City Council - Regular Meeting

First of all, I would like to briefly explain the current situation of our fire department and each department. First of all, I would like to say that at least 48 people are on duty every day. Of course, more than 48 people are on duty considering holidays, sick leave, and non-employment. Therefore, in order to fill this gap, more than 48 people, who are the minimum number of people every day, are placed. If you look at the emergency medical service program closely linked to the fire control department, nearly 70% of the total number of departures is medical-related work. This is a case of major emergency medical operations, such as the occurrence of the patient, the scar, the fall, and the movement assistance. Next is the rescue and risk material response department. If we look at the various accidents that we respond to every day, Keystone, Route 31, Route 146, and car accidents on ISA 65 roads can be more complicated than other incidents. So, if an accident-ridden passenger is trapped in a vehicle, special equipment is needed to rescue them quickly. It also includes a circular structure program, which has been verified for a few weeks. And we have special trained members who can respond to hazardous material accidents when requested by us in the entire Camel City and Hamilton County. Lastly, what I want to emphasize in this slide is the regional social risk reduction program. I am very proud of the work that our fire inspectors and public education teams do every day. Fire inspectors and public education teams are always busy from pre-planning to new building design review and existing building design review. If you look around what is happening in our city, there are many very interesting projects with continuous growth, development, and participation of the team. and check whether it is implemented according to the plan when the building is built by cooperating with other departments in the city, and create a generally safe environment for firefighters who work or live there. Our public education team has been working really hard to develop a course and a safe home safe house program for the past few years to develop a course and a safe house program for the past few years Every day, the programs in that field are very interesting, and we can't be more proud of what our team is doing to educate all age groups, including the Camel and wider Camel region society and Camel region. We invite many organizations and schools to teach about all kinds of safety risks. It's not just a topic. Of course, we also tell you how to drive safely on a rotating crossroad. There is also a bicycle safety program. We also run a program that understands the air-conditioning system or the air-conditioning system for those who have newly built a house. Do you know where the main valve is when the water leaks from the house? Or how can we block it when an accident occurs? It seems like a natural thing for many of us, but this education is getting a lot of response. I've already done several classes, and it was very successful. If you look at the status of the fire station today, the number of people currently in 2026 is 187. It consists of formal firefighters. The official firefighter is a firefighter who is certified to be able to act and respond at any time on 9-1-1, 365 days, 24 hours. It means an ambulance with an emergency rescue officer's license. These are placed in six fireplaces over 50 square miles, and some of the minimum number of employees mentioned above are formed. In addition to the formal firefighters, there are 12 civilian employees working in the fire department. They are our administrative support team. This includes Enen OneMock and Chaplain. Also included are some emergency medical support personnel. And there are five part-time employees in charge of public education. Um, emergency medical support and woodwork work are also carried out there. There is a PR officer under the fire department. There are three of them, and they are operated at the level of inter-community work and belong to different inter-community groups. Therefore, PR support is provided 24 hours a year, 365 days a year. The certification manager and woodwork report directly to the fire department. Then divide the organization into operating departments and administrative departments. There is an operating director. There is an administrative director. You can check the assigned personnel composition of the department. Now let's take a look at the results of 2026 and the goals for 2027. When looking at successful cases, it is often difficult to figure out how to quantify accidents that did not occur through public education programs and fire inspection departments. It is through inspection, planning, review, and public education. Even in the actual response meeting, there were more than 10,000 requests for service in 2025, and it is certain that it will record more than that at a similar level in 2026. However, until now in 2026, we have placed 19 new firefighters around July 4 at the scene. These young people are happy to start their careers at Carmel Fire Department. We cooperated with foreign emergency medical services, EMS, and healthcare companies. We have already made additional EMS profits and have begun to check the results of that effort. The stronger cooperation with foreign companies through our care and Medicaid programs. These are very professional and often confusing programs. Therefore, every day through external companies that only specialize in work, and sometimes providing regular education and information every week, It is a very reliable thing for me and our EMS team, and the fact that a highly trained external team is supporting and helping the business with us is a great strength. With the help of the mayor and the council members, we secured funds for the new fire training facility of No. 106 and Gray Road. The basic construction is complete. This training center will be built using a pre-made container. The company that is manufacturing the facility outside is located in Anderson, Indiana. Most of the structure is complete. You will be able to see the site construction start in a few weeks. And I hope to be able to use the training site in a few months. This will be an amazing opportunity to consider the various challenges and response situations that our members face every day. By training here in preparation for all the situations that occur in the Camel Clay response area, we will guarantee that our members will have the knowledge to respond safely in the actual emergency situation. We were able to purchase the