Ahead and start our June public safety meeting.

Thank you everyone for being here today.

I'm Amy Peck, Chair of this committee.

We are joined today by Council Members Ramirez, Martinez, Davis, and Alcorn, and online council members Carter and Jackson.

And we are joined today in chambers by staff from Vice Chair Jackson's office, Councilmember Thomas's office, Mayor Pro Tem Cassatum's office, Councilman Carter's office, and Councilmember Castillo's office.

I think I got everybody.

Today we have one presentation.

It will be from the Houston Professional Firefighters Association.

Now their work demands analysis, and this is the analysis from the Professional Firefighters Association.

So whenever you are ready.

Thank you all so much for having us.

My name is Marty Langton.

I'm the proud president of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association.

I have with me to my right Jeremy Berman, who is one of our data analysts at the International Association of Firefighters in Washington, DC.

Also Marshall Cloud, who is an EMS data specialist from Washington, DC, who made the trek down to present this.

And I know this week is going to be a long week, so we will give you the abbreviated versions of the report, but also wanted to leave time to ask questions at the end because this is very critical because what we were trying to do is build the foundation in which to address the issues.

And as the Mayor Whitmeyer has always said, we cannot fix a problem if we don't identify what the problem is or say there is a problem, and then work towards a solution together.

And so, real quick, a brief background the International Association of Firefighters represents nearly 360,000 professional firefighters from the United States and Canada.

Our data analyst team from Washington DC is second to none.

We pulled the best and the brightest.

And what it is meant to do is to help uh collaborate with cities and with fire departments in order to look at the data, not a slanted version of the data, the real data, and then to identify where we can find uh efficiencies, but also where we need to focus on for the demand of the Houston Fire Department.

And so very proud uh here to be here with them.

Also, the team back in DC.

Uh, there's about uh 10, 12 data analysts that do this full time uh for us at no cost to the city.

I will say though that this is an unprecedented collaboration, as in uh all of this data came straight from the Houston Fire Department CAD data system.

Uh so it took us about a year, and I think that the cost of this study, if we were in uh the private sector would be a million plus dollars.

And so this is not only a snapshot and executive summary, but we have an even more in-depth uh presentation that is online interactive.

And what we did for this presentation, before I turn it over to my team, was we went a step further into identify every single council district and to show you where the calls are, what the need is, what the call times are, not just arbitrarily making up things to sound like we need more.

We obviously know that the city commissioned a study back in 2015.

Uh they paid about a half a million dollars to the facets report.

Uh the city commissioned it.

It was presented in 2016, and at that point in time, the need was there.

We're talking about nearly 10 years later.

Uh spoiler alert, it has not gotten better.

Uh, but really, this is about the service delivery model to uh the citizens that we serve, and a little bit different than some of the departments.

Uh, we are a demand service, meaning when uh the residents and citizens call 911, they expect to have their fire EMS rescue uh department showing up.

And what we're seeing is something that has to be addressed, and we want to be great partners who work together to do that.

Uh so the data acquired and analysts performed, uh obviously, like I said, is in collaboration with the Houston Fire Department uh and with our international firefighters.

It is a data-driven study.

Uh, uh informs resource management to meet the incident demands in the city of Houston.

Uh the study examined CAD PCR out-of-service data uh from 2018 to 2024.

Seven years study seven years worth of calls uh when the Facet study was presented, it was one year.

Uh every call that had run the Houston Fire Department from January 115 to December 31st.

Uh we did an analysis uh back in 2017 based on this information and when we went further.

This study covers seven years of every single call that has ever been run.

So any questions that you all uh the council, the committee, or the staff have, um, we can pinpoint the specific uh piece of the data and get any follow-up that you may need.

And we look forward to meeting with your offices afterwards to show you the interactive portion, which we are not gonna have time to get into today, that allows you to take out units based on every single call that we've run and what that does to the response times, the demand for service, and also it uses real-time data traffic modeling based on those days.

So a lot of work went into this, and like I said, it took about uh over a year.

Um it also contains the recommendations uh for each individual council district that would meet uh the standards.

Uh the standards for the National Fire Service and for EMS response are covered under the National Fire Protection Association.

I'm honored to sit on one of the technical committees on the staffing committee.

But uh this is about uh the depth of the need, and the fourth about to be the third largest city in the nation and the third largest fire department, we're much different than any other major city because the scale that we have is 650 plus square miles, and we've got about 10, 15, 20 downtowns, depends on how you look at it.

Uh obviously the zoning is an issue, so much different than even say New York and Chicago.

Uh everything is a little bit more compact, and the need that they have uh is not as multi-dimensional as the Houston Fire Department, and traffic is a huge issue within uh the city of Houston, and when we go through the data, you will uh I'm sure better understand.

But everything here is a domino effect.

So the minute that somebody calls for a fire truck or an ambulance, uh it is now pulling resources from different council districts.

Uh, and the problem that you see within the data is that when you're doing that so many times a day, and you're in fire EMS resource management, which means you have less than 20% capabilities within the Houston Fire Department, uh, it becomes a bigger problem.

I did I forgot to mention I want to thank uh assistant fire chief James Campbell, uh emergency operations for being here.

And uh don't see the fire chief yet, but um uh we appreciate the time.

Uh, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jeremy.

He's gonna go through the presentation, uh, and then we will follow up at the end for any questions.

And I think every council district got one, but you have your own executive summary broken down by council district as well.

Wonderful.

Thank you, President Light Day for the introduction.

Thank you all for being here.

If you could please turn to page 10, uh, we'll get started.

Thank you.

Um, fire and EMS incidents have both increased over the study period from 2018 to 2024.

Uh, there's been a 34% increase in fire incidents per day and a 21% increase in EMS incidents per day.

Call volume is largely driven by population, right?

There's some aggravating factors both for fire like vacant housing unit housing units and for EMS, uh, like uninsured population.

But the US Census estimates that Houston's population has risen by about 300,000 people from 2010 through 2025.

So that's as if more than the population of Lubbock has been dropped into the city of Houston in the last 15 years, and that population growth is expected to continue.

Um, but while Lubbock, right, operates a 20 station fire department, uh, at least since 2018, um, the Houston fire department has only added five 12 hour EMS units.

This trend of call volume growth outpacing resource growth uh has had a negative impact on HFD's operations, which is what we're here to talk about today.

Test test.

Hi, committee.

Thanks for having us today.

So for the basis of our argument, we're gonna talk about time on task.

Time on task is a metric that the industry uses to figure out how many frontline ambulances need to be deployed to treat transport and take care of your community.

So it's calculated by dividing the total time on task in hours by the available unit hours within the system.

