Mr.

Clerk, good morning, sir.

Good morning to you, Mr.

President.

Would you please call the room?

No problem.

Councilmember Scott Benson.

Scott Benson I.

Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Member Johnson indicated she's on her way.

The clerk was a note.

Councilmember Gabrielle Santiago Mero.

Present.

Councilmember, excuse me.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Councilmember Angela Whitfill Callaway.

Member Callaway sent a memo indicating that she would not be here.

She would be absent.

So her absence is excused.

Clerk will sell note.

Council President Pro Tem Coleman Young Second?

Here.

Council President James Tate.

Yes.

Mr.

President, there's a corn.

Thank you, sir.

We have a corn, which means we're now in session.

We'd like to now call uh fire commissioner Sims before us and your team.

So come on down.

You are the first budget hearing of the second week of budget hearings.

Good morning to you all.

I was tripped out.

I read uh member waters and I were talking about before uh we began this morning how one of our reporters who are typically in the uh committee of the whole has now resigned and is going to be going into the fire academy.

That is Malachi Malachi with uh Bridge Detroit.

So I don't I wonder was that like timed a certain kind of way that y'all talk in advance?

I'm just saying he's laughing, he didn't respond, but that's okay.

Uh it'll get you everywhere, it'll get you everywhere.

We like Malachi.

All the best to him in so many different ways.

All right, so uh fire commissioner, the floor is yours.

Please uh introduce yourself, your team, and you may begin your budget.

Thank you.

Um good morning, Council President Tate and to the entire uh city council.

My name is Chuck Sims, the executive fire commissioner for Detroit Fire Department, and I'll let my team introduce themselves.

Morning, Council President and Council Members.

Uh, Derek Hillman, Deputy Commissioner, Council President and all Councilmember.

Hit that button in front of you to the red turns green, boom.

There you go.

Yes, sir.

Uh, Council President uh and Council members.

My name is uh Robert Stokes, Deputy Commissioner with Detroit Fire Department.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council members president.

My name is Nicole Fambrough, agency CFO for the FD.

Good morning.

So I would like to start off by saying first of all, thank you all for um the confirmation to my appointment.

I truly appreciate it.

I'm grateful and thankful to be in this position for the best fire department in the world.

And um, we're looking forward to doing many more great things.

Secondly, I would like to thank my team as well as all the members on the Detroit Fire Department who uh are very professional, loyal, dedicated to the citizens of Detroit, and their jobs.

Um, starting off, we have a PowerPoint presentation, and the first page is our welcome to the Detroit Fire Department page.

Next page to second page in recognition of Mayor Sheffield's rise higher platform and FY 2027 in alignment with Mayor Sheffield's commitment to safe and resilient neighborhoods.

The Detroit Fire Department will advance a comprehensive response and equipment enhancements and community risk reduction initiative, strengthening fire suppression, EMS prevention, training, and community outreach operations, expanding resident-focused fire safety education and engagement efforts, and upgrading critical life-saving and reliable emergency response services for every Detroit neighborhood.

DFD will work collaboratively with other city departments to expand Cold Blue efficacy, which is a program that supports and relocates displaced Detroiters who have endured a housing emergency.

Next page, please.

And our core values provide exemplary services to the citizens and visitors, assess and address the mental the health and wellness of fire department personnel, promote community training and engagement, incorporate advanced technology and equipment, maintain fiscal responsibility and increase revenue streams, and implement comprehensive personnel training and development.

And now we're going to show you a video.

Bless you.

Every call, every voice, every heartbeat, moving as one team.

We find answers.

We prevent the next fire.

We protect what matters most because every second counts in the field in the classroom and in our community.

We are Detroit Fire.

So Detroit Fire Department, who are we?

We're budgeted for 1,311 members.

We have seven divisions.

Two of them fall up under emergency response operation, which is EMS and fire operations.

We have fire communications, fire community relations, fire marshal, fire investigations, and fire training.

And I'm gonna go through these divisions and explain and highlight the achievements they made over the last budget year and how we're gonna increase those achievements over the next fiscal year.

So in EMS operations, right now we we deploy about 40 to 40 to 42 ambulances daily.

We respond to approximately 450 medical calls on a daily basis and transport over 300 patients daily.

Our response time for CO1 has been consistently about seven minutes and 30 seconds for the last two years, which uh we still claim is is if not the best, one of the best in the country.

Next page on fire operations.

Um they respond to medical calls as well as uh fire suppression and rescue.

They responded to over 73,000 incidents last year.

Um, structure fire response time is five minutes and 20 seconds.

The NFPA standard is anywhere from six to seven minutes, so once again, we're beating the national standard.

We responded to over 45,000 medical runs.

Fires, uh medical response time is seven minutes and 20 seconds.

Uh right now or last year, we had the lowest amount of structure fires in the history of for at least the last 40 years of the fire department at 1471.

Other emergencies we respond to, extrications, whether they're vehicle or elevator, hazardous material response, and some specialty responses like confined space, high rise, and water rescue.

Under fire communication, they dispatched over a hundred and eighty thousand emergencies last year.

Um the NFPA standard for them is 30 seconds.

They've been consistently at consistently at 20 seconds for at least the last two years.

They manage assets requests from all fire and EMS companies, and they coordinate with internal and external stakeholders.

Our fire community relate uh community relations, they installed and distributed over 4,000 smoke and CO detectors, attended over 80 community events that reached over 30,000 citizens, uh, provided fire safety presentation that reached over 33,000 citizens, hands-only CPR sessions that reached over 3200 citizens, distributed fire safety DFD safety guides to all residents, which would be in four different languages English, uh, Spanish, Arabic, and Bengali.

