City Council - Regular Meeting

And audio switching test. Three, two, one. Camera switching.

Okay, got a couple, just one item really on this FEMA, AFG, and Occidental Petroleum Grant applications. Madison City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Our Chief and Deputy Chief Spicer will present to you our concepts for three FEMA and AFG grants, and we're seeking a thumbs from the council to authorize the submission of that application.

Do the opportunities are AFG grants and those are federal grants. They require a 10% match. And one of the two federal grants is going to be for a. Regional grant for Casper Fire EMS and all of our mutual aid partners for a dispatch upgrade. So we are currently working through the mutual aid everybody on on board on this upgrade. There is one thing that will need to be changed in this. If all mutual aid partners do agree, we did also talk to the Toronto County Airport Fire Department and so they would be added to it as well. So if everybody agrees it will go to 395000. With a 10% match. this dispatch upgrade is it's been needed for a long time we've been working towards it and and looking at it chief spicer has been spearheading the project and he's got a lot of good information on why it's going to be a benefit for the city of casper and all mutual aid departments i can go through the rest of the applications and then you guys can ask chief spicer questions on the on the dispatch equipment if that works for you OK, the second AFG grant we're looking at trying to outfit our reserve apparatus with possible possible as CPAs, thermal imaging cameras, any other type of operational and safety equipment that fits within the grant parameters. Still in the research phase of that on what's going to fit in with the grant application with an estimation of $100,000 gram ask and a 10% match. Third grant is Occidental Petroleum Grant. That's for $20,000. That will be no match required, and we're looking to acquire technical rescue equipment with that. With that, I'll have Chief Spicer come up and answer any questions on the dispatch system.

So for me, I'll give you kind of a brief overview of what the dispatch system will do. Basically, it'll provide consistent fire and EMS dispatch within our county to all stations. Currently, we have the receiving components of the Westnet system in all of our fire stations, and it actually gets triggered on the backup module, which is a radio page in our dispatch. So the biggest thing it's going to do is increase response times because it's going to be an IP notification to all stations from dispatch, and then it'll have the radio page as a backup redundant system. So it'll improve efficiency and workflow, lead to fast response times, enhance accuracy, and reduce human error, because it's going to be an automated voice dispatch system, which is going to reduce the stress on the dispatcher side, too, because they continue taking the call information and taking care of the caller, while the system will automatically extract the pertinent information and dispatch the units automatically. They'll have built-in redundancy with backup alerting. This system would be able to serve as a backup system if the primary spillment system went down for whatever reason. You know, and overall, it's just going to be better situational awareness, both for the dispatcher and the responders. Do we have any questions?

Any questions for both chiefs? Yeah.

Go ahead, Pat.

So, this all feeds through 911 and So this is primarily for the fire department or police department or both.

So yeah, for the fireside, primarily for the fireside. It's kind of a dedicated module for the fire response within the community. It won't create extra steps for dispatch. It'll integrate with filming and automatically extract that information and alert the stations as needed.

the, I can't remember, $5 million for upgraded computer systems and stuff for the new battery equipment for dispatch. This will all integrate well with the new systems? Yes, definitely.

Anybody on video? Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you gentlemen for the information kind of along the lines of Councilor Sweeney's inquiry. I was curious. It sounds like this is kind of a supplement to an in addition to the equipment that the Public Safety Communication Center is using. I am curious is this. Is there reasoning why this module wasn't included with the other on the 6N initiative? Is this a module that we've recently became aware of that we see the advantages of?

No, we've known about it for several years, the need for whatever. The money that was allocated for that project was largely hardware-driven for that dispatch unit. This is an auxiliary system. We've had those conversations about using that money, but it's all been allocated and is needed for the primary components of that and the biggest biggest benefit if we were good at word of this grant it'll kind of cover the capital expenses for the system which which will really benefit our mutual aid partners because it'll like say if we use pscc funding to make this purchase there'd be associate user fees that have to be passed on to those organizations they're already facing pretty big budget crunches right now okay thank you yeah so in the

10% this this portion was the 10% match. So we'll, if all of the other departments, if they choose to tie in, will Casper bear bear the brunt of the full 10%? Or will the other partners also

Yeah, we'll have the highest percentage because the because the primary dispatch equipment, the 10% they'll be responsible for is basically the receiving units that will be installed in their stations.

Thank you in the memo. It says the city's regional shares approximately 23 five as host. We remain responsible to FEMA for the full 37. Five of our partner does not meet its share. Uhm? I'm not, you know, I'm curious what sort of assurances do we have from our partner agencies? Do you foresee that being an issue at all? Sounds like we're kind of a default one on the hook.

Also, per the grant application rules, we are the default one on the hook, and that's why we're going through the mutual aid agreement process right now and spelling it out on everybody's cost share and getting signatures on their responsibility for their Any other questions?

Alright, how's everybody feel about this?

You got it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Alright, gender review. What's that counselor bond? Where does he stand on it? Are you for it? Counselor bond? Also, Larson. Need to get better at that, sorry. I mean, there's a quorum here, so I guess.

Five of us don't want you to blow off our fellow country.

