All right, good morning everybody.

It is uh 10 a.m.

We're gonna go ahead and call to order the public safety committee uh meeting for uh Tuesday, February 3rd.

First order of business is the approval of December 2nd, 2025 minutes.

All right, all in favor?

Any opposed?

All right, motion passes.

Next is a uh well, the written report uh considering that or regarding the lift help fees uh from Fort Fire Department.

Do we have a presentation on that or just just a report?

Just a report for the committee's information in response to the request.

Okay.

So as expected, uh, whenever we we'd ask for this, um, just because of the large number of calls to private facilities for lift assist uh in non-medical emergencies uh and the amount of time and resources it was taken, uh seeing what other cities are doing to try to mitigate some of those um resource uses, uh, you know, whether that be in the form of you know smaller fees or higher fees.

I don't know if everyone on this uh this body has had a chance to take a look at that report.

Um, but I would certainly recommend taking the mayor and council um a policy where we do enact some sort of fee structure for those non-emergency lift assist fees, especially for those private facilities.

And again, these are for the facilities that are really taking these resources uh when they should be employed, in my opinion, should be employing the resources to be able to do that job for them, uh not leaning on our taxpayer resources, taking them away from what could be real emergencies.

Uh it's unfortunate situation they're in there.

Uh however, that's uh that's some of those facilities I believe should figure out.

I don't know what the city stance Mr.

Chair if I if I may I would um just like to add that staff is looking at a number of fees in addition to this fee, and we are planning to come back to you later in the year, probably as part of the overall budget process to make recommendations that would that would address this fee and many other fees that we're looking that we're looking at now related to fire EMS, public safety, et cetera.

Got it.

And then looking at some of the other fees that were in this report uh regarding uh vehicle accidents.

Um is there any process now where insurance companies are charged?

I'm sorry, councilman.

Yeah, are there any um are there any processes now where these insurance companies are are being charged for the resources that the city is using to help clean up uh and take care of some of these motor vehicle accidents, or is that just something that we take on?

I think we we take on most of the cleanup, but I know that we work with risk to to look at opportunities to go back and subrogate, go after other insurance companies, et cetera, or damages that might be caused to our equipment, et cetera.

Okay, okay, because I do remember at one point, I believe it was last year.

We discussed uh you know some accidents that were, you know, when did they damage city property or it'd be signals um you name it, and the success rate of getting the insurance companies to pay for those was so low that from what I understand or remember it was we just kind of stopped going after that.

So if we can just get an update on where we're at with that, uh, so we can make sure that if damage is caused by motor vehicle accidents and some just not paying attention uh that their in that their insurance if they are insured is covering those those charges.

Our taxpayers aren't having to pay for that.

Um then in the meantime, while we wait on those reports for the uh the the lift fees, um, is there a way to look at because I'm I'm just trying to make sense of the uh like this these institutions where it looks like uh Green Oaks Boulevard, for example, 88 calls in 2023, 109 and 2024, 83.

Is that one specific facility that was that's having all these calls out uh call outs?

Or Chief Hill if maybe you might have any insight on that.

So looking at that report um where it has the uh the the chart uh for all these different roads, but it says institution, but it has this the street name, and then how many calls for lift assist they got?

Is that one specific facility that's right here uh interim fire chief?

Uh actually it's the uh independent leaving facilities, and we do have a high number of repeat uh dispatches to those places.

So those are the majority of our non-emergency lift help.

Okay, got it.

Um these are specific, like one specific facility with numerous calls.

Got it.

Is now on those calls, is it explained like because right now the policies we we go out there we provide the assistance, correct?

Like there's no questions asked.

Yes, sir.

Um are we doing anything at the city leadership level to basically tell them hey, like you're taking advantage?

So at this point, we're looking at what we what we're gonna be able to come back with in terms of proposing fees.

Okay, uh, to address the especially the excessive repeat folks that are calling for lift assist right now.

It's there's no charge for that service, no additional charge for that service.

It's just something that historically has been done, right?

Yes, sir.

Uh at no at no cost.

So we're evaluating everything.

Now that we have I guess had to really focus on this with incorporating AMS into fire, and a lot of those calls, some of those calls may come to what used to be Med Star, et cetera.

We're looking at all all of the fees associated with it and uh the impacts that it has on operations, response time, and revenue generation.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, so we will look forward to uh to getting that report, Chief Phil.

Thank you so much.

Um anyone have any questions on this?

Yeah, I don't I hadn't seen what we're talking about, but are they going to the hospital what is where are they going?

They're not going anywhere, they're just simply going there to help get them because they fell down and they're large, or they don't have the staff on hand that can actually get them back up.