previous meeting I'll make a motion we set the minutes second um it's just me and you it's just me and you that's all we see that's all we need today yeah let's get some pass motion second yeah all in favor aye motion passes so the minutes stand approved um for our new business we have a resolution authorizing the expansion of downtown entertainment hours for a copper top for their St.

Patrick's Day celebration on March the 17th.

Yes ma'am good afternoon so this is a request on behalf of Coppertype to temporarily expand the downtown entertainment just district hours from 10 a.m to 11 p.m on Tuesday March the 17th Coppertop would like to host a St.

Patrick's Day celebration featuring live music cornhole and crawfish and they seek to close a portion of 23rd Avenue at 4th Street by permit and this has been vetted and approved by TPD but we'd be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

I would like to make a point on that as well we've never had an issue with Coppertop.

You know we've had these type of events um in the past but I think the one thing that we do need clarification from the council on is do you want to keep on doing these type of events outside each one of these uh establishments they have brick and mortar um and they do a lot of business inside so I think um while the permits are being processed we would like some guidance from the council saying hey do y'all want to keep on trying to do these events or not um as our world changes how many people do they usually have to show up they said they would have 60 at any given time but the one thing about outside events you can have one pe person you could have 300 people you don't know who's gonna be coming and going that day.

Sarah can I yes I I guess my concern with this is and again I'm not on this committee are we opening ourselves up to more requests like this what if the when when you talk about individual bars making these requests what if the a bar down the street makes the same request for another event and well I mean tell me if I'm wrong other bars probably don't have the room outside do they well copper type does it on that street so it's a permit to do that so it's own this okay I'll say there was a vacant lot over no sir it's closed on the north side right there so basically it's gonna be closing city city right away city street usage um they want to do a band um uh cornhole and live or crawfish sorry and have live entertainment so that's why we're kind of looking at some direction from the council of how y'all want to handle these in the future we have denied um a permit came through recently to close down the entire fourth and twir fourth and 23rd area we straight out denied that um typically in the past we have allowed um the ones that are on the the corner right there on the north side but we'd love to have some guidance going forward of you know how y'all see it and what y'all want as a council I am um I'm okay with how y'all are currently handling it you know I you bring the one says that you feel will be safe in nature for the community and for the bars I don't know like do you want them to take a different process or start shutting these down all together district.

Yeah I I mean again like I said I I've got a couple of these bars that that can actually in my district and again I I don't want to get us in to get in the process of saying yes to one bar and no to the other one so I mean again that's my concern if it's a city event where we're expanding the hours and shutting down the street okay but like you said when you've got individual bar owners who have brick and mortar facilities easier just to say we're not gonna do that and how do we handle how do we handle um public safety how do we handle cleanup is that on us is that on them or uh it'd be basically uh we would have officers working down there um but they would be our delta for us but it's an I dime it's all right on that one and I'm I'm 100% good I agree that you know a conversation needs to be had about the outside spaces I personally I'd rather keep everything inside um and that way it's a it's it's safer for everybody we've seen in cities all across America when you have different things going outside you know bad things can happen you know it's kept inside they have a business and you know they can do their business inside button so bar events are this would with this be to any events that we have throughout the city I mean I I mean if it's city events the city we're paying public safety we're paying for cleanup but if it's an individual bar we're still paying we're still playing for all of that and it's actually their event like this the bar may not hire off duty officers to work an alcohol related event as a bar so it's against our uh well y'all I made clear how I feel about some of these bars anyway but uh I'll take your lead I think Mr.

Eden went on there's the difference between the city and the private vendor having an event and expecting city resources to basically close down a city street, protect it, and apples.

Cleaning up.

Well, I remember we denied that when I had on 13th Street at least not too long.

And we've taken a hard look over the past couple months of you know, uh, events that do serve alcohol that create large crowds.

Um the world's changing.

I think we need to change with that.

So I appreciate uh councilman Eamon looking at this.

Maybe it's time to just stop this type of thing.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate I'm with the council first time.

So what what are we going to do with this one?

Well, I'm not gonna make a motion.

Okay, I guess the motion feels no motion.

Huh?

It dies for lack of a motion.

That's for lack of a motion.

Okay, that's good.

Counselor.

Okay.

Thanks to you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

That's true.

Okay, so um, we have Tesclusive fire and rescue updates.

So this is a department update from Chief Delk.

Yes, ma'am.

Before uh Chief Delp comes up here, um, one thing that we promise to do is kind of bring public safety to the forefront at our public safety meetings.

So before he gets up here and gives his uh presentation, I kind of want to let you know what you'd expect going forward.

