Well good for DEF CON for realizing that a very important person is sitting to my right and he needs to be heard And if he can't get on that stage, he's on this stage So can everybody see me just a little bit here sort of yeah, yeah, yeah, and you can hear me I'm Jane Harman. I'm a recovering politician and I am thrilled to be just beneath the main stage at DEF CON With a group of folks who come from very different communities members of Congress and Hackers I Spent 17 years Count that as a member of Congress that's 10,001 in binary and Sometimes it's felt like 10,001 years I Left in 2011 to head the Wilson Center many of you may know it and if you don't what you need to know is that at this con are 15 senior staffers to members of Congress plus these members Senior staffers who have come here some Republican some Democrats all mixed up to learn from this Amazing con and this amazing audience. So thank you for teaching them Over my years in Congress my 10,001 years in Congress. I learned that politics is Analog but The world and the problems politicians confront Is digital? Some politicians are worse offenders than others These guys get it, but a whole bunch of folks I think they're still out there in the United States Congress are still using flip phones and We are here today to see whether the hackers in Congress at the hackers and Some of the more advanced people in Congress can help bridge the divide Trillions of dollars are being lost to breaches and destructive cyber attacks as you all know plus lives are being put at risk if critical services are Cut off by bad actors 30,000 people are here At this con with a keen interest in hacking and in many cases with extraordinary skills The US Congress needs you Today we're going to try to hack Congress in 45 minutes probably would take a lot less than that and to explain how you can help and If we don't work now to translate between the traditional silos of our two communities Then we will miss opportunities. You know this to consider what solutions exist No one solves problems in isolation something this amazing community knows So before you right surrounding me sit to real life current members of Congress Jim Langevin right here, dear friend of mine is a deaf con repeater get that from Rhode Island's second congressional district and Ted Lou on my left Media star you see him all the time. It's from California's 33. Yay Ted congressional district This crowd has no, no This is great Jim and I served together in the house through the dark days and they were after 9-11 He currently sits on the House Armed Services Committee the Homeland Security Committee And he previously served on the House Intelligence Committee He's known for his efforts to improve America's cyber security enterprise co-founder co-chair of the bipartisan congressional Cybersecurity caucus and he's authored numerous bills to protect personal data and improve our government's Coordination efforts against cyber attacks. That's what we're going to talk about Ted Lou is also a member of the congressional cybersecurity caucus. He represents the South Bay of Los Angeles Which is the most where most of the aerospace in in California is and Guess what it most of that was my former congressional district. So yay for Ted a lot of technology is developed there as I said and I remember About 20 years ago or so meeting a kid named Elon Who was making rockets on the sawdust floor in his rental in El Segunda? Ted is one of the only four computer scientists in Congress get that there are four That's better than zero and he's a colonel in the Air Force reserves as an added bonus. He's a lawyer So am I so go ahead and boo And a founding co-chair of the congressional virtual reality caucus. I actually think some of Congress's virtual reality Side-by-side these policy makers are two genuine hackers Info sec Jen and space rogue figure out who's who Jen Ellis is awesome she heads Rapid 7's policy team and Dedicates most of her time to helping government understand information security issues. Thank you for that from a grateful nation She records a cool podcast works to fix problems in outdated laws Most of them are outdated and hosts a killer party at Defconn. I went last night. Thank you for including me Space rogue is a security researcher whose reputation precedes him today He is global hacking strategy lead for X-Force red. How do you put that on a card? Do you it's a big card big card and I PM Space, please. Don't hack my iPhone or if you do leave the pictures of my grandkids So Imagine this let's get into it a massive Destructive wear attack diagnosed as ransomware similar to not pet you shuts down hospitals and train stations and pick whatever you want Across either of your congressional districts and cost companies there billions of dollars Or a horrible twist a domestic terrorist and we certainly have learned about that if we didn't already know about it Could shoot up a shopping mall at home while carrying out a denial of service attack on the malls phone infrastructure So let's start with our congress people What do you do if that happens all of that part of that? As a member of Congress, who do you call? What happens? Jim well Jane first of all I want to thank you and the Wilson Center for Hosting us here today. I am a deaf kind of repeater, and I'm thrilled to be back I was here two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the experience importantly, I learned a lot and gave me the opportunity to engage with some retalented cyber researchers, and I Appreciate the time spent then and the opportunity to be back now and to to be here with my colleague Ted Lou and together one of the handful of few that That would get cyber security and how important it is to the country and honored to be here with the panelists and Jane again, thank you for your leadership of the Wilson Center Jane and I served in Congress as she mentioned for many years and we have nothing but the deepest respect for Jane Harman And it was lost to the Congress when she left Jane any time you want to come back the water's fine come on back So I'd rather come back to I'd rather come back to Def Con So Let me say this we would hope that the right processes right now or in place That we would have a whole of government whole nation response to a major cyber incident that would be in many ways so You know we have to wait to wait to be seen we there after the Several high-profile Sub-intrusions or hacks that took place. There was a process put together PPD 41 and the president Obama that basically laid out what would happen if there were ever a need for a National incident response team to put together and so there the policy is in place Now whether it can be effectively executed bringing all the entities together and without infighting is sort of we'd have to Hope for the best, but we need to practice it. That's the key thing It needs to be exercised and drilled over and over again now the closest thing we have That said that took place was clearly after the 2016 elections where we were totally caught off guard By the degree to which the Russians were going to interfere with our elections We were not caught out of guard in 2018 we did have a more of a whole of nation a whole of government response put in place and We were much better protected in 2018 but not perfect it's still a work in progress the Russians we believe will be back again in 2020 and there are further preparations that are put in place that are ongoing right now to make sure that we are Protecting our election system and our infrastructure going forward that being said the last thing I'll wind up with this We now though had to be able to take that that whole of government response And we also need to make sure that it's it would apply in other areas of national incident of a great consequence so that we would be able to recover and Build resilience but to make sure that we're exercising this so that it becomes a real strong muscle memory Well, so Ted just to ask you to add to that answer On 9 11 when Jim and I were serving in Congress I was walking toward the Capitol in the morning my cell phone. Yes. I had one not a flip phone Rang and I was told The Capitol and the office buildings have been evacuated Congress is closed if you can imagine this we all take an oath to defend the country But hey Congress is closed. There was no evacuation plan 250 members plus were milling around in front of the Capitol Trying to figure out what our next act was I was then the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee That's a job Adam Schiff had for a long time before he became the