Remarks by Shawna Gasak
35 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 1:06:01
“How many volunteer related incidents have we had in DuPont in the last 10 years? Five years, two years, right? Don't we think that's relevant information for this conversation?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:38:48
“When is Affinity opening for residents this fall? So what are we doing to prepare for those additional calls? Because I think you'll be there every day.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:51:18
“A question. How, if you're talking about one firefighter responding to a call, I know that you and Chief Assistant Chief Creekmore have city vehicles. So how often are you responding to those calls after hours to assist if you only have one person available?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:51:38
“Not necessarily during the day, but like if you are on call because you're taking city vehicles home so that you can respond to calls, how often do you and Assistant Chief Creekmore actually use the vehicles to come in and respond to calls?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:04:38
“So you're telling me that 12 firefighters make $439,000? Is that what I'm seeing?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:05:07
“If you've got 12 firefighters, I mean, we actually have 13 firefighters, including the rover. That salary is that for the year?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:16:24
“I can say previous studies that were done came back with 16 total. So you've got five per shift because there's three shifts, and then you have a rover position. So ideally, based on our population and probably call volume, and that's without knowing this affinity situation because my mother lived at affinity. They were there every day when it was fully open. So I think the call volume will go up significantly. But I would say just based on previous studies, if you're looking for a guess, I'm thinking 16.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:22:30
“and our levy will lapse we almost got in that timeline you might remember that whole discussion i just don't think the city will pass a levy for fire ems services and i would hate to put the fire department through that again it was awful it's a tough one i cried it was awful and i i think the utility tax is really our best option and you know if it's two or three i think that is Really what I'm hoping to see at some point is to bring on additional staffing, because I do know that there is short staffing. The Rover does help, but if you have five per shift, I think that would be ideal. That…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:24:21
“It was in 2015, I think was when we tried to do that.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:24:34
“It was a lot of money. But it was, yeah. And it is very expensive. That's why I just don't think that citizens here will vote for any tax increase just based on history alone. Okay.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:25:38
“This to me is public safety. This is why we're here. This is why we're elected. It costs the same either way because it costs about 50 grand to put it on the ballot, and it costs about 40, 50 grand to have a consultant come in. I think utility tax is our best bet. If you're a betting person, I would go in that direction.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:30:26
“If I can interrupt real quick, it does say the legislative authority must allocate available emergency medical service levy funds in an amount proportionate to the percentage of the ambulance service costs to the total combined operating costs for emergency medical services and ambulance services toward the total costs necessary to regulate, operate, and maintain the ambulance utility. Must allocate all revenues received through direct billing to the individual user of the ambulance service to the demand-related costs under subsection. The total revenue generated by the rates and charges…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:38:29
“Would we be looking for firefighter paramedics for these positions if we were to expand? Or firefighters? Firefighter EMT or firefighter paramedics for these positions?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:39:02
“And what would be the estimated FTE budget amount for a firefighter, like including benefits and all encompassing? It used to be a hundred grand, like 10 plus years ago when I first was on council, but I think now it's probably closer to 140.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:39:24
“It would probably be ballpark also for paramedic or paramedics get paid a little more.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:46:58
“we'll make sure we take a look at those outside of that any further questions thoughts concerns is this your last slide you said it is i think so carrie because i thought we had asked to address the ambulance transport fees if we are charging for those when you transport a patient i know we bill insurance but if insurance doesn't pay are we in turn billing the patients and if so How much of it actually gets paid? How much of it gets written off? I was under the impression that we don't currently charge if the person is a resident of DuPont and insurance does not pay. Do we charge them?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:47:43
“It was supposed to be covered tonight. Did we misunderstand that?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:47:54
“okay that was supposed to be part of the workshop tonight was the potential income that we could receive if we start charging for ambulance transport we don't currently charge as my understanding because uh residents of dupont are taxpayers however we have the lowest property taxes what closer to the ems levy well i don't think so i think it's it it's because we have the lowest property taxes in the county i think still but because of that and because we haven't been able to get a tax increase it's i'm of the opinion that we should start charging for ambulance transport to help cover the…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:48:55
“I don't, but some of them don't. So that's what I had asked to find out was how much is not billed and how much is unpaid and how much could we potentially be bringing in in income? How much are we losing in income by not charging for that ambulance transport for a resident? Our property taxes aren't high enough to not charge for that, in my opinion.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:49:35
“Was there a misunderstanding about what I had wanted to be in this workshop?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 2:50:46
“It would be good educational material to have either way, even if we decide not to do a utility tax. Or utility fee for this, I think that the data would be helpful for future budgeting for if we decide to do a tax increase, if we are increasing other fees. I think either way, it's a huge benefit to us to move forward with that.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 3:08:25
“Is this using the sidewalk sucker or is this a budget amount based on not using it?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 3:10:48
“When they identified these places for the hazards, were these painted? Like spray painted people?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 3:11:29
“You saw the recent email that came through from a citizen, right? And it wasn't painted.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 3:42:01
“So the REIT money goes to the general fund. Do we have like An increase in our REIT money from Affinity that we have, we can afford to do this first because it's part of our budget, obviously. So do we have this above and beyond our budget to pay for?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026