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20190625 City Council Special Meeting 2SPECIAL EDMONDS CITY COUNCIL APPROVED MINUTES June 25, 2019 ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, Mayor Pro Tem Diane Buckshnis, Council President Pro Tem Michael Nelson, Councilmember Thomas Mesaros, Councilmember Dave Teitzel, Councilmember Neil Tibbott, Councilmember ELECTED OFFICIALS ABSENT Dave Earling, Mayor Kristiana Johnson, Councilmember 1. CALL TO ORDER STAFF PRESENT Phil Williams, Public Works Director Carrie Hite, Parks, Rec. & Cult. Serv. Dir. Patrick Doherty, Econ. Dev & Comm. Serv. Dir, Scott James, Finance Director Rob English, City Engineer Jeff Taraday, City Attorney Nicholas Falk, Deputy City Clerk Jerrie Bevington, Camera Operator Jeannie Dines, Recorder The Edmonds City Council meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. by Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas in the Council Chambers, 250 5t1' Avenue North, Edmonds. 2. JOINT MEETING WITH SOUTH COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE COMMISSION Jim Kenny, Chair, South County Fire Commission, introduced Commissioners Jim McGaughey, David Chan, Christine Frizzell, and Bob Meador; and Interim Fire Chief Doug Dahl. Councilmembers introduced themselves. Chief Doug Dahl said a presentation was made in May; this was an opportunity for questions. Chief Dahl introduced Assistant Chief/Fire Marshal Kevin Zweber, Acting Deputy Chief of Operations John Chalfant, Deputy Chief of Training Jason Isotalo, Acting Assistant Chief of Operations Thad Hovis, Deputy Chief of EMS Shaughn Maxwell and Deputy Chief Robert Eastman. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis referred to the Heat Map, commenting with the hospital on the border, she could see why the City's numbers might be a little skewed. City Attorney Jeff Taraday said Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis asked him research the conversation last year about this time about Neighboring Unit Utilization Factor (NUUF) and the dynamic that exists with that and the metric that was set up to provide a way of quantifying situations where one jurisdiction may be doing more of its share than another jurisdiction. As Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis mentioned, the hospital is a huge call generator that happens to be within Edmonds' boundaries and contributes to that balancing factor. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis referred to a comment made by Councilmember Nelson last year, regarding a March 2018 Fire Commission meeting that he watched where Assistant Chief Dahl indicated in October 2017 it was apparent Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood BLS units were responding to Edmonds more than Edmonds units were responding to those cities which was impacting the NUUF in Edmonds' Special Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes June 25, 2019 Page 1 contract. To help address that, a deal was struck, not in the contract or written down anywhere, whereby an Edmonds unit would respond before another Mountlake Terrace or Lynnwood unit. Fire Chief Dahl said that is not being done anymore. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis asked if that would be a factor in this year's numbers. Chief Dahl said it was done for approximately three months. Mr. Taraday said it started in August 2017 and stopped in early 2018 although he was not certain of the exact date it stopped. Chief Dahl said it stopped shortly after Chief Stedman jointed South County Fire (SCF) in 2018. Utilizing that practice a few months in 2017 and a short time in 2018 could definitely have impacted the NUUF. Mr. Taraday said the incomplete data for the portion of 2017 when it was in place, didn't show that it significantly lowered the NUUF and depending on which month, in some cases it reversed for Mountlake Terrace. He summarized it was not done for an entire year so there was not a year's worth of data to consider. For citizens who were watching, Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis asked Mr. Taraday to define NUUF. Mr. Taraday said it is Neighboring Unit Utilization Factor; a way of measuring. He explained in 2009, the City had its own Fire Department and operated three fire stations. It was his understanding at that time the Edmonds Fire Department operated as a standalone fire department except in cases of mutual aid. Chief Dahl said that was not true. He explained the reason NUUF was added to the adjusted contract was because Edmonds eliminated Medicl7 and there needed to be a way to measure how a decision made by the City of Edmonds could affect the rest of the area, how many times that caused a neighboring unit, mostly Station 14 in Lynnwood and Station 19 in Mountlake Terrace, to pick up those calls and how far out of balance it could be. Above 10% was determined to be out of balance or out of threshold notice. In 2010 the District changed to Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), a GPS dispatch of the closest unit. The past practice in Edmonds was not as precise; the run card was manually produced by looking at a map and identifying which unit would respond, but did not require Edmonds units respond before Station 14 or 19 responded. Run cards are now computer generated by selecting the closest unit. