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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8.13.25 Board of Fire Commissioners Minutes Please contact Lansing Fire Department if you cannot attend the meeting or need accommodations at 517-483-4200 or lfd.admin@lansingmi.gov CITY OF LANSING | FIRE DEPARTMENT BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS 120 E. SHIAWASSEE ST. | LANSING MI 48933 517-483-4200 LANSINGMI.GOV/FIRE 1. Called to Order at 5:31pm • Present: Barbara Lawrence, Jerrod LaRue, Gina Nelson, Steve Purchase, Jon Scott, Charles Willis, Krishna Singh Assistant Chief Carrie Edwards-Clemons Chief Deputy City Attorney Lisa Hagen Lawrence 2. Additions to Agenda • None 3. Approval of Minutes • July 9th • Chair Lawrence motioned to approve the meeting minutes from July 9th. Commissioner Nelson seconded the motion. • Vice Chair Singh noted that in the meeting minutes, it should read “Indiana River Rescue School.” • The majority voted in favor of approving the meeting minutes, as is, from July 9th 4. Public Comment – Agenda Items (time limit: 3 minutes) • None 5. Review Communications • None 6. Comments from Chair • Thanked Chief Engelter for hosting • Welcomed the current Secretary, Sydney, to the board. Sydney gave a brief introduction to herself. 7. Presentations REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13TH | 5:30 PM | EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT|815 MARSHALL STREET | LANSING MI Fire Commissioners 1st Ward Barbara Lawrence, Chair 2nd Ward Jerrod LaRue 3rd Ward Vacant 4th Ward Gina Nelson At Large Steve Purchase At Large Jon Scott At Large Charles Willis At Large Krishna Singh, Vice Chair Please contact Lansing Fire Department if you cannot attend the meeting or need accommodations at 517-483-4200 or lfd.admin@lansingmi.gov Presentation by Emergency Management Chief Engelter. Chief went into breaking down emergency management into 4 pillars 1) Hazard Mitigation 2) Planning 3) Responding 4) Recovering Response is the aspect that many people see. The longest activation of emergency management since Chief Engelter has experienced would be the ice storm of 2012/2013. Activated for the better part of a month or so. People don’t see hazard mitigation. We have someone in that position. Identifying hazards that can be mitigated and finding grants to support them. IE – initiated study of demolition of building on the Northwest. The study has been going on for a long time. The planning part – Basic plans, hazmat plans, law enforcement plans, and big event pre-planning happen with emergency management. Recovery is another aspect people don’t see, how we will put the community back together. Currently, Emergency Management is working on adding more sirens for tornadoes and remapping of flood plains. Example of the work done here – Last night, 201 Jolly – Sprinkler head knocked off and flooded, resulting in a stuck elevator, fire marshals, and the emergency management office assisting at the scene and transporting to other locations with the help of CATA. Commissioner Nelson has a question about those still in the floodplains near the Red Cedar area. Chief Engelter explained that some homes are still there, and floods are caused by the highway. They have reworked a lot of it. After the most recent storms, they haven’t been too bad. Until those in the flood plans move, we can’t do a lot. We receive funds to buy homes in flood plains, to purchase and demolish them once they are ready to move. The more out of the flood plain, the better. Less rescue, less damage. Must be mindful that once a grant is used for demolition, nothing can be built there again Commissioner Nelson noted the last time the red cedar area flooded, they used a waterfall type thing to fix it. Interesting. Chief Engelter explained that it was a water wall project worked on. Army Corps said it would work. Saved a few million in property damage. Lansing Township felt we pushed water to them. Water to them was less than a tenth of an inch. They have done it once. Saved many houses and businesses due to the water wall. Chair Lawrence commented that the city lines in Lansing are very confusing. Chief Engelter explained, Yes, it is confusing when it happens in neighborhoods. It could happen in one area, then go over the line, and it becomes confusing. Please contact Lansing Fire Department if you cannot attend the meeting or need accommodations at 517-483-4200 or lfd.admin@lansingmi.gov Commissioner Willis comments that it’s also the media that will call and ask why you aren’t helping an area when it is not in your area. Commissioner LaRue inquired about the staffing levels at Emergency Management. Emergency Management is currently in a team of 3, Chief Engelter explained. It is himself. Captain Stevens and Ken Hall - Mitigation Coordinator. There is a grant-funded position we are waiting to fill until it is confirmed that grant funding is available. Commissioner Willis asked Chief Engelter about his projections on FEMA in the next few months Chief Engelter did admit FEMA was affected for a while, the brakes were pumped on everything. State funding stopped. In recent weeks, a lot of the things that were put on hold are resumed. We are starting to see reimbursements for the projects we have done. Chief Engelter explains that IF FEMA is defunded, the funds will be controlled by the state. We could see the pros and cons from this. Commissioner Willis then asks about the Lansing Fire Department’s Emergency Management’s relationship with Ingham County’s Emergency Management. Chief Engelter says that they have a close relationship. They can cover Lansing, and vice versa if needed. Commissioner Willis notes it is nice to have mutual aid, then asks about the plans for the relocation/renovation of Emergency Management. Chief Engelter says there are plans for renovations of the current Emergency Management. They are currently searching for a location to relocate to for the renovations. 8. Administration Division Update – Administrative Division of Lansing Fire Chief Edwards-Clemons gave an update on the Administrative Division. Prevention – Under the direction of Fire Marshal Jared Nisch Logistics – Under the direction of Chief Jwan Randle Administration - Under the direction of Chief David Odom Jr, with Captain Jordan Spitzley Chief Edwards-Clemons announces we just opened hiring for the firefighter position (10) – open until August 29th. There is an MOU in place. Encouraging medics to apply. We just had about 25 students from the recruit academy who trained and went into the stations. 