City Council - Regular Meeting

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Mr. Mayor, um if if it appropriate before I introduce Dorian, um I wanted to just uh give y'all some real quick numbers before we get going. And I think this is a good time because ironically when when I began the discussion today, I specifically talked about Greer as it pertains to growth in response to the the post and Curry art article that was sent to you this morning. Well, since from when you bang the gavl to start this meeting and where we are now, I've actually gotten the updated official census numbers that came uh today. So, these are fresh um fresh numbers. Um, Greer's estimated by the Census Bureau, by the Census Bureau right now 49,800 people, which puts us at that 50,000 threshold functionally, which gives us puts us in a whole another strata as it pertains to entitlement spending, etc. Um, uh, this marks a major shift from the population of 17,000 just 25 years ago. Um, Greer 7.3% growth rate leads every South Carolina city with 50,000 plus residents. For example, Goose Creek was 2.3, Columbia was 2%, Charleston was 4% and uh, Mount Pleasant actually lost population as referenced today in that uh, Post and Courier article. The Greenville Anderson Greer MSA surpassed a million residents for the first time in 2025 with a 9.3% gain since the 2020 census. And the national average for midsize cities was 7/10en of a percent in 2024 to 2025. South Carolina midsize cities averaged 2.2%. Juxtapose that to our 7.3%. So again, I think it is important to keep that in mind as we continue to talk about these budgetary requests from uh what I consider largely your big three which you're seeing today, public safety and

public services as it pertains to personnel and capital. Um but it is not going away and I think those fresh numbers are are gerine to this discussion. Uh with that, Mr. Mayor, I will turn it over to Chief Flowers and let him uh proceed with his presentation. Thank you. Where'd you get those numbers? These came from the Census Bureau. Our planning department sent them to me today while we were Could you send them out? I will. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Um, thank you for letting us come up and speak. Um, it's a it's always a pleasure to be able to come in before you and share, you know, accomplishments and some, you know, good things to spotlight in the fire department. Before I get started, I want to introduce my admin staff. So, Deputy Chief Josh Holzheimer, Division Chief Colby Means, he's over training professional standards. And then our newest addition is Zack Crutchfield, and he is our division chief over support services. Okay, so you'll see that um I've got just a little bit of information in here um as far as just general data. All this is really provided on the monthly reports as well, but kind of want to go back and give you a highlight of the past year. Um, so you'll see that the responses incidents have gone up and you'll see total apparatus responses is is higher. Well, that's because some of those incidents require more than one apparatus. So that's where that number comes from and that's why that happens that way. Um, the QRV is around 1,700 calls this past year. And then we also track all of our data by county. So we've got Greenville County and Spartanber County. Greenville County is 4,300. Uh Spartanber County is around 13,400. And then we go into some other uh data that we do. So last year training hours departmentwide was over 25,000 hours. I wanted to highlight that because you know you you have invested into a huge project called the public safety train facility. um once that is open and we're able to actually take advantage of that which should be very soon. Um we're hoping to make those numbers even higher. So I just want to point that out that that's one of those things that we strive to do because the training makes us you know better at what we do but also more efficient and also more safe for our

personnel. Um, under the fire prevention, that is the number. I'm sorry. What's QRV? Uh, quick response vehicle. That's our uh ALS medical uh vehicle out of headquarters. And is that the only question? Yeah. Okay. I'll have more, I believe.

Okay. No problem. Um, so fire prevention, that's the number of people that we've currently touched. Again, I wanted to spotlight that because you'll see a little bit later on, we've added additional staff member to focus specifically on what we call community risk reduction, which is what fire prevention falls under. Um, so we'll talk about that a little bit more as we go on. And then of course you got inspections, uh, total inspections were 2900 and then you have violations and corrected. And so we track every time we have a violation found. And you can have multiple violations in one location, you can have one. And then we also uh track how many were corrected within that time frame. That doesn't mean they weren't all corrected. It just means it wasn't corrected by the end of the year. Uh some of this is going to be also um a look back u for the past 5 years. So um this is one that Mr. Awood um I think was extremely excited to hear when we first got this, but our ISO classification improvement when when I first arrived in 2015. So, I did go back that far, not because it was me, it was our staff that accomplished all this, but just as a matter of perspective, we were a ISO um public protection class 2. And we talked about that earlier briefly about the the score behind that number. So, the one and the two. Um to put that in perspective, we were sitting at 81.02 as a score. Um that means technically we were 1.03 03 from being a class 3. Um in 2021 to 2024 we earned class one. We were re-evaluated in 2024 and to the present we are a class one. Um we're about two points so around 92 points um in that and some of the things that we will address in here will hopefully gain more points. So we're not not necessarily chasing that one. And I told

everybody when I first came here, we were not going to come in and spend money specifically to chase a one, but we would get it through the normal progression of improvement of services that we were delivering.

What was the big improvement that went from class 2 to class one? So, um, from a residential standpoint, um, most residential, um, insurance carriers, and those of you are not familiar with ISO, ISO has the, um, has an impact on the insurance premiums you pay for your homeowner's insurance. Um, and so typically the better that number, and that scale is 1 to 10, um, typically that number as it gets lower being a one, uh, is better for your insurance premiums. There are some variables to that. So, some insurance carriers do not follow ISO. Um, some of them also use banding, that kind of stuff. So, there's there's some variables out there, but most residential properties don't uh benefit beyond a uh public protection class 6, but when you get beyond that, it's commercial properties primarily. Um, and then from an economic development standpoint, a lot of your big companies, especially your international companies and stuff where they have, um, you know, some of the the the big um, fire insurance uh, carriers and stuff like that, they specifically look for communities that have that class one rating. So, it can be, not saying it's always, but it can be a driver of economic development as well, especially on the industrial side, commercial side.

Yeah. Now, as far as for the actual fire department, when you guys went from like a 81.02, which is number you just said, all the way to in the 90s to be a class one, were there any um specific things you can point at? So, we did this this this.

Absolutely. So, um some of the big ones were obviously that that comment about the training hours. We increased the amount of training. We also uh started doing automatic aid with our neighboring partners. We also uh this the council has blessed us with um additional staffing over the years. So all those things combined have helped us. And then in addition to that, something else you'll see in here is we've also either built or acquired some additional fire stations during that time. When I first arrived, we had two stations and then we also um had a u some staff that we colllocated at another station with another neighboring department. And since then we have bought a fire station from a neighboring department and we've also built a fire station, relocated a fire station which helps with that deployment analysis that is done when they look at ISO ratings.

Excellent. That all your questions? No. Excellent.