chairman and we rounded up some of the members We went into one guy's apartment, which was on the Hill and basement apartment and then we figured out We ought to do two things one we ought to mass at the headquarters, which would then close by of the Capitol police to see if we could get secure comms and be helpful And the other thing we ought to work on is getting the Capitol opened so that Congress would be available To protect and at least serve the American people during the worst day in modern history So Ted now that you've heard that lovely story right is Congress prepared now for the kind of cyber Incident that I was talking about No, we are not Let me First say I'm thrilled to be here the only Inaccuracy in the introduction is that I'm a recovering computer science major just want to put that out there I'm honored to be here with Jane Harman much of what I know on Congress I learned from watching Jane Harman who was an amazing member of Congress So thank you for being my mentor and to Cosman Jim Landgevan He mentioned his whole government approach when a crisis hits it is generally too late for Congress to act We are not the executive branch. We don't sort of take immediate action We pass laws and we do oversight none of which is speedy or fast or quick But what we can do is try to set up conditions and to put in laws that mitigate any future crisis That's one reason that Jim Landgevan and I are co-authoring a bill to establish a White House cyber Security czar if you look at how we do cyber in the federal government it is pretty messed up You've got the Department Homeland Security that's sort of involved then you've got our DOD that's sort of involved Then you've got who knows why the office of management and budget who sort of involved and then you got the White House Which is sort of involved and you sort of have the NSC who was involved and they eliminated the national security There's cyber security person. So it is all over the place and if we could centralize a single point of contact I think that would make things easier in addition when you sort of look at our cyber security at least at the federal level a war very weak Space Rogue testified in 1998 about how weak cyber security was a nearly 20 years later We were still there. I remember being in the House oversight committee when We discovered this massive breach of security clearance forms from the federal government Nearly 20 million of these documents were stolen from a foreign country public reporting as it was likely China These are extremely sensitive forms and onus SF 86 forms I filled them out when I was in the military They ask you everything under the Sun every bad thing you've ever done every person you've ever met as a foreign person It is a treasure trove of blackmail and now there's 20 million of these records floating around and so our national security suffered a pretty significant hit not because of any kinetic attack on us, but because there was a cyber intrusion and it was The cyber security standards were so weak that the inspector general's office, which was inspect these agencies Actually started doing this report saying please increase your cyber security and their last report said essentially Shut down some of your systems because you can't protect them Unfortunately, they're director of the office of personal management did not do that and we had this massive intrusion The other thing that we did is when you look at it Why would the office of personal management, which was essentially a human resources agency? Protect or is known as a crown jewels of American national intelligence It'd be like asking the Department of Agriculture to protect our nuclear launch codes really stupid So I worked with a congressman Steve Russell then a Republican out of Oklahoma And we went to Obama administration says and said you got to move this database out of there They did this whole interagency review They came back a few months later and agreed with us and now it's being protected by your cyber command in a much better place So these are some things we can do in Congress to try to mitigate future crises But when a crisis actually hits there is very little Congress can do so Jen What if I turn on my cell phone later it's off for now And I have received a call from president donald trump And he's asking me to find someone really smart in fact some two people Really smart to advise him on what the federal government should do right now To protect itself. What do you tell our president? Why do I start with that question? Firstly, I just like to say hacking congress in 45 minutes was not a challenge guys. So don't get ideas, please I I mean, I think I think that whenever anybody's asked Where do you start on how to secure secure yourself and and to move forward? It's a super complex question and it's a multi-layered question um, I think that The the first thing that you do is you bring as many sort of smart informed people together as possible And you have them educate each other listen to each other Identify what the problem sets are prioritize them figure out what the right solutions are But this is donald trump. We're talking about he doesn't have A lot of time for this Think about his presidential daily brief, which he doesn't have a lot of time for so You've heard from both of these people Very informed members of congress some of the steps congress is taking You're on a phone call. You got your five minutes and you say one thing Yeah, what is the number one thing? Yeah So I think one thing that that we see at least with this administration That I have seen is that cyber and yes, I'm going to use the c word Because it's appropriate here in this context that cyber in dc right now isn't really taken as a priority So I would probably advise the president that uh, there needs to be a higher focus and a closer look at What cyber is and how we can fix it and let's put some dollars into it and some people and see where the problems are And how we can fix them But one of the recent steps he took you heard this from our our members is he Downgraded the cyber job in the white house. Uh, it was held by a man named tom bossard Who's pretty smart on cyber my impression certainly he's now gone into the private sector But not only did bossard get fired But his job was abolished and I think the number of dollars. I don't know folks spent on Cyber protection in the government has gone down in real terms has it Well, it's still in the in the billions but not nearly enough and I think we need to do more in terms of building up expertise within uh within dhs and not just relying on Reach back from from other agencies, but the other thing that we need to do. I believe is Again engage more with the cyber security research community I've learned a lot by coming to def gone and understanding that The the hackers they like to break things But they like to do it so that they can fix them and make the internet Work better and that's where we need to draw on that Strength and leverage it as a country. So Jen, how do you bottle def con? So I That's a great question. Uh, there are lots models. Um, I I would just say like quickly that while I do think resourcing security appropriately and giving it a mandate is essential I I agree with representative lew that one of the challenges we have is There's a sort of chaotic approach. There's like a scattergun approach and there's too many Different voices involved and like I would worry with this sort of uh, you know Trumpian view of like just give it money and tell them to go That uh, we're not going to have a lot of strategy in how we go about it I think having a centralized voice that is expert on this area Is is a a good idea and I think that you know to to um to congressman langeman's point If we can have that group work with this group, you know As you say bottling the security researchers and have the researchers providing the appropriate level of input in Where are the real risks? How do we uh, how do we address those? What needs to be prioritized? That's what I think you make progress So one way that we're trying to engage a hacking community is to ask folks who are interested To help hack the federal government and so I I introduced a bill with congressman taylor, a republican out of virginia It's called the hack the department of homeland security act. It was signed into law earlier this year. They required DHS to do two things one was to make an assessment of cyber vulnerabilities and second to create a bug bounty program to pay White hat hackers to hack dhs and to tell them what was wrong with the agency and to hopefully