new Lucas, Lucas device, which is a new cardiothoracic support device, and this information was shared in some of the past committee meetings. Before 2026, there was only one unit of our city's indoor equipment. We checked the value of the equipment. We were able to buy and place all the equipment of the ambulance, and we confirmed that the rate of survival of the heart, or what we call ROSC, is increasing. Of course, there is still discussion about the data and actual effects of the neuropsychiatric rescue device, but if you listen to the stories of members who have owned and used this equipment in person, it becomes a tremendous tool for new stop-and-release response. It's like having one more response member on site. Finally, we received annual subsidies to install exhaust gas collection equipment directly on all firefighters. This is an important safety device that our firefighters lacked for years. This product is directly connected to the fire truck, so if you start it from the garage, it collects exhaust gas immediately and exports it outside the fire station. The reason why this is so important is because we know the impact of cancer on firefighting. Currently, there are a few members of the Camel Fire Department who are having difficulty with cancer diagnosis. There are several dangerous factors that firefighters are always exposed to in our job. So how can we get better? How can we make an effort to remove these factors? One of them is It is a problem of direct exposure of exhaust gas that can cause cancer in the fire department. I am very proud of our team, who successfully received $400,000 or more in support by applying for this grant. Currently, we are working hard to properly install and use the equipment of the fire department using that grant. If you look at the budget for 2027, This is to talk about the priority of the Camel Fire Department, to help members grow, to directly lead personal development, and to provide an opportunity to expand the organization so that we can volunteer in the local community every day when we need help. I am very happy. I am very happy to have completed the design work of fire station 347 and started construction with the goal of 27 years. This is a case that has been discussed in our city for 20 years. Finally, we have selected the location and remodeled the existing facility in the way that the members are familiar with. It is planned to be used as a fire station and transferred to the location of the fire maintenance maintenance facility. I'm really looking forward to it. The second is to supplement the planned number of retired people and maintain the speed of recruitment to reduce the number of personnel. In order to successfully respond to the calls and demands of the local community, more than a certain number of firefighters must be placed on all equipment every day. There have been many retirees in our fire department over the past year. They are male and female members who have been volunteering and making great sacrifices for the local society for decades. I am happy to be able to enjoy the rest of my life safely and healthily as they retire. Now the rest of the task is to provide enough firefighters to fill the vacancies of retired members and maintain the minimum level of personnel. We know that this is the most expensive personnel-related problem in the Camel Fire Station. Because they are highly trained male and female employees who go on a 24-hour 9-1-1 report. Next, it is to introduce a blood transfusion program before the hospital. Currently, about 12 fire stations in Indiana are running a kind of blood transfusion program before the hospital. Even if you don't experience serious car accidents, gunshots, or self-harm often, there are definitely a number of calls that will be of great help for blood transfusion before the hospital. It is a very professional field. Close cooperation between the blood center, hospital, and fire station is essential. Our team members have worked closely with experts from all over the United States to understand the administrative programs required for CAMEL. We started purchasing equipment with the support of the legal team, and we will cooperate with hospital partners and local blood supply agencies to implement this by 2027. Currently, several types of fire equipment have been ordered, and as you may have seen in the news, it was not easy for the fire department to buy and receive firefighters for the past few years. The cost of equipment for the past few years has doubled, and the time it takes to manufacture and import is the longest of the 35 years of public safety. Thanks to Mr. Pinkham's publicization of the problem, we are gaining a lot of strength. Also, we are dealing with the problem at a national level by cooperating with U.S. senators. This is not just a problem of the Camel Fire Department or just a problem of Indiana. It is a national problem. We are proud to have worked hard at the regional level to discuss this issue, manage costs, and find ways to receive equipment. We want to introduce equipment with a more suitable schedule for all of us. Therefore, some of the new equipment ordered in 2024 will be imported in 2027. We plan to order equipment for a few years in the future, but it may take 3 to 4 years to actually introduce it. However, since it takes a long time to make and import equipment, we have to plan and schedule today. Finally, we will fully introduce Quake, Quake, and 2C heat imaging equipment. This is thanks to the excellent partnership with Camel, Camel, and We Heroes Club. The Heroes Club has collected funds to buy 16 high-performance thermal fire equipment for firefighters. We have already started training for the equipment. We will be one of the 10 firefighters in the country using this equipment. We hope that equipment will be fully introduced through the education department and operating department in 2027. Let's take a look at the various aspects of the budget and classify them into each category to check the specific budget figures. The personnel service section includes all salaries and benefits of regular and non-regular employees, as well as welfare benefits. The estimated expenditure is $45,684,071 in 2027. Here, I have marked the past data for reference. The budget for 2026 and the budget for 2027 can be compared. This index contains a lot of variables to consider depending on the duration of employment. Yes, there are retirees. New employees are also added. Also, health insurance costs are included here. It also includes pension fees such as the main firefighter's pension fund or the private pension