Okay. Okay. Um, so I know that uh, you know, we were asked or PD was asked earlier kind of how we compare that kind of stuff. And this is one of those things that always comes up is how many firefighters per thousand. Um, the statistics here are based off 55,000 population because that's the current estimate that we have. I know what the census says, but you know, obviously that's not always accurate. So, um, based off of that, the I looked at what the national standards are. And I say national standards, not a standard, it's a national um analytics. Okay. So at on a low point is 1.54. And if you multiply that times the uh 55 from the 55,000 that says 85 and then it goes up to 92 and then to 100. So I did a low, medium, and a high. Um we are currently sitting at 66 firefighting staff. If you look at the bottom there, it says does not include personnel who support firefighting activities. Example of that would be like our admin assistant. Okay. Um community risk reduction person is not a firefighter. Uh medical training coordinator is not a firefighter. So those three positions are not included in that. Something else it does not include is the part-time positions that we have. The part-time positions being the ones that fill the QRV. We'll talk about that a little bit more in depth a little bit further down because um there's sometimes a misconception as to how many we have versus how many are actually working. So, we'll talk about that. Um, any questions on that slide,

Chief? Tell me. Yes, sir. Um, the 66, that's how many we've got on our payroll. Yes, sir. And um, tell me again the one point the low is that per thousand? That is. Yes, sir. So what you do is the uh so in our instance in our this equation here we took the 55,000 divided by a,000 that gives us 55 and you take the 1.54 multiply that times the 55 that gives you that 85 number and so on down that list

right now and I don't really know how you would do this but since we do that joint response Yes sir. Do you factor in those personnel?

So, they're not figured into this number. No, but we do. The way that I can somewhat quantify qualify that is is that we haven't had to increase the number of our full-time staffing as quickly as we otherwise would have. Doesn't mean it keeps us from having to do that. It just means that we've been able to get some additional efficiencies out of the system um by doing that automatic aid and and considering the fact that we're able to get more people on scene. Um typically, so we're we're in kind of a sweet spot from from that regard. And I'll give you kind of a an example. Um there are additional numbers. So, in addition to these national per capita numbers, there's additional numbers also that you can pull out for um uh communities that are in 50,000 to 99,999. Um if you do that, the low end looks a little better. It's at 71, but as you go up, it increases exponentially. So, for example, where the mid is 92, um the mid for that group is 114. And then if you go to the high, that's 157. And the reason being is because you're kind of in that sweet spot where if you're a smaller department, so some of the departments around us that um cover um geographic areas that may be similar or less than our area, um their population density is probably not as high as ours. Um but that doesn't mean they don't have to have a higher number of personnel to just take and put the rubber on the road, so to speak. So a lot of times those smaller agencies have higher numbers. They're more inflated on that as they go up. The bigger departments and we are getting into that point where we're a bigger department, bigger city. Um you start getting some economy of scale and you know better distribution things like that. The trade-off is is as the

department gets bigger and city continues to expand um you you're going to have more concentration of calls within your center city center. So, you're gonna really rely on those automatic aid partners more on the outskirts than the city center as we continue to grow. We're not there yet, but that's one of those things that you just kind of see as time goes on. Um, so again, we've been able to take and get some efficiencies by doing automatic aid. We've haven't had to grow the staffing as quickly as we otherwise would have. All right. So, uh, 5-year financial overview. Um, you can see here that obviously our largest, u, uh, thing is our personnel, and, uh, there's a sizable increase, and that is thanks to, uh, your support. Thank you for, uh, everything you've done to support the class and comp study. Um, that is a large portion of that increase, and, uh, it is very well appreciated and I know all my staff that I've heard from have been uh, very appreciative on that. Um you also see that you know over the uh years the operating cost um obviously have gone up but not nearly as uh as quickly as personnel cost and then uh you also see that we have debt service and in 2025 you'll see that zeroed out um with the capital that's usually goes up where it's changing how we approach things. So um do you have is that correct in my statement?

We yeah I think by department uh department level we stopped focusing so much on capital within the department whereas we moved it on to a different we have our own capital projects department to to where why you see that zero now uh compared to years prior.

Um this is the personnel over the past five years. So you can see that um you know we've got shift personnel, QRV personnel, admin personnel. And I broke that out um so that you can kind of um see like where we're at with admin personnel versus actual oper operational staff and you also see the QRV personnel. So we'll cover the QRV a little bit more in depth later on, but I wanted to take chance of this slide to explain. Um, so we have 20 positions um for the QRV, but that is a pool of part-time people, not 20 people working. So we don't have those people scattered throughout the system working every day. This

So we literally have two positions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week that we're trying to fill with part-time pool people.

And so within that, the way it's currently set up is we would do two 12-h hour shifts. So, a AM shift and a PM shift. And then you have two people for the AM shift, two people for the PM shift. And it's just a pool of people. So, those people are not all working at the same time. It's literally two positions at any given time that are typically working. So, we're going to go over uh some highlights. Um, and these are going to be a little bit um mixed between previous year and then also you'll see some uh some of the past 5year stuff. And I I'll go ahead and stop here and say that you know it's it's a unique opportunity to come in and present so something like this to you guys because um sometimes when you're in the nittritty, you have a tendency to kind of forget all the things you've accomplished. And so the things that we've we're going to highlight here are some of the bigger things that we've accomplished. They're not everything, but it does kind of give you a chance to sit back and really reflect on what it is that that our team has been able to accomplish over the past, you know, 5 years or time period, whatever, and with the resources that you guys have blessed us with and given us the opportunity to actually do these things and make um the city better. So, on this slide, you'll see that, you know, we've got uh in 2025 2026, we had about $220,000 in capital. You can see there, those are kind of things that we were um uh focused on. One thing I want to bring in there, actually a couple things I want to bring in there is the Knox ecore project. Um some of you may remember that um we uh we so we have a Knoxbox system. It's called a Knoxbox system. It allows us access to commercial properties um in the event of emergency. So we don't have to do damage to the building gaining access. So what happens is we have a previously had a physical key that we have a tracking mechanism to anytime it's taken out, used, whatever, we can track that and

correlate that to a call that was actually on that um on that incident. And by doing that, we can assure that the the commercial properties, the owners know that it's secure. There's no risk of it being abused or anything like that. Um and over time and this is technology and efficiency come into play over time it became more of a problem when especially with automatic aid you know we can't just give a key to a neighboring department because they don't have another way of securing that key the way it was originally designed so something that they have uh improved upon is the use of technology and it's called it e key and so we have gone out and the city thankfully uh allowed owed us to uh purchase all the cylinders, the actual lock cylinders to replace in all those NOX boxes that allows us to use this E key. Because this E key is electronic, it doesn't have, you know, the key and tumbler and all that kind of stuff. We're able to assign other departments. So, our automatic aid partners, they have a E key. We can assign them access. So, it automatically allows them to have access with the same tracking, you know, checks and balances that we have. So if there's ever a question, we can go back and say, "All right, this business, this box was actually accessed on this date and time by this particular individual because they each have their own personal u pin code and everything else to release this e key from the apparatus. So you guys have allowed us to do that. We appreciate it. We're actually going to wrap that project up this year. It's not been a uh a cheap project, but the benefit is is that the community, the commercial properties that had already invested in the Knoxbox system, they didn't have to then incur additional cost because we made a change. So, thank you for that. You also uh see under the operating u uh column strategic plan and uh uniform jackets. uniform jackets.

