The Finance and Economic Development Committee met on April 3, 2025, to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budgets for the Fire Department, Emergency Management Agency (KEMA), Police Department (KPD), and the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. The meeting included public testimony, departmental synopses, and detailed line-by-line budget discussions focused on staffing, equipment, and operational priorities.
Okay, good morning. I'd like to call back to order the Finance and Economic Development Committee and Fiscal Year 2025 2026 departmental budget reviews that the record reflect that all members are present on the schedule today. We'll be hearing from fire, emergency management agency, police, and office of prosecuting attorney. As we do each morning, we'll take public testimony at the beginning relating to any of the departments or agencies that we're reviewing for today. Is there anyone in the audience in the public wishing to testify? Yeah, Tommy. I'll suspend the rules. This is on the budgets for fire, emergency management agency, police, and prosecuting attorney. What that encompasses a lot, and the first thing I want to say is a low oh, I kept Tommy Pasarella, Kawaii Hawaii. First off, I want to say say a big aloha to everybody. Um I'm glad I don't have any warrants today. Um I uh would love to thank everybody there behind me. We have people that save lives on a daily basis while putting their life on the line on a daily basis. That encompasses a lot of money. Um one of the things I would address would be having the best equipment, having the best salaries to attract the best people, having the best schedules, and encompassing the efficiency to serve the public. Uh safety is a huge issue when you talk about public safety, of course. Mental health should be put into that equation with helping the prosecutor's office deal with the epidemic of the substances that roll through these islands and addressing that issue versus um making it a criminal act a lot of times. A lot of times we need to address the addiction issue. One of the biggest things with addictions is to break the cycle. A year ago. I didn't play that game for a year. Health is very important. So if we could teach our young ones how to become healthier, how to eat healthier, that encompasses a lot. We're hitting about 15 different departments within the county and the state. I don't think we need to spend the incredible amount of money that's proposed at the state level for the correction center. And I think that we deserve our lifeguards. I'm glad that they make at least 25 an hour. They deserve every penny. They deserve the best equipment from our rangers who put their life on the line on a daily basis, just dealing with people that live in this community, or it could be from around this country. We don't know who we're dealing with sometimes. The main thing I would propose is to treat these people with dignity to serve, to thank them on a daily basis. When I see somebody in a military hat, I salute them. When I see a vehicle with veterans' place, I salute that vehicle whether they're in the car or not. We need to do the same for the people behind us, including our prosecutors, including everybody encompassing all of those entities that incorporate, we need an efficiency to move forward to publicly serve. I would say for our homeless people, I would love to see safe zones. We could set up tents, we could have beds, we can have food, we can have clean water, we could have internet, we could have free phones, and that could be done today with just donations through people like to people. Thank you. I know I hit a lot of different areas, but I three minutes is the biggest thing I want to say is thank you, thank you, thank you to everybody behind me. I was a sheriff's officer in Jersey, and I want to thank everybody. Okay, thank you. Anyone else in the audience wishing to testify? If not, um we'll begin with the uh fire department. Um someone wants to come up, Chief. You want to come up and just provide um a quick synopsis? We'll ask any questions on the synopsis, and then from there we'll just go through each department your budget. Good morning. Chair, council. Um get the jitters out of my system and talk for a little bit before I start. But um, first I'll address I'm very grateful to the attendance from our department today. Our budget is their budget.