0:00
Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.
0:09
Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.
0:23
Good morning, everyone.
0:24
Welcome to the uh June 3rd, 2026.
0:30
Well, the green light just came on again.
0:32
Welcome everyone to the June 3rd, 2026 meeting of Denver City Council's Health and Safety Committee.
0:38
My name is Kevin Flynn, and I am the vice chair of the committee filling in for the chair who is absent today.
0:44
And uh we have only one item, and it's a briefing from our uh Denver fire department uh on the response to the audit findings.
0:52
And so before we start uh introduce Chief Fulton, I'd like to ask uh vamping for other members.
1:02
Let's have introductions uh by members of council.
1:05
Let me start to the uh to my left.
1:08
Uh good morning, everyone.
1:09
Serena Gonzalez Cochez and one of the council members at large.
1:12
Good morning, Amanda Sawyer, district five.
1:16
Hi, and we have one member online.
1:17
Uh, Council Pro Tem.
1:21
Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.
1:24
Thank you very much.
1:26
Uh Chief Desmond Fulton, the Denver Fire Department.
1:31
Uh I we the Denver Fire Department uh went through an audit uh related to our IGAs.
1:37
So Denver Fire provides fire and emergency response to four different areas.
1:42
We've we provide this for a skyline.
1:44
Uh we provide this this service for Sheridan, the city of Sheridan.
1:48
We provide the service for the city of Englewood and the City of Glendale.
1:52
Uh we met with the auditor for a final presentation roughly a month ago, and uh I wanted to go over the findings.
1:59
Um, I'm sure you're all well aware you guys had an audit somewhat similar last year, and it's not as easy to express the totality of things when you're limited uh to 140 characters.
2:10
So I wanted to take the time to ensure that you had a chance to ask any questions and ensure that there's clarity um when it comes to our ability to respond not only to these IGAs but into the city county of Denver.
2:24
So with that, use yes, sir.
2:27
Uh introduction and background.
2:29
Um Denver Fire has had IGAs in place uh for 20 plus years.
2:34
Uh again, as I stated Inglewood, Glendale, Sheridan, and Skyland Protection Fire District.
2:39
These are all different links.
2:41
Um most of these were in place prior to my tenure.
2:44
Um but um that said we have had a renegotiation with the city of Sheridan and with Skyline uh very recently.
2:54
Um that as I proceed forward, um, I will go into the specifics of the lengths of these terms, the monetary uh components related to these terms, and then what the recommendations were from the auditor's office and how we plan to comply with the recommendations.
3:09
Uh Denver Fire Department IGAs, uh Inglewood.
3:12
Uh, just to give you some perspective, the revenue that we generate from Englewood providing services is 7.3 million dollars a year.
3:19
Uh we have a three percent escalator on that, and that term goes through December 31st of 2035.
3:26
Glendale uh the revenue is three million dollars again with a three percent escalator on that.
3:31
Uh fire protection services go through the term of 1231 of 38.
3:36
Sheridan, uh the revenues two point six million dollars.
3:40
A little bit different on this one.
3:42
There are some different escalators built in.
3:44
It's a 3% and 26, a 4% and 27 and a 5% in 2028.
3:51
And that'll be up for renewal again in uh December 31 of 2028.
3:56
And finally, Skyline, which is very different, it's Mills based.
3:59
Skyline is not a city, it's really a neighborhood that we protect.
4:03
Um, and it's 445,000 dollars was the revenue generated, and that is reviewed every three years.
4:09
So we meet with their fire marshal with their board, and we'll review that.
4:13
There's no questions there.
4:14
I'm going to move forward.
4:19
Um, so these are some maps to kind of put in perspective of where these firehouses are located, uh, with these IGAs.
4:26
So station five is located in the heart of Glendale, and as you can see, it's completely surrounded by the city and county of Denver.
4:33
Um in Englewood, I'm sorry, in Glendale, to put in perspective, there was roughly 987 emergency response calls that we responded to in the city of Glendale.
4:43
The station uh 36, which is in the city of Sheridan, uh, you could see that borders Denver on many sides, and it borders Englewood uh to the east.
