City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, everyone, let's get settled in and we'll get the meeting started. I'm sorry, I made the baby cry, I think. All right, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Public Safety Committee meeting for Tuesday, September 1st. I'll call the meeting to order. First item of business is the approval of the June 2nd, 2026 minutes. Do I have a motion? Okay, motion is second. Any changes, amendments to it? All in favor say aye. Aye. All right, any nays? Seeing none, they pass. Next up, we have the fire department, Fort Worth Lab, telling us about recommended changes to the fire and EMS fees. C

I've got some. Back on slide four, and you don't have to go back in that presentation. When you talked about planning two new recruit classes, how many, what's the maximum number of recruits we can get through each class?

Okay, so the class that we have starting October 1 is 25, so that's about half full. Is there a reason why we didn't wait fill that up or why it's not full?

It was just like a tail end of the list.

Okay. That makes sense. And then... We talked about change, you talked about changing their schedule to the 2448, so it's in alignment with the firefighters as well. When we get fully staffed on EMTs and paramedics, do you anticipate that schedule changing or do you anticipate it remaining the 2448?

What do you mean for those that stay on the 24-hour shift?

And is that demand stat? So those folks work what kind of schedule?

And then for those now, the EMS workers are working how many hours a week?

And then when they go to the 48-72, how many hours a week is that going to be? Okay. Are we preparing them for, you know, they've gotten accustomed to working these additional hours and additional overtime?

And I think I had one more. Hang on a second. Oh, yeah. Can you tell me why we have so many more incidents? We have about 2,000 more incidents per month than MedStar. Do we know why we have such a increase over, because it's the same, it's roughly the same service area.

Okay, all right, those are my questions.

All right, thank you. Mia, Michael, any questions? All right, I have one, Chief. I'm curious, coming from the time you and I served on the MedStar board, we were talking about, you know, tiered approach to ALS and BLS. Currently, right now, as it stands, what is our current call volume distribution between ALS and BLS?

All right, that's all right. Thank you, sir. I guess you had more in your presentation to continue. Yes, sir. Please.

As far as those facilities, it's also a question of them having the not just available personnel, right,

It's a reasonable expectation of those facilities.

Thank you, Mayor Perkinson. Chief, so I see that you're comparative agencies, but as compared to Arlington's and the other large metropolitan cities like our own, did you have therapy?

So the lift assist fee is, I want to characterize it for you, is it a new practice amongst agencies or departments? I'd say it's relatively new. Okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Any questions over the options, board members? All right, roll.

All right, any questions from the committee members? All right, there is one thing that I do need to, I guess circle back on, back to the options on page 16 in your presentation, Chief. Yes, sir. Even though it's not an action item per se, you do want some direction from us, given you, right, as far as what percentage range it would be in?

Yeah, because as it stands right now, In reading the titles, option one's 5%, option two, 66%. I mean, that's a rather large range.

Okay, well. What kind of position would you be in if we looked at somewhere in the middle of that range, say 20, 30%?

All right, well, I think at this point, if we go around the table and get input from our committee members, it might be in order. Elizabeth, any thoughts on that? Where you might have a preference in planning?

We know what, my only concern is, and this is because District 9 has, I think, the lion's share of the events that'll be impacted by the increase in fees. And so, do we know what option two, what that looks like? Like the total percent increased? You see what I mean, like?

Yeah, I would think so, only because I think of the Mayfest, the Main Street Arts Festivals, the Michelada Festival, you know, the type of big events that we have downtown and in Trinity Park. And we want to cost recovery. I appreciate that. I also don't want to... prevent our partners from being able to host what are meaningful community events. Like I think of Arts Goggle, that's a volunteer run operation through Near South Side, and I think it would be cost prohibitive if we did option two. So I'm comfortable with option one. I understand that for budgeting purposes we might need to go up a

Have any of those conversations that Councilwoman Beck is referring to, Chief, to your knowledge, have they occurred? Have we had any conversations with them?

public venues because those are often put on by nonprofit organizations. They're not necessarily making a profit and so I have some trepidation about, I understand the need to balance and I want us to cost recovery but I don't want to put these events on ice because I think they're important to the city.

Yeah, we recognize them. Sorry, I think me too. Part of that trepidation might come from what is the cost going to actually be? What is the Michelada Festival going to go from $1,000 to $20,000? So that might be helpful for us to understand those metrics.

Yeah, I mean, if it's a difference between $1,000 and $1,500, I think most of these organizations can... can absorb that, but again, if it's a magnitude of we're going from what they're used to paying, maybe two grand and it's an order of 10, I think then we have some big problems.

