OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Grand Rapids City Council Meeting Summary - December 16, 2025

Meeting Portal — Tuesday, December 16, 2025
BodyGrand Rapids, Michigan
SessionMeeting Portal
DateTuesday, December 16, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 45:52

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Everyone, uh, we're theoretically starting at 12 30.

0:02

We bounced that to 1245.

0:04

We're gonna compromise at 1243, and the city manager tells me everyone gets 10 minutes.

0:08

So, chief.

0:09

All right.

0:10

Well, let's get started.

0:11

As you can uh siege today, we have a lot of guests with us, uh, not only from the community, but Corwell Health, and we're very excited for today's presentation.

0:21

So, we're gonna be talking about our EMS program today, uh, emergency medical services and the vital role that the fire department plays in EMS in this community.

0:31

As you can see from the pictures, we've been doing this a really really long time.

0:35

And I do want to give credit, uh, see Chief Winstram in the back.

0:38

Uh, from 1969 to 1989, the police department was the primary first responder in the city and also did a fantastic job.

0:47

So, a lot of interesting uh pictures that shows GRFD GRPD has generally held uh patient care in high regard.

0:57

Type of calls we respond to.

0:59

I know you're gonna say, Chief, I can't see those boxes are too small, the words are cut off.

1:03

I get it.

1:03

It's simply a visual.

1:05

Um, about 17,000 EMS calls a year within the city of Grand Rapids proper.

1:12

Now, within that data, I want to point out a few nuggets that I think you'll find interesting.

1:18

Almost 14% of those incidents involve repeat 911 callers.

1:24

So, this is someone that is calling 911 frequently throughout that year.

1:29

Um, we even had 10 or more incidents for 32 people.

1:34

So we had people in our community, we had one person that engaged 911, the EMS system, 114 times.

1:42

So a hundred and fourteen times, we sent a big red truck, an ambulance showed up, and sometimes a police department.

1:49

Obviously, the first hundred and thirteen times, we didn't fix what their problem was.

1:54

So that's that should resonate with you.

1:57

I do want to walk you briefly through because this has been a lot, there have been a lot of questions about this, so I want you to read my lips on this one.

2:06

The hot team is not going away.

2:10

This is not the hot team.

2:12

So I want to show the org chart up here.

2:14

You can see our battalion chief of EMS, Mark Fenkauser, who's with me today.

2:19

We have our captain of the hot team, Eric Ryder, who has a lieutenant and network 180 clinicians under them.

2:27

Uh, we retooled that this past summer.

2:29

It's going very well, had some great feedback on the hot team and the work they're doing.

2:34

You're gonna notice a new box here with uh acting Captain Matt Hutter and a Corwell community health worker.

2:42

So that is a new program that we are proposing to address these frequent 911 callers.

2:50

Let me back up real quick.

2:51

I do see the empower on there.

2:54

I want to give full credit to Lucas Leverett, one of our community members.

2:58

We did not come up with this name.

3:00

My uh creativity brought us to medical outreach team, and that name was absolutely horrible.

3:06

And everyone kept getting confused with homeless outreach team.

3:08

So reached out to Lucas who does marketing.

3:11

Thank you, Lucas, and said, Hey, do you have any ideas on this?

3:14

And of course, it's a play on words medical priority and wellness response.

3:20

Empower.

3:20

We want to empower our residents to get the right care, and we're gonna walk alongside of them.

3:28

So this is not new.

3:29

Uh National Survey in 2023 reported that there are over 400 programs like this in over 40 states.

3:38

However, only 4% of those programs are at the basic life support level.

3:44

That's what Grand Rapids Fire operates as EMTs.

3:48

We're basic life support.

3:50

So this is very rare.

3:51

The other quite rare thing is that the fire department is partnering with a hospital.

3:57

Normally these are ALS type agencies that start a program in-house.

4:02

It's a hospital that starts their own program or a fire department that starts their own program.

4:07

We did not have the expertise and breadth of resources to do this by ourselves.

4:12

And Corwell agreed to partner with us on this.

4:16

We are so very thankful.

4:18

So the top three services that we're looking at doing, much like the rest of the country, is high emergency room or 911 usage.

4:27

Can we get that down?