So just for a real brief example, if you have one ambulance that works a 24 hour shift, it would be assigned 24 unit hours.

If that ambulance runs 12 one hour calls throughout its 24 hour period, it would result in a 0.5 utilization, 12 divided by 24.5.

So the goal for a good system, an ideal system is a.3 utilization.3 is the recommended target because it balances system use with system availability.

We have enough ambulances running calls that we can produce some income from reimbursement, but they're also available to respond for high acuity calls, fires, etc.

It also, when we're at a 0.3 for system utilization, leaves time for ambulance crews to participate in what we call indirect work.

So total time on task is specific to direct patient care, but ambulance crews are required to perform some mission critical duties that are not captured in time on task and system utilization.

Things like writing reports, deconning the ambulance, restocking the rig, they have to train, they have to eat, they have to sleep.

Those are things that out of 0.3 for system utilization, they're able to do those things and respond to emergency calls.

It's been reported that if a system, if a fire department is operating at or below that threshold of a 0.3, we have lower incidences of burnout from crews.

We have less attrition for people leaving for slower fire departments that have a better managed system.

We have less clinical errors in the field, less vehicle crashes.

It increases provider satisfaction with their job, and ultimately, most importantly, it increases better patient outcomes.

Turn it back over to Jeremy.

Thank you, Marshall.

So Houston Fire Department currently staffs five types of EMS units.

Medics provide 24 hour advanced life support or ALS transport.

Ambulances provide 24 hour basic life support or BLS transport.

Peak hours ambulances are like ambulances, but only operate during peak hours.

So currently that's 6 30 a.m.

to 6 30 p.m.

Squads provide 24 hour ALS first response, so no transport capabilities.

And airport EMS first response provide, sorry, airport EMS first response units provide 24 hour first response at the airports.

In 2016, President Langdon alluded to the Facets consulting study that was commissioned.

This study recommended that HFD staff 70 additional peak hours ambulances.

Back in 2016, if those 70 ambulances had been staffed, HFD would have maintained a time on task of around a 0.25 during both peak shifts and off-peak shifts.

However, right, as we've discussed, only five peak hours ambulances have been staffed since that report was released.

That has led to large increases in time on task.

So back in 2018, only 31% of HFD's EMS units exceeded that time on task recommendation during off-peak hours.

By 2024, that had jumped from 31% of units up to 86% of units.

Back in 2018, right, already during peak hours, 86% of EMU EMS units exceeded that time on task recommendation.

By 2024, that's jumped from 86% up to 96%.

So almost every EMS unit is exceeding that time on task recommendation.

Over the last 200 days of the study period, 56% of medic units were either busy, so actively responding to a call, or out of service, so performing that indirect work like maintenance or training during the median incident for which a medic was dispatched.

Similarly, over the same period, 65% of ambulances were either busy or out of service during the median incident for which an ambulance was dispatched.

This means that during the typical incident, fewer than half of EMS units are available to respond.

Over the same 200-day period, there were 200 eleven and 211 incidents during which every single medic unit was unavailable, and 63 incidents during which every ambulance was unavailable.

That's accounting for 41 units in the medic fleet and 57 or 62 during peak ambulances in the ambulance fleet.

This recommendation of 65 ambulances, as you can see if you turn to page 11, would bring the system time on task roughly to the 2018 level.

So you can see this gray line shows the historical time on task during peak hours, as you're seeing here, it's risen from, you know, in 2018 around a 0.45 to over a 0.6 in 2024.

Adding those 65 units, so that'd be 30 24-hour units and 35 peak hours units, would lower that time on task during peak hours to a little below 0.4, which is a slight improvement from 2018.

On page 12, you can see a similar chart showing time on task during those off-peak ships.

This would be a slight increase for current time on task relative to 2018, but still around that recommended level of a.

Both median task times have been increasing over the study period.

However, the Ethan program currently suffers from low utilization.

In 2024, there were over 178,000 patient transports and only a little over 1300 ethan program diversions.

So it's only 0.7% of all patient transports.

Higher ethan utilization will lower time on task, but even under our most optimistic projections for Ethan utilization, the additional units are still a necessity.

One other pathway that we investigated for reducing this workload was dispatch improvements.

So we evaluated dispatch options for ALS, advanced life support, uh EMS calls.

So if you could please turn to page 14, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

And regardless of which ALS dispatch option was utilized, a suppression apparatus, so like a fire engine or a ladder, was dispatched for approximately 55% of incidents.

The findings indicated that overall workload could be reduced by changing dispatch strategy for these calls to dispatch only one medic unit and a fire suppression apparatus when possible.

However, uh this strategy would be expected to uh increase workload uh for medic units while decreasing overall workload, and medic units are already a heavily constrained resource.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about travel time.

If you could please turn to page 17.

So the focus for the EMS portion of the report is largely workload, right?

So call volume and time on task are kind of the foundations of the EMS recommendations in the report.

The focus for fire suppression and also EMS to some extent is travel time.

Industry standards require four minute travel time to 90% of incidents.

This applies both to the first arriving engine at fire suppression incidents, and it applies to the first arriving unit with AED or higher level capability at EMS incidents.

When engines were the first non-command unit on scene for incidents within their own response area, so not even covering for other engines that are out of service.

They only met the travel time standard for 35% of incidents.

On this map here, you can see big gaps between the green lines, which indicate road network that's expected to be within four minutes of travel from a station that houses an engine, and the underlying layer, which is the incident density in 2023 and 2024.

This indicates uh both the map and this 35% meeting the standard statistic indicate that current stations are insufficient to provide adequate first response coverage within that four-minute threshold.

Uh our recommendations included a recommendation for 10 new stations.

Now, these 10 stations are not enough to increase uh coverage from 35% of incidents to 90% of incidents.

Um to make this recommendation, we use the value added metric.

We only recommended stations, which would provide at least as much value as the median current station, so more value than half of the current stations to avoid diminishing returns and target only the most high impact areas.

We're defining value added here as the number of additional historical incidents.

Uh so here we're looking at 2023 and 2024 to focus on the most recent incident distribution.

Um the number of additional historical incidents, which would have been expected to receive a first response within four minutes if a station had existed at a given location.

The cutoff was roughly around three additional incidents per day, which would have received that four-minute response uh for every recommended station at a minimum.

Uh these new station locations are highlighted both in the full report.

Uh, you can use that report right to interactively explore both the recommended locations and uh suitable alternatives, uh, and in the council district summaries.

Uh, they're not in this overall general summary report.

I'd like to note that we performed similar travel time analyses, uh both for ladders and ALS units, which have their own respective travel time standards.