fund. Year-over-year Life expense adjustment, cola, and food are also reflected in the cost of personnel service. Let me tell you about the overall extra work. There are two types of extra work in the CAMEL Fire Department. This program deals with electricity and overtime work according to the Fair Work Standards Act. Firefighters work 56 hours a week, so there are annual standards related to salary payments, and this does not include electricity and overtime work funds that firefighters receive annually. In addition, there is non-electricity overtime work. As I mentioned earlier, the minimum number of people to be placed in the fire truck per day is set. you have to request overtime work if you have an injury, illness, or injury. That is overtime work. Therefore, the overtime work allowance for FLSA is over $504,000, the expected overtime work allowance is over $3.2 million, and the total overtime work allowance is $3.7 million. As you can see, our past outlook for 2026 is, as I said before, to secure the right number of full-time workers to meet the standard of over-worked and over-unprepared work. And we are making full efforts to lower the rate of over-unprepared work. This is our regional social risk reduction program. This program includes public education, facility inspection, pre-planned construction, and public information programs. This includes one of our strategic planning items, a course, and a safety housing program. We are a certified fire station and a certified fire station. Currently, there are only three fire stations that have been internationally certified in Indiana. As I mentioned earlier, through our public education program, we provide safety programs throughout the year from children to elderly people and carry out public information delivery, facility inspection, preliminary planning and planning review work while working. Emergency response crime This budget is to reduce property damage caused by fires, floods, and other emergencies, including firefighter response, risk materials, and circulation structure activities, and prevent firefighters from injury and death. Therefore, this fund is used to purchase the necessary items for this response. If you compare the requested budget in 2027 with past data, you can see a rise in water prices. Overall, the cost of fire equipment, repair costs, some emergency medical supplies, and fire hazard material circulation needs increased by about 30 to 40%. That is why the budget for the special program in 2027 has increased. Our firefighters carry out various special programs. We support the certification process, event planning, parade, funeral ceremony, etc. Thank you for the hard work of the firefighters outside the fire station. This is an additional task for the local community and others. Our committee was invited to a large-scale education session today and is participating in the event there. If you look at the past program expenditure data, the expenditure has increased somewhat over the past few years. Therefore, this year, we would like to review this budget item. This year, it is possible to operate stably at a lower cost, and we can handle the requests from the local community and the outside world. Employment, recruitment, and promotion. This is the field we have been working on all year round. This program is our employment program from new employee employment. It deals with all aspects of the recruitment process. In 2026, there were almost 500 applicants who hoped to enter the Camel Fire Station. More than 300 people took the test, and in 2027, at least 10 people will be recruited. Therefore, the cost of recruitment and recruitment The cost of starting these people comes from the item budget. If you look at the data from the past in 2026, about 25 new recruits started. In the end, 19 were hired, and they were put on the scene from July this year. Again, in 2027, the program cost decreased because there were few hired people. We continued to discuss the need to flexibly adjust the expected retirement and post-employment requests in 2027. As you can see, the cost requested in 2027 has decreased. It is the health and safety of firefighters. As I said before, it is very important. Firefighters have higher risk of developing cancer compared to the general population. Also, the risk of behavioral health problems, stress, and occupational diseases is higher. So, we firefighters are doing our best to reduce and prevent these health problems, and even after 20 years, 25 years, and 30 years of probation, We are reviewing the program so that you can enjoy a successful retirement life in a healthy way. We are doing our best, and in order to continuously monitor other factors in terms of health care, we are raising our budget close to $100,000. Our firefighters provide opportunities to receive counseling through external experts trained to cooperate with internal co-support teams or public safety personnel. This is one of the most important areas in our fire department that can support funds. It is a vehicle and a building. It is also very important. Our employees make a difference every day. However, if you do not stay in a safe building and do not ride safe equipment, you will not be able to leave on time. You can check the past data of 2026 and 2027. This is what I talked about while discussing the cost increase with the maintenance and maintenance staff. Some of the equipment has been old because it takes longer to introduce new equipment. It seems to have said that it is working hard to inform the problem nationwide by cooperating with U.S. staff. So some of the equipment is older than usual. So it is difficult for us to introduce new equipment or maintain the cycle of converting existing equipment to pre-priced. As a result, some of the equipment is slightly old. It costs more to maintain and maintain it so that it can be operated immediately. Of course, it is also a big task to manage the building so that our members can have a safe space and there is no difference in carrying out the mission of the Camel Fire Station. It takes a considerable amount of money to run and maintain the building every day. Some buildings are open 24 hours a year by 12 to 15 firefighters. Unlike other public buildings that close at 4 p.m., this is like a second-class house for firefighters. So it's very useful. We need to properly arrange the budget so that we can safely operate the buildings and protect the employees. This is the management fee and operation fee. Let's take a look at the costs and expenses to support the entire department. It is not a technical part, but it is all