 I guess we're going to get started with this meeting so I guess first thing in order it's just everybody just say who you are that's here. Aubrey Jenkins Fire Chief. Allison Teratio, County Councilmember District 5. I'm Michael Burr, Director of Emergency Services for Richland County. Wilburon in the City Council District 3. Daniel Rickam in City Council District 4. City Manager Teresa Wilson. Leonardo Brown, Richland County Administrator. Good. We also have Eric Chance, who is also on the bicycle. He's just not at a mic. Okay. So thank you all. Hopefully you all had an opportunity to review the minutes and if we go with the minutes we're going to proceed from there unless anybody got any revision or question about the minutes we're going to proceed and not to belabor anything. I think the purpose is which is item number four which we'll be talking about you know the budget and just receiving information from both the city and the county and I guess Missy if you're ready. So this is Missy Kaufman, the city's budget program management and grants director and Missy is going to take us through the budget development for the fire services and the Columbia Richland Fire annual appropriation of funds but how we actually get there from the city's perspective which I think gives a pretty good overview of the information that you all have been asking for. Thank you Missy. Good afternoon. Good to see everyone. As Miss Wilson mentioned we're going to go over the city's budget process and particularly the fire department's budget to include but the city portion of the fire department's budget and the county's portion. We'll cover a little bit about the city's budget process in general and spend more time obviously speaking specifically about the fire department. I'm sure the city's budget process mirrors probably what you're familiar with the county's fire budget process or the county's budget process in general. We start our budgets around now. Departments will be putting together budget requests here usually starting in December or January. I know that the county does have a little bit earlier time schedule with regards to when your budgets are due from departments so normally I think the fire department is submitting budgets a little bit earlier for county operations to the county. We've moved through our budget process. We have two readings of our budget and adopted by June 30th and of course our fiscal year is just the county starting July 1 through June 30th. I understand just part of what we're going to talk about today is based on what I think has been discussed at some of the prior meetings and part of what we'll focus on is the different revenue sources that the city has along with specific fire related revenue sources much like the county and local governments in general. We have a general fund that's generated from property taxes. Also part of our general fund are the fire specific revenues which include the fire hydrant fee and the fire millage which is set by Richland County and collected by the county but remitted to the city. The hydrant fee is of course collected by the city. Our enterprise funds which cover water, sewer, stormwater parking and then other moving into our grants and special revenues. The county portion of the fire department's budget is treated as a special revenue which is designated specifically by accounting rules and accounting principles. So county fire number one and are both funded out of county fire services as a special revenue based on the contract that is funded by the county. We also do collect fire service fees on behalf of the county and Irma fire districts and Lexington as well now for those residents that are in those jurisdictions. So those funds are remitted specifically to those fire services. Just to talk a little bit too just so you know what makes up the county and city fire department budgets or the budgets in general are operating budgets would include personnel operating expenses on the city side. It would include capital if there's funding for capital. The county's fire budget does not include capital on county budgets for capital on your own. And then of course the we have a capital budget which is really related to our our CIP or capital improvement program. Getting more specifically with regards to the fire department's budget, the city, the city portion of the fire department is in the city's general fund. The county portion of the fire department's budget is as mentioned is in a special revenue. The county portion of the of the fire services department fire services budget includes fire and personnel. It does not include any funding for vehicle maintenance, building maintenance, equipment purchases nor overhead outside of the fire department for other city other city departments and operations. Vehicle maintenance is something that was moved out of the county's portion of the budget a couple of years ago and is now funded straight by county services. The county pays the city the amount of the budget approved on a bi-monthly basis in accordance to the fire services contract based on the approved budget. If the budget is overspent, the county does not reimburse for the shortfall. That's the current agreement. The current fire contract is is adjusted. My understanding is that the fire contract expires in January 2023. Folsom is going to come talk a little bit about how they submit. Good afternoon, everyone. All right. The way we develop our budget for the fire department on either side just goes for the city or the county budget. So when we start developing a budget, we go to each division head, look at what their requests are and what their needs are. And so when we start talking about salaries and fringes, you know, we start looking at existing salaries. We try to forecast our increases such as merit increases, cost of living, retention raises, higher education, special operations centers. Now, this is not everything and only what we look at, but we look we try to look at all of those and placement of personnel at that time. When it starts come to goods and services, the same things apply. You know, we look at the start examining the expenditures from the previous year. Also, sometimes we'll go back even further is three years just to see what we trend, how we're trending, what's going on in the world at that time. Sometimes a few costs can be up. And you know, just previous years, a few costs can be down. So you try your best to forecast those such as forecasting bunker gear replacement. Bunker gear is a 10 year life. But the reality is our bunker gear will last no more than five to eight years on a busy on a busy company. Maybe five years or not so busy company, maybe six years. So you try, we try to forecast those needs. Again, we talked about fuel prices, electricity. Think about medical supplies in the last two years, medical, medical supplies such as these N95s has gone up the percentage I can't even I can't even fathom. But those increases are those a lot increases when it comes to medical supplies, equipment needs. So we try to forecast on goods and services, everything we can. When it comes to extrication equipment, the closing that we have on, no, although we have an allotment, but you got to you know, we put in there for emergency purchases or emergency situations where they get blood on the uniform. We had an increase in bed bugs. So we had to develop situations and new materials and new ways of preventing that from bringing into the station. For one instance, if we get a bug, a bed bug, we go to a bed by a bed bug call. You know, so we got and they bring it back to the station. Now we got to we got to call Terminix. We got to disinfect the truck and we got to disinfect the station. Those are added costs. Now some of those costs, we cannot forecast, but we try as much as we can to forecast those costs. But those are some new things that happens with with reoccurring costs. The city budget. Alright, this year, how we work out in the city budget, we have six different budgets for the city 2301, which is fire administration has 22 positions that we split 5050 with the county. We have 2302, which is our fire prevention, which 12 members there. 