Uh we will not be covering that today just for the sake of time, but you're welcome to explore this both in the full report.

And with that, I'll pass it over to President LinkedIn.

Uh thank you again.

And we want uh to have time for questions, but also uh to really drill down into the data.

The report defines and quantifies uh HFD's main operational issues.

The workload growth is outpacing resource growth, especially for EMS.

And I want to be clear, um, we didn't just come in here with the recommendations.

We understand this is stuff that has to get looked at, but the reality is is that it is much deeper.

Uh if you go look in the main report, the actual uh metadata report, it is uh showing the need for fire stations for fire engines to keep up with uh the work demand that's going on within the city of Houston.

Uh these are just really high level things that we can focus on and that we can meet the needs at a uh uh at a cost factor that I can uh get into on a general basis.

But the high time on task uh is leading to poor system readiness.

We've heard, you know, what we saw during the pandemic was the first time the public had really heard what surge capacity was, but in the fire department and the fire service, surge capacity is something we live every day.

Uh, that is what I referenced at the beginning when we go into what's called fire or EMS resource management, which means that you have about 20% or less available units throughout the entire city.

So what we are dealing with and having to address is the domino effect of having uh a medic unit or an ambulance from the Kingwood area coming down and responding to uh inside downtown because every time that we take a unit out of service and we don't have somebody close, uh it continues to strain the system.

We've been dealing with this.

We know that this has been an issue.

We've seen that through the independent reports, but what we're trying to do uh is to ensure that we can have a starting point to say, listen, what does it look like?

Because it is a very big animal.

Uh, you can't be the third largest fire department uh in the nation and things not be a little bit confusing.

I'm not saying to you all, I'm saying as a system.

The interconnected system of the fire EMS-based modeling is the most efficient and effective, and not only what the citizens of Houston expect, uh, but this goes directly to identifying down to the council district based on all the data points, uh, what is most needed, uh, where it is needed most, and where it is going to create the biggest impact.

So, uh we know that the call volume continues to go up both on fire and EMS incidents.

Uh, it is not something that just covers your typical things that go on fire or just uh somebody that maybe uh fell down and is non-life threatening but needs an ambulance.

These are specialized divisions that we have within the Houston Fire Department.

Of course, the hazmat division, we have the rescue division, which we saw yesterday, them going out and doing uh swift water rescue on uh a resident in Houston that was in Buffalo Bayou.

Uh these are all things that as a system we have to be prepared and be ready for, and uh that we can at least start to be making plans.

So the other uh things that we looked at and told the team is that any time that we put out data, we don't need it to just sound like more more.

We want to say, listen, look at it objectively and and what are we doing that need efficiencies, and what we did uh was look at uh the things that I think a lot of you all are familiar with, the Ethan program.

Uh the biggest thing that stood out to me during this report is is if we're able to do things that uh lessen in the short term than the the call times or the call types, then we can have more time to be responding to to other calls, but 50 minutes.

So I know that uh councilmember Ramirez is, you know, I know that you have an amendment for uh, you know, from diversion for some calls.

These are all things when we're dealing with a system that's value added when you can save time, not just on the response times but on the utilization, and it goes back to uh really a much broader report of cost per mile when it comes to your fire trucks, your ambulances, and what is it costing us so that you actually have those numbers, and we know that that's a real issue.

Uh and lastly, I'll say this uh, you know, understanding that a lot of the purchase items that come from infrastructure and the CIP versus what the general operating accounts are.

Uh if you're looking, and I went through this exercise, I think actually with Councilmember Ramirez uh probably three years ago.

He asked uh great question about how much does an ambulance cost?

What would it take to get uh it funded for a whole year?

So we're roughly looking at about 325,000 initial investment on the ambulance itself to retrofit it, maybe 50 or 60,000 to get all the medication.

But on a yearly ongoing basis, it would be roughly about a million dollars to operate one additional ambulance with salaries, and then you'd cost recover about 200 to 300,000.

So you're talking about a net cost to the city uh at and these are all general figures, I'm not trying to uh get you all to uh hold me to specific cost, but this is what uh our analysis has provided.

So you're talking about seven to eight hundred thousand.

That when you go through the individual council districts, you will be able to see what that value has for your individual council district.

So, with that, uh Madam Chair, thank you.

We tried to be brief, but we definitely want uh the opportunity.

I know you'll have a long day today, so thank y'all for letting us come in here and present this.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Um, before we get to questions, we were joined earlier online by Councilmember Panzarella and in chambers by Councilmember Huffman and Councilmember Flickinger, and then also staff from Councilmember Panzarella's office.

Thank you for joining us.

Um, up for oh before we get to questions, also, um, our office did distribute the district um analysis to all the district council offices, and we will send all of the analysis and now all of the um district analysis documents to all the at-large council members as well.

So um, first off is um Councilmember Alkorn.

Thank you, Chair, and thanks for the presentation.

The thirty-four percent increase in in fire incidents, is that just from growth in the city, or is there something else triggering that?

That surprised me.

Uh that's by call, sorry.

But do you tribute that, Marty?

You think that's just call volume because there's just more people?

I think what we've seen in the trends based on the last report that we had based on the facets and our individual or independent analysis that went a little bit deeper.

Was yes, you're getting obviously more people that are coming into Houston, the more that's going on here.

Um I think one of my colleagues put it best.

I can't remember the city now, I'm I'm getting embarrassed, but basically uh we've we've had you know growth over the past two decades uh that far outreaches what um what you see in normal cities like New York and Chicago where they're all kind of landlocked, but you see the need for fire and EMS continuing to grow.

A lot of it has to do with population, a lot of it has to do with if it's aging uh infrastructure in certain areas, we're not zoned.

Uh so as I said, the more we develop, the more we move out, the more downtowns we have, if you will, which is great.

So basically just growth, not anything that safety-wise or whatever that's causing more fire incident calls or.

I would not think that because we have obviously the national fire.

Right, we have all the right adopt that rules.

I think it's I think it's growth and it's demand.

Yeah, okay.

And then on time on task, the ratio that it takes to do everything, get their treat in hours to the available resources unit hours.

What are the available resources unit hours?

Yeah, so for instance, if you had one unit that was on a 24-hour shift, if we were calculating right time on task over that day, it would be 24 hour, 24 unit hours.

Right.

So, so it took you an hour over the 24 hour.

Exactly.

If you weren't if you were on a call for one hour and you were on shift for 24 hours, right, you would have a one over 24.

Okay, and then the value added for the stations.

Explain that again.

So we're you want to be at four minutes.

What is our kind of average?

What is our average?

Do we have a citywide average?