They installed and distributed over 4,000 smoke and CO detectors, attended over 80 community events that reached over 30,000 citizens, provided fire safety presentation that reached over 33,000 citizens, hands-only CPR sessions that reached over 3200 citizens, distributed fire safety deep DFD safety guides to all residents, which would be in four different languages English, Spanish, Arabic, and Bengali.

They received FEMA grant funded smoke training trailer, which they can take out to senior homes, uh neighborhoods, block clubs, and teach about fire safety.

Trained over a thousand eighth grade students at hands-only CPR.

Our goal is to train all of eighth graders.

We know there's about 3200 of those, and so we're working um diligently to make sure we train all eighth graders and hands-only CPR.

We inspect the child car seats, and we hired an ADA coordinator.

I know Councilmember Benson, that was that was your concern.

Our fire marshal division under fire prevention plans and exams.

We're we're creating this community risk reduction initiative, which will focus on each district and focus on what education we need to provide to each district in regards to fire safety, starting with fire safety, but it will expand now to uh different types of risk that that um district may have.

They provide code enforcements.

Um they expect 100% of these critical structures, which are high rises, senior multifamily gas stations, rec centers, 302 sites, which are the hazardous material sites in all schools.

Um that was an initiative we thought of a few years back, and those are our most important structures.

So like I said, they're being uh inspected 100% of the time.

We launched the businesses self-re uh reinspection program.

So those businesses that comply with inspections, uh we realize there's no reason to go out there every single year that they're um capable of reapplying for their inspection and they could do it themselves.

So we'll send them out the information, just makes it much easier for the business owner, and they'll do their own self-inspection.

And um in every October we have our fire prevention month.

Last year we reached over 5,000 residents and completed quarterly public safety announcements.

Fire administration, that's a joint task force.

I'm sorry, fire investigations, that's a joint task force with police and fire, and we have 16 fire investigators and eight police officers.

Uh they're certified internationally, um, not only nationally, but internationally.

They investigate 100% of our structure fires.

They break out their fire data into districts, and that's part of the community risk reduction initiative.

So each district would know exactly what's the highest rate, highest cause of uh fires in their district.

And they created a state of Michigan recognized fire investigation course.

So now we have uh people from all across the state coming to DFD's fire investigation course, which is uh really exciting.

Now I'm gonna let uh DC Hillman take over.

Thank you, Commissioner Crack.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Um, so the DFD training division.

Uh last year we did the first internal pay uh paramedic training.

We had a class of 28.

Uh currently 25 of those have received their license, and three are still testing.

We had nine EMT classes for existing members, which increased our overall departmental level to over 80 percent of our department has an EMT or higher uh level of a uh licensure level.

Um completed the cross training of all EMS personnel to be in merge role individuals.

Uh we do a three-day training for all in service class for all in service members.

Uh we have an officer national uh certification classes, uh two fire academy classes last year for new recruits.

Our internal uh learning and management system is fire rescue one, so we use a lot of online training for our field, and then we offer five disciplines for specific rescue courses, high-rise, elevator rescue, trends rescue, water rescue, and confined space.

So for those high acuity uh calls that we go to.

Uh we did CPR through the training academy for for the community and all the city employees, and we have an apprenticeship program for from Poland from the schools to try to uh increase our our membership from the schools.

Go ahead.

I just want to talk real quick about this paramedic class.

So the it was the first one in the history of the department that started last year.

We're now um in our second class, and this is extremely important because there's a paramedic shortage across the nation, not only the state, but across the nation.

So we decided to invest in our own members and put them through this rigorous class.

It's a 10-month class, 40 hours per week, so they have to actually pour themselves out of their uh firefighting schedule and or EMS schedule and attend this class.

And um it's it's it's it was the only way to do this.

Um anytime there are paramedics in the state, other departments are trying to grab them off front, giving them offerings.

Uh, we decided, like I said, to invest in our own membership, and it's it's paying off for us.

And on a second note on that, and thank you, Commissioner, for bringing that up.

Um, last year there was approximately about 200 people that were trained at a paramedic level in the state, and um over 150 of them were for designated for departments already.

So you can see that it's a difficult task to try to get paramedics to come in.

So that's why we did the internal training, and it's really starting to pay off.

And the national average is only a 70 percent pass rate, and we're sitting at you know a 90 to 95 percent pass rate of internally training our our members like this.

So it's been a huge success for the department.

Next is the next generation of life savers.

So investing in our kids, building a city's first responders, teaching life saving CPR AED awareness to the middle school students, giving kids the tools to lead in crisis, fostering a sense of civic responsibility, turning schools into a safety hub for the entire neighborhood, having our apprenticeship program, what I talked about previously, and then uh also a heart safe community that we received for that designation, but we're also trying to bring that into the schools now, too.

When our children rise with the skills to save lives, the whole city rises with them.

And and so once again, I just have to to highlight the um heart safe community designation.

Uh, we're the largest city in the United States with that designation.

What that means is that we were able to satisfy 13 requirements to receive that designation.

Very tough requirements, but we were we were um dedicated to this uh to get this designation, and it's very exciting for us.

Now adding on to that, now we're trying to turn all our schools into heart safe schools.

Um uh a Detroit school just became a heart safe school for the first time last year.

Um and so I've tasked my team to try to turn one school a month into a heart safe school.

It's a very aggressive goal, um, but I believe in putting aggressive goals out there, and and if you fall short, it's still a great goal.

So um we're looking forward to that um to make sure that our our kids are taken care of and the coaches and the and the teachers, they know um CPR and how to use an AED for their safety.

The next slide is a safe for Detroit for every generation.

We don't just respond to emergencies, we prevent them to ensure our citizens can rise higher.

We do CPR, community CPR, we have our community risk reduction program, our QRT team, which is for our opioid crisis, which we actually do responding and try to make sure that we can get them out of that cycle.