8 students just graduated from paramedic school. We need more. The number of stations has decreased, but the number of calls has not. Chief Edwards-Clemons informs the board that Assistant Chief Kenneth Lay is no longer with the Lansing Fire Department as of August 1st. Please contact Lansing Fire Department if you cannot attend the meeting or need accommodations at 517-483-4200 or lfd.admin@lansingmi.gov Commissioner Willis expresses his surprise that this is the first he is hearing of it. Chief Edwards-Clemons informs them that she is working on the hiring process for this position. Will be opening the hiring internally and externally. She expresses that Chief Lay and the work he has done for Lansing Fire are appreciated. Chair Lawrence says she would like Chief Lay to know his work was appreciated while he was here and after his departure. Chief Edwards-Clemons announces Station 2 will be opening and will have an open house on November 2nd. The fire fatality that happened this week was also mentioned. There was no report of a smoke detector in the home. We will be having a smoke alarm blitz in the area to help avoid a tragic incident like this. Chair Lawrence asked if this would only be for rental homes. Chief Edwards-Clemons informed her that we provide those who rent and own smoke detectors. The state of Michigan provides smoke detectors that have stipulations. If we purchase our own, there are fewer regulations. The Lansing Fire Department believes that if you need a smoke detector, you should have one. We do smoke alarm blitz during Fire Prevention week, we would like to do them more often. Commissioner LaRue asked if those who responded to the scene received any debrief with mental health professionals Chief Edwards-Clemons answered that after any fatality, the mental state of those working must be checked on. It is difficult to consider witnessing something like that, then going out on a call right after. The calls don’t stop coming in just because of an emergency like this occurring. Chief Edwards-Clemons informed the group that we recently transitioned to ESO. ISO provides location- based information. Once we have all our service stations, we will consider using ISO again. Chief Odom currently curates the packets provided at meetings. ESO provides a lot of great information. Commissioner LaRue inquired about obtaining a mutual aid report, and Chair Commissioner Lawrence asked if we could receive these documents electronically. Chief Edwards Clemons agreed to both, and Secretary Sydney Lerma took note as well. Commissioner Purchase noted after looking at the documents that the calls this month were more than the whole year and 3% more than last year at this time. July has been above the 12 month average. Chief Edwards-Clemons says they need more staffing to keep up with the increase in calls Vice Chair Singh asks Chief Edwards-Clemons on an update to raising daily staffing levels to 45 She says we are not meeting minimum staffing, so it would be difficult to raise it. We just gained 8 from paramedic school, which is great. Commissioner LaRue asks if the department is not meeting minimum staffing, does a rig get shut down? Inquires if the board can be notified in the event a rig is shut down. Please contact Lansing Fire Department if you cannot attend the meeting or need accommodations at 517-483-4200 or lfd.admin@lansingmi.gov Chief Edwards-Clemons says this is a question for Chief Sturdivant, but if not meeting staffing levels, some adjustments must be made for safety. No calls go unanswered, and we use mutual aid when needed. Chair Lawrence let Chief Edwards Clemons know the board would love to help with any planning for the fire alarm blitz or the open house for Station 2. 9. Old Business Chair Lawrence requested a station roster and would like one each time a change occurs. Chief Edwards-Clemons informed them that the Department Finance Officer updates this and sends it out every time there is a change. Secretary Sydney Lerma took note of this and plans to bring one for each member next meeting. Commissioner Purchase requested access to Lexipol to see the policies, as they have a book of policies that each new member reviews. Chief Edwards-Clemons let him know this will not be an issue – we are currently finalizing a few. Commissioner Purchase explains that they review the policies on a two-year basis. Policies that haven’t been reviewed by the board are not effective. The department’s budget has a similar process. The Fire Commissioners Board must approve it before it goes before the mayor for approval. Sturdivant has been doing all of this. Commissioner Purchase further explains that this helps them stay informed and helps them weigh in on issues. Commissioner Lawrence brought up the fact that there is an open seat on the Fire Board for the 3 rd ward. We may need to expand even more, especially with the City Hall expansion. The board would like to thank Vice President Chair Singh publicly for his efforts to fill this position. The Board has not received any correspondence from the mayor’s office about filling the position. 10. New Business 11. Requests for Commissioners to be Excused Commissioner Nelson – October, Possibly November 12. Commissioner Comments Commissioner Scott said that he attended the river training for Lansing Fire. He said it was great to see how they manage and go into the training. Everyone from the rescue and medics were very involved in the training. He said they thought that they were appreciative of having someone come and see their training. Chair Commissioner Lawrence thanks Commissioner Scott for going to the training. It showed that he is serious about his job on the Fire Board. Vice Chair Singh thanked Chief Rivet, Captain Villegas, Captain Dickerson, Captain Nowland, Engineer Rios, Firefighter Hansen, and Firefighter Staudinger - they were the core team for the river rescue. He says the training was good and realistic. Please contact Lansing Fire Department if you cannot attend the meeting or need accommodations at 517-483-4200 or lfd.admin@lansingmi.gov Commissioner Willis thanked Chief Engelter for his presentation and thanked Assistant Chief for handling it all, in the absence of Chief Lay. He expressed his dismay that Chief Lay had retired without telling the board about it. He hopes that moving forward, the board will be notified of any changes. 13. Public Comment (on any matter – speakers must state their name and address; time limit 3 minutes) None 14. General Order None 15. Adjournment Chair Commissioner Lawrence adjourned the meeting at 6:41pm