support items for daily use of tools needed by office workers, general and administrative staff. From 2026 to 2027, the budget for these items will be reduced. We are working every day to increase efficiency by cooperating with other departments, not only inside the fire station, but also by sharing items. It is challenging to cooperate for overall cost reduction, but it is also rewarding to be able to reduce the budget. Employment education and business trips. It is very important for our members to learn from other institutions in the region, the province, and nationwide, and to maintain the opportunity to receive high-level training in preparation for the reports we receive every day. This money not only allows our staff to receive training outside of CAMEL, but also invites experts to conduct training here. Therefore, instead of sending 4-5 people to the outside world, an expert was hired to educate the entire fire force. It is technology and software. We collaborated with IT departments to identify the necessary tools, and through this, we were able to respond quickly when a report occurred and record the incident using the technology. Here, things like educational software are included. In other words, you can use technology without having to go outside. By gaining better knowledge through mobile applications for online platforms, fire response, command, decision making, and emergency response, we are trying to secure useful data that we can calculate the budget and figure out what we need to do differently to complete the mission. In summary, when reviewing the overall operating budget, We looked at the area's social risk reduction, emergency response, special programs, new recruitment and promotion, firefighters' health and safety, vehicles, buildings, administrative costs, employee training and technology areas. Therefore, the total human resources requirement is $45.6 million, the operating cost requirement is a little over $4.1 million, and the total operating budget requirement is $49 million. $880,000. Here are a few other funds to highlight and look at together. If you look at the emergency fund, it is a fund that is refunded again to be used for specific capital projects or large-scale purchases of the firefighter's line issued as a 9.11 report. Here, you can see that some of the local social risk reduction costs are included. Some fire programs, emergency medical services, circulation structure, risk material response, air and breathing equipment costs, etc. are included. There is also a NIS bond obligation for firefighters, ambulances, and other large equipment. The total budget requested by the emergency fund is a little over $3 million. The pension fund is for retirees who joined the fund in 1937. Currently, there is a police and firefighter fund in 1977, so if our members retire today, they will probably retire with this fund. There are also previous members of the pension fund, but these funds have a slightly different setting, so there is a cost to support the fund every year. This pension fund is also related to human resources. The total is $97,505, including the amount and some professional service costs to pay the pension to those who retired from there. It is an opioid fund. Almost all regional societies in Indiana are supported by a kind of opioid fund revenue through the Attorney General's Office. There are two sides to the opioid fund. Here are the limited fund support mechanisms and the unlimited fund support mechanisms. We are using some of the opioid funds to support the mobile communication health emergency program. The mobile communication health emergency program is in charge of special training for those who used 911, an emergency response system, in order to solve the chronic human problems of the past. Therefore, we have been supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to reduce the number of falls accidents every year for the past few years. 1. According to the data received by Ascension Health Network, it seems that the number of elderly people in our region will increase by more than 25% for the next five years. What does that mean for the fire department? Well, we're looking forward to additional service requests for emergency health situations related to accidents or other elderly people. So we're going to use the vehicle to send the person in charge home and help them spend the afternoon at the house they used to live in. What they don't want the most is to go to the emergency room in an ambulance and wait a few hours to get treatment. Recently, I witnessed this situation in an emergency room in our city. The ambulance car had to wait for more than 90 minutes to get an additional treatment while the patient was lying on the bed. What is a better way for our local society? The mobile integrated health emergency rescue program is one of the programs that helps elderly people stay safe and healthy at home by providing treatment and follow-up support by visiting the family. The funds for this job will be used for the opioid fund. This is the final summary of the budget request for 2027. We reviewed the budget items such as human resources, operating expenses, ambulance fund, pension fund, opioid fund, etc. The total budget request for the fire station in 2027 is a little over $54 million, which is similar to the request in 2026. As you know, the budget process continues throughout the year. From now on, we will cooperate with the mayor, the finance team, and the city councilors to answer questions about budget and specific spending items and respond to citizens' questions. We have been monitoring this for a year. When the final approved budget for the fire department is decided, it will be implemented. We evaluate this and begin to implement the budget from January and manage it throughout the year. In order to reach this point, the entire team's efforts are needed. Lastly, thank you very much to the CEO of Finicom, who did not spare support and guidance while conducting the budget adaptation process in 2027. Thank you so much for your help. Jack Jackson, Kerstin, thank you for your support and help. And thank you for joining us in this process, President Luke Ray, President Kurt Weddington, and President Joel Hebner of the CFD budget team. De Nis-Snyder and Erika Reinhardt. They reviewed and criticized themselves every time the numbers changed, and they did a great job of correcting them, making the best budget at the moment. I am proud of their efforts to prepare the budget for this year. Thank you. I look forward to additional discussions and questions from the committee and citizens.