fix those bugs so If you're interested Contact dhs and then see if if you can help them Well, there are two good things about what you just said Ted One is you actually got something passed on a bipartisan basis and two is It will probably do some good. So those are you know, we're building back congress is what I have to say I should mention That we've already seen a The the hacking program Be successful when ash Carter was secretary of defense I certainly applauded and encouraged the hack the pentagon program, which was wildly successful With that and gsa and as a result kevin mccarthy and I and a bipartisan basis put through a A bill that requires dhs now to have a vulnerability disclosure program and processes that I'd like to eventually see every department agency Have a similar type of a policy put in place that i'm feeling more more confident that that we will So hanging out here yesterday with all these brilliant staffers from Congress we were briefed by various folks and two things were mentioned or many more things, but one is that Failure is good Failure is your friend you learn it. Well, hopefully you learn from failure. You don't just keep failing You can fail upward and you can become smarter That was one and the other word that I've never heard in government was imagination Using imagination Is the way we? Anticipate things that can go wrong get ahead of the of those who are really trying to hurt us So let me ask the members of congress about those two words Does our government? Is it okay in government to fail to learn from failures? And where is the imagination in government about things like cyber? Well, you're right on point that if if You you don't fail you don't learn it's going to be smart failure and I mean this is somewhat related to my defense world and the subcommittee that I chair and intelligence emerging threats and capabilities that you need to Look at failure is an opportunity to to learn you have to foster a culture of trying things risk-taking but Not penalizing failure, but in a sense Rewarding it or please building in a culture and that goes for for cyber as well But you don't learn these things unless we exercise them that we plan It's not something you can just hope is going to work out. It has to be Thought through exercise and that's why the war gaming or or planning is so is so important One reason I read science fiction is for the imagination. At least that's what I tell people So In terms of congress to change the subject and get your mind off your day job So in terms of Imagination, I think jane makes a great point that government certainly doesn't do enough of that But even before you get there just want to understand sort of what congress is like Members of congress don't really walk around thinking about encryption That's not something they do So you're faced with you know every two years when these two legislative cycles we vote Well over a thousand times And i'm 80 90 percent of those votes We don't get a single phone call message email or a meeting and then You're asked to vote on all these different things from You know issues you have no idea about issues you care a lot about So there's not a lot of time on cyber unless you put directly in front of the member of congress or their staff So it's important to have conferences like def con that raise awareness and then when people read about things in the press they might go oh that's sort of interesting and one way to try to get more Um imagination and government is to just let people even know this problem exists So the members of congress and their staffs started thinking about it Yeah, so space rogue you testified 21 years ago. My god. I'm old No, that doesn't make you old Not at all Not to me. I was 15 then. Yeah, you were 15 me too. So you testified 21 years ago What was the sophistication of the crowd you addressed and do you think Congress is trying through all the tasks that members have to do and what I would call the perpetual reelection campaign Uh, do you think that congress is? Trying to become more sophisticated and aware Uh, well the the the uh, the committee that I addressed then was actually pretty sophisticated I mean had senator glenn who was an astronaut senator thompson senator Lieberman All very sophisticated none of them is there anymore. None of them are there anymore and but the current the current administration of the current congress people that I see Want to be sophisticated. They want to be knowledgeable. They want to understand the issues But I mean as we all know some of these issues are fairly complex And that's why they have their staffers to sort of research this stuff for them And it's up to us as a community To engage with those agencies and those people and those staffers and those congress people to educate them And as as representative lewis said he he's not getting letters from many of the bills that he's voting on Why aren't we writing letters? Why aren't we telling them that we're saying we're here. We're available. We're knowledgeable Uh, you know look at this issue in this way. Here's something you may not have thought about whatever get engaged Write those letters make congress more Technical so that they understand the issues that they're voting on Can I ask the audience questions show of hands? Sorry, I really like audience participation because I don't see why I should do all the work So quick show of hands Who feels like they're pretty confident What congress is doing around cyber security like what issues they're focused on? Like I'm somewhat confident on it. Okay Um, who feels like they know what their local representation Thinks about cyber security like if they have a point of view on it what their platform is what they focus on Okay, a little a little bit more. Yes This is pathetic folks Okay, uh, who would actually have an interest in helping to shape better cyber security policy Look at that. Okay. Well, so firstly that's that's awesome. Yeah, that's really great. Like we love that. You should totally get involved And I think you know one thing that I would love to like sort of talk about is how you can get involved Um, and I I do think I mean because I think it's really it's really challenging and it's like a little talk about that All right. Yeah, how how can they get involved? This is from an experienced hacker slash policy one Okay, um, and and I'll say like when I started doing policy work, um, I You can hear in my accent not american. I had no idea. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a policy person I knew nothing whatsoever. Um, I still think I know nothing and yet some Sitting here, which is a little bit awkward. Um, so what I did was Um, I so firstly I talked to other people who were interested So I went online and I looked at who's talking about certain topics and introduced myself to them Figure out what the topics are that you care about for me The thing that got me like angry was a really close friend of mine that's a security researcher got threatened with legal action And it was completely legitimate research and then I learned about the cfa Who loves the cfa? Yeah, that's what I thought Fantastic. So, uh, that was my issue was like I was all fired up about the cfa So I went and figured out who talks about the cfa who's been working on that Um, and I went and made friends with them and then I from those people I figured out which particular committees do things around Um crime and the computer for abuse act. So that was the judiciary committees So I looked up who were on those committees And I I literally just sort of reached out to the offices Of the people who were on those committees and said, you know, I'd like to come and talk to you about security And what I found was when I sent these emails people were like, oh cyber security Yeah, that's totally a thing. We're looking at come in and talk to us And then I kind of got inundated with like can you talk about encryption? Can you talk about breach notification? Can you talk about this that and the other because they were actually crying out for people Who could talk about cyber security and was willing we're willing to give the time So there's real interest all you have to do is like do a little bit of research It is hard. I'm not trying to minimize it is it's daunting. I mean, there's also local government state town city Don't forget them. They need just as much information as the federal government If you don't want to work directly with government, there are a lot of other organizations that Work with government for you that you can work with for example The the bar association