Yeah, currently the average engine uh is only meeting that four-minute threshold for 29% of incidents uh within their own response.

So what are we usually?

Six minutes, ten minutes, but I mean, do you know?

You probably didn't look at that.

I haven't calculated that well, I don't have it with me.

Okay.

Do you know that, Marty?

I think uh for the the other majority, I think it's eight, is it eight minutes?

We will get you that answer, but it is significantly higher.

So, so but the goal is for four hours.

So the ten stations, you based on ones that could give you value added.

Explain that again, like what what are you trying to?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Yeah, so the goal was to right evaluate candidate locations.

So we evaluated candidates, um, meaning just every location 200 meters along the road network within Houston.

And for each of those candidates, we evaluated how many additional incidents right over those 2023 and 2024 years the department would have been expected to be able to reach within four minutes if a station had been placed at that candidate location.

Okay, okay, okay, I got it.

Thank you very much.

This is great information.

Uh I remember when the facets thing came out.

We got you a big five ambulances over 10 years.

So this is data's important and really appreciate the good work that went into this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And also just to uh we we do have an online that will provide uh in interactive to where you get on there and play with it yourself.

We'll make it available to the council uh and to the committee.

It is really amazing.

And those that know me, I love data, um, love analytics because you can't, you know, this is about trying to fix a problem or trying to help you know grow it, and we want to be good partners.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Chair, and and thank you for the presentation as well.

Um, and I was actually a little curious about that increase in uh in fires.

Um, um it I think the number ended up being somewhere around another extra 20 or so uh fires since 2018.

But um, if it's not, so do y'all take data on whether it's structural fires?

I know we've we've seen a lot more because of encampments, there's encampment fires.

Are y'all including that in the numbers as well?

Every single call that we ran, uh the I will say that as a as a caveat, and and then I'll let Jeremy answer if he has something to add, is one of the things that we've really tried to do, and this goes back to the dispatch, some good ideas from low-hanging fruit to address some dispatch stuff, is to better extrapolate because something may be coded as an EMS or a fire, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was on fire, right?

Meaning if you have a rescue, if you have a pin in, it requires all the same personnel and equipment on the fire truck, you can't do it on an ambulance, and so uh those are a little bit different.

Uh, but we have seen an increase just based on the size of uh the city.

If you have something to add, Jeremy.

And I think to that, right?

If and it seems like most of the presentation was on EMS, right?

Uh, which is which is important because as we're I was looking at the the trend over, I guess um, somewhere's around 87% are EMS costs, and I know that there's always been conversations about what how do you write size some of that that within the department as well?

Um since I guess it says 2018, it's about 87% on average is is uh EMS costs.

What is it?

Um, how many engines ladders are we sending out for EMS costs right now?

Well, um I can get you the exact figure, but what I will tell you is that the one of the original studies that we did based on all the calls from facets when we got the the analysis, all the data from the city of Houston, was to look at percentages versus time on task versus demand.

Yeah, and so the 87% you see that's the ones that are again call type is EMS, but that could require all of the things from fire.

So that goes back to the dispatching and sourcing of where it's coming from.

I think it's important to be able to break that out because um we we do know, of course, that there's uh growing aging population and and EMS is probably definitely more than likely the the priority, right?

Um, and so as we start looking at um this time on task, uh what does it take?

How much more efficient can we can we be as a department um if we have the right equipment?

And for me, you know, looking at 65 extra units for EMS, which is important.

I think should we be leaning more into uh ambulance rather than ladders and pumpers, um, understanding that there are some reserves out there in some of the different neighborhoods, but I just really want to make sure that uh as as we continue to struggle with finances at the city, that we prioritize uh what would ever whatever would help y'all be more efficient on EMS costs specifically, um because again, uh you know, to uh asking for the 10 stations, asking for more apparatuses, um I think it's it's important that we kind of start looking in the mirror and figuring out what we can do to increase more ambulance above anything, and and I think what our team try to do is look from a lens uh doing this time, uh, was to look from a lens of understanding that we understand that uh this has been an issue that has been ongoing, but I want to emphasize because the biggest thing that we had to deal with under previous administrations was uh the notion that hey, fires somehow we don't need the fire, absolutely you do, that in order to have the service delivery, but when you add the ambulances, it'll take the pressure off of uh the fire trucks.

It will also, if you add the ambulances, because we agree on that point, is it will if you have additional ambulances, it'll reduce the workload because our medics right now or paramedics are working long, hard, and we went through a phase where we had to address the systemic issue where we didn't have enough paramedics and they're just getting worked to the bone and they can't take it anymore.

Now, thanks to the council, we have graduated, we're getting more paramedics than we've ever had and trained up, but it takes time, and so all of that goes to helping with the domino effect of the system and the demand that we have.

Because when the truth and the numbers, it's all bad, if you will, meaning the demand is very high.

And just last question: how many how many total paramedics do we have right now with the HFD?

Uh, I think 400 plus, but we're adding to that currently.

We have multiple classes in paramedic school, which is the first time we've been able to do that, and what that does is that then allows the paramedics that have been having to work uh multiple shifts in a row for years and years as paramedics to get off and get a break to go into what Jeremy had mentioned.

We have to factor in the the human factor.

Um we don't get to take a lunch break and say, hey, we're clocking out.

Um we have to make sure that we're available and we're taking care of the men and women because the strain and the things that they deal with is real, and we've addressed that from a mental health perspective as well.

Sorry, just one last note about your questions.

Um, on the call volume side, uh, for this presentation, we only addressed incident growth.

Um, for a more accurate representation of workload.

Uh I would recommend that you look into unit responses as well.

Uh, for EMS incidents, um, usually HFD is required to respond with fewer units uh versus fire incidents.

So the distribution right in unit responses is still slanted toward EMS, but it's a little more balanced uh than that-like eighty-seven percent you're seeing on the incident side.

Um, there's no is on the categorization.

Uh so those categorizations are provided by HFD in the CAD.

Um, like President LinkedIn mentioned, right?

There could be changes right operationally and how those are categorized.

Um, as you right mentioned, right?

We're not getting as detailed on the breakdown of specific incident types.

Uh we're just using those overall categorizations.

Thank you.

Councilmember Huffman.

Thank you, and thank you, HFD, for everything you do.

We really appreciate all your hard work.

You mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, um, you mentioned traffic being an impediment to HFD response times.

And specifically, uh I've had concerns from the residents in District G about fire station number two right there at Woodway and Chimney Rock and the traffic there where during peak times, traffic is backed up at the light at San Philippi going north towards station two.

There's cars coming northbound on Chimney Rock, and so ambulances trying to maneuver down that.