Um, once a month, uh, we'll have a representative from uh fire the next month from police, and they'll give updates of their department.

So every other meeting that's at all states will be the different department.

Um so anything you want to see on the next uh the next time they present, please let them know.

And uh we're trying to highlight Tuscose Fire Rescue, and then in two weeks it'll be police, and then it'll alternate again.

So okay, Chief Phil.

I think this is your first report, sis.

It is, it is.

I've sent some monthly reports, but this is the first in-person.

Gotcha report.

So good afternoon, council mayor.

Thank y'all for this opportunity to highlight our department.

Uh, I think this is important for us not only to to highlight what we're doing in our department, but also letting you and the citizens know what your investment is doing in our department, and I think that's a big part of this uh to make sure that we're all on the same page and you guys see that investment playing out, and there's a return on that investment.

Uh to start out with I guess it'd help if I'd play through my slideshow, wouldn't it?

Tuscalus of fire and rescue, this is station one.

Um rescue, just kind of a brief overview.

We have 12 stations within the city.

Um, if you can see this right here, this is kind of our organizational structure broken down, two deputy chiefs.

We have a support division that involves the fire marshal's division, EMS division, training division, and also logistics, and those are some big we've made a really big push here lately on the training division, um, prioritizing specialty teams, uh, the things that we've noticed in our apartment that that we need to get better at.

Um, because those are things that not only help citizens but keep firefighters alive.

And so that's been a big push for us.

Twelve stations, we have 12 pumpers.

When we say pumpers, those are the ones carrying the hose in the water.

We also run four truck companies in the city of Tuscaloosa.

So truck companies deal with extrication, heavy extrication on the scenes, but your truck companies are the ones that are throwing ladders on that building, doing your searching for victims, uh, not only searching for victims, but also fire extension, and so that's what helps those those pumpers, those those hose teams, uh, actually make a stop on a residential structure and give somebody something to move back into uh rather than protecting the slab.

One of the things that we have focused on in Tuscaloosa recently is our specialty teams.

This is one thing that that coming up through the department, uh we always had specialty teams.

We needed to do a better job at prioritizing the training for those specialty teams and also making sure that there was a standard there.

So we have established standards, we have named specialty team leaders, so we've got hazmat, water rescue, technical rescue, and dive, and those are done uh each Monday.

Those are done, each one of those resources is done.

Uh just yesterday, the water rescue team was doing their their new standard for swim test, and that was done at some facilities that helped out, partnered with us and allowed us to start setting that standard that if we're sending those guys in the and these specialized resources, we've got to have a standard there, not only for them to perform, but before they perform, we've got to make sure that they're trained efficiently.

Setting up these specialty teams is not only um established those standards, but it's decentralized things.

Um before getting this job, I was the captain at station two, and station two was just kind of the closet that everything was kept in.

Uh, you know, we were making sure that things were ready, but there was a lot of the department that was not involved in that.

And so breaking up some of these specialty teams and getting them out to other stations has allowed all 12 of those stations that I that I briefed over a minute ago, has allowed all 12 of those stations to take part in some of these specialized responses, and it sets us up as a city better for when one of these responses come in.

We've got the personnel that are trained to do that.

We've made sure that we're investing in modern technology.

We're working with TPD, Cyber.

We've also got some demos going on later this month on some dive equipment, some specialized things that the city of Tuscaloosa would make us a better responding, better mitigating agency by going that uh technological route.

So we're finalizing rosters.

Um the biggest thing on some of these specialty teams, and we're we're here definitely to thank uh the city, especially you as a council for investing in my departments.

We had a we had a very big investment for training this year, but we also got a grant awarded to us somewhat after that that budget went out.

We also got an assistance to firefighter grant.

This was a 219,000 almost 220,000 grant that was awarded to us.

The city had to come up with a 10% match.

So total uh investment right here is 241,000 for the training of some of those specialty teams that we just went through.

This this funding is going to cover tuition, travel expenses.

Uh the big thing about this is this something this is something that that as we're we're rolling towards RSA, um, we're getting more and more new guys coming into the department.

We need that boost in training money to get these guys certified and make sure that that we're following FEMA's standards to do that.

I know this is a lot thrown on one slide, but I just wanted to point out this is what a team roster looks like for uh a FEMA response.

So they expect all of those.

Uh if you look at the far left, those are the team positions.

If you look at all those red boxes, those are the courses that they require you to complete.

And so those are all over the place.

Those those eat up a lot of a departmental budget to make sure that our guys are meeting that standard.

But this takes us to a type one FEMA response ready team.