4:52
Uh again, that is at uh 4101 South Federal Boulevard, and that is the sole firehouse that provides services to the city of Sheridan.
5:00
And then in Inglewood, we've got multiple stations there.
5:03
We've got station 37, and then we've got station 38, and those provide services of the city of Inglewood.
5:10
Now, with these maps, uh the intentionality behind this is so you can have an idea visually of not only the location of these firehouses, but truly comprehend how they respond.
5:20
So these aren't dedicated just to Inglewood, Sheridan, or Glendale.
5:25
These resources come into Denver quite frequently, and I'll go into the percentages.
5:29
But you can see Station 37 and then 38, for example, really clusters around multiple council districts, and these companies, even though they're based out of Inglewood, would respond to your council districts.
5:47
Uh representatives from Inglewood, Glendale, Sheridan Skyline Protections stated they have established positive working relationships with Denver Fire, and they're very satisfied with our services provided.
5:57
To kind of put things into perspective, I meet with representatives, i.e., the city managers, city council, their board of directors, at a minimum yearly.
6:07
And there has been many times where we have taken the time to sit down and present to their city council mayors and answer any questions.
6:15
As far as the city managers, we have a relationship to where I could pick up a phone or they can text, and and we really have that personal relationship, which really makes these IGAs very valuable to them because they appreciate our services and our response.
6:31
Sure, you as well, and very valuable to the city and county of Denver because it complements our emergency services.
6:38
So we had multiple multiple recommendations.
6:41
As a matter of fact, all the recommendations I agreed to.
6:44
And I told the auditor, I was very frank, he asked me, he's like, Well, I it's not very common that everyone agrees to everything.
6:51
I told him, Auditor, I've been married for 30 years, and it's easier just to say yes and smile and shake your head.
6:56
And in these, there was a lot of recommendations that I feel are very relevant, and I think they're very achievable.
7:03
As a matter of fact, I'm confident that we can achieve most of these by July 1st of this year.
7:09
So the first one was to develop and document a formal renewal process.
7:14
Um this is something that was not passed along, but I completely shoulder this responsibility.
7:19
I can be better at documentation, and I could be better at formulating this process.
7:23
So we have designated uh the requirements of what this looks like, designated roles and responsibilities, uh, documentation and how it will be created, and we've already started this because we just actually met with leadership in the city and county of Inglewood.
7:38
So this is something that we agree to, and moving forward, uh Denver fire will be much better when it comes to this recommendation on documentation for renewals.
7:47
Next recommendation was to develop a plan to revise agreements as necessary.
7:52
And again, you know, this may seem you know very simplistic, but in the end, I think it's it's something that's minimal.
7:59
I think this is something the auditor pointed out that that is uh very much should be taking place and moving forward.
8:06
We will implement this recommendation as well.
8:09
Recommendations, and these are all focused on financials.
8:12
Um the first one is to establish a process for tracking costs.
8:16
Um they brought forth a lot of things related to repairs of the fire stations.
8:22
Now, contractually, these municipalities are responsible for repairs of all the costs.
8:29
Um there are many times where something breaks and it's just easier for us to buy apart.
8:34
Our firefighters are very talented, they fix the problem, and what we haven't done is been as good as we can at turning those receipts in from reimbursement.
8:45
Um, a lot of times it may seem simplistic, it's a $10 part by the time you go through all the avenues, is it worth all the people hours?
8:52
In the end, you know, we can go back and forth on that, but it is my responsibility to ensure that we're spending the dollars of the taxpayers, and I'm being fiducially responsible.
9:02
So moving forward as we have repairs in these firehouses, we will do better.
9:07
I will do better at tracking these and ensuring that we're taking these costs and getting um reimbursed for those costs related.
9:15
Another uh recommendation financial focused was on developing a procedure for cost-benefit assessment.
9:22
We've actually done this.
9:24
Um, this assessment came from the latest one of the Sheridan negotiations.
9:30
We would never go into these blindly.
9:29
We look at assessments when it comes to finances.
9:36
Um later in the slides, I will break down with you what I'm looking at through my lens as a fire chief versus someone that is an accountant because I view it quite differently.