Unfortunately, on this particular one, because we're a bigger department, it was an expensive uh component, but it was not the majority. Majority of this was the uh strategic planning process. Um those of you that know or don't know, we had a previous strategic plan and we went through that. It timed out as we completed things. So, it was time for us to do another one. We have done that. Some of you participated in that. Um, so we have that and we are starting that now in this year because it was in this budget year currently that we're in. Um, and then finally, we do have one grant for this particular budget year and it's for gear extractor and gear dryer and that is going to the station 56 which is a station we bought from Pel and Bates that did not previously have that. That was a federal grant. will we need be able to get grant money for the new fire department for similar equipment or

so um when we're when we're building when we're building the fire stations we typically include that into the design of the fire station. Um in some cases it's we can and we have but um it depends on the timing of everything because there's time pl time frame when you have to apply for it then you have to wait to see if you get it and then if you are still waiting to see if you get it and you've already got a station built then you don't have it. So it's really a timing thing. So, what we do is we try to um look at where we can um either fix things that we find that we already have problems with and then update that. Um for example, we'll go down here. I'll have some more examples of some other grants that we've been awarded in the past 5 years. Roughly 300 some odd thousand dollars worth of grants that we've um got over the past five years.

Excellent. Okay.

All right. So, speaking of five years, um this leads right into this. So, we've already talked about briefly the uh 5-year strategic plan, which we've already started that. We've already actually started making some progress on those goals and objectives. Um, then you have uh PRV. We'll go over PV a little bit more in depth. Uh, further down, you have pri fire party dispatch. Um, again, that's um that's PRV and priority dispatch helps some of the things we were talking about earlier with PD with um with dispatch. It helps them um be more efficient. that doesn't keep them from needing more telecommunicators. It just makes things a little bit more efficient for them, but it also in turn helps us out as well. Um, then we'll talk about the grants received. We'll talk about fire apparatus again um with the support of council. We have gotten to the point where we've got a top-of-the-line frontline fleet of apparatus. We'll go over that. We'll talk a little bit more about the ALS QRV, of course, the fire stations, um the training center, and then reorganizations, which kind of briefly touched on a few minutes ago, but we'll go in that a little bit more in depth. So, the strategic plan, um it was communitydriven, uh incorporates feedback from the community and community leaders and agency stakeholders. It puts us beyond status quo. Um, basically it's always moving for that improvement. Always improving. That's what we want to do as a department. That's that's what the city does. We're always looking for ways to improve. Um, and then planning for the future as uh the pre previous strategic plan provided guidance for 2019 through 2023. This one gives us a road map from I say two 2027 which we're in 26 27 now um to u 31. So, that's kind of where we're at now. And then if I can get this to work cuz

they they switched this backwards on me. Um cuz I've got to go right or left or something. Well, now it ain't working. All right. Well, they lied to me. So, see if I can No. Sorry. Uh Mr. Awood, he he's aware of it. And um so Pervvis station alerting what that does it it interface interfaces with the CAD system and where it helps out dispatch is previously anytime that we have a dispatch you had a telecommunicator having to actually read out all of the apparatus that's needed to respond the pertinent information everything over the radio and they have to wait for tones to drop and all those kind of things. Um, this system takes the information that normally would have to be read out by a person, reads it out through text to speech. So, it's automated voice. And I would encourage you, if you go on the city's website, go to the fire department's front page, scroll down to the bottom, and you can take and click on links down there to listen to the uh various audio channels that we use for the fire department, and you'll hear that uh audio information. Um, Mr. Mr. Awood, he's he's been an advocate for that for many years. Um, but it it just um automates that process. So, you no longer have to have a dispatcher doing that component. What it does, it frees them up to be able to be on one of the fire ground channels, the operation channels to actually work the event for us. So, if we have a structure fire or a major event, we've got a telecommunicator on a channel that we're actually communicating with. they're not tied up trying to dispatch additional calls because we're on this incident and you've got other calls coming out. Um, so it's very helpful reduces dispatcher workload and uh this system also provides redundant backup. Uh, so they've got redundant servers and

then it also has the ability to not only do the text to speech and do uh network-based IPbased alerting of the stations, it can also interface and alert with the radios. So literally the radios can be alerted and that's instantaneous. So, um, previous we had tone. So, each apparatus had its own tone and you had to wait for however many tones to drop, which could take many, many seconds to get that done before start talking. Now, it's instantaneous. Priority dispatch, this is brand new. This literally just went in service. Um, this is something that was a uh combined effort between PD and uh FD. So, priority dispatch, what it does is it basically, those of you familiar with algorithms, it gives a set list of questions uh for the dispatchers to use when they're uh taking the call information. And then what that does, it drills down and gives recommendations based off of the final determinant um of what to send and who to send. Um so, what it does, it adds consistency to the dispatch process. And then if we find out that there's a hiccup or something, we can go back and go through that whole process cuz it's all recorded in the in the system, the CAD system. We can go back and say, "All right, where where did this go wrong? Was it because the caller gave the wrong information? Was it because uh uh you know, dispatcher heard the caller wrong or whatever it is gives us ability to do quality assurance and quality control. So big big thing for us and we're very happy to have it. Uh grants received again talked about several grants. Um we have one for the SCBA is 195,000. We have one for Plimevent exhaust systems that kind of plays to what you asked earlier. We had two stations that didn't have vehicle exhaust systems in them. But when we built the station at Subaru Road, we incorporated that there. So we got a grant to go back and retrofit the headquarter station and station 56 which

