, he would go
back to his station and do a report.
Mr. Lloyd Parker, Lake-Sumter EMS,
commented that he and Mr. Bisceglia were concerned about a lot of the same
things, because they operated as a team in the field. He related that they were also interested in
the location and making sure they were responding to the right place, as well
as the other information that Ms. Buchanan was providing them, such as the
number of vehicles, the number of patients, and the types of injuries. They were particularly interested in any
hazards, because they would then need to take the proper precautions, and
wanted to be aware of any special considerations, such as extrication,
entrapment, ejection from the vehicle, and extremes in age of the patient. He also received continued information from
the dispatcher, as it could change their level of response and the appropriate
number of resources on the way. He
explained that when they arrived, they would size up the situation and look at
the number of vehicles to estimate how many patients they thought they might
have and stage the level of MCI from a 1 (small incident) through a 5 (large
incident). He noted that they had a
predictable scale of response that was in their protocol based on that. As they started to manage the scene, the
first thing that
Ms. René Segraves, Assistant Director,
Lake County Animal Services, stated that they would initially receive their
call usually from the Sheriff’s Office, and immediately she would dispatch the
first available animal control officer to that area that was trained in large
animal rescue, who would be able to approach the scene and contact them back to
say exactly how many people were needed with their care unit to respond. She explained that once they arrived on the
scene, they would have to decide whether or not the animal was going to be removed
before the trailer was up righted or if the animal’s injuries were such or that
it was pinned in a way that they could not remove the horse safely. She mentioned that they would have their
veterinarians standing on call waiting to see whether they needed to do
anything with the animal. She added that
they also would try to have photographs taken that would enable them to use
that for training experiences, and they had to do reports.
LAKE-SUMTER EMERGENCY MEDICAL
SERVICES
Mr. Jim Judge, Executive Director,
Lake-Sumter EMS, stated that they worked to weave themselves into the fabric of
the community throughout Lake and
Mr. Judge reported that their budget
this year was about $25 million, and they received subsidies from both Lake and
Mr. Judge reported that they were a
very heavily regulated industry by Florida Statutes and the Florida
Administrative Code, and they had easily passed all the many unannounced
inspections, since the crews did a tremendous job keeping up with Statutes and
the Rules. He talked about their busy
OTHER BUSINESS
Ms.
Cindy Hall, County Manager, stated that she wanted to hand out information
before the Commissioners left from the Budget Department that some
Commissioners requested which contained a line by line cost of programs in the
general fund and a backup section to it of items that they could possibly
discuss at the budget workshop on Tuesday.
Commr. Cadwell stated that he and Ms. Hall had
met with all of the constitutional officers to discuss matters pertaining to
Tuesday’s workshop and to ask for suggestions, and he commented that they all
were willing to do whatever they could.
ADJOURNMENT
There
being no further business to be brought to the attention of the Board, the
meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.
__________________________________
WELTON CADWELL, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST:
__________________________
NEIL
KELLY, CLERK