Thanks for keeping me real. Appreciate it. Alright, agenda reviews. Anybody have anything you'd like to go over yet?

I learned just shortly before the meeting that we do have an update on one of your items, share with you a substitute. Resolution and the details of it that we received like literally minutes before we all sat down.

Good evening, so we did want to let you know about a relatively small change to the item related to accepting our grant award from the Office of State Lands and Investments for the pedestrian improvements at the Ford Wyoming Center, which is a rodeo facility. you may recall that in january we found out about the opportunity you all gave us permission to apply we applied for 125 000 and were actually awarded 75 000 so in very late may i think it was may 28th we received our grant agreement from the state requesting an expedited return of that agreement so that they could secure the funds in this year's budget which of course they are getting ready to approve as well. And so there was a pretty fast turnaround. We did notice that there was a mistake and that the award agreement says $75,000 for 30% of the total project cost instead of 50% because when we applied, we understood it was a one-to-one match. and so we requested that uh change unfortunately because people being out of office and different things that was delayed but we did get the uh amended contract today to show that fifty percent instead of thirty percent um but we wanted to let you know that that has been changed and so in the memo it says thirty percent the agreement does reflect fifty percent of the total project cost or seventy five thousand whichever is uh less and that's what we will be happy to accept

your approval tonight any questions about this do you have anything to add that is all that i had or we had in terms of updates thank you appreciate the update anything else on the agenda not necessarily on the agenda but with the board of equalization um looking as though they're they're going to sue FROM A MEETING LAST NIGHT THAT I WAS AT WITH ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS. THEY STARTED ASKING SOME QUESTIONS AND I THOUGHT IT WAS DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE. ANYWAY, HAS WAM CONSIDERED, I DON'T KNOW IF IT WOULD BE CALLING IT IN JOINING. if the lawsuit, which sounds like it's going to happen, against, I think it would be the Department of Revenue, maybe it's the governor's office, I'm not quite sure. Is it possible that WAM, county commissioners, and others might join in, and not that, for lack of work, but I didn't know if he had an opinion on such a thing or.

Councillor Sweeney, if you wanted to share that with me, I'd be happy to follow up on that. I don't know anything or have any knowledge off the top of my head about the Wyoming Association of Municipalities thoughts or position on this, but I'm happy to follow up and see what I can find out for you.

Thanks, Mayor. I'm not aware of the board or the organization as a whole having any sort of discussion on the topic. So I did see the article, what today? So I'm just reading it now. But yeah, I don't, hasn't been a topic of discussion as far as I know.

because the impact basically some of the county clerks are basically saying that the 26 collection in jeopardy because they can't, the way I understand it, the board of equalization is saying they can't basically certify in their opinion valuations, which could mean possibly not collecting property tax the way I read it in my limited understanding.

Mayor, Council, so I thought I saw this walking down and I didn't just hallucinate this, but so Governor Gordon had filed a lawsuit against the Board today seeking to enjoin their blocking of the accepting of the taxes. So it's actually the inverse. Instead of the Board of Equalization filing suit against the governor, the governor has sued them, alleging they've exceeded their statutory authority. So that literally, I think, came out just a few minutes ago. So I have no details on that, but I'm happy to take a dive into that.

County Commissioners Association voiced approval of the action today. Approved of? Approved of Gordon's lawsuit.

Oh.

So do we join?

Is that a council or would that be a whole since the Commissioners Association joined in? That would be a probably a question for like wham I think they want him saying so account the Council would have to be a municipality supporting. In my opinion, you guys are the experts with whams.

I haven't seen any correspondence from him, but happy to reach out to Ashley and see discussions with any plan on him.

I can support you as needed.

So I think they're going to reach out to him. Thanks, Pat.

Very interesting. Do you want your copy back? No.

Okay.

Because I can look it up too.

Yeah.

Okay. It's showing your value.

All right, if there's nothing else, we'll take about a 10 minute break and head on out. Mayor. Go ahead, Michael.

Yeah. Hey, Ray, I just wanted to clarify the discharge of the uncollectible debt. I believe that's on the agenda for tonight. I just want to clarify that that was uncollectible debt from utility bills. Is that correct?

Mayor, through you, yes, and from other sources such as claims.

I see. Okay. Okay. Well, I just wanted to note that, I mean, it looks like there's been, I mean, just over the years, there's been a vast improvement in the amount that we've had to discharge. And that is very impressive. And I just wanted to commend Don and Jill and all the folks in the finance office for good work. And I think the Council is to be commended as well for the actions we took a number of years ago to to enable that. So I think that was good news that that's been cut more than half. Thank you, Michael.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. And yeah, actually, to Councilor Bond's point, I did mean to Maybe not pull it off consent, but I was hoping at least maybe just in an information packet memo or something. I would be curious how much of that reduction is just how much of it is attributable to those slight changes we made to collection kind of internal policies. And yeah, I'd be curious what impact those changes have had and whether we expect that to continue trending down or would love a little more context around that if we could get that at some point.

Alright, let's go and take a break and then we'll get out there.

Cheers.