Speaker 1: Great. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. And of course, no big surprise being led by women. Of course. Oh, it's always the women. Always the women. I swear. It's just amazing. Next item is 23.
Speaker 2: Communication from Council Member Richardson. Council Member Super Non Council Member Ranga. Council Member Austin. Recommendation to request the City Manager to provide a status update on the termination of the Rapid Medic Deployment Program.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Mr. Richardson, a joy to go to Stanford with you. Okay, turn it over to staff. Thanks. Mayor council.
Speaker 0: Members. We can have a quick report by our fire chief, mike. Good evening, mayor garcia and members of the council. As you were aware, on August 26th of 2015, the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency or EMS agency, notified the Long Beach Fire Department that they were terminating the rapid medic deployment or RMD pilot project, and that by October 3rd, 2015, the Department must return to the previous staffing model of two paramedics on all advanced life support or A+ ambulances. In our September 1st presentation to the City Council, the city manager and I advised the City Council that we would comply with the direction provided by the EMS agency and revert to our prescribed staffing configuration. Also at the September 1st City Council meeting, the City Council directed the fire department to provide weekly updates on the status of returning to our pre armed staffing configuration. Since September 1st, the fire department has worked diligently to accomplish all tasks necessary to return to priority staffing, and these have been detailed in the five weekly memoranda that we have provided the City Council. In summary, we have done the following with support from human resources. We conducted the required meet and confer sessions with the Firefighters Association and the IAM to discuss the impacts of the staffing change. We have completed analysis on the impact of the return to the previous staffing model would have on the number of positions needed in all ranks on a daily basis. We've evaluated the need for a fire academy in fiscal year 2016 as well as the future need to send firefighters to paramedic school. We have convened a paramedic committee comprised of paramedics and other frontline personnel, representatives from the Firefighters Association and Management to discuss the return to pre-formed staffing and other related issues. We've reassigned firefighters, paramedics and ambulance operators based on seniority to different apparatus under the RMD staffing configuration. As a result of the rebuilding process, we've reconfigured the Fire Communication Center's dispatch system and processes to correlate with new apparatus locations. And we've completed all the logistics required to move apparatus and equipment. On October 3rd, when we return to our previous staffing model, I want to thank all of the fire department staff who are responsible for this planning and implementation process. And I'm pleased to report that we had an uneventful transition on the morning of October 3rd. As you know, upon receiving notification from the EMS agency that they were terminating the RMD program, we began to work with representatives from Deccan, which is our apparatus deployment information system, to conduct data analysis in order to determine the best locations of resources when we return to the RMD system on October 3rd. The Deccan program is a predictive modeling tool which helps us make apparatus deployment decisions based on historical data. The objective of this analysis was to determine the most effective placement of our emergency response apparatus to respond to emergency medical calls. This is the same system we have used over the past decade to make resource reduction determinations. This evaluation of data is very complex process and is best described as a system wide analysis of three years of data involving 180,000 calls for service. This analysis involves all call types, not just calls for emergency medical services, and recommendations are provided based on the most effective apparatus locations throughout the city. Additionally, there are a number of factors that go into the analysis included, including historical call volumes, response times, overlapping coverage, secondary coverage and automatic into and out of the city automatic aid . The fire department used the above criteria and using the 180,000 calls for service ran scenarios of the system in multiple configurations to determine if the deployment model we had immediately preceding armed was the best utilization of our resources, or if there was some compelling new information that would cause us to shift resources. Based on this professional analysis and the supporting deck and software analysis, the fire department determined that there was not conclusive evidence enough to move resources to locations different than the prescribed locations. Put another way, the prescribed model is the most effective model currently given the available resources that we have. Therefore, on October 3rd, 2015, we placed paramedic ambulances and paramedic assessment units at their respective prior M.D. or July nine, 2014 locations. Which was an effective and proven deployment model prior to the implementation of R&D and we believe is currently the best model to ensure protection to the entire city as resources are constantly moved around the system to ensure protection for all our residents and visitors. The fire department will continue to evaluate the data over the course of the next year and ensure that apparatus are placed in locations that will have the greatest impact on our overall response times. Mr. Mayor, council members, that concludes my report, and I'm available to answer any questions you may have.