Have you pinpointed specific areas or intersections where it's specifically works for HFD, or is it just traffic everywhere in Houston?

Uh that's a good question.

We have not pinpointed specifically um, you know, areas for road network improvements.

But here's uh caveat to that is uh what I've learned is our team is pretty amazing.

Anytime we've had multiple meetings, obviously with the fire department administration with others uh to educate them, get their feedback.

If there is a particular area that you see, even if it's anecdotal, if you can get that over to us, we will put that in the system and we will get an answer.

We will at least be able to model it because everything that we're having is interconnected, so we can actually take uh certain locations and certain things and plug it in and see what comes up with it.

And I don't even know if it's specifically an issue, it was just you know, concerns from residents that what they're seeing on the streets, you know, noticing that HFD is having a hard time getting down chimney rock, specifically in that area.

So that's good to know.

Is there a way?

I know that traffic's bad in Houston.

But is there a way to help?

You know, how do we solve this problem?

Is it is it about public education, you know, letting people know that hey, you need to pull over to the side when you see an ambulance coming or a fire truck coming.

Um, what are some things or what are some practical things that that we could do?

Uh that's a great question.

I will tell you that what I have learned.

I used to kind of not not laugh at it, but I used to think it wasn't really relevant when we don't do PSAs or we don't remind the public, whether it's garbage and you know, move your car so the garbage trucks can get in, or whether it's if you see an ambulance or a fire truck or a police car, move to the right.

Don't move the left, move the right.

Um, those are things that I absolutely believe is when you reinforce those, it does we do see benefits and we see changes on the ground level.

And so I think that's where we have an opportunity working together of absolutely re-educating people on those points.

Um, also just uh having a focus, whether it's an educational piece or not, just having a focus on, hey, remind yourself, look around, pay attention.

Uh, you hear some sirens, look where it's coming from, because we're responding to somebody on their worst day.

So we're happy to work with your office and do whatever you think might be most helpful uh for your residents, but we're on board.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you, gentlemen, for the presentation.

Very interesting um uh content.

I I think all of us understand the need for more ambulances, right?

So it was either last week or week before last we approved two contracts for uh additional ambulance service to be provided when when needed, and and so um I I can certainly see that.

Um is there is there a different model where ambulances can be stationed in the community without having to construct, you know, a traditional uh fire station with with everything that comes with that.

In other words, another uh engine, uh a ladder truck, and you know, full complement of everything.

The answer is um, you know, you you can envision a lot of things.

Uh, as a practical matter, there's a lot of infrastructure, so you're then have to deal with well uh are those units going to be 12 hour units, 24 hour units.

If they are, you have to have a place for them to go.

This is where the topography of the city of Houston is vastly different, and why it makes a big difference within our system as opposed to places like Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York.

Um the reality is is that we are so far spread, you've got to have enough resources to respond, and you also have to have that infrastructure for the medics for the paramedics.

They have to go somewhere.

They have to be able to uh have a home, have a place for multiple reasons, but also if you don't have, say, for instance, uh, it's a 24 hour ambulance, which is the most cost effective and efficient for the city of Houston, uh, you've got to have uh time for them to be able to take a break and rest.

Remember, the critical thing a little bit different about the fire department, even police, is that if there isn't really a break, we can't just say, hey, uh we're rightfully so, we're gonna get something to eat.

Uh, you have to remain in service when your unit is not committed or back at the station.

So there's a number of things I think you can do in theory.

What it comes down to is how does it look?

And the reality is we've tried to look at this pie from 50 different ways, and there is no other way than to address the need for more ambulances, and you could probably do that with some existing fire stations on making those same structures or making a small addition.

It really comes from these conversations that we're having now.

And and I'm totally with you on the size and shape of the city making it challenging to provide service to everyone.

We see the same thing in solid waste, right?

Uh, it's just a hard uh area to service uh completely, and you know, we we do the best that we can.

I do want to um invite you guys to rethink the assumption about population growth.

I know that Houston has experienced, you know, a lot of growth in in recent decades, but and I see uh former council member Sue Lovell here.

I need to get Sue to introduce you to this guy named Bill King, who has has done a lot of research on on population growth, and just quoting from one of his recent uh columns over the last decade, Harris County's growth has almost exclusively come from international immigration, and uh the county actually suffered a massive negative domestic outmigration of about 300,000 residents, and all of this suggests that uh the days of the growth that we've seen in recent decades uh are over, and future growth is largely gonna depend on federal immigration policy.

And so when when most people from the administration come to talk to us, you know, it's their their recommendations are based on uh assumptions that the growth is going to continue, but that's that's not necessarily the case, and so you might rethink that.

But at any rate, I I appreciate the the information and look forward to discussing it further.

Thank you.

And understood on on your point on the growth.

I think also what you what we're looking at um when talk about growth is people coming into city of Houston, the service we're providing to not just residents of the city of Houston, but that's I think reflected in the statistical analysis of the calls and the increase in call volume based upon number of different factors.

And when we go through and give you access, happy to give you the online access, you can go through and actually dig as deep as you would like into it.

Uh but this was bad 10 years ago.

And so I think anybody that's that's really looking at this from um a modeling perspective.

My team told me we could have could have put way more things in there if we were being as technical as we should, but we understand the the world we're living in.

We're trying to set that stage to say 10 years ago, we had an independent report from the city of Houston said we needed 35 full-time or 70 peak time, and now we're telling you ten years later uh that the call volume then has increased since then dramatically, and we're doing it with the same number of units less the five on peak.

Yeah, appreciate that.

Thank you, Marty.

Thank you, Councilman.

Council Marty Davis.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, thank you guys for the presentation.

A lot of good information.

Just had uh three points I like to lift up.

The first one, uh Marty, is I'm looking on page 17.

Uh this is the 2324 uh data uh recording, right?

Got it.

So this is uh time versus density, more or less.

Correct.

Yeah, uh yeah, that's road network that the stations are well, units from the stations are expected to be able to travel.

Sure.

And then the I'm I'm looking at it, the high red area that's the center.

Is that virtually the center of the city?

Yeah, that's that's right about where we are right now.

Okay, perfect.

So then the purple areas represent a higher call or incident areas.

Is that the the yellow?

Yeah, the yellow is the highest, and then it moves down into red and then into blue is the lowest.

Got it.

Okay, but it's relative, yeah.

Okay, so question um the time versus this the the time versus distance, how does that affect in terms of people being taken to the hospital?

Do you have a number in regards to the to the areas?

Because we know many of our hospitals are spread out in different areas from central medical center to east, west.

Does that is that number that records that as well?

That's a great question.

Yes, that's a number that could be calculated.