Yeah, if you could give an example of like what it would have cost. I know we gave Sundance Square a lot of support during World Cup or Mayfest Arts Goggle and Main Street Arts Festival. I think those are just kind of that come to the top of my head of like those, you know, big events.

Yes, ma'am. Okay, so if I'm hearing this correctly, and Dr. Hall, Before I say anything, do you want to give your input on that?

I thought we were going around the table, but Michael jumped in. Not a big deal. I can wait my turn. So I think my concern actually is kind of in line with my colleagues. I think mine kind of lands more with the smaller nonprofit or the smaller organizations. I don't want to deter people where they may have had a smaller event and they would pay for the standby services and now just kind of making it where they'd rather risk it and not have you there. Because they don't have to, I guess. So I am kind of curious as to why the option was 5% all the way to 66% and not something somewhere a little

Thank you for that. And so I would say to inform my decision-making, I would, to my point, To Councilman Crane's point, I would like to see what that cost looks like for a large-scale event. And I would like to also know, again, I'm always going to ask you comparatively what we are charging versus what other people are charging, just to have something more than a standard and then what we need to cover the cost of it.

Sounds like a good approach. One thing that I want to notate, we are not having a public safety meeting in October. So we would end up having to, you know, based on whatever you present to us, it would be in November, correct? Correct.

Yeah, because of course on October 1st, FY27 begins. But what I'm understanding is we can make a decision like that and not necessarily- Christian probably knows more about the budget than I do. For the Public Safety Committee and do it in- No, no, I don't think so.

Could we do an email approach? That is, could you send it to the committee members via email once you get that information, then have us opine? Would that be possible? Is that legal?

Okay. I didn't suggest that we would confer. But separately, could we do that? What I'm being told by our legal counsel is that we do this as an IR at a council work session, correct? Okay. That all sound kosher? All right. Let's do it that way.

Okay. All right. Unless we're right with legal, we're good. All right. Let's do it that way. Then we can abide by our timing as far as the implementation of that. Okay. Any other questions for Chief? Chief? Before you sit down, I just want to acknowledge this is, I guess, your first formal meeting. We didn't treat you too badly, but we appreciate you stepping up and welcome on board, Chief. I appreciate your support and trust. You've got a lot of great experience, and it's going to be a benefit to the department, so we appreciate you.

Just in. Hold on. Okay, just for further clarification, we were just informed that there is no work session, so then we can receive email communications, but individually, not as a group. So let's do it that way, staff. Clear? We'll do that. Okay, good.

All right, thank you. All right, next up, we have Dr. Jarvis. you know, recognize care for patients experiencing cardiac arrest. Welcome, Dr. Jarvis.

That's wonderful. You know, I know that I speak for our committee and, you know, conveying real appreciation to everything that you do on a daily basis, saving lives is something that should never be taken for granted. And we want to be able to supply you with the tools necessary to do your jobs and do them well for the sake of our public. So thank you very much.

Yeah, so several years ago, I actually had the opportunity to watch y'all respond to a cardiac arrest in real time. I was eating lunch with a friend when a man went into cardiac arrest and Fort Worth Fire Department showed up at the time before MedStar. So I watched that big yellow contraption that you use that does chest compressions and later found out that that particular gentleman had a type of heart attack that only 2% of people survive. And so he survived because of y'all. So it was amazing to watch. So thank you for your continued service to the city of Fort Worth.

So this year, my mother-in-law has come to live with us. And so this year, we did have two medical emergencies. And so I recognize her face. I don't know if they recognize mine, but they came out to my home. And just experiencing those emergencies and anxiety and have lived a long adult life and never had to dial 911. I was very grateful for the staff that showed up, for the care that they rendered, and just the honest, candid communication on that second visit. So thank you so much for all the work that you do and very much appreciate it and want to be here to support you and to Carlos's poin

Michael. All right. Thanks again, everybody. Stay safe. We appreciate you.

Can I make a comment? Dr. Jarvis, I know we talked about this earlier in the year or last year, I don't even know when, but we talked about the ADUs. I know that you were doing efforts then and you highlighted or lifted that up just now. Have you all started more intentionally with trying to recruit the business community or are there any efforts or formalized efforts that you're taking right now to help improve that number?

Well, thank you. Congratulations on these numbers.

All right. We've already discussed about getting more of the cost information as it impacts organizations pertaining to option one and option two. of our event fees, so we're going to get that. Any other future agenda items? All right, seeing none. Everyone keep in mind, again, October public safety meeting for this committee is canceled. When is the November meeting? Does anyone know offhand? First Tuesday, right? Thank you, Jessica. Being told it's the 3rd, so November 3rd is the next public safety meeting for this committee. And with no other business in front of us, we are adjourned.