2303 is fire fire suppression, which is our biggest division fire training, which is seven positions split 5050 with the county and our shop maintenance, which is split by 5050. For those so fire admin, just to describe it a little bit, that's your assistant chiefs administrators. That's in that fire prevention is our fire marshals. Our prevention is our on the floor, our guys, our personnel that's in on the floor, we call boots on the ground, of course training. I know what training is. And fire shop maintenance is our logistics department, which they handle from the SCBA, upfit the PPE cleaning and testing every year the annual testing that we have to do, taking supplies and stuff to the various departments. And then the fire maintenance division, which is funded out the water department. It's not it's not reflected in this total budget of the 24681. That's a separate budget. But and but total, we, we managed 260 budgeted positions. Any questions on the county budget? Same thing. If you notice the difference on between this, one of the biggest difference is on the fire, the fire suppression side, we combine all stations into one, which is 2303. On the county side, we do some of the individual budget for each station that's in the county. And you can see the difference here. And then you look at the admin fire administration, the fire administration is a little bit different between the city and the county, meaning that on the fire administration side on the county side, we combine logistics, we combine training, all and with administration into that into that number. And then if you look here, you have each in each individual position at each station, and their total budget for this year of 21302 221, which is a total of 248 positions, budget positions that we that's budgeted for. Chief, oh, yes, sir. Can you go ahead and explain to them about why you showing station one HQ with the 39 positions? Yeah, yes, that's that's some about other writing positions. So you have your some some things that come out here are your hazmat firefighters, the captives, engineers, and then your extra personnel for coverage. Any questions on that part of it or anything that you'd like us to break down any further? Total total city county budget positions 260 plus the 248 five hundred five five five six five six. And what one difference have you seen out the county has their own fire prevention, fire marshals office. So that's the difference as well. How large is that office? And on the city side, on the city side, it's approximately, we just round it up to 1.5 million. That's goods and services and salaries. I can't speak for the city is 1.5 million, 2302 and provide prevention. That's what you 1212 of it. Okay, got to. So you have the break breakdown of their budget at one file. Okay, just the city. Yes, perfect. Yeah, we don't we don't have any idea what the what it calls on the county side, but they're fire marshes code enforcement. Chief Jenkins, can you repeat that about the the county side? It's far far marshes. Yes, I'll just say that we're not sure what it costs to fund the fire marshes on the county side, because they are separate. They're not a part of the department. Okay, so it's separately. I would think it would be important for us to have some transparency around exactly what those numbers are. So I would let if our staff could get clarity on that. Yes, ma'am. So the idea of budget presentations were that the city would go through their part. And then the county would give a general overview in at a high level. So some of that information will be covered during our process. So yes, man, we have a we know how much we spend. Okay. Thank you. And with that, we would like to see a continued partnership, be more transparent. And with us coming together, you know, our mindset, we can achieve more effective effectiveness and efficiency by coming together, each of us knowing what we need to do and how can we address those issues. So we appreciate y'all giving us the time to listen to us. And hopefully we can answer any questions after the county presents theirs and then become a game plan. But I think the one thing we need to add and not to get in the weeds is that we do several budgets on the county side, based for each station. I think if we can look at maybe calling it down, the same way we do it, and I understand why we do it because we want to see what is that what it costs is to run each station. But you know, it calls us to how many 18, 19 different budgets, each block appears it's a budget, right? Although although it's one budget, but if you look at when we submit our budget to you, we have a line item and a page for each each station. So we can call it down somewhat. It'd be a whole lot easier. Each each block that you see appear each account number is its own account. So it's like having our finance folks don't like me refer to it. It's like having a checkbook for each one. Great. Thank you. On this Wilson, Mr. Brown, I think the goal from my understanding with the committee, which we're looking for you ought to give us some added direction on what you want to accomplish. But we didn't want to wait to keep getting started with this basic baseline information. So I thought it was good. And County Administrator and I talked about let's go ahead at least give begin to give the basic information. I'm sure you all have additional questions that you want to kind of get more specific about to the point of transparency, understanding fund balances. And I'm very interested in making sure that one of the goals is to get to the point that the process is to the benefit of everyone and that we are hearing from the chief and the staff as to what would streamline processes and what would give us the right information leading up to and during both the city and the county budget process. If it is a true contract for services, then, you know, we hire the chief to give us the expertise on what is needed to provide the service. And when they when they submit budget requests, everyone understands that you don't always get everything that you are asking for. However, it is, I think in common upon all of us to work through that during the process so that when budgets are approved by state law in a timely manner, then we're approving what the chief is saying he needs. And or there are adjustments that everyone is understanding accordingly. When the budget is actually approved and not thereafter. So I would hope that by us all coming together, those are some of the some of the things that we can begin to address. Chief, can I ask you a question? She so I think a couple meetings ago, I was interested in how how we plan in the future. It sounds like from from Mickey's presentation, we go back two, three years and carve the city's budget. I'm not I'm not sure if that's the same process with the county and carve out the expectations for what we need for the upcoming year. Is there not? Are there any other metrics that you use? Looking forward, population growth, anything to give you a more solid standing on why why there needs to be more budget coming your way? Well, we we do try to get