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HomeMy WebLinkAbout21.12.09 - Minutes, Emergency Services Advisory Council Emergency Services Advisory Council Washington County, Maryland Page 1 of 4 REGULAR MEETING Date: Thursday, December 9, 2021 Attending: R. David Hays, Director, Emergency Services, Ex-Officio Dale Fishack, President, WCVFRA, Ex-Officio Dick Hopkins, Acting Chairman, WCVFRA Ron Horn, Citizen-at-Large Roger Otzelberger, Jr., WCVFRA Joe Kroboth, Citizen-at-Large Scott Buskirk, Citizen-at-Large Bonnie Keltner, Administrative Assistant Guests: Randy Wagner, County Commissioner Dave Chisholm, Deputy Director, Operations Absent: Tim Ammons, Citizen-at-Large Gary Farrell, President, Funkstown FD, WCVFRA Dwayne Lunsford, Citizen-at-Large CALL TO ORDER: • Acting Chair Hopkins called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Minutes: • MOTION: On a motion by Roger Otzelberger and seconded by Joe Kroboth, the ESAC members approved the minutes from the November 4, 2021, meeting as presented. CARRIED • MOTION: On a motion by Joe Kroboth and seconded by Roger Otzelberger, the ESAC members approved attaching Kingsley’s resignation letter to the November 4, 2021, minutes meeting. CARRIED Washington County, Maryland Emergency Services Advisory Council Meeting Thursday, December 9, 2021 Page 2 of 4 Old Business: Fire Company Audits Update – Dir. Hays • Dir. Hays sent out individualized emails two days ago to 12 companies that still have outstanding issues of some degree. For the first part of January the goal is to try to get some one-on-one time with the departments and the auditor. They want to have this wrapped up in January and get the official reports in. Some departments have already received draft reports. Engine 5 is the first to have their audit complete and their funding restored. New Business: WCVFRA Report – President Dale Fishack • The officers for the next two years will be the same except the 2nd V.P., Troy Lloyd, who did not run again. Skip Menzies will fill that position. • They are continuing to work on ESO as far as the reporting system. President Fishack does not believe they will be ready for a merger until late January first of February. • The safety officers’ vehicles are still not ready to use. The vendor doing the lighting has not come through, so they had to find another vendor. • The 3rd quarter of the stipend program is producing good results. There has been an increase in participation. • Thanks to the commissioners, the volunteer premium checks should be sent out very soon. Director’s Report – Director Dave Hays • There were a limited number of hard copies distributed in a notebook of the Carter Lane report - one for each of the County Commissioners, Administrator, DES staff, ESAC, and one for each of the 27 stations. Dir. Hays spoke with the County Administrator and County Attorney last Friday to make sure we could send this report out. One of the recommendations was to remove specific names. Dir. Hays had it edited to remove the names and refer to each person by their specific role in the incident. The names did stay in the slide show. The County Commissioners were briefed Tuesday a week ago and they were receptive to the conversation. Chief Tippet and Chief Bailey of the committee were selected to do the presentation. Overall, the intent is to take this report to the next step and make sure it doesn’t become something that would get put on a shelf and nothing done with it. The plan is to propose the County Commissioners appoint a committee to review the recommendations and develop a plan for their implementation (see hand-out). This is what Dir. Hays recommends, but it has not been submitted for approval. A lengthy discussion followed. Washington County, Maryland Emergency Services Advisory Council Meeting Thursday, December 9, 2021 Page 3 of 4 • MOTION: On a motion by Joe Kroboth and seconded by Dick Hopkins, the ESAC will notify the BOCC that they support the appointment of a nine-member panel as recommended by the Director of Emergency Services in his report to ESAC on December 9, 2021, to act as a steering committee to develop an implementation plan and report on the progress of the implementation at least quarterly to the County Commissioners. In addition, it was further moved that the panel complete the implementation plan and present an overview of the plan to the County Commissioners at a regular business meeting no later than April 2022 and that the panel provide monthly updates to the ESAC. CARRIED • Dir. Hays read over his report prepared for the ESAC. • Dir. Hays talked about Kingsley’s resignation letter and what he did not agree with. Dir. Hays felt the division itself and maybe himself specifically was being portrayed that they disregard this committee and the motions that are made in these meetings. This is not accurate. One area where Dir. Hays counted six times so far, is the Association’s meeting where the chair chose on his own accord to not provide an ESAC report. At no time did he allude that it was ESAC’s or anyone’s position other than he was reporting about the SCBA committee not agreeing on a single manufacturer at that time. Dir. Hays believes consistently that has been portrayed as something that Oley Griffith had a part in and Dir. Hays believes for the record that it is just not a fair or accurate statement. The other issue is that they are not bringing items here that should be reviewed by the committee. Dir. Hays said he went through the minutes again and at the February 11, 2021, meeting requested from the ESAC chairs a formal document on the types of issues that they believe Dir. Hays should bring, so he has a fair measurement and expectation on what ESAC should have. Dir. Hays asked for that same document again on June 17, 2021, and once again on September 9, 2021, and to date he has not received anything. There was an accusation that they withheld a letter from the County Commissioners and that there was an email exchange between the current chair and the County Administrator on November 9, 2020, where the letter was given to the County Administrator in March, and he responded that it did not occur. The county clerk researched the email and found that they did receive an email from Kingsley with a document they could not open and asked Kingsley to resend in a format that could be opened and that did not happen. Washington County, Maryland Emergency Services Advisory Council Meeting Thursday, December 9, 2021 Page 4 of 4 Acting Chair, Dick Hopkins • Acting Chair Hopkins discussed the letter that Kingsley was supposed to have sent to the county administrator. • MOTION: On a motion by Joe Kroboth and seconded by Ron Horn, the Emergency Services Advisory Council will establish two priorities. The first being a review and revision to the ESAC by-laws and the second whatever support is needed from ESAC for the Carter Lane investigative report. It was further moved that until those two priorities are addressed, future meetings will be limited to working on those two issues and that a request to the director of Emergency Services be made to provide written reports and to limit his monthly presentation to this group to fifteen minutes. CARRIED • Dick Hopkins will stay as acting chair until we decide otherwise. Adjournment • MOTION: With no other business brought forward, a motion was made by Joe Kroboth and seconded by Ron Horn to adjourn the meeting at 8:20pm. CARRIED. Next meeting: • January 6, 2022, 7pm • Location: DES Downstairs Training Room Respectfully submitted by, Bonnie Keltner, Administrative Assistant Washington County Div. of Emergency Services & Richard Hopkins, ESAC Acting-Chair