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, Chief, for for diligently facilitating this whole process. I know it's been difficult over this past month, but I also want to just thank you for the way that you've reported out over the course of the last month weekly as the council requested. I want to thank the residents. I know that, you know, you're spending a Tuesday night doing what we do, but this is democracy. I know that you guys dig this stuff. So I'm glad that you spent tonight with this is really important to our community. So so, chief, as you stated in the last in the last time you were update providing update to city council, we did direct you to to do an analysis over the course of this last month to provide weekly status updates so that we can sort of track and participate in this process along the way. So thank you for for complying with those requests. And I've personally had the opportunity to follow these updates. Over the past month and track your work in unwinding the R&D program. And despite the way that people might have felt about R&D, I know that you and your staff and your leadership worked very hard to implement it, and the fact that you worked so hard is something that definitely needs to be recognized. And in the third weekly update, you listed the proposed deployment schedule, which outlines paramedic resources that will and will not be placed in service on October one. And what stood out to me as particular about this with about this memo, a peculiar about this memo was the line that stated the evaluation of data is very complex process, and the data provided thus far has been inconclusive as to the optimum location of each paramedic, ambulance and paramedic assessment unit. So the fact that it was inconclusive was a bit vague and difficult for me to grasp. I can either interpret it as given the resources in place. Eight Rescues data doesn't allow us to conclude that one deployment model is or schedule is safer than the other. Therefore, we're going reverting back to the old schedule, which is what we know. Or it can mean that we actually don't have enough recent data post R&D and that if we had that data, it would be conclusive. So I would ask you to just take a moment, elaborate. What did you mean by the data is inconclusive. What actually happens when you run the deck in software and look at those different models?
Speaker 0: Councilmember The in order for us to run our software analysis, to take those 180,000 calls for service and run them in the system as a predictive modeling tool, we first have to establish a baseline system so we couldn't use the RMD deployment model because we knew that was going away. So what we did was we went into our deck in software and put the pieces in place that were in place on July 9th, 2014. So exactly preceding R&D. And then we ran the system based on our historical calls and then we took the time through a number of different configurations. We moved resources around the city. If we moved an ambulance here, an ambulance, their engine here engine, their assessment units, and we ran the system and then we would run secondary calls in an automatic eight in, automatic eight out and and different types of calls. And when we say that the data was inconclusive, what we're saying is there was nothing there was no sort of compelling evidence or no sort of conclusive data set in a different configuration other than what was in place just prior to our M.D. that would lead us to make a shift of resources from one place to another . Bottom line is, if we had a hole in our system, we would be shifting that hole in our system from one place in the city to another place in the city. And we believe that the deployment model we put in place today, given the resources we have, is the very best thing we can do for the city today.
Speaker 5: And I think it's important that you break that down the way that you did, because it sounds to me and let me articulate what I just heard. Since the system citywide, the placement really doesn't matter where you place it. Either way, you spin it with limited resources. There's. There will be a hole somewhere in town.
Speaker 0: Yes, sir. Okay.
Speaker 5: So it seems like since like I've done work at City Hall in the last five years, we've we've sort of spoken about this paramedic issue. And, you know, although it's an issue that does impact the whole city, I know that, you know, people feel good about having a rescue in their particular area and particularly around the fringes of town, the edges of town like east and north. I particularly remember it was 2010 when we made the shift from nine resources, from nine rescues down to eight. There was a lot of confusion then and one example stands out to me in particular, there was a minor accident on Atlantic and Artesia was a a school bus and there was a during that accident was a a student, a special needs student that had a seizure. And in the same moment, there was a emergency call at Jordan High School directly across the street where there was a heart attack or something like that. And so at that, this was three months after 12 was eliminated. And so rescue nine in Bixby Knowles responded to Jordan High School and then Rescue one in downtown responded to the the car accident with the child, with the seizure. And I remember 17 minutes later that we did get a response from L.A. County Fire Department. And what this story sort of reminds me of is that even though the response was from downtown, you could very well find find a downtown rescue in uptown, you can find East Rescue in Central. It's really a city wide system. And by taking out and not having really those resources, it really puts a strain on the whole system. And my concern is that if we go back to eight rescues, we will experience similar issues. So I would. Want to get your your opinion on this. Can you describe is there a distinction in the system response when you have nine rescues in our city instead of eight? Is there does a nine? Does the value added with a knife rescue provide a more stable system?