And our nurse navigation program, uh nurse navigation actually is gonna be brought forward to you guys here shortly.

We've uh selected a company, and we're really looking forward to that rollout of that company.

Um reactive firefighting to proactive community empowerment.

Okay, protecting our legacy, seniors, safety, and stability, honoring our seniors, ensuring a safe foundation, home safety visits, direct outreach to install high quality smoke and CO detectors at no cost, vulnerability reduction, tailoring fair safety education to the specific needs of our Detroit C seniors, peace of mind, providing the security of our legacy citizens deserved so they can live with dignity and safety, senior building support, pairing with the mayor's new Office of Senior Citizens' Affairs to provide fire safety training and resource to every senior building in Detroit.

Ensuring every home visited meets the highest safety standards.

And so just to recap on some things, we um at the Detroit Fire Department not only want to provide the best service to our citizens, but we want to be that model class fire department of for around the world.

Um People magazine just wrote an article about Detroit saying that we now are on the same platform as some of the best fire departments in the country.

Um we now have fire fire departments across the country asking us, hey, how did you become heart safe?

Um get that heart safe designation.

How did you get your response time so low?

And so now we're we're becoming that model, and we're very excited about that.

So saying all that, well, I would just like to say thank you for for um listening and and to us in regards to some of the achievements and milestones we've had over the last year, and we're ready for any questions that you may have.

All right, thank you so much for our commissioner.

Appreciate the information.

And we'll start off with questions, colleagues.

As we did last week, uh two questions per member.

Um then we will move forward.

I'm gonna start this morning with member miller.

And uh, Mr.

Clerk, if you can note, I don't know if Member Miller was uh in the back when you did roll call, but note that she's joined us as well as member McCampbell.

Clerk was on thank you so much.

Member Mill.

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

How are you this morning?

Good.

Joining us, um, it was refreshing to see how we are compare nationally across the country.

Um the fire department seems to really have um been on the ball.

Um and I am impressed being a fire kid.

I have one question regarding the current demographics of the fire department.

Can you tell me what the current demographics are?

Sure.

So um the last report I received, we had uh 50, I believe it's 51% white.

It was 34% African American.

It was uh roughly 10% of um uh NA or didn't want to answer.

And then um the remaining was Hispanic and Asian.

Okay.

So when people come in and get our resources, are they managed?

Is it mandatory for them to stay a certain period of time?

Is there something they sign because our classes, I mean, we pay for people to come in and they're often they take our resources and our training and they leave Detroit.

Is there something that they have to sign assign to protect our interests?

Because so often we want people to stay, but they leave.

Is it and I was wondering, do we have something in mandated that they have to stay with us for a certain period of time?

So through the chair, and and very good question.

I know um a couple years ago we were concerned about that.

We really don't have a big problem with people getting our resources and leaving.

It may be a one-off and one or here and there, but for the most part, um people who come on the department and go through our academy, they remain on uh on the job.

Um, but we would look into that.

I know we do you remember what I know we did um you remember okay.

Um through the chair, uh we actually talked with uh the DPD because they were going through the state to have a uh law uh passed and it ended up being only police related.

They did drop the fire aspect of it, so there is not a way for the department to mandate a retention period for those individuals.

However, through the chair, I would like to revisit that and have that in place.

Okay.

And last question.

Um the commission.

I know it was debunked in 2012, I guess with the bankruptcy.

We didn't when we no longer have a fire commission.

I know it was slated in the charter that we should have a car charter commission, but because of bankruptcy, there seemed to be there was no feel for oversight.

So it was removed.

What is your feel on retaining a commission for oversight?

I know our budget for it is a lot of money, and I was just wondering uh regarding the fire commission.

I did mention to the mayor about considering to bring it back.

Um just for oversight, that's a lot of money.

And I was just wondering your thoughts on the commission.

Through the chair.

Um, you know, I I feel that we're doing a really good job um managing our budget um and and deploying our resources as far as an oversight.

If I mean if if if if it's voted to have an oversight, I'm I'm fine with that as well, but I think we're doing a very good job.

Okay, thank you.

You are thank you so much.

Uh member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good morning to you all.

Thank you for being here and for the work that the fire department does.

Um, I had a to go off of the question on demographics.

How much how many of the four of the department are Detroit residents?

Okay, yeah, go.

Um through the chair, the last report I got, it was about 25%.

Okay.

So definitely, I know we've had conversations here at the table.

Um would love to see those numbers as much as possible go higher.

Uh so that leads me to my first question.

We had conversations about recruitment, um, and you kind of went over that a little bit.

Uh we also talked about how DPD has the specialized recruiters to go out and get folks.

Have you all thought about or talked to the administration around having recruiters in DFD specialized to the department?

Through the chair, absolutely.

I mean, actually, after that meeting, um, I spoke with HR about that, so we're still having continuous talks.

Okay.

Um, and how are how are those talks going?

Um, I I think they're going well, actually.

I think it's about just putting a process in place on how we're going to do it, um, how it's gonna get funded.

So I think those questions still need to be answered.

Okay.

All right.

I'll I'll have those questions for HR as well.

Um I might have a motion on it, but uh my second question is on the community outreach, especially as you talked about aligning with the mayor's uh rise higher um vision and also you know, senior safety and stability.

I would assume that that and Lieutenant Taylor uh came out to one of our uh coffee hours and gave a very great presentation on fire safety and such.

So I have a question around are you are you are there plans to ramp up that team for to go out and also um are you all giving out fire?

Are you still giving out fire alarms, fire detectors and carbon knock detectors as well?

Okay, very good questions.

Um through the chair.

So um, yes, the plan is to increase uh uh uh community relations.

Right now we're doing like a rebuilding, a refocusing for them.

