Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. Welcome, everybody, to the City of Joliet Public Safety meeting. We're here in the City of Joliet Council Chambers. Today is Tuesday, 02/03/2026, and it's 05:30. Can we have roll call, please?

Councilman Clement? Here. Councilwoman Ivarra? Here. Councilwoman Quillman? Here.

Alright. Everybody's here. Approval of the minutes from 01/06/2026. Did everybody have a chance to review those and if you have any questions or comments or changes? And if not, we'll need a motion to approve and a second.

So moved. Second.

And we have a first and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Okay. Citizens to be heard on agenda items. Are there any citizens here that want to speak on any agenda item or items? I do not see anybody. We will move on to the actual agenda items.

Alright. Award of professional services agreement for ambulance billing services for the city of Joliet fire department twenty twenty six through 2028 to EMS management and consultants not to exceed, I believe, $1,000,000 for years '26 through '28. She carried.

Yeah. So every three years, we put out to bid the ambulance billing. This is our current company. They got the and with this time, they're actually about point 3% cheaper than our current contract, so that'll be good. They we usually spend about $300,000 a year in ambulance billing, so that's why they just didn't have to exceed 1,000,000. But they pay by the amount of calls we

have, or we pay them by the amount. Very good. And this is on are there any questions or comments? This is on tonight's agenda as well. So if we can move it forward, I need the first and the second.

So I'll move. Second.

First and second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Okay. Let's move on. Alright. Purchase of four complete Horton Amlases from Foster Coach in the amount of $1,571,356 for budget years 2027 through 2028. Chief?

Yeah. So with all of our equipment, how they are now, everything's three to four year wait. The ambulance are thirty to thirty six months. So these are for the twin two in 27, two in 28. We probably won't receive them till '28, early twenty nine. So we're just trying to get ahead of them and order them now so we can actually get them before they get too far out of date. After these, we'll be all caught up on a regular schedule going forward after this.

Very good. And this is on tonight's agenda, Owner 105Dash26. Any any questions or comments? Nope. Nope. We have a motion and a second.

So move. Second.

First and a second.

All in favor? Aye. Very good. K. Let's see here. Joy Cole for Units1Dash22Dash26. Is that what this or is this the

what is this? It's on

the next Oh, the thermal thermal images. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I see it.

Yeah. All of our frontline vehicles have the thermal imaging cameras to help you get search for bodies, see through kind of smoke. It does the temper temperature separation. So our current ones are all past their useful lifespan. So now when they break, we can't repair them. We've had a couple break last year. So since we can no longer repair old ones, we're looking to upgrade to the new model for all of our front line vehicles.

Alright. So, basically, this is a purchase of 12 Butler q x t pro thermal imagers imagers for the joy fire department for $91,140. Do we have any questions or comments? No. Okay. We have a motion or a second to approve this.

So moved. Second.

We have a first and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

K. Approval of purchase and uplift of one new vehicle for the investigations of vision asset forfeiture detected not $6,065,000 dollars.

Yes, sir. Every two years, we change out that vehicle for the asset forfeiture detective. The car will then go into the JPD fleet as a two year old vehicle, which obviously is in will be in very good shape. This also comes out of the asset forfeiture fund, so this is not anything budgeted for.

K. Thank you. This is on tonight's agenda under 88 dash 26. Any questions or comments? No. I'll make a motion. Do you want a second?

Second. We have

a first and second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright.

Okay. Next is Peregrine contract. We, yesterday, talked and spoke about it yesterday. Deputy chief Boatsome presented the his what do you call it?

Sorry. Information.

Yeah. Information yesterday. So what we decided to do yesterday was at the next council meeting in a couple weeks, he was gonna show a demo of how this actually works to the council and the public so we have a better understanding of of what this is going to do. You wanna speak real quick about it? Susanna was not here.

Yeah. So last night, councilwoman, the the Council saw kind of an overview of what this system is. What this system will do for us is it will tie every database we have into one central location where that information can taken from that one database as opposed to taking so much time going through every single database we have, which in some cases can be anywhere from 10 to 12. This is single location for all the data. It'll help us with the attorney general's office when it comes to transparency and things like that because this information can be put online for us.