Speaker 0: Well, Councilmember, certainly, because as you mentioned, it is a citywide system. The system is dependent on a sum of all the parts. If you add more resources into the system, it would create more stability within the system. I just want to make sure that everybody understands that we do the very best we can do. Our people are very good at doing what they do with the resources that we've got. But certainly, yes, adding adding more resources into our system would make the system better.
Speaker 5: So. So and I get that I know that that we you do as best as you can with the resources you see fit. And that's why I think it's our job to really have a conversation about the system and those resources. So so specifically, what does it actually cost to place a rescue, a ninth rescue into service?
Speaker 0: COUNCILMEMBER The the annualized cost for a rescue ambulance. PARAMEDIC Rescue ambulances, $1.1 million.
Speaker 5: Okay. Roughly. I know these are sort of off the cuff emotions, but I know that I know that we've had conversations I've heard this term about scalable resources. Can you explain what that is as well?
Speaker 0: Councilmember Scalable. The term scalable as a as applied to resources would be something that is not permanent, something that's put in for peak load. Peak load periods over there has a sunset at the beginning and an end. So it wouldn't be a permanent thing. It would be something you do as just kind of a scalable asset. Put it in for a little while. Take it out.
Speaker 5: Great. So if so, if the city council were to help to identify extra resources to help support our paramedic response, would you use the priority list that was submitted to council in the past year, or would you use them last out first, first in methodology? How would you approach this?
Speaker 0: Councilmember We the fire department sent a memo to City Council in 2013 and they can't remember the exact month, but I can find out for you. But that outlines was in August of 2013. Outlines our restoration list, if you will, and it lists them in order. And so we would follow that memo that we had sent to the council.
Speaker 5: I think that's smart. Was that and that. So I'm familiar with that because we followed that for a number of years, even before the R&D program. So that's great. So so Chief, I want to thank you for this report. I want to thank you for the hard work that your staff has done. And I want to thank the hardworking firefighters for their service as well. I personally believe that we're in a moment where folks, whether it's pundits, whether it's the media, maybe people who have watched the city council for a long time, they expect us to divert to the dark ages of debate, where in order for my community to win, your community has to lose. And I believe that we were elected to really think bigger, think broader about our city, and rather, rather than have the conversation about who's community loses. I'd rather have a smart conversation about how all communities can win. So the chief you know, the chief just mentioned that this with the circumstances, you guys based on eight rescues. You can't identify any alternative model unless there's some other chess piece on the board or on the table. And I take that very seriously. So if he had additional resources, he'd be able to fill gaps and have a more stable system to collect data over the next year. We all know that next year we're going to have budget circumstances and budget challenges. We're going to have to have make some tough decisions. I'd rather go into that with a stable year of data so that when we do have a conversation about city wide resources based on a stable year, you know, with with with a better staffed program than we have today. So so I want to make sure that we're also looking at other opportunities and we're proactive as we go into next year's budget. So I want to ask the chief a question. When's the last time that we've actually looked at or evaluated opportunities for us to expand our services to surrounding communities? And if we were to evaluate that, what would that look like and what were the things you would need to do over the course of the year to figure out if we can expand services to surrounding cities?
Speaker 0: Councilmember I in my tenure in management on the fire department and even even coming up through the ranks, I don't know. I know there's been a couple discussions during my career about possibly expanding or providing service in other local jurisdictions, but we haven't. Since I've been in management, engaged in any sort of that activity. But I certainly would be I would not be opposed to the idea, of course, if a surrounding community wanted to have a conversation with us about augmenting their system or providing a service someplace else, we would certainly be open to it.