9:45
But in the end, we absolutely should be doing cost-benefit analysis as we look at these.
9:50
Um, one thing to take into account is a lot of these were were established decades ago.
9:56
So moving forward, it gives us a chance to look forward and have a better plan when we are for renewal.
10:03
Recommendation 1.4 was include important elements in future cost-benefit analysis.
10:08
And this is something that I 100% agree with.
10:11
There are a lot of things that it's easy to second guess.
10:14
But moving forward in the future, I think there should be levers in place.
10:19
If you have inflation that is extraordinary, you have to be able to be take account for that.
10:24
The cost of engines and trucks is nearly doubled in seven years.
10:27
We would not have known that 15 years ago.
10:28
So I'm not pointing fingers, but as we move forward, these are things we need to build into these, um, ensuring that it's not costing taxpayers of Denver money, and it's coming from the coffers of this municipalities that we're serving.
10:42
Uh another financial focus is establishing and implement a process for tracking payments.
10:48
Our finance team has shrunk as the city has shrunk, but the bottom line is this is our responsibility.
10:55
We do track payments, but we've had delays in payments, and it may be three, five, seven days.
11:02
Um, with that, you know, in essence, as an accountant, nothing's acceptable if it's late.
11:07
So we will implement and build something that can track day to day, and we will have checks and balances in place moving forward where if this there is something late, we will know who to call, who to email to ensure that that they're in compliance with the agreement of the contract.
11:25
Another financial focus is conditions for late payments.
11:28
As I stated earlier, we've had instances where they've been three to five days late.
11:32
We haven't charged them for the late payments.
11:35
Um it's not significant amount of money that we would charge.
11:39
I'm more of a relationship person.
11:41
I would rather text someone and said, Hey, by the way, did you know you're delayed on this?
11:45
But you know, again, it's my responsibility to be responsible with the funds and ensure that we are getting those late fees, especially when we're in financial straits as we are right now as a city.
11:56
Another financial focus is develop and document a process for identifying expenses.
12:01
In my eyes, this is very related to one of their earlier recommendations.
12:05
Um, this to me, we could get more into the weeds of what it costs when it comes to example would be not our we not only staffing with 15 firefighters at a particular firehouse or fire company, but what is it cost when we clean their bunking gear to get rid of the contaminants and carcinogens that are in there, carcinogens that are in there.
12:25
So being more in the weeds of what is it really cost when it's said and done to operate a fire company.
12:32
Develop policies and procedures for monthly reconciliation.
12:35
This has already been done, this is implemented.
12:38
Uh, this is checks and balances with accounting, so this has already been completed.
12:42
Um, these are now speaking to joint advisory boards.
12:46
We meet with leadership every single year from all these different cities.
12:52
Uh in the contracts, it speaks to an advisory board and who makes up the board, what the purpose of the board is.
12:59
And to be quite frank with you, we've really never had we haven't had a need for this.
13:03
If there's an issue, the manager council person calls me or we call them and we fix it.
13:08
Uh, we get together every year and we go over run reviews.
13:13
Um, every day we give them uh a list of what calls took place in their city.
13:18
If there's a significant incident, I will text or phone call the uh city manager or other people so they're aware of what's going on.
13:26
But uh in the end, it is in the contract, so it's something that we need to be better at.
13:31
We started this with Sheridan, and we insured on who is gonna be representing their joint advisory board on their end, who will represent DFD.
13:40
So we're very clear.
13:41
So moving forward, it's in the contract.
13:44
We will adhere to that and ensure that we have those boards in place, and the people more importantly are aware that they're part of that board.
13:52
Uh again, this is speaking to advisory boards on when they need to be met or updated.
14:00
And again, that this is just a matter of language.
14:02
This is a matter that we've already taken care of with Sheridan and moving forward as we continue to meet with Inglewood and Glendale, we will update those as well.
13:59
And again, all of these will be implemented by July 1st.
14:14
This I want to speak to, and I think this is very important to paint a totality of the view from a thousand feet.
14:22
This is a five-year average.
14:24
So starting off with Inglewood, we have two firehouses in Englewood.
14:28
Of these firehouses, 100% of the calls aren't in Inglewood.