our needs first. And basic needs is what it's basic needs. And then we try to project what may be coming forward. I know sometimes it's really hard to do. But also is based on if we just for example, you know, we always put it in our budget. As far as what we think we need in certain stations or in certain areas, we think that we need a station built. We try to we try to capitalize on that. But as always, and I'll tell you, each person that has been working on a budget has done a phenomenal job of looking forward as well, not just looking backwards, but looking forward as to what we need. And sometimes we do have to look at the population growth in certain areas. I'm gonna just give you a perfect example. When we look at the Bull Street project, you know, that's gonna be a big demand on our fire prevention folks, because of the growth out there. I mean, I can put one person out there full time, just to deal that their problem. So we look at stuff like that. We look at the growth in the county as well, in predicting how many firefighters we need to put out there, based on that. I think we did submit a plan a few years ago. And when Mr. Sears are here, talking about some needs there in the county, in particular, the lower risk area, based on the growth down there, and the future growth down there. So we would what departments do you work with to get that that growth projection? You work with our GIS folks? Now, we have not worked with other departments without what I would tell you, though, we do have a person within our department, who is very spy on it. And that's Marcus Houchens. And he, he pulled maps for us. You look at all that stuff and and projects, just like when we gave you all the first meeting that map of where we feel like we need stations. And he put all that stuff together for us. So wait, and you know, I'd you look at just the growth in our major corridors, Garner's Ferry 378, for example, towards lower Richland. Just to see what's come through our planning department on our agendas, the two to five year snapshot of growth in that area. I think we need to be planning for it now. And, you know, for the future snapshot, because it takes time to find the funding to build the new fire stations to to get the programming up in those fire stations. So that's I'm that's what I'm trying to stress is let's let's get the good metrics, you know, and really push this this this conversation to get ahead of the growth basically. There is a plans exam fire plans exam fire plans examiner in the planning department that reports to the chief as well. And that person does the snapshot of that's within the city side. Right. The county obviously they county does their own plans examining. So okay. Yes. So this is just the process for city stations in city growth. Gotcha. You know, the good thing about it, even as it grows, even in the county, the relationship between the city and the county, you know, we may have to put more people out there. But we still kind of, you know, we can cover it, but we still need more people out there. Sure. Mr. Rick, I mean, also, I mean, I'm sorry, Mr. Vernon. Also, what we have done, matter of fact, this past year, we have put in for a grant to for more for more staffing to cover exactly what you're saying. So like on station four, we look at we want to put another engineer because engineer because of growth. We already have a point there, which is hopefully we can get a ladder. So we have a ladder engine there. So we can have a ladder and engine on the on Blackwood area, Wilson Road. You go down there now, it's like night and day. So we put in for a grant proposal for that as well, to fully staff one of those stations. So we are also looking at that. Sometimes it may not be reflected in those budget, but I can assure you and we can show you where chief already has a plan of different stations within the city and the county that address those needs. And we do have what we do sometimes we put in a separate put in a separate need, you know, we got our budget, and then we also put in a capital need or to say, okay, this is where we need we need stations, we need different areas or we need funding. And you've got the data to back that up. We use the data. That's how we get there. We have NFPA 1710. And that all those combined help us to to find those numbers, response times, because all that counts when it start when we start talking about ISO ratings, all that plays a part in that because we got to have those to reach the reach the public. So we do have some of that. Are we there yet? I'm not gonna say we're 100% there. But I'm gonna give us 80% that we can answer most of those questions. I say that to the ISO ratings is also what what drops what the ISO rating in the process for that is also what drops their needs based on those areas. But of course, the city's growth is going to be the vertical growth. But as the chief mentioned, the plans examiners, those kind of growths that be able to view the inspections and things like that obviously drop some of those things. And there for them also to an annexation and annexation, right. And that's important. And then the stations are of course, you got I mean, the fire department does place, you have to play stations based on those. So we have a we have a capital improvement process for station driving stations. Again, that's on the city side, the county side of the fire department addresses all capital, whether it's the rolling stock capital or capital needs for new stations. Great. Now, we were not successful in obtaining that that grant that's a for grant. But that's something that we're going to continue to be asking for. Same thing we did for the station on Lawyers and Boulevard Station 22. We saw the need out there. And we applied for a safer grant to get those firefighters in that station. Same. And what chief folks mentioned about us applying for the Blyford Station, as well as which is a county station is and also the city which station for because of the growth that's going on out in both those areas. So it is solely needed both on the city and the county side. And I completely understand that. But I also don't want us as a city county partnership to rely on grants to keep up with projected growth. Yes, budget. So that's that that needs to be, you know, committed to by both city and county. Yes. I think that completes what we had, Mr. Wilms. So I guess I have a question before we kind of wrap up the this part of the budget conversation is that so we've heard from city staff about the process on the county side. Would it be you, Mr. Bird, who kind of has these conversations with folks like how can you can we get some information from the county exactly about how it does work on our side like who we're consulting with in terms of our projected growth. I know that we just did a lot of our redistricting primary conversations and so much of our growth has been in the northern part of the county. And so I just love to hear a little bit from the county side as far as that's concerned and whoever's most appropriate. Sure. And I can start that conversation. It takes us a little bit away from the budget overview. But in terms of the county side, the county has a couple of times now went out and looked at projected needs for the county and much like the city has announced, director bird presented to the county a plan for a careful improvement for fire stations out in the county. And not too long ago, the county actually approved some capital funding for some of those stations out there will be recognized that there is growth. Additionally, the county did also, as I understand it, maybe a year or so ago before I got on