Speaker 5: Sure. I know that other cities around us have have looked into perhaps counteracting with the county. And I don't know that we've ever that we were part of those conversations. We have a fantastic fire department and and we should at least explore that feasibility. Does it help our system? Does it hurt our system if we expand and look at coverage in other cities? So that's something I like for us to look at. So so I'd like to make a motion. So given this conversation and given where we are today, I move that city staff report back to city council in 30 days on the feasibility and options to place an additional rescue into service in the course of the fiscal year this current fiscal year. This could include a restoration or scalable options. We want you to evaluate the use of an adjusted return rate on our first responder fee potential one time resources as they become available or other potential funding sources. And then secondly, the second part of this motion is to evaluate our ability to provide fire services to surrounding cities on a contract basis and make a recommendation over the course sometime between now and the next year on a recommendation of city council. That's my motion. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Yeah, one quick question about that, just to make sure and I think it's great to get to go back and get the info. Is 30 days enough time? 45 days?
Speaker 5: Question What do you think?
Speaker 1: Chief Just seems very tight for me, but we could do.
Speaker 0: Something like that in 60 days.
Speaker 1: Is that okay with you? Councilman, I'm comfortable. Okay, great. So we have a motion in a second council in Austin. We're okay there. Let me go to the public comment and then we'll take it back to the council. So if any members of the public want to comment on this, we have a motion on the floor to go get some additional information from the fire chief and bring it back in the next 60 days.
Speaker 2: Good evening. Mayor Garcia and city council members. My name is Eileen Iron and I live at 3421 St Francis Place. I'm the president of the Saint Francis Neighborhood Association, and I'm here to.
Speaker 12: Voice my support.
Speaker 2: For comprehensive.
Speaker 11: Fire services.
Speaker 12: And encourage that you all.
Speaker 2: Do the same. To me, one of.
Speaker 12: The most important services.
Speaker 2: In our community is our fire department, who responds to various emergencies across the city within a month and a half. We've had three times.
Speaker 11: Just on my street alone. The fire department respond to four senior citizens.
Speaker 12: Of which I am one. But they weren't responding for me. We also.
Speaker 2: Because of our particular street, is a kind of a.
Speaker 12: Curvy street.
Speaker 2: Where the others aren't in the rest of the neighborhood. Some young people like to see how fast they can take their cars.
Speaker 12: And manipulate the curves.
Speaker 11: Two young men did so two weeks ago and.
Speaker 2: Their car.
Speaker 12: Went nose to artery.
Speaker 11: And.
Speaker 2: One of them ended up with.
Speaker 11: Several bones broken.
Speaker 2: In his neck. The last I heard he is doing much better.
Speaker 12: In is at home. So I want to thank the City Council for listening to our community.
Speaker 2: And what is important to us. I especially want to thank Councilman Richardson. Councilman Orson, council member, supervisor and Councilman Turanga for bringing this. And we have some other residents from the ninth District who have have come to support it as well. Would you please stand? Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you and thank you all for coming out. We really appreciate that. Next speaker. How are you doing?
Speaker 11: I'm great. How are you? Good. I was going to ask you to.
Speaker 12: Do an exercise, but as late as you may fall asleep. So I won't ask you. I was going to ask you to just close your eyes during this presentation, but I won't do that. You might fall asleep. So we'll move on.
Speaker 11: What I want to talk about tonight is some personal situations where we needed.
Speaker 12: To utilize emergency services. And one had to do with my spouse. In my neighborhood, there's a lot of aging as well going on.
Speaker 2: I won't count.
Speaker 11: Myself as one of the older.
Speaker 2: Ones yet, but I am there.
Speaker 11: And we have.
Speaker 2: A lot in our neighborhood and in.
Speaker 12: Our association area.
Speaker 11: If you just think about it, you close your eyes for.
Speaker 2: 3 minutes and think about. Coming up on someone who needs emergency services.
Speaker 11: Very badly, urgently in the time it takes for you to make the decision, I need to make the call. And even though the call is answered quickly, explaining the situation. And waiting for that sound to come up your street that says Help is almost here. And waiting for those individuals, those professionals, to walk through your door and place their equipment down. And the sigh that now awaits you.
Speaker 12: For what has felt like.
Speaker 11: An eternity or.
Speaker 12: Two lifetimes. And many of us have experienced that.
Speaker 11: So I will professionals are very vital to all of us, not only the seniors. If there's a.
Speaker 2: Child who swallowed something.
Speaker 12: And you can't get it out.
Speaker 11: It's critical that the emergency.
Speaker 2: Services be there. And if they have to come from across town as opposed to.