also did not have it when we acquired it. Um and then of course the turnout gear extractor that we already have uh discussed and combined that's $340,000. Um fire apparatus first time in the history of Greer Fire Department. We've got a complete fleet frontline apparatus that are consistently laid out and designed. Um one manufacturer that improves our ability to uh maintain them. Um also provides consistent training. So if you got a engineer at one station that travels to another station to also pick up time or fill in, they're operating the same truck. It literally just has a different number on it. So that significantly improves the ability for, you know, continuity from one to the other. QRV program. I wanted to kind of go back and give a little history behind this. We started in 2022 and it started out 5 days a week from 7:45 in the morning to 7:45 in the evening. Majority of our calls um especially medical calls occur during that period of time. That doesn't mean we don't have significant number after those hours. Just the majority of them happen in that time frame. So after the first year, we quickly realized that you know we it was working and benefiting us. So we wanted to increase it. So we increased it to 7 days a week. still 7 am to uh 7 pm. And then this past um um year or going into where we're at now, we expanded it to 24-hour coverage. That's again two 12-hour shifts with that part-time pool. Um so that's how we cover that now. And part of that, um it was kind of touched on earlier about, you know, outgrowing facilities and things like that. We literally do not have a place for them to lay their head if we were to put them on 24-hour shifts. So, that's why we that's one of the reason, not the only

reason, but that's one of the reasons why we have them on 12-hour shifts. And then fire stations. Obviously, you're familiar that we built uh relocated and built station 42. um that improved our deployment because Hood Road where the previous station was at, you had so far to travel each direction before you could really um get out to any of the other areas. Um and then um obviously it was a major improvement over the previous fire station as well and adds uh capability for future growth. Um and then station 56, we purchased that from Pel and Basil. That was in 2022. Um and that was already in place. We just purchased that from them and moved in public safety training center. Big excited about this. Big excited. Um again, thank you very much for all of your commitment and and help and support and h making this thing happen. Um the training and professional standards division chief, he will be stationed there along with medical training coordinator. Um, again, that's a civilian position, not a firefighting position. Uh, we'll be there. And then, yes, this is going to be a regional, uh, training destination for us. And, um, give you an example, you know, we we were sending people out for EMT training. So, if we hired somebody in that didn't already have their EMT, we were having to send them out, and it cost money, right? Um, we recently uh did our first in-house EMT class. Um, and we had, it was seven. Yeah. Seven. um students in there. All seven passed the national registry test on the first attempt and it was a sevenw week EMT class. Whereas before we were having to send people out for 2 3 months to uh get it done. And um so that's one of those things we'll be able to bring in. We've already got the people. We've already got the the um facility. We've got a little bit of capital request um in this

budget that will help us with additional um props and mannequins and stuff to help facilitate that. But um we have our all of our continue education program for all our medical staff along with fire staff is all in house now. So we don't have to go out and do any of that. And then if we do want somebody from the outside, we can bring them into this new facility and facilitate that way. When you say regional training destination, do we already have some good communication with some of the uh neighboring Yes. municipalities? So we're all excited about it. and all of our automatic aid partners um before we tore down the previous training facility, they were already coming on board to uh train with us on a regular basis.

Um and if you have specific questions, I would I would refer that to uh Chief Means. But um he's he's our ring leader. He's the one keeps all that straight and and organizes and schedules and all that. But um so part of our automatic aid u process and ties into ISO is in addition to having automatic aid you have to prove that you one respond together but also train together. Um and then we have you know like um response plans and stuff like that and we have kind of become the hub for our group to um ensure that everybody's operating on the same level and at the same capacity. Okay. Does that answer your question?

Yes sir. Okay. Um, reorganization. So, we briefly discussed this. Um, so we have the support services division. That's the biggest difference. Um, so obviously we have Zack Crutchfield as our division chief of support services. We already had code enforcement fire marshall. Um, that was an addition, but we also added a community risk reduction person. um that person that's all they're going to be doing is focusing on focusing on um uh anything related to community risk. So it could be fire prevention, it could be, you know, fall prevention, it could be anything that our community needs. That's what they're going to be focusing on trying to limit or reduce those types of incidents. So that helps us not have to respond to as many calls, you know, all those things. So, it helps with that, gets us out into the public more and that community involvement, which was one of the things that we also um saw in our strategic planning process. Um, and then for the future, you know, logistics as we get bigger, a lot of the stuff we have to do like, you know, whether it's ordering and stuff like that, working with uh procurement, um, and then just getting equipment where it needs to be to the individuals, you bring on new people, those kind of things. We'll eventually get to where we need to have that position filled as well. And then finally, uh, the accreditation data analyst position. Um, just like the police department, we intend on eventually seeking our version of accreditation on the fire side. There's an accreditation body on the fire side as well. And that is all based on um continuous improvement. That's that is our culture in the department already and I can tell you that. But having this accreditation process in place eventually will help us uh quantify that as well and and qualify that and be able to say you know absolutely these are examples that we've done and I think you see some of that here but I think we can take that to the next level. Um and then the training professional standards division

obviously we've got division chief of training professional standards. He started that role 2025 and then we added the medical coordinator this this current year. So you might ask, how do we add those people? Well, we had three retirements. So if you look at the numbers, what we did is we reallocated those positions to these because in our evaluation, um while it doesn't mean that we didn't need those other positions, it means that these were more important at this point in time as we move forward. So 2026 27 highlights. This is uh talking about the upcoming budget. Um capital uh actually a capital request is actually a little bit less than last year. Um the operating which is that's that increase is training. So as the training center is coming online, we increased our budget to address that. So that's where the money for the training is coming into a play. Um we'll talk about a little bit more about the capital things as we move forward. But then you've got a big one over there. says grants. All right. Kind of talking about the timing. Well, we we applied for this grant a long time ago. Um and you know, Chris is aware that, you know, and Katrina is aware that we applied for it. Um and it's a shared grant. So, what it is is a three-year grant. We asked for three firefighter positions and during that period of time, the federal government would pay part of their uh cost. So the first year basically our share is 25%. Second year is 25%. The third year is 65%. If you look at the overall cost with benefits and all that kind of stuff, the total cost is 801818. But the city share over that three years. That's not one year. That's not this year or anything like that. It's spread out by that 252565. It would equal $37,000

over the entire project. Um, we don't know if we'll get it. We We applied. Um, we should start hearing things uh around August, September is usually when they start releasing the information. We know for a fact just a couple weeks ago they were um looking for peer reviewers for the applicants for uh the grants. Um so they should start that process pretty soon. But I share that because you know it's not something specifically that's in our budget but it is something that we are all aware of and monitoring and watching. So is that fair statement? Yes sir.