is trying to put together a framework for protecting security researchers So if you're a lawyer and you want to work on that you can I don't know contact me I guess but there's tons of things that you can do to get involved and help Be engaged. All right. So josh corbin's waggling his eyebrows at me So I'm gonna say I am the cavalry is another great way of getting involved They do a lot of work with policymakers and they can help keep you informed So, yeah, there are ways of so let's talk about something that is absolutely critical to our democracy Not that a lot of this isn't but the two the the 2020 election And whether or not the answer is not Our voting machines are secure. I went yesterday with jim To the I guess it was the voting village To get briefed and I learned not that you all don't know that that at least a third of voting machines The ones you push and that have no paper trail are totally vulnerable one third in this country one third And there are lots of efforts especially In you know from this audience To try to come up with some ideas that are affordable to election Districts and would add security How many of you I like this idea of show of hands if if even if not asked how many of you would like to work on this problem Well, that's pretty good jim. What do you what do you think? I think it's I think it's great And the the vulnerability in election systems does concern me and Especially when you're talking about Touchscreen technology without a hard copy paper Paper ballot. So this is an area where My experience of government kind of crosses a different a few different domains Certainly the interest in cyber, but I served as secretary of state in Rhode Island. I overhauled our election system I chaired a special legislative commission looking at different technologies and I could never get over the feeling that would have everything went south and and The somehow the data was lost and I've been thinking about hacking at the time How do you recreate the election and instead of going with with Touchscreens we went with an optical scan system. I think that's the the best model going forward But there are many locations that have already invested in this You know the the touch screen technology and they're not ready willing or able to transition over. That's why I think federal resources have to be provided To states and municipalities so that they can purchase that That new equipment, but surely engaging with the the security community is is important. It's essential And I can give a couple of examples by the way, which already happened. We are subscribes to just had an impact Not election focus, but this is on the was in our arrangement on NTA's multi stakeholder process on vulnerability disclosures and and also the FDA and their Pre and post market guidance and medical devices This is an area where we cyber researchers in this community have already had an impact by reaching out to your Your your legislators and and people in the policy world and you can help better inform us as we make good public policy So so one way to Make things better for example in the voting areas to simply make these machines Less susceptible to hacking the other way is to help pass laws that will mandate these private Companies to do the right thing So the house representatives on a bipartisan basis has passed two bills to us senate one is their hr1 for the people act has a number of election security measures in there And then we also pass this safe act focused just on election security It does simple things like require a paper trail Senator Mitch McConnell has refused to take those bills up for a vote And my view is that Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said that public sentiment is everything With it nothing can fail without it nothing can succeed So let's pause there what ted just said translated in simple sentences is the house has passed a couple of very strong bills And they are languaging in the united states senate How many of you live in places that have that have senators? And what should you now do? Call your senator to get what what are the numbers of these bills ted one is hr1 The other is called the safe act So I want you to understand your power to shape public sentiment So one way is for example what jane and jim just did yesterday and when and saw this Village where they're hacking voting machines Just letting the public know hey these things can be hacked or letting the press know and then it puts pressure Right on senators to start taking action just making the issue rise higher level in the public's awareness So understand your power to do that and if people start reading voices of hackers If they read people with expertise talking about these issues, I think that can help change public sentiment So we're almost out of time, but I did want to ask space rogue and jen now that you've heard some very I think positive suggestions from well-informed members of congress Whether you are optimistic that somehow this divide between the hacker community and This analog community called the united states congress not these members Can be breached and that you know what will you personally do after this little conversation? To help get everyone else involved Yeah, I'm I'm optimistic. I've been optimistic for the last 20 years And I think that's one of important lessons that I've had to learn and struggle with because you know as hackers We want things done now, right? Okay. I'm going to hack it. Okay. It's done Congress and government and the corporation I work for now doesn't work that way They do not work at the speed of hack And so it takes 20 years to go from hackers at congress to congress at def con And I'm still very optimistic. I'm very happy that you're all here And I am going to go forward and hopefully continue to encourage people to get involved and be engaged Last word jen. Yeah, I mean, obviously we would be up here for we're gonna be like, no I'm pessimistic a blow So yes, I'm also optimistic and I'm optimistic not just because we have The congressman here, but also because of the number of you who turn out to hear them And the number of you who put your hands up saying that you want to help shape policy in the right way Like that makes me really optimistic the thing that I would say You know just adding on to space's comment about time is also that The way that congress works is it's sort of an evolution and we all in the tech sector tend to live in a bit of a Binary world we can be a bit absolutist about things and I think if you're going to engage the thing to recognize is it's a process It's a journey. You'll make incremental progress. It won't be like one and done So try not to be too absolutist as you approach it What am I going to do? Well, I will say if anybody wants help in getting involved come find me I'm infosec jen. I'm always happy to help people and I will see you guys in dc in two weeks Great Jim and ted each has a A word and I'll I'll sign off before they speak by saying This is one community and it has to include Our political community that divide has to be crossed because if it's not crossed think what the consequences are So please help congress jim landgevin last word and then ted lu Thank you, jane. I really enjoyed the discussion and being on the panel today with these outstanding panelists And let me just close by saying this Um, if you take away nothing from the panel Discussion is that you can get involved and have an impact. I know it has to be frustrating That you know, you see a problem You just wanted to be fixed and do it immediately as Technologies often you can do that right a program picks the problem Unfortunately public policymaking doesn't always work that fast and it's too large great frustration There's many things if I were king for a day, I guess I would uh, I could fix it overnight But the policymaking process can be slow come to something difficult But I will say this when In making good public policy three things have to line up You have a problem a solution and a window of opportunity. They don't often wind up Lining up easily or quickly, but when they do you have to be willing to push it ready to push it across the finish line That's where you can come in. I would say right now Get in touch with your you member of congress house Your your your senator Know their staffs ping them once or twice a year. Let them know that you're there as a resource We've got incredibly smart people in our staff But they don't know everything and we can use more resources. We can use your expertise We welcome your input and your involvement can make a huge difference. Thank you 15 really smart Congressional staffers are at def con and they'll be here Through tomorrow so you can find them and they work for republicans and democrats across the country in senior jobs, so Be sure to lobby them ted the very last word. Thank you. So just two quick points Uh Now only can you assist the federal government? You can work on issues that will help consumers so for example, uh, jim landgearmen has introduced a bill on Notification for privacy breaches. You've had companies that have gotten breached They they had the customers information breach and then they didn't disclose it for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks And you had consumers that could have protected themselves So you can also work on issues not just affecting federal government but affecting americans in general and then let me conclude on this My view of politics is that everything seems impossible until it happens So of 10 years ago, I would tell you hey And 10 years we're going to have gay marriage in 50 states and in a number of them. We're going to be smoking weed I think I was crazy That's what's happening now. So you never know when public sentiment shifts and causes something to happen Thank you for being here on that note. Thank you all for coming