board also looked at fire services as a whole in terms of the growth and looking at how it should proceed forward. That as I understand it has not been presented to the council. There was some delay in all of that because that that view or that particular program, I believe was looking at not a joint effort. It wasn't it was focused on the county as a provider of fire service. So to to what we've been doing as a part of this conversation that we're having, we've continued to try to look at working within the scope of our agreement that we have now and providing those services to those growing areas, which I've been identified using the same type of information utilizing our planning department, GIS mapping up in those projections to where we see the growth happening in the county. But much like the city, we are not ahead of that. We are we are trying to get in a good spot and then hopefully get into a position where we can be proactive. But I think it's only fair to say that many of us are reacting to the needs that have not been able to be addressed for whatever number of reasons. So Mr. Rishio, I wish I had better news for you. But we do we do watch the growth. We have plans for the growth. But our money has not kept up with the plans that have been presented for the growth. Not only that director bird clarify anything that I may not have given enough detail for director you have anything, sir? No, sir, I believe you covered it. Mr. Rishio, we did do a study that address some of the areas that needed some some additional resources that was programmed into the capital improvement budget. And we're trying to address those going forward. Because and I'll let Mr. Brown or some of our finance people discuss the actual funding of our fire service. But it is very limited because of the fire millage that we use in the service. The county in about 1990 created a countywide fire district. And the city opted out and Erma opted out. So the amount of money that's collected inside those municipalities goes straight to those municipalities. The city gets theirs. Erma gets theirs. And what is left is what we use to fund not only fire suppression, but other fire related services that we provide in accordance with our ordinance. So the large chunk of that of that budget does go to the city. And in addition to that, a lot of the costs that are on the county side also go to support fire suppression, such as insurance and radio and communications costs and vehicle maintenance that we've talked about, and all those other things. So it's, it's like a puzzle we have to put together every year to come up with the funding and those amounts go up and down. And I'll let Mr. Brown address the specifics of the of the fun. Yes, ma'am, Mr. Rachel, that that response assist you in any manner? I think so. I think it would be it could be helpful, you know, if they're we could have some kind of like, at this point, I feel like I almost need like some kind of side by side. Almost comparison with numbers, you know, to say, this is the overall number that comes in, this is what gets spent for this, and just see them. I don't know if that would be helpful for other members of this committee, but something like that, I think would be probably the next next step down the line in terms of us really being able to understand exactly how this works and provide some guidance on on how, you know, we feel it should go. This is maybe too far off topic, but I can't help thinking about like when we're talking about expenditures and larger expenditures. We are probably expect expecting some federal dollars, hopefully to come to whether it's infrastructure dollars or whatever. And, you know, we we saw it some infrastructure week with some people sitting in big buses and things. So I'm wondering if that's happening in terms of like a fire. I don't even know if that's possible. Like, are we looking towards electric fire trucks? They're making them now. Okay. The technology is wild. Yeah. So anyway, that that's just a kind of an off topic. But I'd be very interested to know what we plan to do for those vehicles, especially as we look towards fuel costs and things. Well, as a member of this committee, I would I would love to sit down side by side because see I mean, to be blunt. I don't know what the county is looking at. And I'm the fire chief. And I'm not privy to a lot of those conversations. And I would love to be I would love to sit down and be a part of those conversations. I know when you first did a study, I was actually evaluating the person that's doing the study. But that is as far as my involvement went. Haven't seen the study. Although I evaluated the people that this during the study. And as a fire chief, you know, I don't want to be duplicating efforts. If the county is doing something, because he might have time to be for lack of better words to be a spend doing something something else, instead of us doing, you know, duplicating efforts. We take a look at everything we really do. And we try to forecast not only for the city portion, but the county as well. But we forecast we doing that for the betterment of the service. And that that is our goal. So I would love to be a part of those conversations. Well, I think we have to be clear, Chief. Also, if I understood Mr Brown correctly, and of course, this predated him that this study, the you know, what is the intent of the study? I mean, that's what we have to also start just for the understanding of all of us. If the intent is to still have a contract for services that the city provides under direction of the fire chief for the city and the county, that's one thing. If the study's intent was to provide Richland County, which is certainly up to Richland County to do at that time, a study to see what it would look like for a not, you know, having a joint service or a contract for services for the county to embark upon that themselves as something different. And while I appreciate the fact that you were asked to look at whatever you're asked to look at at the time, you ought to be looking at something as you described, if the intent is for it to be a contract for services that we're providing. So I think again, during this process with the advisory committee, I am certainly happy that the committee is meeting so that we can all have clear direction on what the intent is. And then once we know that, that is how we budget accordingly together. But you know, that that's what I would say about that and any studies, you know, if we're doing a study and we're we're providing the service, I would imagine you would be we got initiating a year left until January 23. The magic day. I mean, I would tell you, I think the intent of where we're headed and should be headed is to get everything on the table to make sure that we're accomplishing what the mission is of this contract between the city and the county, which is to make sure that we're providing since we're all citizens of the county, the best service and that protects both our first responders, our firefighters, along with protecting the community. And so I think, you know, having an opportunity really to dig in to an overall discussion and just putting on the table of understanding all the collections, all the the funding sources and how we can leverage that because with what's possibly coming down from Washington, the grant processes that I spoke with with the legislative team in Washington the other day, we need to be ready. And if there's ever a time for us to leverage our resources together to really provide the best service all the way across for our constituents and our firefighters, it's now. So I think we ought, you