Okay. So capital projects we kind of talked about the uh the ecore project. This will be completion of that project and then uh the training simulator system and then training simulator mannequins. Um, and then finally, life pack 35 monitors. We talked about the eores, but I wanted to kind of give you an idea and of what we've done so far. We've already replaced 300 of them over the past couple years in the budget process, and we have 20 more that we need to do. And so, that's where this request is. It's a little over $6,000. And that will allow us to wrap this up. Obviously, any new um Knox boxes that are going in, we're requiring them to already be the Ecore, so we don't have to do anything else with that. This is to get everything that was already out and installed up to date. The training props, um, again, this will be at the new training center. Um, but the FPAT system, it's going to serve a couple purposes. One is allows us to, um, standardize our physical ability test. So there's two points in time that you do that is one when you first come to work is a competitive process and then there's also the ongoing process of uh annual evaluations to make sure that we're still physically fit to be able to do our jobs and that stuff but it's adds consistency. It also doesn't require somebody to be uh an experienced firefighter to use it. So think about SCBA or something like that. we don't have to, you know, require somebody already have that knowledge because we have times that we hire people that don't have any experience and we put them through training. Again, the training center is going to allow us to be more efficient at that. The mannequins um are just what they are. It's multiple man uh medical mannequins to help us work on that side of the the fence as well um and keep up our continuing education and obviously future uh EMT classes and hopefully eventually paramedic classes.

And then finally, life pack 35. Um, these are the the EKGs. You know, people think they're only AEDs. Well, AEDs are what we see hanging on the walls here where they're automated. These actually allow you to do lot a lot more functions. So, our paramedics are actually able to take and if somebody's got a bad heart rhythm, we're able to actually uh pace them um or and or convert them, cardio convert them in the field. Um, this particular updated version, the ones we have now are the Life Pack 15s. Um, and this is starting the process of replacing them over time and also giving us additional capacity. Um, but it's the only one that allows you to check the rhythm while you are actively doing CPR. Previously, you would have to stop doing CPR for the system to actually um review the rhythm, recognize it, and then advise whether a shock or not. Every time you take your hands off a chest while you're doing CPR, it decreases the chance and likelihood of survival. Um, there are estimates that for every 10 seconds that you're off the chest, it reduces the survival rate by 50%. So, that's one of the reasons we don't move people anymore. We literally work on them where they're at. We don't throw them on a a stretcher, put them in the ambulance, and try to get them to the hospital as quickly as possible because everything they can do there, we can do in the field. So, it's better for the patient to stay there and do it while we're while we're on scene.

How many of these units are you requesting? Uh, this is for two. For two. And I'm guessing these are in all the um what was it? QRVS. So, so we have one QRV. Um and yes, we do have one on the QRV, but we also have one in all of our fire apparatus as well because we have paramedics that are firefighter paramedics. They're not Yeah. They're not just um the QRV personnel. Okay. Um so that way if we have a fire truck arrives first or the QRV is tied up, you have that capability on other apparatus. So it's redundant backup and they're able to get on scene and um do the same capacity that the QRV is in the event the QRV is tied up.

Excellent. And this this slide basically just says, you know, this is a um investment community safety, which I'm preaching to the choir. You guys all know this. Um and so it helps with, you know, response readiness, uh firefighter safety, staff sustainability, training, professional standards, community expectations. Um and again, that's kind of tying back into that strategic planning process. Um and then strategic future uh preparation, and that's just looking forward to the future. And these things help us do those. Um, safer, stronger Greer, preparing a day for Greer of tomorrow. Community driven, strategically uh focused, operationally ready. Um, again, I think that's what you expect of us. Um, that's our charge. So, we believe that whole wholeheartedly and that's what we strive for every day. These are some community expectations, some feedback that we um had from our strategic planning process. Just I don't think anything any of these are, you know, new. I think you'd all would say, "Yeah, that makes sense." So, but those are some actual quotes from that process. And with that, I'll take questions.

Thank you, sir. Council, I listed them out. Um, how many how many uh open positions do you have right now for we have we have certified position? Yeah, two certified positions. Y two certified positions and selfishly once we build the uh new fire station that'll be obviously more open positions. No sir, we that station will be uh staffed by people we already have on duty. Okay.

Um so there's two parts to that question. Um we currently have that engine and that staff stationed at the um the Taylor Station on St. Marks. Okay. The caveat to that is is that we only have space there for three people. So three people per shift. all of our other um companies, we have four people per shift. That's helps to account for people being off and that kind of stuff. Yes, sir.

Um when we move to the new station, we will then have the space to fill those three additional positions. And that's actually where that grant kind of came from was hoping that that would be timing wise that that was going to work out. Um so we would have to add some people would not be all the people. Excellent. Excellent. You're you guys are pretty intimately involved with the design of the new station as well, right? Yes sir. Okay. Um the strategic plan you mentored, is that something you can share with us? It's actually on the website. Okay. Yep. All right.

Um I can share it with you. Yes, absolutely. But you know, if you're like me, you want a digital copy of it, it's already on the website. If you go to the city's website on the fire department's front page, scroll down, you'll see that there and you can download it and look at it. And if you have any questions, reach out and let us know. Excellent. um the drone program that Chief Hamby went through. Um you mentioned tap three times. Uh would we be sharing some kind of drone caller with the FD department?

So I I know he's stepping back. If I think I can answer if I mess it up, let me know. Um so they already do a really good job with that with their current drones. Um, and so I don't think any of that would change. The the additional benefit to us is that, um, with these drones and them being able to have that live feed, you know, he could he could take and have our, um, battalion chiefs or whoever's in charge of the incident also receive that live feed. So, it would give them that benefit. Um, now they they currently what they do is if we have a big event, we we always have PD, you know, on scene to help out, whether it's, you know, to control crowds or whatever. Um and a lot of times we have one of their drone operators on scene and we have absolutely used them in the past where they've actually been able to fly the drones um and you know look down and give us a good perspective of the fire and look for any kind of issues whether it be a a roof that's getting weak or has fallen through or something that we're not seeing from the ground. It gives us a different perspective.

Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Um the we talked about well I know Josh just went and uh picked up our new new two engines. Um do we have any I mean the the lead time on those is astronomical. Correct.

They they are on the on the engines it appears that they're starting to reel that in a little bit. I I would not want to take and give you an estimate of when that would be, but what we're hearing is they're starting the lead times are starting to come in some. Um the the you know ladder truck that we have on order, we ordered um back in June of last year. Um we're still probably three years out on that. So what was the lead time on the engines that we received? Uh most recently that we've ordered. Yeah. Uh it was 36 months. 36 months. Yeah. about three years. Three years. Wow. Okay.

So, are we needing to be When do you write your specification for the for the new vehicles? Is it at the time of purchase or

we we standardize our specifications. So, um we other than small tweaks, we don't have to go back and rewrite them. We already have those specifications. Um and we've just dialed them in from, you know, from one to the other whenever we get out there and actually like, okay, this this works. this didn't work the way we intended or whatever, something we need to tweak and fortunately we haven't had any major tweaks. Um, we we did a real good job on the front end of designing those. Um, so we we don't have that's not a a problem for us on lead time because we already have that specification. It's our specification. We don't have to ask somebody else for it. Um, so we don't that that doesn't play a role in our lead time. What plays a role in the lead time is literally placing the order. um obviously getting support from council to be able to fund that request um those kind of things. But we actually have um projected purchases all the way out to 2046. Um and whether that's you know replacement apparatus or new apparatus with um with a you know focus on future growth of the city if the city continues growing like it is. You know there's case that we may have to put another staffed apparatus in an existing station. And so it's not a replacement apparatus, it's a new apparatus. So those kind of projections, we have those. We obviously have to tweak those as things change in in the environment and the city growth patterns change. It's growing more here today than it is there tomorrow. Those kind of things.