This is Chris Pipe. My friends call me Banksy. I'm back again guys and today It's episode two of the Big C show hell Yes, this show is dedicated to providing tips tricks suggestion strategies pretty much anything to help you guys get your YouTube channels to the next level Yes, that's what we're gonna do today's topic is that introduction video that you saw right at the start there You know with the transformer sound and the the the logo comes flying in and stuff like that guys good news A lot of people aid like that. Thank you for your comments, but be the best part is it's actually not that hard to make There is a you do have to go through a little bit of a process here But if you guys are interested, please stay tuned for the next two or three minutes I'm gonna give you the very basics on how to do it If you want this type of thing and you have like a logo that you have that you want included Or you're a freedom partner and you want something built, you know what leave me a message on my big C account You'll see me there and you know what I'm gonna try and help you out here So anyways guys stay tuned and finally thumbs up this video and leave any suggestions or tips or tricks or anything that you Want to see guys? I will adjust it whether it's from creating a logo to green screening to whatever I will try and help you out. This is Big C. Enjoy the show. Cheers. All right Thanks for joining me guys. So to get that logo going here's how you do it First things first you go to video hive net. I love this site It's got all sorts of templates and things that you can look at in order to make your videos better But the ones we're looking at today are logo stings or openers or pre-rolls Whatever you want to call them to find them you want to go to after effect project files Almost all the intros are done in after effects Apple motion a little bit But it's almost all after effect and then go down here and you see a whole bunch of different options We can go into those at a at a at a later date, but the one we're gonna focus on today is logos things So this is the logo intros that we're looking for they originally get ranked by the newest ones first But let's take a look at let's say the ones with the most sales So the one we want is actually should be here. Yeah, we want the logo transforming But if you want to look at any other ones just to see what they look like all you got to do is hover your mouse over it and watch Awesome, right, you know, let's say you I don't see a particle reveal Your logo anyways guys, that's how you do it But the one we're looking for is the logo transforming so you want to click on it And then if you want to do it, and this is the one you want you purchase it for $25 You download it and then you open in after effects and that's where we're going next guys So stay tuned. I got some more for you. All right guys. This is your boy big C and today We're back in the after effects. Let's do this All right, you're gonna see that I have loaded up the template that we purchased there on video hive I already owned it, but if you purchased it, this is exactly what it would look like The first couple things you got to do real quick here is you want to drag and drop in your logo You'll see on the left side I've got there my two logos and I've also got my audio file that comes with the download So drag and drop them exactly where those are now We're gonna go down to the bottom and you're gonna see the second tabs is your logo Put your play head over there now Take your logo just like that and drop it on top of their logo. Oh man. That's a mouthful and Basically you delete their logo put your logo in resize it That's it. But that's all you got to do. It's really quite simple now. Take a look at what we got We're already almost there Now the next thing here is you're gonna see Next tab you got logo final. This is nothing to it This is just showing you what it kind of looks like the text line is the second thing you need to change Go in there change it to whatever you want. Mine is tips and tricks with your boy Big see. All right, there we go guys Done. We're like 90% of the way done This is the transformation tab if you want to if you're good with after effects and you want to mess with the way the Transforms go go right ahead.  What do we got now? Slowing it down Freedom. Yeah, the logo's in the right spot tips and tricks is in the right spot But it's a little bit too high up on the logo.  Let's take a look at that Not that one. It's final. Okay getting better Still not quite centered the way I'd like it, but it's getting a lot better. So we'll go back in there Nope don't want that one. Oops Click on that and we're gonna want to just sort of reposition it slowly Let's see increase the font size maybe drop it down a little bit Just dragging it down. Yep. There we go. Now. Let's see what this looks like tips and tricks with big C Okay, it's centered. It's not quite centered on the logo perfectly but it's getting pretty close and Guys, you could just sort of tinker and transform with it The luck for me and mess with it put the transform sound in at the bottom so that the audio gets rendered And then basically you just do a quick preview here And then if it's what you want and this takes a while you just go to render and That's it guys That's all it takes to making these types of videos if you want this done And you own a file or a template and you want me to like come in and maybe help you out Leave me a message on my big C account there I'll have a comment in the description below and just let me know guys and I'll try and help you out You're freedom partner. I'm here to help guys. I hope you enjoyed this if you want a longer tutorial I'm gonna start posting them on a different channel and it'll go through all the tips and tricks But anyways, thanks guys for joining me and I will be back soon. Cheers


roll call, Alderperson Barbaldi. I'm present. Betty Ashley is excused. Dean Dekker? Here. Leslie Laster? Here. Amanda Salazar? Here. That's it. I'm going to call the meeting to order and would everybody stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we're going to go over on the table and introduce everybody. I am Barbaldi. I am the president of the Council and the chair of the License Hearing and Public Safety Committee, and Alderperson Barbaldi. Hi, I lost audio, so I'm assuming you're looking at the screen, but I hear nothing. But I'm Leslie Laster, Alderperson District 8. But I can't hear you anymore. You, that whole room went silent in the middle of your sentence. Okay, I couldn't hear any of you after Barb introduced yourself, which is fine now, but I can hear you now. Did you guys accidentally meet yourself on the panel? I did. I'm not muted. Yeah, they're not either. So they can't hear me? I think they can hear us. Okay. Alderperson Laster, Leslie Laster, District 8. I don't think they can. I'm not muted, so I'm not sure. On their computer right now. Okay. All right, can you hear us now? Oh, we're here. All right, so we're back to being recorded. You'll be able to splice the recording back together, Micah, so we don't have to start over. It never ended, actually. Oh, good. Okay. Oh, great. There we go. Okay, I'm going to move on to approval of minutes from November 10th. Do I have approval? So moved. Second. Okay, call the favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carried. Okay, 3.1, presentation regarding Sheboygan Fire Department Ambulance Billing Rights, discussion only. Well, thank you, Chair. So, yeah, Mike introduced that he's our family chief that oversees our EMS division, the fire department. And he's going to give a presentation on the request that we made Monday night to the finance and personnel committee meeting. Group, and so with that, I will turn it over to Mike and I don't know if they're ready for you, Mike. Sure. And then, Micah, am I able to control it from over here? Yeah, use the arrow keys on the keyboard. All right, thank you, committee members. So my name is Mike Luber and I'm the Italian Chief for the Sheboygan Fire Department, and I oversee the EMS division under the Fire Chief Montalano. So what I'm going to do is go over our Ambulance Service Rate Proposal for 2022. So we're proposing to increase our Ambulance Rates for the City of Sheboygan's Ambulance, effective January 1st of 2022. The reason behind this is we haven't had an Ambulance Rate Increase since 2008. So this rate increase is going to cover all of our building areas, which includes our Advanced Life Support, our Basic Life Support, our Specialty Care Transports, our Treatment and No Transports, our Mileage, and then our Lift Assist. These are all the things we build for as far as our Ambulance Service is concerned. I'm just going to give you a quick overview of what each of these are so you can understand what I'm talking about. Our Basic Life Support Calls are just basic calls. So I, Mike, call 911. I fell and broke my ankle. The ambulance shows up. Our paramedics arrive. They do what I call a basic assessment. They make sure I'm breathing. They take a set of vitals. They split my leg. They don't start an IV or anything. And then they transport me to the hospital. That would be a Basic Life Support Call. An Advanced Life Support Call would be a more serious call. So I call 911. I say I'm having chest pain. Our paramedics arrive on scene. They would still do what we call a Basic Life Support Assessment with a basic set of vitals. But being that it's chest pain, they know this is going to require some more advanced treatments. So they're going to do things such as put on a cardiac monitor, start an IV, give some medications, and consult with the Emergency Department Physician on the best course of our treatment. Then we have what we call our specialty care transports. These would be our hospital to hospital transports. So for example, St. Nicholas Hospital, Congo, we have a person that's having a heart attack and we need them to go to Aurora Grafton to get a cardiac cath. Our paramedics, we do special training for this and we have special equipment for these transports, such as IV pumps in our paramedics. We'll monitor multiple medications running at the same time and then we'll transport these patients down to the specialty care center. So these require more training, more equipment. So these are a higher charge. Then we have what we call our treatment, no transports. So these fall under the basic life support category and the advanced life support category. So a basic life support treatment, no transport, would be somebody falls on the ground, our paramedics arrive on scene. They do an assessment and then the person that called goes, you know what, I think I'm okay, I'll transport myself to the hospital. We say no problem.  The advanced life support part of our treatment, no transports are patients like a diabetic that has a low blood sugar. Our paramedics arrive, they're unresponsive, we would start an IV, we would give them some medications, they wake up and we make sure that they're okay. And then they say, I'm good, I'm just gonna stay home.  Our mileage is our loaded patient mileage. So this is the amount we charge per mile from on scene to the destination hospital. And then something new we're adding in is our lift assist, which I will touch on at the end with the chief. So that's just kind of overview of what we're billing for.  Sorry, thank you. So the reason for the rate increase proposal is that we haven't adjusted our rates since 2008. Some of the things that have really changed since then is we've seen an increase in our call volume. We've seen an increase in our supply volume costs. We have equipment maintenance. Most of our equipment is about 14 years old. So we're getting to the point where we have to start to change out some of our equipment and replace it. We've seen our fuel costs increase, but in effect, we've also seen our revenue increase as well. It did a comparison of 2009 to 2019, just so you can see. 2009, our revenue after we paid our bills was $791,000. 2019, it was right about 1.5 million. Our supply costs in 2009 were 49,000 in 2019 because of our increased call volume is at 70,000. And I would say for 21, we're right around 76,000. And then our fuel costs are up from 7,700 to $13,000. Our call volume bill from 2009 to 2019 has gone from about 2,600 calls a year to we're about right around over 4,200 for this year. So our call volume has also gone up, which is a while out of these costs have gone up as well. 26 to 4,200? Yeah, just an EMS. Just an EMS. Yeah, that went out overall. Thank you, Chief. I can tell you everything he said is true because I made that trip with them already. Everything I did was said, call 911, but tell them not to come with the Siren Don. We don't listen to you. I know that too, from my right. And it did an excellent job taking care of you. But thank you, I'm very happy to hear that. It was painful, yes. Your guys were great. Thank you. Okay, so I'm just gonna continue on. This is an overview of how we currently bill right now. So currently we bill on what we call, we have a base charge and then anything we do gets a separate charge. So if you'll notice at the top there, it says base. This is just the ambulance shows up in our paramedics through their assessment. So a basic life support, or an advanced life support charge is $750. Our paramedics aside, they need to start an IV going straight down the ALS side. That would be another $65. Supplies will include things such as our gloves, oxygen masks, any bandage in, that's a $75 charge. EKG monitoring, if we have a chest pain and we need to put the cardiac monitor on is a $60 charge. Our 12 lead charge, which is what we do to confirm if somebody's having a heart attack or not. That would be $85. If we administer O2, that would be $65. And then our medication based fee is $30. That comes out to a total of $1,130. This will change vary depending on what we do or don't do depending on what the call is. And then you'll see for basic life support, there's just a $575 charge, a $65 for supplies, and then maybe a 65 for O2, which comes out to 705. And then just kind of going over, we have a treatment and no transport fee right now is $750, which is we arrive on scene. We provide treatments on the ALS side. We sign off and then we need the patient to go back. So they would just get that base charge. We don't transport them. How does that compare to other cities that have EMS? Sure. I'm actually gonna get that to my next slide. So that's a very good question. John Bonnet here. On the treatment and no transport, what do you do in case, okay, I saw somebody fall down and I called the ambulance, but you get there and they say, I don't want to answer. Yep, no, good question. That is a good question. And you'll kind of see this a little bit, but I'll touch on it for you. So we actually have, what we decided for our treatment and no transports when the chief and I discussed is that we only charge for treatment, no transports. If we do something on the advanced life support side. So if we were to start an IV and deliver a medication, then you would get a charge. For a call where like, let's say I fell on the ground and I got hurt and our ambulance showed up, they did a little bit of bandaging and I was fine. We would sign off a release and they don't get a bill. Or for the case, like you said, maybe some third party sees calls 911 and we get there and there's no problem, no harm, no follow. We sign them off. If you need anything else, call us back. And then we need, okay, so all good questions. Thank you very much. So just kind of a quick overview of what I went through a little bit just so you can understand how our billing currently goes. Ambulance arrives on scene. They charge $750 for our advanced life support assessment. Our paramedics decided they need to start an IV. That's an $85 charge. Then we have a supply charge. So that just covers our gloves and oxygen