And so that grant that we just touched on, that grant will get us a lot of those classes are taught at uh Texas AM, uh Florida's emergency response academy, mobile fire and rescue.

So all of those positions that were listed on that previous slide have to be filled for us to make a make a response, like we did to Texas this past summer.

So the next slide is your brief overview of what our January run volume looks like.

So 57 fire calls, 802 EMS calls, 389 service calls.

And so I think the fire runs probably speak for themselves, those are vehicle fires, structure fires, anything that involved a fire or fire related EMS calls, these are all over the place.

Your motor vehicle accidents, your chest pains, difficulty breathings, allergic reactions.

Those were those were all the runs that we made this month.

So and the last one is service, and I know we've got a uh a hazmat picture up there.

So we made a a hazmat call this January that was a hazmat, but also a medical incident.

Patient was treated and recovered.

But those service calls, you know, the fire department makes service calls that really deal anything in the city that doesn't involve the need for law enforcement.

We get gas, electrical, water, uh, lift assist, medication issues, um, smoke alarms, elevator calls, all of those focus in on this service.

So that's that's a big part of what we do.

Um, and and we're hoping that we do that in our communities up to the standard that the city of Tuscaloosa holds us to.

One of the most notable things in our service calls, the unsung heroes in my department are our EMSP or EMS prevention social workers.

They do an excellent job there.

Um you know, this is one of those one of those jobs in the city that that nobody really looks at until after the fact until we actually get those people the help that they need.

Um it lets us slow down and actually solve the problem instead of responding to it.

I think I've got a lot of good guys that are riding these trucks that when that when that bell goes off, they're gonna show up on that scene, handle what needs to be handled.

But maybe we're not the best when it comes to actually solving that problem before it starts.

And that's that's what those social workers are doing right now.

They're finding the needs as they come to them.

One of the biggest part of the social work that we see, they do an intake survey.

So 80 percent right now of the EMS prevention clients have some type of mental health disorder.

So they are they are highly focused not only on diagnosing that mental health disorder, but finding them the help that they need.

So that is definitely Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue is focused on you know, not only responding to these calls, but but hopefully mitigating and finding some issues uh in places that we can find help for those that we're responding on.

And the last slide I have here is is accomplishments within the department.

Um that first picture on the left was paramedic school.

We had four individuals that just graduated paramedic school.

That's about a year, year and a half school that these guys did on duty, um, you know, working working all over the place, nights and day, doing rotations, going to school, uh, and they've just passed their national registry exam, so they will be getting on a rescue truck very soon.

Uh the middle picture there is an officer development course.

Um couple of those guys went to what's called a battalion chief boot camp, and that's gonna be big for some of these guys that have never taken a leadership role within the department, kind of giving them some command and control presence uh on some of these larger scenes and getting practice at that.

Um, and then the last picture right there, we had two guys that just graduated smoke diver, they just got their smoke diver certification.

Um 40 enrolled in that class, only 13 completed it, and we in Tuscaloosa had two of those uh that completed that certification.

So that's a big uh to me is a big accomplishment for for us.

Another thing that you don't see in that picture is both of those guys are legacy hires, both of the both of those guys' fathers work for us, and so that's a to me that's a you know they didn't get their job just by their name, those guys are putting in the work and doing what they need to within our department.

Nice.

Any questions?

I don't comment when we when we interviewed for Chief, whenever that was a year ago, I think about eight or nine left.

Two of the issues that came up, and I'm glad you're working on was the the training issue and especially teams, and I'm very happy to hear you've you're working on those.

I think that's a big deal, bigger deal than I realized until a year ago.

Thank you all for the support.

That's the only way it gets done.

Chief, I think in your next presentation, I guess it'd be in four weeks.

I know something that and and you and I have had these discussions.

I know Director Blankley and you've had these discussions as well.

Is how you plan on approaching the anticipated number of employees or firefighters who may retire when far as a conversion happens.

So I know you've been working on this and we have a plan of action.

I think it'll be I I think I would like to like for you to share it with the right with many and also with the public.

Well, and out of out of 264 employees, we've got 52 that are eligible to retire in October.

So pretty significant number um to have to recover or build off of, not recover, build off of.

I like that.

So that that'd be an interesting report.

Yes, ma'am.

And thank you so much for your leadership and for this report today.

Are there any more questions or comments from the committee?

Or any council members?

All right, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Safety Director, you have anything else?

No, ma'am, that's it.

Thank you so much.

This is so refreshing to hear in person.

Um, if there is nothing else, then I would like to have a motion or I make a motion to adjourn.

Motion.

Second.

Oh, you made a motion.

However, all in favor.