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis asked if there was a way to adjust the numbers to reflect that informal "firemen's agreement" in part of 2017 and 2018. Chief Dahl said without going into the contract, there were things to look at. SCF discontinued that practice because they did not favor giving Edmonds a different level of service than any other area and they still feel that way. Their service is their service and dispatch protocols are established in that manner. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis commented SCF is more regionalized now. She did not have a problem with the NUUF being out of balance because there were not consistent numbers for 2017 and 2018. Mr. Taraday said what is getting lost in the discussion is while it's true NUUF was implemented because Medic 17 was coming offline and the parties wanted to see what impact that would have, it is not true that Medic 17 drove the NUUF where it is today. The numbers from January 2017, before that change was made, show that the Lynnwood - Edmonds NUUF was out of balance 1.96, approximately what it is today and the Mountlake Terrace - Edmonds NUUF was out of balance 1.51. It was a problem even before Medic 17 was eliminated and it is a problem because of the way AVL works. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis advised she sent Councilmembers the study that was done by Finch that recommended eliminating Medic 17. She recalled the redundant unit at one station was eliminated. Chief Dahl said Edmonds now has 3 single medic units run by 9 people and 12 people and a single dual medic unit. Council President Pro Tem Buckshnis summarized a unit was eliminated but units were added. Chief Dahl agreed. Councilmember Nelson Council said the agenda memo talks about NUUF and options for addressing it. One of the options is "it may be possible to balance the NUUF with no additional financial cost to the City, by building small delays into the computer aided dispatch system for BLS calls only." Councilmember Special Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes June 25, 2019 Page 2 Nelson said essentially when someone calls 911 for BLS, that response would be slowed down. For example if a child breaks his leg at a park that borders Lynnwood, the Lynnwood station would not respond, instead Station 16 would respond. Chief Dahl said that was the original proposal, an agreement in 2017 that was later stopped. Councilmember Nelson said the Fire Chief at the time thought that was a degrade of service. Chief Dahl said that was a fair statement. Councilmember Nelson asked if that was the same today. Chief Dahl said SCF does not believe in treating Edmonds residents any different than anyone else in the RTA. Councilmember Nelson referred to the agenda memo that stated, "The net result is that the City's three fire stations would function similarly to the way that they functioned when the City had its own fire department prior to 2010." He pointed out that raised the question of why have the wonderful benefits of a fire authority if the service was the same as when the City has its own fire department. He pointed out under that scenario only BLS calls would be delayed. Councilmember Nelson asked if all BLS calls were actual basic life support. Chief Dahl answered 8-10% are increased to ALS. Councilmember Nelson said of the 5,500 BLS calls in 2018, 2,999 were BLS; and of that, 239 end up being paramedic calls. Therefore this idea would potentially slow down paramedic calls. Chief Dahl answered it could be. Councilmember Nelson referred to a statement in the agenda memo, "Another option would be incorporating private ambulance transport into the EMS service, as is done in Seattle and Everett." He asked if SCF was aware of the City of Edmonds contacting anyone about private ambulance service. Chief Dahl said they were advised by a local ambulance company, NW Ambulance, that they had been contacted. NW Ambulance advised them as a professional courtesy; he was unaware of what the contact entailed. Councilmember Nelson referred to another option cited in the agenda memo, "...reduce ongoing operating costs, by relocating one or more of the City's fire stations, especially if one or more of the City's stations is moved closer to one of the aid call hot spots. The parties acknowledge that none of these three fire stations are ideally located and that the City could be better served by two ideally located fire stations." He summarized that would be essentially getting rid of a fire station. He asked whether that would result in increased response time. Chief Dahl anticipated responding to 5,500 calls with 2 stations instead of 3 would result in an increase in the response time. Councilmember Teitzel referred to NUUF, neighboring fire units respond to Edmonds more than Edmonds units respond to neighboring jurisdictions. He noted that was not just fire, it was fire and aid calls. Chief Dahl agreed. Councilmember Teitzel he asked if it would be possible to determine the NUUF for fire versus aid. Chief Dahl said that information could be provided. Councilmember Teitzel asked if the numbers included non -emergency transports where a patient is transported from the doctor's office to Swedish Hospital for additional treatment. Chief Dahl said it includes all emergency transports. Councilmember Teitzel asked if the data could be separated to determine the number of non -emergency