know, let's do everything we can to continue to get everything on the table open. And if there's a future discussion of some other type, then you know, let's have that let's focus now what's the most important part to it, which is let's understand exactly what all the resources and how we leverage those to maximize the best service. I mean that affects insurance, that affects quality of life, that affects growth, that affects everything that is is part of our mission. And so, you know, that's the way I look at it. Thank you for that, sir. That kind of leads into well, the overview that the county was prepared to provide. And one of the things I wanted to do was just remind everyone, and you almost just did it, is that the fire advisory committee, it was designed according to, as I understand it, to make recommendations into the fire services, policies, procedures, budget requests and planning activities. And so I know a lot of times we focus on the budget, but to me part of all of that goes into the policies and procedures and the planning because all that impacts the budget. So all of those components are what I believe I need, and not to speak for my next door neighbor here, Ms. Wilson needs to better understand, you know, what the committee is recommending in terms of how we move forward in supporting the fire service, which could mean additional funding, it could mean policy changes, it could mean planning changes. It is not restricted to if I would achieve, be giving you a budget and you saying yay or nay. It's a little bit more comprehensive than that. And so I was hoping what we would do is go on this general overview, is talk about the revenue collections that the county receives, talk about that funding mechanism, and talk about the expenditures associated with in general, to give you an idea of the things that you will be looking at as you help to make recommendations in these areas. And then that the next step in addition to entering your questions would be for the staffs of the city and the county to get together our financial personnel and our administrative personnel to help work and massage those nuances to understand what the fire service committee is asking from the perspective of the committee and the related council, right, in association with the fire service. So that's why I was hoping we'd get into too many details because I didn't think that we were all ready for that just because the apples to apples conversation may not be available before that happened. So with that being said, I know Director Burr gave in a general overview. Director Burr was, was that kind of where you were going to go? Do you, did you want to add anything else or should I turn it now over to our final team? No sir, just to clarify two things. In the current contract your corrects are, it's five years from January 1st of 2018, so that's correct. But I believe Chief, you did meet one time with the consultants and provided some input. It may not have been enough, but didn't you meet with them one time? I did, but if I, if I sit and tell you the questions that he asked me, which I'm not going to get into it, but I thought that they were kind of inappropriate. He was more or less talking about a split that does, does for the line of question he was asking me. Yes sir. He wasn't asking me my opinion on stuff. He wasn't telling me stuff. The study wasn't very data driven and the consultants collected a lot of data, which can be used going forward as well. Yeah, but again, I thought that what he, what he taught me about was, was, was really inappropriate. Okay. And I, and I think, so again to kind of get to the committee's perspective today, we really want to give the overview of the, the fiscal nature of the conversation. And certainly there may be a future point in time, Ms. Wilson, where we have to do a job where we're having those discussions, but my understanding is the purpose of this committee and this particular item is we're talking about the Columbus Richmond Fire Department conversation. So, and that's kind of where I'm sitting at the table today talking about. So, if we, if that's where we're going, we can be ready to continue to move forward and we can certainly talk separate about any other future opportunities that that may not even be relevant. I do want to add that it was all of a 15 to 20 minute conversation. So, thank you, Chief. Thank you, Director Burke. Uh, we also have some people from our financial side of our arm as well as our risk management side here that deals with part of our fire service. So, I'm going to ask them to come forward now to the podium. I'm talking about the overview and I actually believe we do have some a document we can provide to you today. It might not be an alfos to alfos, but it will be an opportunity for you to take away and look at some specifics as it relates to the county's financial picture. Again, it won't be every single line by line detail, but it will give you an opportunity to follow along with us and talk about general overviews of revenues and associated resources provided for fire service. Stacey Ham, the finance director at Richland County. The sheet that was given out at the top, we kind of have the revenue sources that we have. There's the millage. We have the millage rate. It's pretty steady. It was 21.8 five years ago and it's 22.7 and we've kept it the same the last couple years with everything going on. And it shows the amount of money that's been brought in. So, the first part is the all the money that's brought in by the fire district that Mr. Berg was talking about, the ones that had not that opted all into the fire district. So, we bring in anywhere from the last couple years, 26 million, 25 million, 24 million. So, it goes up a little bit. The millage hasn't changed, but due to the increased assessments, we get a little bit extra money each time with the taxes. And then the city taxes are the is the millage in the CC districts, all of the city of Columbia districts. And so, they bring in about 50% of amount of taxes of what the full the rest of the fire district brings in. So, it's showing the 12 million, the 13 million, 13 million over the last couple years. So, the overall for running the county side of our fire service department, we have it as a special revenue fund. Similar to what y'all have at the city. So, we have a special revenue fund. The taxes that we collect in the fire district go into that and then we also have the the hydrant fee, the water assessment that's on the revenue that we have to operate on our side. We do a transfer out. You can see there's under the transfers under the revenue that goes to the 9-1-1 center to cover the expenses for the 9-1-1. That part of that is in there. And then under the expenditures, the lump sum is the amount that we're paying the city. So, that's the contract amount that gets paid to the city every two months. And then what the county part is paying, the county fire service expenditures run anywhere from four to four and a half million dollars. And as Mr. Byrd said, that covers our vehicle repairs, building maintenance, the radio communication equipment, medical supplies, insurance, the purchase of the new radios. We had to purchase new radios with some of the changes that have happened. And so that's what makes up that four and a half million that we spent last year in fire on on our side for the port we have. And we have about 24 employees in our fire department, fire department that that we're covering for the services that we provide. And then it shows the fund balance. It's little bits, went up a little bit and then it went down a little bit. So, it's just right around