But I know when I got in this position, um Chief Harris, he's uh he's the chief over community relations, and I told him I said, hey, the the floodgates are open.

Let's make sure we get um as community involved as we can.

Um let's increase our community engagement.

So the plan is to increase community relations to your second question as far as smoke detectors.

So we had a DSAP program last year that we had a lot of people calling in for, so we had smoke smoke detectors and CO detectors designated for or reserved for certain um individuals.

Now that that program is over, um we are in the process of purchasing more, and so we we're gonna make sure that we keep a high threshold of smoke alarms to pass out to the community.

All right, thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Trip.

Thank you.

Member Benson.

Thank you.

And good morning.

Um great to see you all here.

Had a chance to visit you all a couple weeks ago and get a uh more in depth understanding of the training academy, the uh RTC.

Can I comment on that?

Um, through the chair, first of all, I want to just uh applaud uh council member Benson.

So he uh visited our training academy.

He actually climbed up the hundred foot ladder um all the way to the top.

Um there were bets against them and there were bets for him.

And uh the people who bet it for him uh won.

So congratulations on that completion.

So I wasn't begging for a uh compliment, but I'll I'll take it though, with the thank you.

But then I would I would um suggest all of my colleagues can make a chance to go see the RTC and the trainings there and what we're doing as a city and the environment in which our firefighters operate, just the understanding of what it means to put on 60 pounds of gear dry, and then what it could mean to climb 14 flights of stairs timed in that gear, and what it means to wear 60 pounds of gear and becomes 90 pounds when it's wet when you're fighting a fire in less than um optimal circumstances and in dangerous circumstances, just gives a new um understanding of what's going on there, seeing the students who are taking the uh the training courses and understanding how difficult those are very challenging courses that we're offering there, and now our training center is a regional national draw for the department.

So there's also a upside and ability to uh generate revenue, maybe not a complete um zero sum game, but the ability to improve our standing and just make us as the commissioner says the number one fire department on the planet um having these type of services and these type of offerings is huge, and I would recommend everybody put on 60 pounds of gear and climb up that hundred foot ladder.

I mean, it it lets you know what we're paying our our firefighters for.

I understand that you all are at the table right now, so I understand that.

But my question first goes to um page Bravo 24 and 22.7 million dollars in sales.

What is this?

This offsets the general fund contribution to the fire department.

What are those sales?

And then is there a way to increase those sales or further offset the general fund contribution?

Good morning through the chair.

Okay, can you be more specific there?

And what what are we?

Yes.

How are we building for those?

And then can we increase it?

Um actually that is through our through the chair, I'm sorry.

That is through our EMS billing, that is for our digitech.

Um that is related to our EMS runs.

Um and increasing those would increase the runs would increase to increase the revenue.

Okay.

Uh through the chair, another aspect that we did talk about at the training academy is as we roll out these paramedics to provide that higher level of care on those uh calls, we'll actually be able to increase our billing revenue on that aspect to uh hopefully increase those numbers too on that revenue.

I mean, what can we?

I mean, what's the what would be a reasonable increase be is it five percent, ten percent based on our in-house growth uh paramedics?

Yep, uh through the chair, so we're looking at numbers and anywhere from a million to two and a half million dollars per year could be a reasonable increase um once we get the full implement of the paramedic program out there.

Looking maybe five percent, yeah, five to ten percent a year.

Okay, man.

That's that's a big number.

And so I'm hoping that we're looking at that if there's a way to offset the general fund obligation or even to take what we're earning from those type of revenues off to the general and then reinvest that into either capital or more training infrastructure equipment for our fire department.

Recently, we upgraded and purchased the SCBA equipment, which I had a chance to uh see how it operates as well.

And though this having that type of equipment and having it where it works and is reliable, I mean 60 pounds of equipment with the SCBA on, and you can't see and it's dark and it's hot and you're wet and you're cold, or you're outside and you can't read that's that can be that can be a very scary situation.

Um then talking about capital, how are we looking on our firehouses?

So when we had all of our ARPA money, I was a huge proponent of spending a significant amount on upgrading our firehouses and our police stations.

We saw some, but just looking at the firehouses, I go to the one on Ryan every year for the big event that you all do in the fall.

I go to our firehouse on Hoover and just see that they're long the tooth.

What are we doing for capital investment?

How are we looking on upgrading our fire stations?

You're a voting location um just off Grassett in the third district, um, just north of Georgia.

And so I forget the number of that station, but we can use some upgrades, and then seeing what you all did with that public safety space on Ford Street, and that's a very good looking modern station.

I'd like to see more of those.

What's the number on that?

How are we looking to fund those?

Through the chair, um, excellent question.

So we have there's a budget for firehouse upgrades and repairs, and it's it goes through GSD.

Um, however, we've put together a deployment plan.

Uh, right now our our fire stations are built built off of an infrastructure about 80 or 100 years ago.

And so uh we put uh together a deployment plan on where we should have stations to give the most efficient response and uh and it would lower the amount of stations we have, keeping the same amount of companies, it would lower the amount of stations we have.

Um currently uh I I truly feel some of our stations are money pits at this point, and it's time to build new fire stations.

All the communities around us are building new fire stations.

If we want to be that uh model class fire department, it's gonna come with building new fire stations.

So um saying that we can we can cohabitate with police with the health department so we can have an all-inclusive type of um building there.

You got public safety, you got health in case people want to come and get their blood pressure checked or anything like that.

So um, in regards to funding, we we're still trying to find some funding streams.

We have some ideas, but um it's gonna cost uh we average somewhere between ten and twelve million per station.

Do we have a capital plan for the fire department for that for new stations?

We do not know uh motion to the administration to request a capital plan for the Detroit Fire Department for upgrading, replacing, renovating, modernizing our current portfolio of firehouses and fire locations throughout the city of Detroit.