It'll help us save time looking for vehicles and persons of interest and things like that. So, the demo will be done, in two weeks, and I think you'll you'll find that, this is a really good tool for us. It's something that we wanted for a long time. We just didn't know where to get it. There are several departments throughout The United States that are using it now, and deputy chief Bolton has made contact with those agencies, and they absolutely love it. They think it's one of the best tools they have.

Awesome. Thank you.

Any questions or comments on this item? What I was looking to do is is take a vote to just with no recommendation comments just to move it to the council open in the next couple weeks. We'll have the demo we'll have the demo, and then the full council is just vote on it. Why no recommendation? We're gonna recommend something that we're we're gonna wait and see the the this demo.

Okay. Whatever.

Okay. We have a first and a second. Have a Move to approve.

She moved to approve. Yeah. Second.

And we have a second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. This is fire department chief ordinance amending chapter 12 section 13 g to impose lift assist fees in accordance with house bill two three three six. I know you covered this yesterday.

Yeah. I know. Suzanne, you were here, so I'll give you a quick brief. Since 2022, our lift assist calls have more than doubled. We used to run about 1,700 calls. Now over 3,000. This isn't for residents' homes. This is for assisted living facilities and nursing homes. What's happened is they wanna put the the risk onto the fire department out. They have people there to lift people, but they refuse to because they don't want to injure themselves. So they call us to go do these multiple times a day. So it's been a problem throughout the state, not just here. Everybody's starting to pass ordinances where if they continue to do that, we're going to charge the nursing homes for that. And most in most places, the people they stop calling and start picking up their own patients. These are uninjured patients too. They're just slipped out of a chair or something. So and it's not for residential homes.

Why can I

yeah? Go ahead.

Oh, thank you. You're welcome. These are when you say are you thinking at home or at hospitals? Because if you're working in a hospital or a rehab center, you should know how to pick up a patient without hurting yourself.

Yeah. That's that has been assisted living facilities in the nursing homes. The the company policies have started doing it because they didn't want their people in their homes to get injured, so they call the fire department now.

Yeah. So then the discharge, which which makes sense. Because if they had good training, you would you could lift a two hundred fifty pound person if you know how to

do it. Yeah. And these aren't heavy people either. These are just normal

Yeah.

Everyday older people that slip out of their chair.

So I think it's a good idea.

I have a question. So how's the information gonna get to them? You've been doing it for free, and now how is it gonna be communicated to them that this is gonna be something like, hey. We're gonna charge you for this.

Yeah. We were gonna go and talk. We the ones that will be affected by it, we're gonna go and tell them so they know, hey. This is coming. They'll still get six free ones, then after that, they're gonna start getting charged.

Okay. Thank you.

Very good. K. We have a this is on tonight's agenda. 01:10 dash twenty six. Do have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

We have

first and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Thanks, chief. Under resolutions, resolution authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the city of Joliet and the Will County Sheriff's Office.

Yes. This is for incinerator task. They have a much larger, more capable incinerator than we have. In fact, a lot of times that we have to get a contractor out to burn our narcotics and things of of that nature. The sheriff is actually willing to do this free of cost to us. So we wanna take advantage of that, and they have a much better system than we have here. So it it's a win for us.

Chief, do you know what it used to cost? I mean, it's free now. What what did it used to cost us? Do you know

I don't know off the top of my head, but I do know that our incinerator that we were using is is pretty inept, and we had to use from time to time for larger objects. We'd have to use a vendor. Okay.

So I

imagine it probably costs quite a bit, but I don't have the numbers.

Okay. Do we have any questions or comments from the committee? No. There you go. K. We have a motion and a second.

So move. Second.

We have a first and a second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Okay. Resolution to accept and implement a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity under public act one zero three dash zero zero zero six.

Yes, sir. This is a grant that was secured for us a few years ago by senator Meg Cappel's office. It's a $50,000 grant, and we will be purchasing a number of different types of drones. At the current rate right now, we have 14 drones department wide, and we have enough operators at this time to cover all those drones. So our drone program is is going to be much more capable at this point. So this was once again a grant from the state of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunities. So this worked out well for us as we didn't have to pay for these drones.

Thank you. Any questions or comments? No. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

We have a first and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Very good. Any new or old business not for final action or a recommendation? Yeah? No. Yeah? No. Thank you. Good too? Okay. Public comment. Anybody here that they would like to talk about any public comments? There's nobody here. We will move on to the adjournment. We have a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

We have a first and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Thank

you.