transport from a doctor's office to Swedish. Deputy Chief Eastman said he will try to break out that information. Councilmember Teitzel was concerned that non -emergency transports from a doctor's office to Swedish are affecting response time and the NUUF. Councilmember Teitzel referred to the heat map, noting there are a lot of calls around Hwy 99. He asked if there was a way to better address medical calls in that area by stationing a vehicle, paramedic and potentially a medic at the hospital and how much it would cost. Chief Dahl said that is similar to the peak activity unit which SCF has discussed with Edmonds in the past. He recalled the cost of a BLS unit was about $700,000. Councilmember Mesaros referred to the imbalance with Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace and the root cause. He recalled hearing while serving on the Sno911 Board, when a Mountlake Terrace is at hospital Special Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes June 25, 2019 Page 3 dropping off a transport and comes back online, they are physically in Edmonds. He asked if anyone had tracked those units being the closest unit to respond to Edmonds. Chief Dahl said that could be tracked but the majority of units put themselves out of service until they get back to their area. However, in an emergent call, a medic call or a fire call, they will jump the call. Sometimes a unit will clear Swedish Edmonds and if there is a CPR across the street, they will respond. He did not anticipate the number of times that happened to be super significant but they could research it. Councilmember Mesaros anticipated the reverse would happen if Swedish were located in Lynnwood or Mountlake Terrace. He summarized that was one of factors; units transporting patient that were coming to Edmonds. With regard to degradation of services, Councilmember Tibbott said all three Edmonds stations have cross - trained personnel and are not dependent on medic service from Station 17 to back up another station. He asked if there had been a degradation in service as a result of the cross -trained program. Chief Dahl answered not specifically. The comment was related to an increase in response time not the care the person received. Councilmember Tibbott summarized there has not been a degradation, but an increase in NUUF which could be attributable to the GPS locator. Chief Dahl said that was a fair statement. Councilmember Tibbott said if the practice were to return to BLS sent separately using GPS, would there be a decrease in time by having a cross -trained unit respond versus the nearest unit. Chief Dahl answered it would vary by call. Using the Meadowdale area as an example, Station 14 can get there in 4 minutes, if Station 16 were sent first, it would be 6 minutes and if 16 were not available and Station 20 were sent, it was 12 minutes. He reiterated it depends on the call and where the unit is located at the time. SCF uses the closest unit and jurisdiction regardless of borders. Councilmember Tibbott summarized at this point there was no data to support that change in response time. Chief Dahl said it was only studied for three months. Councilmember Tibbott asked what was discovered in those three months. Chief Dahl said he would need to research the data. Mr. Taraday referred to his notes from a conversation with SCF and Chief Stedman on March 23, 2018 where the findings of that trial period were discussed; the added delay occasioned by that arrangement was one second. The minutes of last year's meeting with SCF reflect that he referenced that one second. Councilmember Tibbott observed having a different arrangement for BLS response did not significantly change medical care. Mr. Taraday said he does not have the data, only his notes from that meeting. He was certain SCF could provide that data so it could be more carefully evaluated. It was his understanding from that meeting that it was an extremely insignificant change in the overall response time. Councilmember Tibbott asked if that matched SCF's data. Chief Dahl said it was how one wanted to look at the data. Did the City get lucky for three months? It was a small study; SCF determined it would not provide a different level of service to Edmonds than they were providing anyone else. It was up to the Council to decide if one second, one minute was too much. SCF has been clear they are providing closest unit. Councilmember Tibbott asked if SCF was proposing a change to accommodate use of GPS and the NUUF. Chief Dahl said SCF has not made any proposals or provided any notice yet. Councilmember Tibbott summarized as far as SCF was concerned, the contract is in place and the status quo is working. Chief Dahl agreed the status quo was in place. Councilmember Tibbott referred to Mr. Taraday's comment about percentages of NUUF from other cities. Mr. Taraday said his comment was that it was a mistake to draw the conclusion that the NUUF was out of balance as a result of eliminating Medic 17. In January 2017, before Medic 17 was removed, the NUUF numbers were approximately what they are now: Mountlake Terrace to Edmonds is out of balance 1.51 and Lynnwood to Edmonds is out of balance 1.96. That was the status quo before Medic 17 was taken offline. It is up to the Council to determine what they want to do, if anything, about the NUUF being out of balance. Special Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes June 25, 2019 Page 4 Medic 17 was located downtown and AVL did not select it for calls near the hospital. If the Council wanted to add resources to the system, possibly locating it closer to the hospital would make a difference related to NUUF. Councilmember Tibbott recalled asking Chief Redding if Medic 17 was moved anywhere in Edmonds, which station would be best. His reply was he wouldn't want it at any of the stations and would rather it be on Hwy 99 close to the hospital. Chief Dahl said that was a fair statement. Councilmember Tibbott said if the Council thought it was important to increase services in/around hospital by adding a medic vehicle, would it be sensible to create additional ILA so that that would be supported by neighboring cities. Chief Dahl said SCF's data shows a vehicle closer to Hwy 99 would help that general call area. He referred to a list of the top 10 highest producing call addresses, pointing out they are not medical offices. They are adult family homes and one of the highest call producer is an adult family home near Caspers and 9". The high call areas are not just in the hospital zone but also adult family homes. Councilmember Tibbott referred to the comment about going from three stations to two, noting he had not heard any conversation about that. Chief Dahl said SCF has not looked at that and studies do not recommend Edmonds drop to two stations. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas said she distinctly remembered discussions with Fire District 1 about keeping three stations but they were not located in the appropriate places and if FDI had their way, they would move one of the Edmonds stations. Chief Dahl agreed they have always said that; the three.stations in Edmonds are not ideally located. Station 17 is not in a good location; it is against the water and in a response circle, they do not respond to the west. If money were no object, Station 17 would be moved further east and closer to the hospital. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas recalled discussion about moving stations to provide better coverage, not reducing stations. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas referred to changing minimum staffing in stations and asked if there was a standard level of staffing in every station. The documentation indicates the Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace have same staffing levels and at least one Lynnwood station has the same staffing level. Chief Dahl explained the minimum was three. Station 11, 15, 10 and 21 are staffed at 5 or more dedicated rigs. Edmonds is staffed like the other seven SCF stations. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas said when Medic 17 was removed, staffing was leveled out to the same as the rest of stations. Chief Dahl said Station 17 went from a 5 person station to a 3 person station. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas asked if the reason there was higher staffing at other stations was because they have different vehicles, ladder trucks, et. Chief Dahl answered it is related to equipment or call volume because their unit utilization is above the recommended average. They are not cross -staffed units; there is a dedicated engine and a dedicated medic unit. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas observed two of most easterly stations have 3 -person staffing and if they needed additional coverage, it would be provided by Station 11. Chief Dahl answered Station 11 and 12 as well as the closest unit from District 7, Station 77, which is near Station 13. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas said the stations with added staff cover for nearby stations when necessary. Chief Dahl said all stations cover for each other. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas said she had never heard anyone talk about reducing a station in Edmonds. Chief Dahl said the revised agreement stated Edmonds had the right to look at that. Neither Edmonds nor SCF have asked to look at that. Councilmember Nelson said three stations versus two was stated in the Council agenda memo as a long term option to deal with the imbalance. The bigger question was on one hand the Fire Chief said there was Special Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes June 25, 2019 Page 5 an impact and the City Attorney said there was no impact. He encouraged the Council to keep that in mind when looking at levels of service and response time; whether the Council was listening to the City Attorney or the emergency professionals. Board Chair Kenny said SCF is engaged in a capital facilities planning process for fire stations and other facilities. The stations owned by Edmonds have needs and will eventually need to be replaced. The Council should think about repair and replacement of those stations and during that process is a good time to discuss station location. That discussion is occurring across the entire RFA and SCF staff has discussed it with City staff. Mayor Pro Tem Fraley-Monillas asked whether other cities own their stations. Board Chair Kenny said Mountlake Terrace owns theirs; Brier does not. 3. ADJOURN With no further business, the Council meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m. DAVID O. EAR LING, MAYOR OT6PPASSEY,61ITY RK Special Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes June 25, 2019 Page 6