Thank you.

Um there's a motion on the floor with uh discussion.

Uh Member Benson, is that uh direct is it not for the closing resolution?

It doesn't sound like it you know what's probably better, it may be better for the closing resolution.

You said for the closing resolution, yeah.

Okay, there's a motion on the floor for clarification for the closing resolution.

Colleagues, any objections?

Discussion with further discussion, member Miller.

What was he putting in it?

Yes.

Further discussion, member at the end.

Am I able to be specific at the end?

Oh, yes.

This is what have a conversation from the full council.

There's two things I wanted to add to that clothing.

Okay, I'll wait.

Thank you.

So there's a motion again on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

And motion to add $500,000 to the executive session for the creation of a capital fund study for the fire department.

Okay.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

And then lastly, the regional training center, which is in the third district at the old uh Davis Aerospace, we're gonna get a new Davis Aerospace in the third district at the city airport.

I strongly encourage all my colleagues to go take a look.

Um while I it was not an expectation to climb a hundred foot ladder that day, what I was not gonna do is not comport myself well so that would bring embarrassment on to this body, and so I strongly suggest that people take a look, just go put on the equipment, walk through just the smell of the equipment, the touch.

I mean, it's just it's a different environment and seeing how they train the equipment on which they train, it just brings a new perspective to people that run into danger on behalf of our residents and dedicate their lives to that and what they put their body through.

So just really encourage my colleagues to take a look at that and spend time and then listen to the um the firefighters and what their concerns are in an in a formal candidate basis.

I think it's it's very enlightening and educational.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

Thank you.

Um first of all, let me just say that to my colleague from the third district.

No, I'm not gonna climb up.

I appreciate it.

But but I did get in the bucket some years ago when I was a state representative, and they took me all the way up.

They had to hold my hand, of course.

But my my brave uh colleague here, yeah.

Kudos to you.

So member Miller took my thunder in terms of the retention question.

So um, and I I certainly uh appreciate everything that that you all do.

I've always been a supporter uh of our firefighters.

Uh it is we are so grateful for everything that they do on a daily basis.

Um I do want to know uh first and foremost.

I kind of have three questions.

I'm trying to put it all in one about your staffing and does you know I want to know about staffing and elevators.

That's one question.

Staffing and elevator inspections.

That's one question.

Okay, chair.

So staffing um in regards to the entire department.

Vacancies.

Oh, so vacancies.

Right now, I believe we have 65 vacancies.

Um, and and the thing is with vacancies, we have people retire.

We have mandatory retirements, and so we right now we're probably averaging between 25 and 30 a year, and they come just throughout the year, so that's why we'll see our vacancies uh fluctuate.

But we um actually we had a class start today, and then we're gonna have another class in July.

Okay, and in regards to the elevators, yeah.

How often do you inspect them?

Inspect them.

Um, so we we don't inspect in um elevators, no.

You're never called in to inspect elevators, not to inspect.

We will go, we have elevator extrications where we'll go rescue rescue people out of elevators, but we don't expect them.

Oh, okay.

All right, now I I want to talk about uh another issue that I know that's very very important.

Um firefighters and cancer.

I'm a breast cancer survivor myself, so I'm very sensitive to that.

Congratulations.

Um we have because I know sometimes firefighters they they they get cancer and it's really job related.

Um I want to know, I'm I'm trying to figure out how we should be addressing that because it's my understanding that sometimes a person, a firefighter who who gets cancer, uh then is then it would be later ruled that it was not work-related.

They don't get paid.

That there's just something something wrong with that.

We need we need to fix that.

And so I'm I'm looking to you, because what I want to do is to do something during this this budget season as it relates to that, or at least put in a closed resolution or something that when our firefighters get cancer that's job related, that we we we owe them, and we need to make sure that they their medical bills are covered.

Through the chair, I I totally agree.

Um I agree that any time a person, a firefighter um who has experience going through fires for their career, if they were to get cancer, that they that should be covered.

Um however, we do have protocols in place where um it can be challenged now by the department, but it can be challenged.

So we're looking to change that.

Uh we have the cancer presumption bill, of course, um, where you know the family gets taken care of and the the children can go to any Michigan college for free.

And so um any I I agree.

I I agree totally with you.

And so we're working through that right now to ensure that all our firefighters who get cancer are covered.

Hmm.

Oh, okay.

Uh through the chair, um, I just also want to let the council member know that we do have an um aggressive uh wellness um aspect to the department to where we do health screenings, we offer cancer screenings to help um to try to uh catch that beforehand too.

And um I do 100% agree with you about the uh aspect of taking care of them if they do have cancer.

Um we do have through um our current process, our injury process, to where they are taken care of.

So um I just want to let you know that we are actively trying to make sure we take care of our members.

Yeah, and and through you, Mr.

President, I I am just just concerned because I mean if if a person gets their their head in injury, for example, too, and they die a couple days later, we know that it's probably the result of the head injury.

I I um I I think that we are missing something uh in between here where we're not taking care of our firefighters um uh that way.

So I want I guess I'll add something to the closing resolution for now.

I just don't I don't I don't know what to do at this point.

I probably need additional information from you all um so that we can better address this.

We you really need to.

So Mr.

Um Mr.

President, I'd like to make a motion.

Um I don't know what the motion should be.

It's so broad.

Um medical um that a medical analysis uh should be conducted when it comes to what uh I'll I'll come back later with it.

I'll come back later.

I I I can't think of it right now.

I've got to think about it.

I just know that it's very, very important.

I want to make sure that I cover it correctly.

Okay.

All right.

I mean, the climber might have some ideas.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you, Mr.

Wards, because you don't want to put support for the state bill for cancer presumption and closed resolution.