14:33
12.5% of the calls actually are in Denver.
14:36
So we're benefiting 12.5% of the time from these engines and trucks coming into Denver to help augment Denver's needs.
14:44
Glendale, 76% of the calls are in Denver.
14:48
So if we didn't have that firehouse in Glendale, we're missing out on a significant amount of calls.
14:54
As a matter of fact, it was over a thousand calls that were in the city and county of Denver.
14:59
Sheridan, 55% of the calls are in Denver or in Inglewood.
15:04
So if we didn't have these IGAs in place, if we didn't have these firehouses, we would have to look at in essence building firehouses because these serve your council districts in the southern part of the city.
15:16
So these are vital.
15:17
These relationships are vital, and the way that we can complement Denver, we're serving the needs of not only their cities, but in my view, we're really gaining from these contracts in these IGAs because it benefits our citizens.
15:33
Sheridan, I think you said that 55% of the calls were into Denver or Englewood.
15:40
Um actually that that should say not, 55% of the calls are in Denver.
15:50
From the Sheridan House.
15:51
Yeah, so 12.5% of Englewood is into Denver, 76% of calls in Glendale of Glendale's calls are into Denver, and then 55% of Denver of Englewood are into not correct.
16:06
Sorry for the confusion.
16:31
I look at it a little bit differently.
16:33
And I'll start off on the right with Glendale.
16:36
Well, if the percentages of calls of that of Glendale, if 55% is based in Denver, we shouldn't be looking at 100% of this cost.
16:49
So if you look at our personnel costs in 25%, and you add an equipment supplies, which would be consumables, you back away the 76% of the calls that are coming into Denver, you've got a total expense of 746,000, thus a net uh uh occurrence of finance is coming into the city of 2.19 million dollars.
17:10
Uh Englewood is a little bit less because it's only 15.5 percent that aren't in Englewood, but it's the same analysis.
17:18
The only thing different is the personnel overtime is 5,000 because it's two companies and not one.
17:24
And then equipment, you double the cost for equipment and indirect supplies.
17:28
We do have a contract with Denver Health.
17:31
We have two ambulances that run out of these firehouses.
17:34
That's paid for by Denver Health as part of this IGA, so that doesn't cost Denver.
17:39
You take the total expenses, but if you back away the percentages of the calls that come into Denver, we are still at a net total income coming into the coffers of the city and county of Denver as well.
17:51
And then finally, Sheridan, again, you've got a fixed personnel cost of 15 folks on an apparatus, equipment and indirect supplies.
18:00
You back away the 55%, non-Sheridan-based calls, uh total expense of 1.4.
18:06
We've got uh a net value of 10 point or 2.5 coming in.
18:11
Uh we're netting 1.14 to the city.
18:15
Skyline is a little bit different.
18:16
It's mills-based, so skyline it's a set amount with a minimum.
18:21
And uh that can obviously change on the mills, but the estimate for 24, 25 ended up being 454, and we kind of keep it consistent there because that seems to be where that's been coming in every each and every single year.
18:35
So, you know, it's easy to look at something and formulate a cost, but the true cost is is not just the finances, right?
18:43
This is important, obviously, but in the end is how do these four companies, these engines and trucks, what do they do for Denver?
18:52
They do a significant amount.
18:54
If they weren't there, we would have to be looking at are we gonna build a 20 million dollar firehouse?
18:59
Are we gonna be okay with response times being 10 minutes instead of five minutes?
19:04
Those are real questions.
19:06
And with these IGAs, it it's really valuable in the way not only is it bringing money in, but it allows us to have three additional four additional firehouses and these additional companies to complement the services for the citizens of Denver.
19:22
So with that, I'll take a pause because I'm sure there's gonna be a few questions.
19:25
If you know if you can build a new firehouse for 20 million dollars, you could be our CMG C.
19:31
Let me welcome uh Councilman Cashman to the meeting.
19:35
And uh we have uh questions up with uh councilwoman Sweyer.
19:40
Um, thank you, Chief.
19:41
This is really great.