Okay. All right. Um but we do have a that's is that going to be kind of spelled out in the strategic plan as well. So what is spelled out in strategic plan is um identifying the the issues, the goals and then what the objectives are and then under those objectives each of those objectives are designed to help focus on those particular things those needs that support those goals. Um and to that point, we have that that document that literally shows and it actually goes out and recommends personnel, um apparatus, stations, all all those things. Excellent.

So, it's it's really comprehensive. Um, one last one. Uh, side jobs do, um, I I've talked to several, uh, fire department, um, firemen and they've, uh, asked, do we have city sponsored side jobs?

Yes. Yes. So, like for example, um we have uh we cover the medical for football games at a couple schools, stuff like that. Um and so we have side jobs with that. We'll put them on on those. And then we'll also um um work through the city uh finance and payroll system to do that. So, there's a standardized fee for that. It's actually mirrored with the PD, so they have side jobs as well. And then so what happens is they pay the city and then we put the personnel out there and then the personnel get paid from the city like they would anything else. Excellent. I'm good.

Chief, you probably and you kind of answered it, but it's more about the grant again. Yes, sir. Uh because I thought it was interesting having a grant for three positions. Yes, sir. Say again how what was the methodology there? because I was thinking, well, maybe we got some people retiring that you would face those positions, too. But how how did that three come in again? I I I would love to um have that kind of uh insight as to know when people are going to retire. You never know.

I I would love to know that. Um because if we did, we could definitely plan. Um but that is uh that is typically not the case. And it, you know, just it usually just comes in waves. Um, but the grant that we applied for was with the future planning that we would have to fill the positions to get to that fourth person when we open the Gross Meadow Station. Okay. So, that's that's I I don't know if that answers your question and if it doesn't, please let me know. No, it it does. Yeah. Okay. I think the safer grant has been around for years, has it not? I know I know when we first saw it

Yeah. We were scared that we'd have them for three years then wouldn't be able to keep them after that. And I I know we didn't even participate first couple of years.

Yeah, there was and I don't I don't remember Josh may remember but there was a point in time where the city did apply and did get the grant but did not accept the grant. Um and for that reason um I don't want to be in that situation either. I don't want to be in a situation where we have a grant funded position and then you know three years out the we have to get rid of them. back then that the grant was uh structured differently. Back then it was um it was 5 years and then at the end of that 5 years there's nothing. This one's structured a little bit differently. It's it's a shorter period of time and a different um share cost, those kind of things. But um that is it's been around since after 911. So the safer grant and the AFG grant which is assistance to firefighter grant um which is where the equipment came from. Those two uh grant programs started after 9/11.

Chief um you touched on the ladder truck. Yes sir. Um that's will be an an addition to the fleet. Yes sir. Um and so that's going to be 12 that will be personnel 12 new individuals minimum. um what um when when do you uh intend to start hiring for that?

So, um part of that question is going to be dependent on you guys. Um and your your ability to approve that. Um and I don't I don't mean to say that tongue and cheek. What I mean is that um we could hire them anytime. What I mean by that is we have um now we have a the fleet changes. We could put a another it wouldn't be a ladder truck, but we could put another engine ser in service at any point in time. My recommendation would be that when we get a little bit closer to the truck being we know when it's going to be delivered or when it should be delivered would be start hiring that process then um balance that with with with the timing of the budget process obviously. Um but we can bring them in. We can go ahead and start getting them to work. still benefit from them, use them. They just wouldn't be on a ladder truck, but we have the capacity, we have the space in stations um to have them where they can sleep and we can put them on a a truck that's, you know, dependable um and get that use out of them now and then when the ladder truck gets here, we just switch them over. with the hiring that we've done uh in the recent past. Um- because when you know 12 15 people you're talking about hiring, what do you think the the most will will it be folks right out of school that come to Kobe and and he molds them the way Greer firefighter ought to be or you know is is it folks that's you know has exper what what what what do we see out there when we

I think and correct me if I'm wrong but I think you know what you will see is you'll you'll see a mix of that and we have the ability to kind of control some of that too for our benefit. Um but the other thing I think you're going to see is with the pay and comp study that you just just approved. Um and then a couple other things we're working on um that will set us apart and keep us from chasing that dollar like you were talking about um as as the budget allows. I mean, it's not something we're putting into this budget year this year, but um once we're able to do that, I think that those kind of things will make us not only attractive, I think we'll become a destination department. I know we'll become one in the state of South Carolina. I feel like we'll become one in in the Southeast region if we're able to pull it off. to add to that. I mean currently right now we used to have numbers of like you know just a few over 10 to 15 probably to apply for a position and currently right now we have with the two open positions still over 40 applicants and we still have another week and a half left that the application is open.

So we're attractive Oh yeah to the market right now. Yeah. And there's

there's so I think there's several reasons for that. one, the the secrets out. Greer is a great place to work for. Um, we got great support. We've got great resources. Um, even even something I say is silly is important to firefighters. We got good equipment. You know, those kind of things. We got good facilities. Um, and obviously the pay is a is a is a thing. Um, but you know, the word gets out that it's a good place to work. And I feel like we create a good work environment citywide, but also within the culture of the fire department. I feel like we've got a really good culture in the department. And if I'm saying anything that's not correct, y'all please speak up. I don't mind egg on my face. But, um, I think that people outside see what we're doing and they want to be a part of it. And it's becoming more and more prevalent, which is indication of those numbers he just shared. And and it is a mix like what you were asking. What I've been seeing reviewing the application so far has been a mix of

because we're requiring these two positions to already be certified. Okay. So, they're going to have to they may not have their EMT yet. They'll have to get that within 12 months when But with what we have in place right now, it's a mixed lateral and we have some that are right out of high school that are the the the high school folks. Uh cuz I know we recruit from down there at Bonds heavily and they work try to work with them real close. Um are are are they certified when they come in? They are now. Great. Great.

Yes sir. They So um to expand on our our relationship with Harley Bond the center. Um Hank is now over that program over there. Um and we we provide staff to help out when they need to do, you know, like skills and stuff like that and testing. Um they actually are housing one of our spare apparatus over there. Um it's covered by their insurance, but we have one of our fully equipped apparatus over there to help them with that process as well. Um and we are in constant communications with them. Um and you know, even even uh sponsoring some of them through the Explorer program, those kind of things. We've done that in the past. Um, and so they also have the ability to come over and spend time at the fire department and kind of learn how it really is in the fire station, too. So, we've really tried to build that up even higher over the years.