that eight to nine million dollars that is set aside. A lot of it's committed and restricted for uses in the future. Any questions? Ken, would there be a time when you can let us know what's what's committed and what's restricted? What does it include? Yeah, we'll find out exactly. Most of it, since it's a special revenue, it's committed for the purpose of the fire district. Some of the restricted is for we have some set aside for emergencies that in case something really bad happens, that we have some funds to fall back on to provide a little bit with the pandemic, different things like that that might pop up or a really situation. So, we have that restricted for emergency disaster recovery. I guess what we call disaster recovery is what we have that to a little over two million dollars set the restricted for. And yes, sir, in future settings we could look at the the details that are associated with that, but we want to provide you with the numbers. I know there was a conversation that we had continue to have. Next we have our director of risk management, Ms. Terry, and she's going to talk to you a little bit about her perspective in terms of how the fire services attaches to her side of the business, which all goes into looking at this as a whole picture when we're looking at the revenue streams and then associated funding and resources provided. So, go right ahead ma'am. Good morning. I just want to do and a little bit of a high level overview, kind of a dig into some of those risk and insurance expenses that the county does cover separately. I will just mention a couple of them to start. So, first the county does cover the volunteers workers compensation policy, so that's premium and then also claims. And we do carry an AD&D accidental death and dismemberment policy as well for the volunteers which goes above and beyond the basic workers compensation coverage to reimburse those employees in the event of an accident. In addition to that, we cover the liability insurance policy and that does include the vehicles. This is the largest insurance expense and the biggest concern here with this policy. In addition to just the increased premiums year-over-year is the fact that we are very close to being in a situation where we're considered uninsurable. In fact, we have been threatened if not really, you know, down to the wire of a non-renewal for the last few years. That is driven heavily by our loss ratios. A couple notable accidents that are driving those loss ratios. If you recall in 2018, we had a pumper and a ladder that were totaled within just over a week of each other. And our loss ratio that year was 319% to explain that the payout was 319% of the premium we paid in that year. And then also in March of 2020, we had another totaled engine in that instance. That claim was $431,000 and our loss ratio that year was 228%. So we are not very marketable to most of the insurers out of everyone in the market that we approached for our renewal this past year. You know, five to eight vendors depending on the portion of the policy. We really only had one who was willing to to write it and most of them outright declined to even quote it. So that is kind of the situation that we were in with the insurance. We also in addition to just the premiums and the non-renewal, we had a deductible of $5,000 imposed which now prevents us from making some of these claims in the first place because they're not they're not even to that level that they're hitting the deductible. So we have claims in addition to this that we're not even able to file now. That deductible was much lower. It's actually been zero in the past up to $1,000. So that is a big difference there. How many claims do you have for that? What kind of dollar amount is that? In what year? For your deductible, you said you were having to pay with $5,000. So how many claims have you had? Did you had to pay out of that? What's the dollar amount? To put it in perspective. In current losses for the 2019 to 2020 year were $559,000. Okay and that's all deductibles? That is yes. No no no I'm sorry. That would actually be the what was paid out. The deductibles I don't I can't tell you the number of claims that we have under the deductible but I can get that for you. Just curious how it compares. Sure. And then also wanted to mention just a slight breakdown. I won't get too far in the weeds on the vehicle maintenance costs. So we currently budget $700,000 for the contract maintenance expenses and we're looking at a potential $200,000 increase because we need to add technicians to the program. Originally we did not add technicians when we took over the service so we do need to add a couple technicians so you're looking at approximately $900,000 again subject to negotiating that renewal for the non-contract expenses. This year we are currently on track to spend based on what we spent year to date. $264,000 on non-contract expenses. That would cover everything. Again that's not covered under the contract. At-fault repairs, accidents that are at fault and maintenance that falls outside of the contract and that is a 55% increase from the previous year to those expenses do continue to rise. And then we're spending $7,000 to $8,000 specifically on non-contract accident costs associated with vehicles backing into a bay door, vehicle and vehicle accidents, more minor accidents. We are spending another $7,000 to $8,000 on average there. Ms. Terry could you clarify when you say contract costs you're talking about our fleet vehicle contract and not our fire contract? Correct. I apologize. Our fleet vehicle contract. That would be all expenses covered within that contract and then again you have the non-contract expenses which is anything that we have to pay for to repair whether it be from accidents whether it's you know misuse vehicle versus fire vehicle that kind of thing or just general repairs that come up that are outside of the contract. How many vehicles are included in that contract? We have right around 100 vehicles that are dedicated to fire and that includes everything from the actual trucks down to supervisors vehicles. We have SUVs, brush trucks, a variety of vehicles there so they're not all fire trucks. Any other questions? I just wanted to ask about accidents. I'm also on the comment board and so one of the things that happens when they report accidents out for those buses are they categorize them as whether they are I guess at fault or avoidable or whatever it is. I don't know exactly how to ask this but are these are these accidents our fault are we at fault when they happen? The ones that I mentioned expenses for yes not at fault accidents would be covered by theoretically unless they are uninsured by the other party so these are our expenses for accidents that are at least categorized as okay and the most recent loss the total loss in March of last year that was a one vehicle accident just our truck and then the other two in 2018 both of those totals were one vehicle accidents as well. And I guess as a follow-up you know these vehicles are responding to emergencies and I suppose that's just part of the nature of things I would be interested to know if other counties municipalities like ours have similar I mean surely you know people are getting out of the firehouses quickly as they can to respond to an emergency in these big vehicles I don't know I think it just would be interesting to know how other municipalities handle very similar kinds of situations. The only issue we've had in the past with obtaining that data is a lot of other entities don't want to share their their loss runs related to at fault but we could certainly try to you