19:43
I think Councilmember Cashman and I border Glendale, both of our council districts, border Glendale, um, and we already know what you just told us, which is that the value of that Glendale house to Denver is unspeakably important.
19:59
It is it it it allows for response times that are so much faster than they would otherwise allow for, and that is what matters to our residents.
20:11
So Cashman, I'm just gonna talk for you here for a second.
20:14
That's what matters for our residents, right?
20:16
And so um really appreciate that.
20:19
I I do really appreciate you acknowledging um and agreeing with the auditors' recommendations.
20:24
We've all been audited, we all know how frustrating audits can be and how they can feel somewhat unfair sometimes based on like picky things.
20:32
Um, but I do, you know, appreciate you guys taking the feedback and being willing to make some changes.
20:38
I'm just curious when it comes to the whole set of recommendations around the um the committee, I what I can't remember what they're called, the committees, you know, like the the cross-functional committees.
20:53
Why do they exist at all?
20:55
Um, I believe they exist in case there's a point in time where you have leadership with fire, you have leadership at that municipality, and they can't seem to get along, or if there's significant incidents where you don't have adults around the table that could come to terms and fix things.
21:13
We don't have that problem.
21:15
We get along great, but I understand the intent of the language.
21:19
Um, you know, obviously the only one we could have removed that from would have been Sheridan because the rest are they they're going for quite some time still.
21:28
But my my guess is it was based off the fact if there are difficulties and bumps in the road, how do we come together and how are there checks and balances?
21:37
Uh, we've been very fortunate because uh, like I stated, you know, it's not uncommon for me to text or call one of the city managers or other people and leadership there often and just touch base, and if there's something you know minimal, we fix it.
21:52
But to answer your question, I believe it was just in case you ran into significant issues that was more of a formality in place for checks and balances.
22:00
Okay, that's good to know, and I I guess I understand the value of that.
22:04
I also struggle to see the value of it given that we don't need it and the administrative burden that comes with it, right?
22:14
That is a time commitment, doing all of those minutes, getting them out to people, all the things like yes, smaller with Zoom meetings than you know, time commitment than if you had had to travel there and back regularly, but also like to me, it doesn't seem valuable, and I know that they're written into the IGAs, so it you're stuck until 2038 or whatever the last IGA is that it's written into.
22:40
Um, but I just wonder whether there's a better way to do that that is not so administrative heavy when the need is not there for it to be administratively heavy.
22:52
Well, first I agree with your statement, and I appreciate the sentiment because I obviously fail miserably because I wasn't good at taking minutes and everything else that they're requiring of that.
23:13
And I I agree with you.
23:14
So moving forward, that would definitely be something that we should look at, the formality of it.
23:20
And does the the is the value there, or is it just something that that seems right in a contract, but the the reality of it is what are you accomplishing?
23:30
So I absolutely agree with you.
23:32
Yeah, because it seems like something else could be written into the contract, right?
23:37
Like a clause that says in the event that you know there is a disagreement or everyone is not on the same page, like you I mean, we have mediators in the city that we pay for on a contract, that we send our residents to with developers to create good neighbor agreements or business owners or whatever, all the time.
23:56
Like it seems like there's already uh something that exists within the city that is in place that could manage a situation like that should it come up, as opposed to you know, the this sort of like very dogmatic group of meetings and minutes and administrative stuff you got to do in the meantime when there is no problem.
24:21
Food for thought for the future.
24:23
Um duly noted and 100% agree.
24:26
Yeah, I I feel that deeply.
24:30
Um, and I want to just acknowledge uh, as you know, the as you know, the largest fire that the city of Denver has seen in um anyone's recent memory happened in District 5 in January.
24:42
Um, and I just want to first acknowledge and say thank you because it could have been an absolute disaster.
24:49
Um, it could have spread to other properties, it could have spread throughout neighborhoods, there were evacuations throughout district five neighborhoods, and it didn't.
24:57
And there are situational environment things that made that happen, like there wasn't a lot of wind that night, right?
25:04
But also it is because of the response of the Denver Fire Department and our partners.
25:14
And so I just want to acknowledge that and and make it clear that um something like the fire department, it relationships are the thing that matters because those relationships are what you rely on when there is a disaster, like an entire building burning down that threatened neighborhoods, um, and those relationships came through and solved the problem and kept it from being a massive disaster.