mask and bandages. That would be 75. They perform a 12-lead EKG and a cardiac monitor hookup. That would be 60 plus 85. They give oxygen, that's $65. And then medications are 30 and you can't see this because it's covering. Our mileage fee would be $16 per mile. So that's how we currently bill on kind of like an card as we perform skills, you get charged for it, if we don't, then you don't. So kind of looking at comparables, when we talked to our billing company and we kind of researched what the industry practices as of 2020 talking to other departments. Departments don't really charge the all the card rate where we have a base fee and then charge for everything. We just, they just bundle everything together. So what we kind of did is we looked at the comparable departments and we also used Orange Cross as well just because they're in the county and we wanted to be comparable to them as well. They decided it was just easier to bundle all the charges into one charge and then it's one fee if we perform an ALS call or a basic life support call or a treatment or transport call. And some of the reason for the industry standard in that was that there was less billing that was missed when the billing company looked through it. As far as Medicare and Medicaid were concerned, they didn't really care how we charged for it. We just got paid the rates anyways. So it was just more simple and standard practice for everybody just to do one base charge for everything. So if you'll see, we went through all these different departments here kind of what they charge and then we took the average. So for an advanced life support charge, the average came out to be $1,365. A basic life support charge is $1,243. A treatment and no transport was right around $335 and the average mileage was $19.93. So those are our comparables, all their ability that you had asked. No, no, I'm okay. Yeah, and you'll see they're kind of pretty close together. There's a couple of high ones, Waukesha is ALS is 2,000 and the cheapest one on there is 1,050, which is a Wisconsin Rapids. Thank you. Yeah, can you make sure all of your last years can still be here? All their last years, are you still able to hear? I'm good, thank you. So moving on, this would be the Sheboygan fire department rate proposal. The top line is our previous rates. The second line down is the average comparables of all the departments we looked at. And the third line down is our proposed new rates. So you'll see for our ALS call, previously we charged right around $1,130 for a typical call. The average industry, or the average of our comparable departments was 1,365. And we're proposing the rate of $1,178 for our bundle cost as of January 1st, 2022. The last line is non-residents get $100 extra charge. So our base rate for a non-resident would be 1,278 for an advanced life support call. Our ALS 2 calls, which those are what we call, those are really critical calls where we're performing a lot of skills and doing a lot of extra stuff. That one is $1,291 for our new charge. That's underneath the 1,474 of the comparables. Our basic life support, the old charge was 705. Our comparables were 1,243. And our proposal was for 800. Our specialty care was 1,230. The comparables were 1,762. And our proposal was 1,400. Our treatment and no transports were 750. The comparables were 320,35. And our proposed is 800. And then our whole mileage was 16. The comparables were 1,993. And our proposal is $19 per mile. One thing that I'll just touch on real quick because this came up at the last committee meeting was why is the average comparable for the treatment and no transports so low compared to what we charge. And the reason is a lot of departments charge for some of these basic life support calls. So for example, when you ask me like, what if I just fall down and I only hurt myself a little bit? We still have to respond. There's departments that do charge for that. However, we felt that when the chief and I had a discussion that that really wasn't right for us to do that. We weren't really using a lot of resources and supplies. So we were just gonna charge for the advanced life support calls where we're starting an IV and delivering a medication and doing a lot of skills and supplies. So that would be why our TNT is a little bit higher than the 335. And Alder Decker, when you asked, what if a good Samaritan calls? So for example, if you were in a car accident, let's say you had four passengers and they called 911 ambulance response and you just seatbelt, you know, you just, oh, it was tight because of the seatbelt. Yeah, I have some little tightness on my chest. Well, we have to evaluate you now. And we can't leave you until you sign a release. And now all of a sudden the other three passengers say a similar thing. Well, we just created four patients that didn't need to be. So now we would charge you $300 per patient and we didn't feel that was right. You didn't even call an ambulance. You know, you're fine. I just, yeah, my arm sore, I'm fine. Well, we can't abandon you. We have to have. So this is a way of us saying, hey, listen, when we do a performance like ALS, a diabetic, we give medications. Yes, let's charge them, even if they sign a release. The others, we don't want good Samaritans to stop calling 911 and we don't wanna, in essence, punish the patients who didn't call 911 and also get a charge. So I hope that makes sense. Any other questions on this slide? Otherwise, I was gonna continue on. Thank you. So the last thing here, this is new for us. We're proposing to add a lift assist fee. So I'll just get the lift assist schedule up here. So one of the services that we provide is when a citizen either at home or at one of the nursing homes, they fall out of bed and they can't get back up into bed themselves or the nursing home staff is unable to lift this patient up. They'll call 911, we will go there, we'll assist them up and back into bed or we'll help the nursing home staff assist the patient up and back into their bed. And then we don't charge them or leave current or charge them at this currently right now. We just assist them and then we go back. As you can see is our list of lift assists have increased in 2018, there was 134. They almost doubled in 2021. Here we're at 256. So what we were proposing is that the first lift assist fee, the first three lift assists would be free. This would be on a rolling calendar basis. And then lift assist four to six would be $50 per incident. Seven and nine would be 100 and anything after 10 would be 150 per assist based on a rolling calendar year. And one of the reasons we kind of came up with this was I would say 95% of the lift assist we go to, we help somebody up, we help them back into their bed maybe once or twice throughout the year and then we're done. And some of the things that our crews do while they're on scene, if we do have somebody that falls and just help them up is we go ahead and try to like offer them assistance through the agent and disability resource center or health and human services. Maybe they need somebody to come into their house and reevaluate their living conditions and say, what are some things we can do to help you? But we do have every once in a while incidents where we're going to like a nursing home, for example, six or seven times where they already have staff there and equipment to help lift these patients up. And that's taking our equipment and our frontline personnel out of service that maybe should be running other calls in that area closer at the time. We also do have a few people, a few residents or repeat customers that might call up to 18 times a year. So this was kind of just to maybe try to curve some of that as well. And I'll let you kind of talk if you need anything. No, no, I mean, it's pretty, you did a great job. It's not a rolling calendar year. So the important thing to note is that so if I called once at January 1st and I don't have another request until December 10th, that's still part of that rolling calendar year. So even if my third one is December 11th, that's still the first three are free until my next one at January 1st, that one drops off of the following year. And that's how it keeps adding. So everybody is different. The nursing homes, what we are intent is, as Mike alluded to is to kind of, because they have staff on duty to kind of curb the abuse of that. So we are going to build the nursing homes as a unit not as an individual. So even if all of us in this room were patients or occupants, residents of that nursing home and we all called for assistance, every one of us would get a single lift