It was not calculated.

There's no standard that directly governs transport time, uh, so it was not included in this report.

But yes, it would be possible to calculate that.

Right, could that that would also give, you know, uh to me, it would also present to the council all the numbers of the load, the workload for the firefighters, you know.

Absolutely.

EMS, right?

Secondly, um, is there is there particular I see the rate in the center, but is there another level of what particular part of the city by communities that you get more uh incidents?

Is there is there?

Yeah, there's a breakdown.

I think uh one of the most relevant parts of the report is the breakdown by unit uh of responses, so you can see by responses and by time on task, you know.

Uh, so you can see you know kind of which units are the busiest throughout the city.

Okay, cool.

And the time on task, too.

The the reason why I think that that has become the new standard, not just for this report but nationally, is because that incorporates the time that we're being called to the time that you're back in service from the hospital.

Right.

And one of the things that we have addressed, we still need to address.

Uh love y'all's help is how long it takes our our medics to drop patients off at the hospital.

Uh, it's always been something we've dealt with, but that's a that's a hospital issue that they have to start uh addressing when it comes to staffing.

Much like us when the domino effects happen and you're transporting and you're taking people and you're taking yourself out of service.

Every minute you're out of service that you're having to stand there, wait for the patient to get transferred is a minute you're not in your district able to respond to a call.

Absolutely.

Well, let me just also last uh point is that I'm I'm really uh happy that we had a chance to address the problems of the Houston Fire Department by giving more people, Marty, uh, which we knew that was a task, you know, to add, and we see the numbers, those of us who come to the graduations.

Um we are grateful for the addition of not only the firefighters who left, but came back to the department, which I think uh is a credit to the administration as well as to the council for looking a little bit beyond and addressing the problem that we could have worse.

And last, uh the preparation for FIFA.

Are you ready in in terms of a preparation?

I'm sure the chief is not here, but that that would be probably a question for the chief.

The good news about having the greatest fire department in the nation, if not the world, is that uh no matter what, we're always prepared.

We're gonna make sure that we get to the citizens on their worst day.

But I'll tell you that goes to the credit of the men and women, it really does.

And you all thinking ahead to your point and fixing and starting addressing the systemic problems.

For instance, when the the fire chief was appointed, uh, we got the contract complete.

We put wording in there that allowed uh to for the city to save millions of dollars to bring people back.

We're not having to spend taxpayer money just to have them go out the door.

All these different components.

We were told by uh, based on the trends of the previous administration, it would take us four years to get net 100, meaning minus attrition firefighters in the Houston Fire Department back in, take us four years.

We did it in eight months.

Uh, and that's a credit to the fire chief uh Tom Bunos to Mayor Whitmire uh and to this council.

And we talked about the paramedic uh shortage, it was you all, the council, that voted to uh add an additional 2.5 million to send them to class.

And I think what the chief had had mentioned when he came for the budget hearing was we had to fix these problems that were left for all of us, uh, and they take an investment, but the return on it, you're now starting, and you will see this next fiscal year.

In order to affect these problems, we just had to focus on uh what was the root cause.

So I do want to say thank you for that, and the work's not done.

We have more work to do.

Um we were also joined by council member Pollard's staff as well.

Um next up is Council Member Flickinger.

Thank you.

Then appreciate the presentations.

Um to kind of follow up on Councilman Remaris' point, I had my staff look at the population, and from 2018 to 2024, we increased by 65,000, which is 2.7%.

So obviously that's only a small piece of what whatever the other issues are.

Um I know somebody from the HFD command staff talked to us about ambulance only stations.

Is that something that is not going forward or not being implemented?

In fact, specifically I thought they talked about a location in the southwest part of town that maybe they were gonna be closing down the fire station, moving it to a no new location, and then using the previous one as an ambulance only.

Uh, I mean, I think there's been multiple discussions.

I think what we're you know, different points.

I can't speak specifically to that.

I'll follow back up with you.

But what I'm saying is it regardless of how you look at it, it's an infrastructure cost.

And what I will say is that um having the EMS units at the fire stations is efficient for the city.

I know that it sounds like we want to cut uh maybe there's a different way to do it.

I'm telling you, as somebody that has has been not only in the the fire service for 27 years, but also looking at the data to say how can we make this better?

That there is no other answer other than to say the most efficient way to do it is to have the ambulance uh there with the the fire station for multiple reasons.

Um, but it would be the same infrastructure cost if you had to build another station for a one-unit, you know, fire station.

They're all great ideas.

The point is it is an interconnected system, and the interconnectivity of the Houston Fire Department is what makes the response to the citizens work, and it's very detailed in how it's all uh dispersed.

But these are the this is the data and the information that we're pulling straight from the Houston Fire Department to show this is what we have, this is what we need.

However, we can get it done.

We're we're here to work with you all.

The incidents per day.

Do we break out what is mutual aid?

I know in Kingwood, we get a number of calls answered by neighboring uh departments that we've got agreements with.

I mean, I I'm sure we have uh I'll ask Jeremy, but uh I'm sure we can get that we have that in the CAD data, but do we have that here?

Uh not with me at the moment, no.

Okay.

Would would the 810 be inclusive of that number, or would that be in addition to do you know?

That would be inclusive.

Okay.

Um, you know, I I absolutely agree with your point about the PSAs.

And in fact, we did one on trash, trying to tell people, hey, trash day, please don't park in the street.

Yes, it makes a huge difference.

It does, it really works.

The nice thing about the PSA is it's little to no cost.

So whatever benefit we get, you know, it's it's a good.

So we we certainly need to do that.

Um, I I do think we absolutely need to work on the ambulance.

Uh I also think that a lot of times we're sending out a fire truck, which is a vehicle that costs exponentially more than what the ambulance does.

In fact, I just had a good acquaintance of mine, he'd had a heart catheterization, send him home.

Next day he wakes up, he's got a huge hematoma on his leg, calls the doctor and he says, You need to get here, you need to get here right away, you need to get here by an ambulance.

Calls a fire truck shows up.

Uh they actually ended up sending an ambulance from Huffman, which going around Lake Houston is that's a half hour.

So, you know, although it was responded to quickly, and yes, the firefighters were there.

With God forbid something go terribly wrong, but other than that, they could do nothing, so except wait for the ambulance.

We we are uh you and I will speak the same language just to give a little bit of history because again, those that know me, I'm pretty direct, and I like to uh uh to at least put the information out there if for you all to look at or ask questions.

But the reason why you see a whole lot of fire trucks is because uh two mayoral administrations ago, uh, previous to the last one, uh, we said there's a problem, and the response times on the ambulance and the medic units were were trickling up.