25:45
Um, and so I just I appreciate all of the feedback that the auditor's office gave, and I appreciate you being willing to hear it, but I also think it just has to be said, and you probably can't be the one to say it, so I'll be the one to say it.
26:00
Like these relationships matter.
26:04
I know that we're in a financial crisis, and I know that auditors audit, and that's what they do, but also this is about so much more than dollars.
26:14
So much more than dollars.
26:16
This is about the safety of our residents, and literally in the case of the fire in January in Leedsdale, our neighborhoods.
26:24
And um, so I just think that that cannot be stated strongly or loudly enough, because you can't audit relationships.
26:34
There's just not a way to do it.
26:36
But I also feel a little bit concerned that there's no acknowledgement of those relationships in this in the audit findings.
26:44
So, like I said, you probably can't say it, so I'm gonna say it because it's real and it's true.
26:50
Thank you very much.
26:53
I want to welcome Council President Sandoval to the meeting.
26:56
And uh do other members have any questions at the moment?
27:00
Um Chief, let me ask you um in your reconciliation of the cost uh allocations when we respond out of Sheridan to Denver or Englewood.
27:14
Now, when we respond with the Sheridan station into Anglewood, uh I would attribute that cost more to Englewood than to Denver.
27:22
That's not a service to Denver residents, but to Englewood.
27:24
Um, so just a little, maybe a little more balance to that um reconciliation might be helpful for for us going forward.
27:34
The second question is are there in these contracts and these agreements?
27:39
Are there any reopeners that would allow us to revisit any of these provisions before their expiration?
28:58
That's why I ensure that they're happy with our service.
29:01
That's why I ensure they're happy with our relationships because the last thing I want to do is lose them, because in my view, we really need them as well.
29:10
So we need us, they need us.
29:11
We provide an incredible service for their citizens.
29:14
They're very happy with what we do for them, but in the end, they really help the citizens of Denver and allow us to augment the emergency services for Denver.
29:23
So that's something I would not want to look at.
29:26
Well, Chief, it looks like from your chart when you allocate those across those cost centers, it looks like we are not losing money on these contracts.
29:36
Correct, that's correct.
29:37
Not only are we not losing money, but if we lost these IGAs, then we would really be then we're then we're on the hook for paying for firehouses and for the firefighters.
29:46
And does the auditor concur with that?
29:50
Sharp reconciliation.
29:52
When they did the audit, it was more focused on process rather than response.
29:57
Um I did not run my numbers by them, but the again their focus was more on the performance, the performance, and are we following the guidelines of the contract?
30:09
And there were areas that we were not, and that's why we're fixing things and we're going to be better.
30:13
Well, representing part of the south end of the city, and being very adjacent to Sheridan and Englewood.
30:19
The high district, I acknowledge that that would be a that's a risk.
30:24
And we right now are deriving benefits.
30:31
Um, do we have any other questions?
30:33
Uh Council President.
30:36
Sorry, I was listening um on channel eight when I was headed over here.
30:40
So to councilwoman Sawyer's point about how um in audit findings, you don't talk about relationships when city council got audited.
30:52
I was um it went through two council of leadership processes, and I thought we were gonna get audited on more, like this ordinance that council member Flynn initiated.
31:03
Do we get our contracts on time?
31:05
Do we get other things on time?
31:07
And what we really got deemed on was software, and like we actually went through COVID and we are some towers went missing, but I don't keep those towers.
31:16
They go to technology services, and there were a couple recommendations in our audit finding that actually conflicted with the charter of what our executive director does.
31:27
Our executive director works at the will of all 13 council members to support city council.
31:32
She our executive director doesn't look through our um donation list and sign off on it because that's just not her that it's literally not prescribed that way in the charter.
31:43
Um so part of the the audit findings are to councilwoman Sawyer's point, don't take into consideration the the factors of safety and our accreditation that we've worked really hard to get, and with our accreditation means that we have better insurance, our accreditation means that we have better things, which saves at the end.
31:59
It's hard to put like a dollar sign around it.