Speaker 12: Being close by the amount of time that it might take for them to actually for you to hear that sound.
Speaker 11: For them to come through your door, place their equipment.
Speaker 2: And actually.
Speaker 11: Start the work. This is what's before you tonight. Alternatives. Additional resources. We know that the budgets are tight, but we need to find a way. We need to find a way of being able to address emergency services.
Speaker 12: For all of our citizens.
Speaker 11: Be they the senior citizens or the.
Speaker 12: Young children.
Speaker 11: Or anyone who has come into our city for whatever reason, they the events that go on here. We need to have emergency services.
Speaker 2: And so with that in mind, I'd just like to say thank you for.
Speaker 11: Listening to us tonight. Thank you for your most urgent considerations. For the needs of this city.
Speaker 12: And go uptown. Go. Top of the tail and go. Long Beach. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I love that everyone says go Long Beach now. All right. Thanks, Speaker.
Speaker 0: Good evening, Mayor. City Council. My name is Calvin Mack Guidry, and I am a resident of the ninth district. I've come to the council tonight to voice my support for comprehensive services, to to make sure that we're were being served adequately based upon the needs. I have a senior in my home.
Speaker 1: That I.
Speaker 3: Would like to make.
Speaker 0: Sure that coverages is and response time is really, really short. But recently I've had a chance to see our response happened when my mother was having a situation. And the the amount of services that showed up was, was really good. This was in the Los Angeles area.
Speaker 1: And the amount.
Speaker 0: Of. Service. People that showed up. It really was a great thing to see them to come in and handle the situation where they had to secure a good work space, which get her out of her bedroom and into the living room where they were able to work and do their job. I'd like to see that for Long Beach. I'd like to see that for our area. And. Make everything a little bit better for the north, north and Long Beach. Thank you to Councilman Richardson, Austin, your anger and super now for bringing this motion to the forefront. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Next speaker, please.
Speaker 12: Good evening, Mayor. Council members. My name's you've been my partner and I are homeowners in North District. And as most of you know, the ninth district is one of the most populated district in the city. So any services taken away will put a strain on the rest of the city. And as we've heard, they're expecting this winter to be the worst winter in history. And we've seen in the news reports.
Speaker 0: How.
Speaker 12: You make that phone call and there is no services available. So. We don't want to be caught unprepared. So I'm asking that you save our services. Thank you. Go. Long Beach.
Speaker 1: All right. I know we're going to get to go along with Jerry.
Speaker 0: You start with a goal on which. Thank you, mayor council Joel Davis, vice president at Long Beach Firefighters Association. Thank you to the residents of the ninth district for showing up this evening in support. I'd like to start by saying we do have a very strong EMS foundation in place today. It can be improved, however. One thing that resonated to me that Councilman Richardson said, as well as our our fire chief. We have a black hole in our system. The ninth rescue would definitely feel that it's a good start. It's not the end of what we need. But I think today to fill that hole, to fill the the paramedic response times, to provide the services to these residents that have showed up tonight is something that we need to focus on and it's something that we need to do. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Thank you all. I know we're going to go to a to a vote. Just just briefly. First, I want to thank all the rises for coming out. I think it's great that you you came out, you're advocating for something that's important to the community and you're here all night with a very long agenda . I think it shows a lot about your commitment to your neighborhood and to the city of Long Beach. And so thank you all for coming out. And I also want to thank I know that Councilman Richardson does a very good job of organizing the community and getting people out to turn out for stuff. And so I want to thank him for I mean, he's obviously looking I know he's looking out for you guys. One thing I do want to say that I believe and believe this is true, I think everyone on this council wants to improve and have a more comprehensive fire and paramedic service. There's no question about it. And so it's it's a very complex issue. But we're going to look at it. We continue to look at it. And we know there's a big need and we know that there is. We'd love to make really you know, we'd love to make additional investments, obviously, in the system. And we're going to look at that and continue to look at that. And so thank you all for for coming tonight and advocating for that. There's a motion on the floor and a second. Please cast your votes on the item. And it will be back in 60 days for a report for more data information on this.
Speaker 2: Motion carries.
Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Now on to item 25.
Recommendation to request City Manager to provide a current status update on the termination of the Rapid Medic Deployment Program for discussion.