And the same question happened, which was well, how can we be more efficient?

And uh well, we don't want to focus on this, and guess what happened?

So they said we'll send the fire trucks.

Well, there are a lot of calls that we run in our system on a daily basis where you have to have a fire truck, you have to have the equipment, the tools, and but uh are there calls that in instance you're talking about?

Absolutely.

And the only reason that's happening is because for a decade and a half, we didn't address this problem.

So the ambulances will help not only the the reduction in fire truck usage going to medical calls and it'll reduce uh the medic unit the paramedic uh workload, because you're gonna have a system that can take care of the non uh ALS advanced life support calls and then free them up to do the advanced life support calls.

So that's why when I say it's an all an interconnected system, and the second that you take a piece out, it's not connected anymore.

So we agree, and and uh we're happy to work with you.

In fact, I put in an amendment two years ago to get 10 additional ambulances in there, so yes, I'm completely on board with that.

And if you want to do a PSA, we'll get you in a fire truck and then we'll just go down and video table.

Thank you, Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, and so I I forgot to ask this one about the Ethan.

Um so what do you see is the reduction in use for?

Or why is that happening?

Is it is it that uh you're offering it and folks are not wanting it, or is it part of the uh workflow, or maybe firefighters are not pushing it as much?

What do you think it might be?

Uh great question.

Um, trying to be uh uh thoughtful of my response.

I think the answer that I'm gonna give you may not sound like it makes sense, but consistency is one of the things.

And under previous administrations, again, when things aren't focused on or we're not pushing that out, much like the PSAs for move over to the right, um, we kind of cut corners.

We we thought that that was efficient, but then it wasn't, and now we're trying to build back up a system for multiple reasons.

And I know you all funded uh the program, I think uh a little while ago.

Now it's it's going back to the education piece because it it takes you you're you're educating an entire system, hundreds of people a day that are on duty, 800 plus, you know, nearly 4,000.

So we've got to wait for that time to catch up, but I think it's a valuable tool.

What what is that what is that timeline look like?

Would you anticipate and then uh what uh what could we do to be helpful, I guess, on our end?

Um, you know, I will get with uh the chief and the EMS, and we will get that answer for you.

Uh but we've always uh HPFFA has always supported uh the Ethan program because the paramedics or the the firefighter EMTs that are responding recognize that this situation isn't a uh advanced call or doesn't need to go to an ER, so number one, it helps with the ERs, and then number two, uh it helps with the demand because you're you're saving 50 minutes on average, right?

So uh I will get back with you and and work with you.

But anyways that we can have to increase the ability to have the workload uh reduced for the units and have their availability increase, we're all for them.

Again, uh appreciate everything y'all are doing as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council member, we were just talking about that we should probably get an update about Ethan to the committee um in the next couple of months because I was upset to hear too that you know it's not moving along as much as I thought it would be at this point.

So um we'll request an update to the committee by the fire department as well.

Um council member Ramirez.

Thank you.

Um I didn't ask you about staffing, and I'm I might have missed it, but how are we doing uh staffing the ambulances, especially?

Oh, we we have uh the enough firefighters, uh EMTs, paramedics are the firefighter paramedics and the engineer operator paramedics are something that this administration, the fire chief uh and the command staff as well as HPFFA if uh focused on trying to fix, we need more paramedics so that they're not getting burnt out because they are.

And and I want to remind people the paramedics that are out in the field doing life-saving work, in essence, can do a lot of what an ER doctor does in the ER, uh, and they're doing it out in an uncontrolled environment, and so these are critical, you know, patients, they're critical trauma calls uh that require advanced life support, high stress, and so we need to get them the help, uh, and so we have been making that a focus.

That's one of the things that we did write in our contract as well, as to try to increase the staffing of the paramedics, so we need more firefighter paramedics.

Does the fire department require cross training of its paramedics?

Everybody in the state of Texas.

So, in order to be a classified firefighter, uh you have to be registered, you have to be licensed as at least minimum an EMT uh and the paramedic now.

Uh so I'm a paramedic and fair firefighter, and so you have to be dual licensed, uh, and that's part of the interconnectivity of the system, but also a state law requirement.

What about a system to address the shortage where paramedics didn't have to be cross-trained as firefighters?

Um you run into a number of of issues and problems.

Uh, number one, uh, doesn't solve the problem, number two, it creates uh many, many more.

And from the broad view, I will tell you that uh these are classified members of the Houston fire department, so they're able to be uh utilized in many different areas, and that's where the interconnectivity comes from, but also as very practical matter, it's against the law.

All right, thank you.

Staff from Councilmember Panzerella's office.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, thank you, President LinkedIn and Mr.

Berman, and to all of our HFD leaders, uh, it's great to see you all here today.

Um, a couple questions that I think we've mostly touched on, but just to make sure I understand, as we speak about fire trucks responding to like medical calls as opposed to ambulances responding to those, is that just generally due to shortages of ambulances, or are there specific criteria determining when a fire truck must be dispatched despite the caller indicating fire is not needed?

No, if you if you see a fire truck usually show up first, a depends on the acuity of call.

So if it's cardiac arrest uh or if it's something that's gonna require a lot of people, remember an ambulance has two people, and one uh is if it's an ALS call and you have a paramedic, one's treating in the back.

And as somebody that was a paramedic on the streets for a long, long time in many areas of Harris County, uh, as I mentioned before, when you go into an ER, you've got a doctor, you've got nurses, you've got techs, you have all these people doing life-saving great work.

Well, you're talking about uh one person, uh, you know, if you've got to innovate somebody, start an IV, do all these things, and so it may require uh the fire truck and its tools to move the patient.

Those are the things that we don't think about.

But for the vast majority of it, the reason why you're seeing uh fire engine is because the ambulance in that district is on another call and we're pulling from another district.

Got it, okay.

Thank you so much.

Um, and you mentioned this a bit earlier, President.

I understand from the budget workshops that HFD has been working to put more firefighters through EMS training or more paramedic trainings.

Um, and I think that if I remember correctly, that's about nine months, and it can sometimes result in strains on the minimum staffing, but it's needed so that we have enough paramedics.

Um, and I believe Chief Muno has previously mentioned it was 25 paramedics, now we're up to 150 going through the process.

Do we know this may be hard to calculate, but how many more individuals we want to put through paramedic training to like get to that catch-up point uh and to get to the needed levels or and like how long that may take?

Um, I think that's a perfect question.

Uh, the answer is is that uh because of the investment that the council made uh in focusing on the root cause and the systemic problem, we're now seeing that result.

And that came from you all saying, yes, we've got to do that.