32:11
But let's say in a world where we did not have these IGAs, does that would that impact our accreditation that you all have?
32:19
Because the fire times could go down in these pockets.
32:22
Like, wait, what is the what's the risk of because there was a time when we didn't have these, right?
32:29
And so what did that look like?
32:30
Would that to me it feels like we'd be going back in time instead of moving forward?
32:35
Councilwoman, that is a very valid point, and I appreciate your question.
32:40
Number one, we are ISO one.
32:43
We weren't always ISO one.
32:45
ISO one is based off of our training, it's based off of our our water capabilities with our hydrants and our locations.
32:52
It's based off of our staffing levels.
32:54
It's based off of the amount of folks we have in service that have the ability to provide emergency medical services and fire protection in equation to the amount of citizens that are in the city at certain times of day.
33:08
Uh, it's based off our response times.
33:11
We worked very hard to raise up to an ISO one, and it's based off of everything that I just spoke to.
33:18
We we just went through reaccreditation uh roughly three years ago, and what that means is we're ISO one accredited fire department.
33:27
There's less than 140 across the country of thousands of fire departments that can state that they're ISO one and accredited.
33:35
That's based off of everything.
33:37
You lose a fire company, um, that changes everything.
33:41
It changes the response times, it changes training capabilities, it changes the matrix on how you can respond effectively.
33:48
You lose four firehouses, all bets are off.
33:52
So you're absolutely right.
33:53
Can it change the ISO, which would affect the dollars that folks are paying for insurance?
34:00
Would we lose accreditation?
34:02
So it would be very impactful, and that could happen with one.
34:06
We're talking with four companies here, 100%.
34:09
Yeah, so thank you.
34:10
And then the only reason, colleagues, I know that is because I work at the fire department, where they just think they were talking about accreditation.
34:16
I was like, what is this weird accreditation thing?
34:18
Talk to me about that.
34:20
Um, so I I don't think that these recommendations always take that into account.
34:26
And one of the recommendations that we had from the auditor to city council, I took it was painful for me to even sit at that table and not and really not have them understand.
34:38
And I said, You you do know that you are your recommendation is in direct violation of our charter.
34:44
And the auditor was like, what?
34:46
And I said, I really have to keep the the city safe as council president.
34:50
I'm not gonna implement a recommendation because it came from the auditor that that's in direct violation with our charter.
34:56
And I feel like some of these recommendations, yes, they're procedural, and I'm glad that to clean up the contract and the the to audit contract compliance is a very different thing thing than to councilwoman Sawyer's point auditing for relationships.
35:12
It's hard to put a dollar sign on that, like it's like the American Express, it's priceless, right?
35:16
If you get a trip with your kids, I don't you don't know exactly how to put a price on that.
35:22
So I just want to say thank you for um it for coming to committee and thank you for the willingness to sit down with us because sometimes when you're on the receiving side of those audits, you you want to get through with them and you want to just say, okay, I understand yes, we're gonna do it, it's procedural, but at the same time, there is a narrative here that had we I remember calling councilwoman Sawyer and I said, Hey, had we not had that IGA, I think that whole entire like a neighborhood could have started on fire, and she was like guaranteed because I had called you that morning and you told me how Aurora South had come in and how you all played a part.
36:01
Correct, and it was a huge puzzle piece, and no one got injured.
36:05
I don't know of another fire.
36:07
I started looking at fires like that.
36:09
There's deaths, absolutely, and other property damage, and it just didn't happen.
36:13
And so that and you had that, and then you came out with this recomm with this audit, and I was like, I just it didn't feel like both sides were being the both sides of the story were being told.
36:25
So I think that's important.
36:26
Thank you for that.
36:33
All right, thank you.
36:34
Chief, uh, very much appreciate this update.
36:28
It's a lot better information for me that clarifies a lot uh from what I'd heard been hearing.
36:42
So I really appreciate that.
36:44
We have no items on consent and no other business here, so um we'll be adjourned.
36:49
Thank you, everyone.
36:50
Good seeing you all.
36:56
Do I need to do what you do?
36:58
I was gonna say if you lobby, um,