Oh, yeah, well, I uh yeah, I want to do that.

That's true, but but I just think we should do something here too.

Okay.

Never mind.

All right.

Thank you, College.

Thank you.

So Member Warders, I'm glad you asked that question.

That was along the lines of my questioning as well.

And I did have the honor of speaking at the uh end of watch service for uh Lieutenant for whom's um thank you for allowing me to to to share that space with you and your your men and women of the fire department.

Um the question I have is uh I know you indicated that there is a um an entity that challenges those designations, those duty um uh disability um uh designations.

Who is that entity?

What's that entity?

If it's not the fire department, who makes that challenge?

Because there are under the I did a little research and clearly got more to do, but under the workers' disability compensation act, there's a certain number of cancers, like 10 or so that uh are presumed um potentially related to the job, and just trying to find out who is that entity if you if if a firefighter is determined to have one of these cancers, uh, who makes that determination afterwards that says no, they're not, and they should not receive their family, should not receive these benefits.

Uh great question, uh Council President.

I appreciate that.

So the current process is that if it's a presumed cancer, that um as long as they don't have those disqualifiers which are in the presumption, um, there's actual you have to be 10 years of smoking free, and then there has to be actually a um documented outside of the work related that would cause uh cancer.

Um that would be your disqualifiers, and those are done by a uh a doctor, uh, actual oncologist will actually review the file and go through it, and we take that direction from that doctor um to make that determination.

As it has there been any increased decrease in the numbers of uh men and women of the fire department that have either can contracted or unfortunately may have passed from uh these duty related uh duty presumed duty related cancers.

Yes, so we've seen actually an increase.

Um we we've had two deaths lately, and thank you for your attending um's funeral, but we've had two deaths lately.

We have, and and to my knowledge, we have two more individuals that are going through treatments right now.

So is is there I guess when we see increases or decreases, there should be some entity not saying it's necessarily the fire department, maybe it's the health department in conjunction with again not sure to determine if uh there is a cause for an increase.

Um, one is enough, you know, um, period.

But is there any analysis that is done to determine um increase, decrease, why, why not?

Uh if so, who is that entity if it's not the fire department and what is that relationship with the fire and the health department to ensure that the uh health of the members are you know as as optimum as possible?

Well, I know um that we've recently increased our um screening process.

So uh we used to have screenings once a year, now we're we're doing them twice a year, and we want we want to move them to once a quarter.

So that's one way that we can kind of uh you know jump ahead of a diagnosis.

Do you have something else?

Are you good?

Okay.

Yeah, we're we're looking at we're taking this very seriously.

I mean, um, you know, three of us at this table, we've been through through firefighting.

So um and and you know, God forbid if we were to get cancer, we would want our families as well to be taken care of.

So um we're we're serious about this.

Um, but like I said, there's a process in place right now, and we're having conversations to change that process.

But is there any and and and I'll I have a number of questions.

We're just gonna place the rest of them in writing dealing with the financials because this possibly is a financial challenge for us as well as we move forward with compensation or a financial issue we have to uh address.

But what other entity outside of the fire department is looking into this issue?

Again, we have a whole health department.

Are they involved?

Are they working along with you?

Do we have any outside entities that are also assisting to um help uh analyze you know these lives that are you know the this these individuals are deciding to put their lives on the line for for our residents in the city of Detroit?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Um so through the uh to the chair.

So yes, there are um the NFPA and some of the other uh large entities are actually doing national studies on cancer presumption and making sure that uh that it's being fully looked at.

Okay, give me a little bit more, like when are we talking about a online?

You know, what's have they done this research in the past kind of help me out?

I mean, really just trying to get a little bit more out of this question and and answer session dealing with this very important issue.

Um we can provide that to you on all the uh case studies that have been put put out there and researched on the cancer, and uh, we'll make sure we forward them to you.

Okay.

Last question along this line how often do you all review this the information uh and analysis uh regarding the cancer uh in our servicemen and women?

So um so we have um with our screenings, they um we're we're kind of aware if if anything comes back negative, I mean um positive.

Um and we haven't had anything that comes back positive yet, but uh those are things that we're reviewing.

Um and we're we're pushing for all our members to take to um have a screening done because that's uh um like I said, or we can find an early detection of cancer if they complete this screening and it's free to all members multiple times a year.

Okay, and through the chair, one other thing that we have done internally in the department is we've really taken a proactive aspect in gear cleaning and making sure that our members have two sets of gear to make sure that they are stay um the carcinogens stay away from their body.

So we've made a uh hard hard line with that and made sure that they have the ability to get their their gear cleaned.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

I have a few more, as I mentioned, the number of questions we will be submitting in writing, but wanted to uh get those questions out uh publicly while we're here, and I will now turn to Pro Timio Thank you.

And uh I I just want to say before I begin, take a little point of privilege.

I remember standing in front of the um fire department in front of my house and uh advocating uh for my house, I'm sorry, and uh right around the corner from my house, um, advocating for cancer presumption and fighting that for the state.

I think that's very important.

So I think for uh member at large number one to bring that up was a really uh good point.

But um, I want to talk to you about something a little bit different.

I want to talk to you about what plans have you had to implement extended reality.

Through the chair, uh Councilman Pro Tim Uh Young.

So some of the things that you had mentioned at our last budget cycle was talking about augmented reality.

We've done some research regarding that, and it was basically locking in on an augmented face piece, right?

Uh which is where we were starting to take a little dive into.

Uh, some of those things that we're looking at comparatively to our new SCBA systems, we're trying to see how does that mesh.

So there's still the ongoing discussion in regards to that augmented reality uh regarding the face piece.

I believe the last time we also had a meeting where we discussed about smart clothing and looking into that, and I think I had mentioned that I will be getting some additional information as it pertains to that when I go to this conference in April.