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Emergency Management███████████████████████████████████████39%
Public Safety██████████████████████████████30%
Wildlife Management█████████████13%
Urban Wildlife Management██████████10%
Public Transit████4%
Community Engagement████4%
Summary of Proceedings

Grand Rapids City Council Meeting - December 16, 2025

The Grand Rapids City Council convened for a briefing session focused on public health initiatives, emergency management preparedness, urban wildlife management, and public safety updates. Key presentations included the launch of a new public-private EMS partnership to address frequent 911 callers, a comprehensive winter preparedness review, an update on a county-led deer population study, and a report on declining crime statistics and community policing efforts.

Consent Calendar

  • No specific consent calendar items or unanimous routine approvals were detailed in the transcript.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No formal public comments section from community members attending the meeting was recorded in the transcript provided.

Discussion Items

EMS Program Launch (Empower Team)

  • Chief of Police and EMS presented a proposal for a new pilot program partnering with Corwell Health, named "Empower" (Medical Priority and Wellness Response), designed to assist frequent 911 callers.
  • Speaker Positions:
    • Chief Winstram and Chief of Fire expressed full support for the program, emphasizing it addresses high usage (approx. 14% of calls involve repeat callers, with one individual calling 114 times) and offers care management that fire and police currently lack.
    • They stated 100% support for retaining the existing "Hot Team" (critical incident response), clarifying that the new Empower team is a distinct addition and not a replacement.
    • Commissioner [Unnamed] expressed enthusiastic support, citing personal experience with high-use individuals and noting the program aligns with community housing goals.
  • Key Facts:
    • The program is a basic life support initiative (EMT level), which represents only 4% of similar programs nationally.
    • Grand Rapids is uniquely positioned as the first fire department in Michigan to partner directly with a hospital on this model.
    • Staffing involves reallocating an EMS Captain (Matt Hutter) and a third member of the "Hot Team," plus a community health worker from Corwell; no new staffing costs were incurred by the city.
    • Corwell Health committed 100% of the program's financial cost for personnel and operations.

Emergency Management & Winter Preparedness

  • Assistant City Manager Rance presented the Office of Emergency Management's winter readiness status.
  • Speaker Positions:
    • Rance expressed confidence in the city's preparedness, noting operations are "right where [they] need to be" despite colder-than-average temperatures and above-average precipitation forecasts.
    • Commissioner [Unnamed] expressed strong support for exploring physical signage at warming centers, agreeing that current digital reliance is insufficient for those without smartphones.
    • The Mayor expressed support for the concept of a voluntary check-in list for vulnerable residents (modeled after Halifax, Nova Scotia) for future research.
  • Key Facts:
    • The city coordinates with Kent County, the National Weather Service, and DOT.
    • Public Works has 35 plow/salt trucks, 14 pickup plows, and 2 sidewalk plows.
    • Warming centers are active, and a new facility at Scribner is fully operational.

Urban Deer Management

  • Assistant City Manager Doug Matthews provided an update based on a Kent County and Grand Valley State University (GVSU) study.
  • Speaker Positions:
    • Commissioner [Unnamed] expressed support for expanding hunting regulations on agricultural land, arguing that allowing farmers to hunt without restrictions or requiring 30-foot fences is necessary to reduce populations effectively.
    • Matthews expressed caution regarding single-municipality action, stating clearly that a regional countywide approach is required due to deer migratory nature.
  • Key Facts:
    • In 2024, deer killed on roads exceeded the number harvested by hunters.
    • GVSU identified suburban areas (Kentwood, Cascade, Caledonia, etc.) as having the highest deer density.
    • The goal is to reduce deer-vehicle collisions to 1,050 within two years, requiring an additional harvest of 1,900 deer annually countywide.
    • Grand Rapids falls under Deer Management Unit (DMU) 3, which includes recommendations for urban hunting and right-of-way mowing.

Public Safety & Crime Statistics

  • Police Chief Winstram presented year-to-date crime data. *Note: The transcript identifies the speaker as "Chief Winstram" in the opening EMS section, but the context of the police briefing implies Chief Eric Winstrom is the same individual.
  • Speaker Positions:
    • Chief Winstram expressed strong commitment to reducing reprisal killings and domestic violence-related murders, noting they are actively disrupting negative narratives through collaboration with Cure Violence.
    • Commissioner [Unnamed] expressed support for the data transparency dashboard but requested further accountability metrics for community policing officers beyond event attendance.
    • The Mayor expressed support for the new class of police recruits (approx. 8-9) and the community policing initiative.
  • Key Facts:
    • Auto theft numbers are trending downward toward zero.
    • Robbery totals are the lowest in four years.
    • 10 individuals have been killed by gunfire, and 13 individuals have been shot this year.
    • 23 murders from 2023 were cleared.
    • 15 fatal overdoses occurred; 444 illegally possessed guns were recovered.
    • 5 community policing officers are currently deployed (one per service area), with a goal of 10; two additional classes are in training.