know maybe get a little bit more information even if that's anonymous based on the source just as to what their loss ratios may be as well sure thank you so thank you committee that that's our overview so hopefully this gives us a just a general idea and you know as you think about the questions that you want to to ask as we go forward or things you want to see I've certainly heard a side-by-side comparison I think that's something when our groups get together we can provide for you I've heard questions about looking at other jurisdictions as it potentially relates to losses and how they may compare I've heard questions about how does the planning look and what mechanisms we use to plan for future funding needs as it relates to growth and the areas that require fire service and maybe some others that I'm missing that you all may certainly want to have an opportunity to share with us as we go forward but hopefully that gave you a general look at a at a larger picture of of how we go into trying to address the resources that we need to provide for fire service thank you chief yes I'd like to make a comment chief I'm sorry can I make a comment yes sir I'm sorry chief jinkers and I've worked together for a very long time we discuss a lot of things we agree on a lot of things and sometimes we don't agree on some things which is I think normal but let's not overlook what we have here ISO views us as two fire departments two fire services the city operates a completely paid service we have volunteers but what we have achieved is the city has achieved the best rating that can can be achieved and that's class one the county has achieved probably the best rating that we can achieve for a rural service and that's a class two and that is a major major accomplishment so all the things that we've we've done and and put together and worked on has really paid off and the big payoff is for the citizens because those ISO ratings ultimately reduces the fire insurance so I think we've been pretty pretty successful in what we've done chief I'm glad you said it because I wanted to echo just what you said um you know we know we got growing problems we got things that we have to work on um and this problem both sides but the overall end product is a it's a real good fire service when you look at how we scored even on community risk reduction we had to hire us in the state nobody topped us when you look at the fact that we are a fire safe community we have achieved that for the last what two years uh when they start giving it so the services is good anytime if you get an opportunity just go out there and see how it doesn't matter if you pay it doesn't matter if you volunteer how those folks that have worked in jail together that's why I always say we hold it not only to our citizens but to our firefighters make sure we get the right equipment uh make sure that we provide them everything that they need because it's only going to make it better and I would tell you you know I just use this analogy you know we as stones throw away from maybe clash one in the county if we do some things so that is possible I know it'd be a it'd be a tall hill to climb but if we can maintain that one and we can maintain that two we got something in across this nation that less than two percent of firefighters I mean about two percent of fire counties got in less than one percent of the municipality got which is our ratings so I just think it's important that we that we work together and continue this relationship but Mr. Burris right we he and I have been working together for a long time um you know it is what it is I did want to say this I think that if we really want to get some good information on crashes there's a thing called close calls um that we get that we can that we can look at and we can see exactly what's happening you got some comments on that go ahead chief I want to just address a couple of conversations that we've had and make the the committee aware and to your point about the vehicle accidents anytime an alert goes off and the citizens have a need for service there's an inherent risk so so what the chief is authorized and with the new position approved by city and county management is risk reduction and so our goal to mr. Brennan's point is using data to predict where these emergencies will occur once we can predict where they occur then we go out and educate the citizens once we educate the citizens the goal is to reduce those emergencies from happening if we can do that enough then it reduces the impact of vehicle accidents insurance costs and so on and so forth and to mr. Burris point it brings the city and the county again closer to that to that partnership so chief I just want to make sure I touched on that before we we left we had that conversation is that that's what the goal is for risk reduction we're a safe community we've we've done it two years in a row we're on track to do it for the third year which is unprecedented in the state we're also moving forward with accreditation again mr. Brennan to your point it's all data collection and looking how we can get better as an agency so chief I apologize I was trying to wave at you that so we didn't get the chance to add that to the notes I thought about so I just wanted to update the committee on that where what you just heard from is the person that is responsible for making that happen and so we got a good person that's working on it um chief you know mr. Brown you made it made a great point earlier when you you broke it down you know there's there's several reasons why we're here and why we will be meeting over the next year so moving forward you know you got your budget but more importantly your point to planning in the future I think is very important and so you know we as elected officials we don't know what our fire professionals with mr. Bird and the emergency management of the county what what can be done to bring a a more efficient better fire service forward so I would I would say chief chief jingles mr. bird any any suggestions that you all have please bring it forward put everything on the table as mr. Rickman said and let's let's really let's really make the most of of the city and county being here together as we move forward thank you are there any other matters that we need to discuss the county loves the city I just want to leave it at you know what keep some levity in the room we we're working together and I really appreciate that and and I said that and all joking but and honestly we are a community and we are here together represented as a community and I know miss Wilson speaks for me on this and I speak for her on this and we want all the folks that that work I guess with us and and answer to us to have that same type of mentality that we work together and we're trying to better serve the citizens and the best that we can do to do that we that's what we really want to do so there'll be some shaky times chief you talked about it but we'll work together through those shaky times and we appreciate the opportunity to have this partnership and we're going to do our part to do what we can to strengthen our community and I have always got along with the county and always had a great relationship so I I feel your love thank you sir now we feel your love um miss Wilson you had anything to say really big on instruction and direction so what would the committee like for us to prepare for next time are we moving forward with a part two of moving forward and a budget are we moving into other topics or what would you all like for us to prepare for you what needs to be done as we move towards the end of the contract I guess is a big question whether