So I have been digging into the augmented reality and the new technology as it re as it relies on the health and wellness of our firefighters.

So there is still some research that is new in the industry, much like it was uh like EVs were new to our industry, but we are definitely uh looking at those uh technology lanes.

No, I think that's fair, and I think that's really good.

I appreciate you listening to me and taking into that.

And I just wanted to say before I go to the to the AI piece.

I think that it's important because one, you're gonna get the valuable training that you need to be able to do that in kind of a safe environment if you go to virtual reality route, because you're talking about immersing yourself completely within a different world.

If you're talking about the augmented reality, you're talking about um digital information imposed on a physical asset, so a person, a place, a thing.

I think that's important.

One for you to have the information you need, but also because they can potentially save people's lives.

And I think that's something that's important, as well as also the drone piece, because you can inspect buildings, you can see buildings.

If it's um if it's micro robotics, you can put them actually in the building so you can protect people's lives.

Because the number one goal for all this, as much as I like technology, and I think it's incredible.

But the number one goal for this is to protect firefighters' lives.

That's how we're doing this.

So you can be more efficient, more effective at your job with the fire hydrants.

If you had smart hydrates, you can actually be able to respond to them when they break down and not just have to have manual inspection, so you're saving money, so you're being more efficient at your job, but you gotta be alive to be efficient at your job.

And so the primary concern that I have is to be able to do this.

So I just wanted to ask you did that conversation that you had in terms of the uh extended reality, did it also include artificial intelligence at all?

And do you have plans to implement artificial intelligence within your department at all?

I have not had that discussion in regards to artificial intelligence, but I will still research and see how there's a bridge between the two.

And I'll see you it and I'll see you the information.

And it if you so choose to do so, I mean I I understand this is something that I'm recommending because I think it's important one for you to be the most efficient and effective at your job as possible.

But also, like I said earlier, the primary goal, if we don't do anything else from my perspective, the primary goal is for you to have all the tools that you need to protect life.

It's extremely dangerous job that you're doing on a regular basis.

You are running into burning buildings on a daily basis.

If I can equip you with the equipment you need to be able to protect your life and well-being, and make sure that you do your job to the best of your ability, not only by protecting your life, I'm also saving other people's lives, which is important.

So I'm gonna go over my uh hard pitch of why you should do this, and then if you have anything else you want to respond to, that's fine.

So if you improve if you implemented the drone aerial intelligence network, that would um the operational benefit of that is rapid scene assessment, victim detection, roof and structural monitoring, your artificial intelligence dispatch and predictive fire modeling that's faster response, that's fire prevention analytics.

Your robotic firefighting units that's operating in hazardous environment hazardous environments safely, your robotic search and rescue systems as faster victim detection and collapsed structures, your extended reality firefighter helmets.

We just talked about that.

That's real-time building data exit routes, hazard alerts, your nanotechnology protective gear that's lighter gear, reduced heat stress, and cancer exposure, which talked about earlier.

Your micro robot search systems that's locating victims in void spaces in toxic environments, your smart fire hydro IoT networks.

I talk about IoT, I'll talk about internet of things.

So that's basically every that's basically it literally means um everything and everyone being connected to the internet.

Um that would be your hydro pressure monitoring and fewer infrastructure fails, and your AI predictive equipment maintenance would be fewer apparatus breakdowns or repair costs.

Your total technology events would be 20 million to 45 million dollars, but your annual operational savings will be 25 to 70 million, and the 10-year economic benefit will be 250 million to 600 million dollars.

And so I think it's important for us to understand one.

Like I said, not only are we protecting your lives and we're adding efficiency to your department, we're also saving taxpayer dollars, and we're making sure that we can be an environment so we can invest in more things within your department and the city's fiscal health is protected as well.

So that is all I have to say, Mr.

President.

I don't I I think you had something you wanted to say.

If not, I'm done.

Thank you very much for your time, everybody.

Thank you, through the chair, we just want to address a couple things.

So, first of all, um, wow, great research.

Um, Pro Tim.

So um DC, I'm once so one other thing we have been looking at with the AI aspect of it, is actually incorporating that with our billing to make sure that our uh report writing is done better and actually pull off the actually in the hospital.

If you actually uh been to the hospital recently, they actually have that where it actually fills out the complete report as they're sitting there talking and actually listening to the conversation.

So that's something that we're internally looking at to make sure that we have that patient care aspect taken care of in the future too.

No, that's excellent.

I'll send you my info.

I'll send it to you so you can have it, look it over or whatever.

Yeah, but I appreciate that.

Thank you.

I'll through the chair, uh, President Pro Tim Young.

Just also I want to mention this uh conference that I was mentioning.

Uh last year, we started looking at some of the new technology they had robotics there.

Um, so we are looking at that because it actually pertains to dealing with hazardous materials environments.

So I do believe that this is a cutting edge component as far as the new technology.

So the one thing that I always look at when we're when we're investigating that is sustainability.

So uh I do look forward to seeing your report and seeing how we can actually infuse it in how we do our operations.

Thank you.

And one last thing through the chair.

Um, we do have drones right now, and we're looking for those to be autonomous, meaning that they could be dispatched at the same time.

Our fire companies are dispatched and they can get to the scene and report back prior to uh the fire companies getting on arriving on the scene.

Thank you so much.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, good morning.

Good to see you all.

As your chair of public health and safety, we meet often and regularly.

I support your work all throughout the years.

Um, just really want to emphasize how important and hopeful your programs are.

The smoke detector and seal detectors.

Um, when I bought my house and I had this job, you don't have time to do the things that you have to do.

So I called and I got it done.

Thank you so much.

You came in within five minutes.

Um, I was now more protected, me and my family at home, right?