Key Outcomes

  • Approved/Initiated: The "Empower" pilot program is set to begin site visits in early January, utilizing a repurposed vehicle and a partnership with Corwell Health.
  • Directed: The Emergency Management Office is directed to research and explore the feasibility of physical signage for warming centers and a voluntary check-in list for vulnerable residents.
  • Referenced: The city will participate in upcoming Metro 6 meetings to discuss countywide deer management commitments and funding.
  • Clarified: The "Hot Team" remains active and will not be discontinued; the new program is an addition, not a replacement.
  • Pending: Further discussion regarding the funding of the co-response model (approx. $250,000) is scheduled for the legislative committee; community policing success metrics are requested for a future 2025/2026 briefing.
  • No Discrepancies: No conflicting information was identified between the transcript and the provided agenda items; the Chief's name appears as "Winstram" in the EMS section and "Winstrom" in the Police section, which is treated as the same individual based on context clues (Chief Eric Winstrom is a known figure in Grand Rapids). If this is a transcription error in the source, the name in the official minutes should be cross-referenced. Based strictly on the text provided, a note is added: Transcript contains spelling variations for the Chief's name (Winstram/Winstrom).

Meeting Transcript

Everyone, uh, we're theoretically starting at 12 30. We bounced that to 1245. We're gonna compromise at 1243, and the city manager tells me everyone gets 10 minutes. So, chief. All right. Well, let's get started. As you can uh siege today, we have a lot of guests with us, uh, not only from the community, but Corwell Health, and we're very excited for today's presentation. So, we're gonna be talking about our EMS program today, uh, emergency medical services and the vital role that the fire department plays in EMS in this community. As you can see from the pictures, we've been doing this a really really long time. And I do want to give credit, uh, see Chief Winstram in the back. Uh, from 1969 to 1989, the police department was the primary first responder in the city and also did a fantastic job. So, a lot of interesting uh pictures that shows GRFD GRPD has generally held uh patient care in high regard. Type of calls we respond to. I know you're gonna say, Chief, I can't see those boxes are too small, the words are cut off. I get it. It's simply a visual. Um, about 17,000 EMS calls a year within the city of Grand Rapids proper. Now, within that data, I want to point out a few nuggets that I think you'll find interesting. Almost 14% of those incidents involve repeat 911 callers. So, this is someone that is calling 911 frequently throughout that year. Um, we even had 10 or more incidents for 32 people. So we had people in our community, we had one person that engaged 911, the EMS system, 114 times. So a hundred and fourteen times, we sent a big red truck, an ambulance showed up, and sometimes a police department. Obviously, the first hundred and thirteen times, we didn't fix what their problem was. So that's that should resonate with you. I do want to walk you briefly through because this has been a lot, there have been a lot of questions about this, so I want you to read my lips on this one. The hot team is not going away. This is not the hot team. So I want to show the org chart up here. You can see our battalion chief of EMS, Mark Fenkauser, who's with me today. We have our captain of the hot team, Eric Ryder, who has a lieutenant and network 180 clinicians under them. Uh, we retooled that this past summer. It's going very well, had some great feedback on the hot team and the work they're doing. You're gonna notice a new box here with uh acting Captain Matt Hutter and a Corwell community health worker. So that is a new program that we are proposing to address these frequent 911 callers. Let me back up real quick. I do see the empower on there. I want to give full credit to Lucas Leverett, one of our community members. We did not come up with this name. My uh creativity brought us to medical outreach team, and that name was absolutely horrible. And everyone kept getting confused with homeless outreach team. So reached out to Lucas who does marketing. Thank you, Lucas, and said, Hey, do you have any ideas on this? And of course, it's a play on words medical priority and wellness response. Empower. We want to empower our residents to get the right care, and we're gonna walk alongside of them. So this is not new. Uh National Survey in 2023 reported that there are over 400 programs like this in over 40 states. However, only 4% of those programs are at the basic life support level. That's what Grand Rapids Fire operates as EMTs.

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