Chief, I just want to say thank you. Ironically, talking about equipment, on Mark's page, social media page, he posted a picture of it was actually Chief Means in, uh, his firefighter gear. Mhm. And if you look at the photo, it almost looks like a Halloween costume compared to what we have now. Y'all should check it out. But, uh, especially the equipment we have now, it's something you see like on Chicago Fire on prime time TV. So, it definitely shows the investment for sure. Thank you. 2015. You may remember, excuse me,

event. Um, in case you haven't realized this, you know, when training professional standards, that includes our recruitment retention programs as well. So, he's over that as well. So, he has his hands full. Who commands a shift? A battalion chief. Okay. I just asked the same question earlier.

Yep. So, we have so our our rank structure. So, obviously you have the chief, which arguably is probably the the least important. I'm a facilitator is what I am. Um and then you have, you know, Josh who's the deputy chief who is ba basically he's able to act in in my absence in pretty much anything, but he's concentrated on the operation side of things. Um the two division chiefs answer directly to him as well as the battalion chief. So if you add that up, that's five people that answer directly to him. Um and then you from the divisions, you have that split out to kind of divide that workload into other other positions. but the battalion chiefs, then we have captains, then we have lieutenants, um engineers, and firefighters. There are some relief drivers we're working on as well. So, that's kind of a step between firefighter and uh engineer.

Lamb, you'll be interested to know that uh in the fire service chaos, the word chaos is an acronym and it means chief has arrived on scene. So if we're talking about the relative importance of leadership, there you know. There you go. Talk that one of the reasons we perform so well is our chief, he just kind of stays back. You know,

you know what? So this is true story. If I if I go on a on a incident, I'll check in with command just like anybody else and ask them if there's anything they need me to do. They're either gonna take and say, "Nah, you can come hang out with us if you want to." If they're gonna say that, I'm like, "If you don't need me, I'm gonna clear up." But nine times out of 10 they be like, "Well, Chief, we really got this uh this guy over here. He's stuck on this hydrant. We really could use him up here actually doing something. Can you get that hydrant?" And that's usually where I get stuck is over there sitting around the hydrant in the hider ranch. Okay. So I I let me take I want I I want to brag on Chief Flowers when um when I have had the um I I guess the fortune to sit in with hiring department heads. One of the things that's always come from the folks that that have been talked to the the Canada is we want you we're a dynamic city. We're different. You know, we you and people from the outside looking in can tell that we're different, but uh we always have said we want you to take us to that next level, but not at the at the at the way normally department heads take you to the next level. Meaning, we're not going to give you a pile of money to expand. Chief Flowers has done a great job of it. the the um he mentioned the the the automatic aid with these other departments. Essentially, we work as one large department. I mean large department. And if if you haven't heard the any of the radio communications, pull it up on the on on our website. But what he was speaking about earlier, it's it's once you kind of train yourself to hear it, you the they will they'll be going to a call that is in, you know, right downtown or

it could be another end of the city and then it's just bam bam bam bam bam. It's all self-populated by the dispatch system and and and they start disping off lots of resources, but we don't necessarily own those resources. They we're just all we all work together and the way we operate now essentially un unless something really happened right around a particular station. Stations will never need to expand, right?

Because they're going to be they're going to be able to occupy maybe two or possibly three companies and that's it. So we're not having to do that. and the the the standardization, all that kind of stuff is is it it works well. And we have um the department's always been super super in the fire service. When you when you're considered aggressive, you're considered good. We've always been considered aggressive. There's a shift that um went on a call recently that that they basically had to cut the side of a house out to rescue a person and then it was on fire. Everything cut the side of the house out and there's two other victims inside and they they got them all.

So to that point, what you're talking about was actually a mobile home fire, single wide mobile home fire that had some hoarding conditions. Um and because we operate as companies, each company has their task. Um, so the engine company typically is putting the water on the fire. They're fire attack. The ladder company is rescue. And so they literally got up there. They confirmed that there was people in trapped. We were told there was three. There was actually three entrapped. They went around. They found two of them, but they were at a window that was too small to get them out. One of the people was u uh wheelchair bound. And they literally took a chainsaw and do what we call a window to door conversion, cut out the side of the wall, put the ladder up there, pulled them out that way. And then once they got them out, they went inside from this end, went through without a fire, you know, a hose line, went through and uh found the other victim, which had pulled a bunch of stuff over on top of them, which made it a little bit harder to find them. Took them out the other door and immediately started doing CPR and patient care in the front yard. So, we we've got a a really good department. We wouldn't be able to do half the stuff we do without your support, and we appreciate it. others.

Any chance you got a uh Greer Fire Department uh youth summer camp? Not yet, but you know what? That that community risk reduction person. Yeah. That's part of part of our plans. Okay. Excellent. I've got um one thing. If you're you finished and I believe council is as well too. We appreciate it. You don't need me, huh? You do need me or you don't? No, I No, I I was going to tell you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. What you want? If you'll go man a hydrant somewhere, that'd be fine. Hey, that that's one of those positions AI may take over.

I I I do want to do one thing though quickly. Chief Hamby, would you come to the podium, please, sir? One one of one of the things that just struck me just a minute ago was in this discussion about hiring and and replacement and that sort of thing. I think it was interesting. 40 applicants for one position. Yeah. For two. Um and that's great. I think I think it speaks well to to our department. And the fact that we're able to turn out people that are already certified straight out of high school is is a real benefit as well too. As we as as we talk about

the police department and the hiring challenges that we find there, I think there are significant differences in in that process. Not not that it says anything about fire service as opposed to police service, but just the way that it's implemented. Because from the time a recruiter for our department makes contact with somebody to having them on board, there is a lot of things that happen and there are a lot of things that are beyond our control in that process. And so would you walk us through that process because I know that over the last 10 15 years I have probably sworn in 99% of of our officers

and and and we are clearly clearly hiring a higher and higher grade and a and a higher level of training. um almost all college graduates or or two-year schools to to our department and speaks, I think, to what we're trying to do is is to be selective in that process. But that being said, there's a lot that takes place in between that going to a college and and talking to somebody and then interviewing them for a position to when you can stick them in a car and let them go. So if you'll walk us through that process, I think it would be interesting.