Um I think in my perfect world, you know, you need enough paramedics to where uh they're getting a break.

Uh what we have uh in the contract is not only meant for their safety but also for fatigue and patient safety.

Remember, these are medically licensed individuals.

We want to make sure that they're fresh, that they're um, you know, they're they're not so stressed out that it's it causes uh issues.

So all of that going back to um we'd love to have a lot of paramedics that are credentialed, even if maybe you don't need them into one day uh we address this to where you have paramedic engines.

We have some now, but having it to where you have at least a couple paramedics always, that helps everybody.

But the time it takes in the investment of the nine months uh to be off, that's what I think when Chief Munoz was giving the budget workshop, but I thought was most impactful, is that it could have been a problem continuing to move forward, or it could have been something that says, listen, we're in a hole, and you're not gonna see the hole start filling up until you actually start fixing it, and now we're starting to see the fruits of that labor, but it takes time.

It takes time to fix a lot of problems that were existing that uh that we didn't uh pay attention to.

Amazing.

And lastly, I we just touched on this, but yeah, the 52% reduction in ethanolization does seem high.

So um definitely interested in the presentation, but are there specific steps that the union or the department are taking to examine that low utilization of Ethan to like identify like line items or things that we can change and improve on moving forward?

Absolutely.

I mean that's and I will say that uh as somebody that said in the chair that advocated on behalf of the men and women against um you know multiple administrations.

Um this is the first time we're seeing the collaboration between uh Mayor Whitmeyer, uh, Chief Nos, the entire fire department, we're all in this together, and we want to be able to be good stewards of the city resources we want to give back, and we want to deliver excellent service in order to do that.

Uh we have to look at this holistically, which is why it's one in there, um, but also um the dispatch protocols.

I mean, that's something that we you know kind of have to get in alignment that could help.

And I think going to Councilmember Ramirez's uh amendments, you know, about the diversion.

It's the focus on it, and will that have a measurable result?

Well, doing what we're doing now isn't going to help with the workload.

Understood, thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Staff from Mayor Pro Tem Castanum's office.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, and thank you for the presentation today.

My question is more so centered around um how hospital selection is made, especially if we have someone who is responding from a partner and not necessarily a city of Houston um EMS vehicle, is it are we going to the first available?

How do we select availability and how far from the resident's home that um the hospital they will be located at?

I think I understood the question, but if I didn't please interrupt me, is are you saying how do we choose the hospitals?

Correct.

Um multiple factors.

Number one, if it is a uh we have different levels of trauma.

So one of the things that we advocated for when it comes to LBJ and what they're doing with with the um building the new hospital is making that a level one trauma center.

Because currently, right now we have two level one trauma centers, Herman and Ben Tobb, who are right next to each other in the medical center.

So that doesn't help us uh meet the needs of the community.

If everybody's kind of right next to each other, we need to be able to have uh different levels of care.

So that goes to the question.

If it's a stroke, we have to go to a certain stroke facility.

If it's a uh non-uh acuity call, if it's a low acuity call, uh, that's probably a different set of circumstances.

So it is in coordination with uh the paramedics and the firefighters that are on scene treating the patient.

Uh, and there could be a number of factors, but we definitely uh try to go to the closest appropriate facility is what we say.

Okay, my other question is in terms of the crew that's within the actual ambulance.

Are you having the same people that's kind of working together every time they go into the ambulance, or is it like whoever's available?

How does that work?

Uh for a while we were we were throwing hodgepods together.

If you remember, you know, just a few years ago uh we were coming in, I think 700 and something firefighters where we need about 850 a day on minimum.

So we were already coming in under, and what I had mentioned about the paramedics and the workload that they've had uh is that there you can't just flip a switch and say, Oh, there's another paramedic based on what we had talked about.

It taking an investment takes nine months.

It's a very difficult program.

Uh the national registry and being able to pass not only the skills portion, the written portion, but there's a lot that goes into it.

So the investment that we're making is we need to fix the system from the ground up.

Uh and so all of that tied into um, you know how we really uh you know envision uh the firefighter paramedic role being here, uh whether it be on engines, whether it be on medic units, uh, and what we need to do to invest in getting more, but we definitely need more uh firefighter and paramedics.

Thank you.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Do we have any HFD personnel that are paramedics only that did not go through fire?

It's a that would be illegal, no.

Okay.

So that's actually by law they have to have both.

Okay, thank you.

All right, I don't see anyone else in the queue.

We will move on to public speakers.

Thank you both for the presentation.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Up first is Doug Smith.

Good morning.

Uh if I was to summarize this, uh the most important point I took away from this was we need more ambulances.

Uh I think that'll solve a lot of problems.

But I do have some questions.

First of all, I'll be very interested if you have a report on Ethan's somewhere down the line, because I remember when that program was instituted, and the year after it was instituted, there was talk about we can't really afford to continue this.

And I came to council and said, please, this is a really important program.

You need to continue it, and they did, and I think they've continued it ever since then.

Uh and I'm really sorry to see that the utilization is not where it should be, and it sounds like it's going to be addressed.

So I think that's good.

Secondly, uh I have a question on definitions on page six.

Uh it defines five types of EMS units.

Medics provide 24 hour advanced life support, ambulance provide 24-hour basic life support, peak hours do the same thing for 12 hours a day.

And then again, squads provide 24-hour ALS first response.

And that sounds like the same thing as uh medics.

I I want to understand the difference between medics and squads, how how they relate to each other.

And then they mention uh airport EMS first response.

We provide uh service to the airport, and I'm wondering uh the same thing I asked uh relative to the police.

A lot of the police overtime was due to the airport, and I don't know whether that same thing holds true for the fire department.

If it does, we need to know that because that's reimbursed by the airport, and people are always complaining about how much overtime there is without taking into account that a lot of it is reimbursed by the by the airport.

And finally, uh on page 10 uh of the report, there's data quarterly uh of incidents, uh, and if you compare that data, uh I think it totals about a hundred and twenty thousand incidents for uh 2024, and then you look at page or yeah, page 13, it shows 176,000 incidents.

Those two don't compare, and it's quite a large difference, and I would be interested in what that is.

I'm sure there's an explanation for it, but those are my questions.

Thank you for your questions.

Um, yes, any um firefighter operations at the airport is reimbursed from the enterprise fund um back to the general fund.

Um as far as your other questions, we will get answers for you, and we'll follow up with you.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate you being here.

Um, I don't think that anyone else has signed up.

Is there anyone else that wanted to ask a question or a comment?

All right, seeing none, thank you everyone for being here today.

Our next public safety committee meeting will be on July 14th.

We stand adjourned.