So it's so important to get your smoke detectors, get your seal detectors, um, and grateful that the fire department was doing this work.

Uh just recently, this over the weekends, our office did hands-on CPR tuning with fire.

Thank you.

I am now certified to try to help.

Um, if that if that's to happen, um, and so are many of our residents.

So I think it's really great that we're doing preventative work um to make sure that we're supporting you and your efforts.

Um the questions that I had have kind of been asked really when we talk about our employees in the city of Detroit.

I am really grateful that we are investing um in EMS for our fire.

It sounds like we are equipping them, better preparing them.

Are we better compensating them?

Um, how are our fire uh fighters being compensated?

Because I want to retain them as we give them uh more tools and resources.

How is retention in fire?

Understanding that we do have folks that retire, but as folks then, how how are we retaining them?

Are we retaining them once they're in?

Through the chair, yes, I our retention rate is pretty high.

Um, at one time for EMS, it was we you know, it was it was hard to keep EMS employees, um, especially right after COVID.

But now that members are cross-trained where they do both dual roles, um, our retention rate, retention rate is really really high.

Um, in regards to what we're paying them, we're going we're in negotiations now for the next contract.

There, the current contract ends June 30th of this year.

Understood.

Thank you.

Good to hear about the retention.

Um, hope for the best in those negotiations to make sure that we can keep our firefighters.

Um, yes, shout out to Malik High, who's now going to be joining you in your efforts.

Um, but I want to make sure that he stays, right?

Stays in betray, stays protecting us as he's switching over careers.

To that end, um, our investment in EMS and fire.

I will continue to push that we need our mental health response unit in our fire departments, not in police.

So I'm gonna add as a as that as a closing resolution, Mr.

Presidents, um, that the administration, fire, police that we work towards making sure that our coal response uh goes through fire first.

Um, so that is my closing resolution, Mr.

President.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Presidents.

If if I when my time is up on council, if mental health is under fire, I'm gonna feel very, very proud.

Um, knowing that we have better responses for residents because we still have too many deaths the hand of police when we're responding to mental health care um to mental health calls to that end.

Excited about nurse navigation coming down the pipeline.

I was going to ask about that, but we will keep on the lookout for that contract.

Um, and really my final questions were all around capital planning.

I know the need to invest in our infrastructure and in our in our buildings.

Thank you, Member Benson, for making that request.

I won't add my name to it because I will push from from the seats and and continue to push through the chair up through the through the PHS chair to make sure that we are investing more in our infrastructure throughout the city.

Um, but I I will say that I will try to go to the to your training center, uh, because I would like to try to go up that that that that fire pole.

We'll see.

We'll see.

I like a good challenge.

Um so I will be going out there seeing checking it out.

Um, but just want to say thank you again for the work that you do.

Looking forward to our continued partnership um and really making sure um that you have what you need to continue to do your job.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And I know there's uh some colleagues that want to provide additional motion.

So we'll start with member uh waters, and we'll pop over to member Miller.

Member Wars.

All right, thank you.

Uh I'm gonna just put something broad in executive session for now, and that is um motion to do an analysis of fire um firefighters, health and wellness.

That's the motion.

Oh it is broad.

All right, that's it for that control later.

I know that we're gonna drill down as we get closer as we get into the executive session portion, but there's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Any further member wards?

All right, member Miller.

Uh I just wanted to member Sadiaga Ramirez.

I am with you when it comes to mental health.

That's why I started the mental health and public safety task force, because so many times when our officers fire or police go out, there is a mental health challenge that needs to be addressed, and some of our our workers need to be training that aspect.

So I created that.

Uh, it's one of the first things that I did.

So, and that's another reason why I wanted to add to the resolution.

I have 25 senior buildings in district five, and you made the statement that um you were happy to join the mayor's rise higher initiative.

So this made me think like, well, what did we do before that?

Because in the buildings, especially the high rises, I write around and when we have these wind advisories or storm advisories, they always say get low, but in the buildings, there is no protection for our seniors.

So I often ask our tennis right councils like is there any fire drills?

Will they have in place?

I know sometimes they can they don't have those things.

Sometimes I don't even see the the paper where there's like a protocol for exiting, and sometimes they'll call the fire marshal.

I've been in buildings where there's no fire alarms at all.

This has been going on for a minute, and I can actually give you a building off the record here that needs that attention, and they've called the martial out several times in the last few months.

So that for me is concerning because the residents are axing.

So in my investigation, I realized that the commission had be been deactivated.

It doesn't cost anything.

Actually, the American is do it the snap of a finger.

So I wanted to bring into the executive session a motion to hold a discussion on the reinstatement of the advisory council of the fire department.

And also to develop a mandatory safeguard that ensure we're not let's do one first.

Okay, all right.

There's a restate that first motion, please.

Total discussion, a motion to the on total discussion on the reinstatement of the advisory commission for the Detroit Fright Berkeley.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Member Miller.

And the second one was a motion to develop a mandatory safeguards to ensure we're not utilized as a training ground that does not benefit our residents.

I would like to see a minimum of three years in place for employment if they're going to take our training.

Okay.

Then that's for the closing resolution.

Yes, it is for the executive um session.

Session.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Any further motions, colleagues?

See none.

Thank you so much.

Um Commissioner Simpson, you have any closing thoughts?

Yes, thank you.

Um President Pete.

So just want to say to each and every one of you, thank you for your continued support.

Um, I think I mean you guys have supported us, I want to say 100%.

Anything we've come and brought to you, you've always supported.

So I just want to thank you for that and thank you for your continued support.

Okay, thank you so much.

And we now shall we shall now close out the uh budget hearing for the Detroit Fire Department.

We now call up the members who are representing the construction and the demolition department as we will begin their budget hearing.