Would you like me to start at the application partner? Absolutely. Because

All right. So um applications are open uh through our website and of course we'll do all of our recruiting and stuff with happens even before that. So, if you get an applicant, we will uh so we've changed some things to speed things up a little bit lately, but we have predetermined testing dates and we have consolidated three steps into one day in the spirit of trying to expedite everything so that we don't lose candidates to another agency that they're that they've applied to or maybe they just lose interest. So, so what we'll do is we'll accept applications for a period of time once we'll gather an applicant pool. We'll have a testing date. All the applicants are um notified to come on this day and here's what you need to prepare for and we give them the schedule for the day. So, the first step is they'll take a written exam. It's a standardized test. And uh so after those tests, I mean that takes two or three hours. Once those tests are finished, they'll be graded and then those candidates are informed if they pass the written test or not. So those who didn't pass, they can go home or wherever they want to go for the rest of the day. The the rest of them will be uh we bust them to uh run the physical agility uh course. So that they have to come prepared for for that. So they have bring various changes of clothes and that kind of thing for that day. So we'll run them through the physical agility course. they have to pass that within uh 2 minutes and 6 seconds or less. So those who do not uh s successfully do that within the amount of time they're allowed to go home. So those who are left um usually we'll eliminate probably 40% of the crowd by

that point. Uh we'll then uh bring them in uh and we'll feed them lunch and uh let them get cleaned up and and put on some better clothes hopefully. And then we'll have a board interview. So we'll have different people on the board from our department where human resources is represented in there as well. So we'll put them through a very rigorous um board interview. We're looking for communication skills. We're looking for um humility. U we're looking for intelligence. We're looking for people who know how to relate to people. We're looking for those skills that we just can't necessarily teach. Um, so those who are selected to to move forward in the process, those are likely possible people we could see working for Greer, uh, they'll then be notified in within a day or two that they are, um, being selected for for further background investigation. So, they'll come up and meet. They'll be given a a larger um amount of paperwork to fill out. Most of this stuff is electronic and it's automated now, but um they'll have to answer a whole lot more questions, several takes several hours of of their time and provide a lot of references and a lot of that's done electronically. But um so that background can take another month, six weeks sometimes. And then we will um you those who are who have not been weeded out because oftentimes you know we'll find people who uh you know they'll weed themselves out either from alcohol, drug use, um uh uh bad employment history, criminal charges, uh driving, uh they may not have a driver's license. I mean there's all kind of crazy things that happen. So um at that point those who are still remaining after those several weeks of background investigations we will schedule them for a um polygraph. So the poligrapher will

confirm that everything that they've presented in their application and their background is is is uh is uh truthful. Um, so those who continue to uh successfully pass through that, then they'll be set up with um a conversation with me. I don't like to call it an interview, but it's me sitting down with them, having a discussion about the standards we have here, what the expectations are. if they've never done this kind of work before. I talk about the job itself, the good, the bad, the ugly, the challenges of hours, the the the schedules, the work environment, what you may run into, what you will see, what you, you know, may have to deal with emotionally and all that stuff. So, if they still want to hang in there after meeting with me, uh then they'll be scheduled for a psychological exam and that also includes a personality assessment as well as a uh it's a basically a a risk assessment as well. So, those who finish that process um will then be scheduled with a medical and drug screen. So, it's very lengthy and just setting up those appointments. Sometimes there's a lag time you just getting it all done. Now, once they get hired, um, uh, you know, there's always a lag time separating from their previous employer and that kind of thing. So, then they'll be pre-registered for the academy. That takes some time. And then eventually they'll get signed up to start their four weeks of video training for the academy. They can do that in house here. They take a test every week. They have to pass that test every week. And then they take a cumulative test in Colombia at the academy on those four weeks. Bless you. And then after they've um successfully passed that, they'll be scheduled to come usually the next week to the academy to begin their eight weeks. And once they finish the academy,

they graduate. The mayor comes over and swears them in. Then they're assigned a field training officer. And that may last another 16 or so weeks. And we've had people go much longer than 16 weeks. So sometimes this thing can stretch out to 9 months. Uh we've had it almost pushing a year sometimes. And they're a probationary employee for that first year. So there are some people that find out after they come to the job, h I'm not made for this. So they'll bounce out and then we got to start over. So, you know, when you have five, six, 7, 10 openings, we're doing this for all these people and then you got to assign um training officers to all these people. So, you're you're slowing their production down while they train. So, um I tell you what, it's it's like running a separate company the basically of a a farm system to try to, you know, backfill vacancies and then um you know, when we grow the department, there's there's more positions. we so we have to start over. So

hopefully that answers your question. Yeah. And I I think one of the points that I wanted to make to that as well too is we'll do all this to get them through the academy. And basically if you get through the academy, you've now got the Willy Wonka golden ticket, so to speak. And they only have to stay with us at this point two years before they can move on before there's there's more or less. Yes.

More or less. But once you once you have achieved that and you've been certified, then you're now fair game for any other department to come along and offer you a hundred more dollars a month. And I think one of the things that we see particularly while we are attracting young well-qualified people is it doesn't take a whole lot to get somebody to change nowadays. And um you know it's it's um that that makes that job transient in in some regards because you know maybe it's being offered a take-home car or maybe it's a you know it's a bump in bump uh in in in pay or whatever it may be. It's easy to attract somebody and they're already certified and you can skip that whole year that they've been through to that we've invested in them uh along the way. of them.

Y one of the things that that Matt and I have talked about for a very long time and I I I think they've they've implemented they don't they don't talk about it much and he Matt went from the application process forward but um this all started when uh I think you guys were trying to hire uh a young man that was had uh majored in criminal justice at North Greenville and he was an athlete. He's from Gree or that kind of thing. You know, hey, hey, this guy's a good fit. So, uh as as we talked and you know, it came about uh well, we need to we need when when we go and to these recruitment times at these schools, you need to really be recruiting like you're recruiting an athlete. And I think that's kind of what you're doing. You you start building that relationship because you're not going to talk to that that recruit if their teacher say you don't want this guy. He's not a fit. So they they they've been doing that and then they um I think it's kind of a you kind of learn these folks and you they learn who you are and they figure out you know are they going to be a fit for us for group because everybody's different and then that then when they do enter that application and then start you kind of have an idea that these these people are going to play out because I mean not play out, they're going to they're going to work out um because they they've already invested you've invested time in them um trying to get them there. They know

you I mean it's it's a more comfortable environment. So then when you do hit that mark where they finally they're turned loose, they're not as apt to jump ship. But you know, we're still going to have that anyway. Thank you, Chief. That's what I'm sir. What I was looking for was that overview. Now, I think got Travis is the only one left this afternoon. Are we standing between Travis and going home or? Yes. Uh, Mr. Mayor, your call. Five minute break or moving on? We are going to take Let's We're going to do a little shorter one this time. Let's uh we're going to reconvene in 10 minutes. Bye you.