that's the budgeting whether that's the possible different planning operations um taking that into to account would be very helpful um and chief you can probably answer some of those questions are you all going to serve truly as I know it says up here Columbia Ritual Fire Services Committee I think it's really the advisory committee and if you are advising both the chief and director bird and myself and mr. Brown on the budget which inherently any planning and I think some of the things that you all are speaking to regarding growth I mean immediate federal resources to get certain things done like our this continuous conversation which I think the city side we put um some money towards that for arp funding and the second set of gear and things like that so I mean are you I guess I'm asking how in the weeks do you want to get as far as the budget process and the planning changing every meeting yeah so I'm trying to understand as we because we are I was just speaking from the city side you know come January we're in budget and um the chief will be putting together these requests and that sort of thing so from a strategic standpoint there's two ways to to to move forward yes you do need to get in the weeds because we need to to fully understand so that as we're moving forward there are no questions anymore and and everybody can go all right here's where we are here's how we're going to leverage because that helps us with the planning part so getting over this first and then looking at I mean a lot of what we just said too about hot spots well you know we've got 911 data folks we've got so much that we know we know what the calls are and there are a lot of times that we got three resources going to a call so we ought to evaluate that and that may come in as you talk about long-term planning it may come in the long-term planning that we may should be stationing or partnering even further on into providing services that are that we're not taxing our other services so when you talk about vehicles and you talk about that you know is there a better way for us to cluster I mean I don't know the last time we as a group analyzed where our firehouses are as we talk about upgrades and investment you know it's probably time for us to reevaluate where they are that also gives us an opportunity for a long question that and I just came off the campaign trail so I can tell you it's out there people talking about why isn't EMS and fire stations working together well when you look at our call volumes and I did this because it came became part of my discussion about homelessness but when you look at the call where we have the clusters in the hot spots there's an opportunity for us to look at things definitely would you make it all efficient for all of us to provide a better service at a more effective and efficient costing so I think our our long-term projection here is let's get through this budget and then let's start talking about these long-term issues that provide the citizens with an incredible opportunity to have the best service I think we can continue you know I'd love somehow some way to work with the county and and come up with a way that it's not volunteer-based that we have everybody's full time you know I think for long term that's an incredible goal that we ought to be looking at and pulling somehow working together to make that happen but you know this is just my my personal thoughts but as we go forward understanding getting through this this first kind of budget where we really are talking about and understanding what's coming from Washington and then the planning piece has to be planned much much more advanced this is our time to be creative and really look at how we can provide the better service and you know it's interesting as I mentioned the EMS and other stuff because the public doesn't understand why it functions the way it functions so it's also very hard to explain why it functions the way it functions but it's it's been the way it's been done for so long but I think as our county is evolving and I say county because we're all in the county is evolving and the growth patterns are changing we probably we probably really need to take a look at that got anybody else I don't want to belabor this but at some point it it may be useful for us to have a meeting centered around you know the contract and maybe get legal folks in the room yeah I think I would say now that this definitely could belabor it I don't know if we want to go down that road but I hear what you're saying but I think that I'm we don't have to talk about it no no no I was going to say I think probably and Ms. Wilson this is kind of a question but I think you probably want and you probably want a recommendation from the fire advisory committee related to the contract whether or not you want to you want to pursue continuing the contract and then you probably want your administrative personnel to have a conversation before you get to the legal side simply because there are some things within the contract I think that maybe we don't even do anymore because we change ownership and role so I hear what you're saying I'm just saying I think that's probably one of the things that would be helpful kind of going forward and but I get the sentiment and I think we all get the sentiment of what you're asking got it I think Mr. Acio is cool we ought to put a time on together right that ought to be our our execution from this a timeline together it says first quarter of next year we're going to have this conversation to start of this conversation because by July you need to be starting negotiating if there are changes or or growth or whatever is in the contract we need to start by July 1 the latest and I know y'all normally take August off so we may even back that up to June 1 but I think we could have that gives us three months four months of talk time to get through a recommendation from a joint committee better good mr. word you're good okay I do want to make say this um on the other matters we got a class that's graduating on the 22nd six o'clock we're going to be sending out an invitation anybody want to participate and I'm very happy to say that that we're really doing real good on our recruiting um but also um hopefully we'll be make some conditional offers uh we made something this week we make some more and it is our expectation that if we keep the course that we're going that we could possibly and I always hold chief hands to the power of nothing that we could possibly uh pull the staff um sometime next okay so that's all right so that's all go and that's what we're striving to to make sure we get fully funded so we're 94 staff right now to me that's that's great chief let me let me ask miss Wilson just to just to summarize you asked kind of what what's the path forward and from what we just heard in the last five minutes sounds like there's three three items is the the current next the current budget coming up uh possible future planning for operations and then the uh legal um diving into legal is that is that is that kind of what everybody's understanding is as we move forward chief all right wonderful thank you and don't forget to bring you canned goods and non-perish the item to the fire station uh next next week we're doing a fire fighters feeding families again this year last year we were able to feed over 200 families now expectations do the same thing this year so bring you canned goods in here is there a time frame for when you want to meet again is there a seems like we've been monthly are you wanting to continue to do that after the first of the year yeah and we can work through the clerks to do that got it