assist. Well, in this case, we're all at the same nursing home. So that nursing home is going to get eight charges. Well, the first three would be free. First three are free, correct. Good comments. So is there a way that like a nursing home would be charged, are we able to differentiate that? Because I think a nursing home is a business. They're not, you know, why are we almost coming to subsidizing their business by them not having the staff? Good question. So actually, when you look at our numbers, nursing homes are, you would think that out of that 256 from last year, 200 of them are nursing homes and that's not the case. They're actually our repeat customers, our limited residences. And we have one particular individual that's called us eight times this year alone. So it's just, it adds up. So we're trying to... Nice, it's really nice. Well, we want to make sure everybody's good and we don't mind it, but we want to make sure they're safe and not rude. Yeah. Maybe you need to give them some companion, you know. Call this place for somebody. We always try to direct them to finance. Yeah. But yeah, no, excellent question. So I hope you guys understand the reason behind the litmus system. It's not a money maker. We're not trying to punish anyone, but we're just trying to curb the amount of repeat customers that we have. It does take a lot for us to send a rig out there. And then now if you had an injury, somebody hurts their back. That adds a big, big workman's cop claim to the city. So we're trying to avoid things like that. I'm amazed you have that. I didn't know. Yeah. So right now we're talking about a company like a nursing home, but let's say, for instance, like a gym, right? And they have... It's a sort of a third place that people go to that are much older or have an opportunity of falling and need assistance to get up. I'm assuming you're not gonna like charge, sort of say something like a gym if they've had six people, right? You're specifically looking at a for-profit business that's having residents that are calling staff. Yeah, we wouldn't even if it was a... Let's take a CUNY, for example. Even if they called us four times in one year, we're not... It's the individual. That's the rare... I mean, it actually is a rare thing. You don't get that. YMCA, somebody could fall and trip and they don't need anybody, but somebody calls 911 again. That's that release thing. So the lymphocysts really are only there and those nursing homes are of our residents still. And we actually... These get triaged actually through our emergency medical dispatch. So when they go... When you call 911, they... I don't know if you've called 911. They go through a set of questions, right? So they'll ask you all these questions and the cysts actually fall under a certain card... I call the card category. So once they get to a set of questions, this question meets this card and that's a lymphocysts card. So these are actually picked out before our guys even leave the station. They know they're going for these. So that fall actually at YMCA would never come in as this even. I would imagine in a homeless lymphocyst that also requires sometimes you almost breaking into the home because if someone falls in their home and they need to be lifted, you have to get in there somehow. It's a bit of a guessing that there's something... Sure, sure. Yeah, that does happen. Sometimes we'll get called and if they don't have access from the outside, then our crews have to find out how to get in there. Some people have keys, they might notify us in dispatch and sometimes the door's open. Sometimes we just get in. Okay. Can you tell me what a lymphocyst, what's involved in that? Sure. It's just basically if you fell out of your bed in the middle of the night and your husband couldn't lift you up, let's say. Just make it out.  Oh, I was going to go sit on my couch. I just couldn't make it. We might carry you to the couch. We want to make sure you're not hurt first. You have gate belts or what do you use? We have a variety of equipment. We have gate belts. We have big lifters that we use to lift people up. And then depending on if we need more people, they might call another truck to come and help them as well, just to make sure it's safe for the patient and our people as well. And you. It could be an individual that's fell and she's by herself or he's by himself and he just can't get up. Have you guys know about the little necklaces, right? People are hit just towards. Sometimes that's what it is. I fell, I can't get up and we'd go assist. Great. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Other than that, that's, no, I'm not clicking forward here. I think that was it. The end of it, I only had one slide and it was really just a recap, which is fine. So just that we're requesting our increase for the rates for the year, begin in January 1st, 2022. And it was approved at the finance committee. So effective. How do you plan and notify those? Yeah, look, this is. Yes, you're, you're sort of. The repeat customers. Yeah, so what we'll do is I'll track it on a spreadsheet and then we'll send a letter out. Oh, okay. So you're going to see who is where, who's that and then send a letter to them. Yep. Everybody that gets one will get a letter. So that's, it's really close to. January 1st. Yes. Yeah. The change is happening fast. Yeah. It's been a long time coming. It was just. No, I'm saying it just gives the, those people, you're saying like 15 days and we're going to up the price. Right. Or now we're. Well, yeah, as far as the rate increases. No, the, I'm sorry, my next agenda item, but our billing company will take care of the notification for the rate increases as part of our contract. Okay. Sorry, I misunderstood you. I have a question I, I know like with other medical, you know, doctors, hospitals, things I've got, there's, there's this, this fee and then there's the insurance fee. Do we do anything with that at all?  But now. So are you talking about the Lyft assist or the regular? The regular, the regular ambulance. So again, our medical, our billing company, which I will speak about in a short moment here. Okay. Because they're, they're the ones that would handle that. They bill each patient goes through their insurance, whatever's left over would go to the patient directly. Yeah. So they handled all that. We were, we are going to handle the Lyft assist fee internally. Okay. At the city. Yeah, yeah. But like now Medicaid is that. Top part of the billing with the. The, what they pay is that's it and that's all they get. You don't get, you can't go back after that. You can't ask the person. No, for private insurance, you know, their insurance will pay and then we'll, the, our billing company will balance bill. Kind of the same way of Medicare, but Medicaid is not Medicaid is they pay and then. That's it. And we, this was discussion only. So we don't need to any motions or anything because it's already been put forward to council from finance. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good presentation. Yes. Moving on resolution number. Well, I can read it off here to resolution number one 10 dash 21 22. 12 621 resolution authorizing fire chief to execute an agreement with Andre. Medical billing LTD for ambulance billing service on behalf of the city of Sheboygan fire department. Yes. Thank you chair. So again, we currently have a vendor as our billing company, our third party ambulance billing company. And as all the Decker had asked, they, they take care of it all. They bill the patient, they bill the insurance companies, Medicaid, you know, all of them. So we are asking to switch. We're looking for permission to switch vendors to Andre's medical billing services, effective January 1st. They are a well-known company that I've worked with many times in my previous departments. Several departments here in Wisconsin use them. They have an office out of Brown Deer. We've been very, very happy with the training and meetings that we've had with them. We're looking forward to it. Another aspect that they will bring that we haven't had the ability in the past to do is to allow us to seek collections for those individuals that have not paid. We've lost a lot of revenue because we haven't gone that route. So they will help enforce that as well. So I would be glad to answer any questions if you have. And the one thing that you guys should know is that the fee or the payment, you know, for services for AMB is all based on call value. So the more, as Mike alluded to, we had about 4,200 EMS runs. If we have 2,000 next year, and that's it, well, then our fee is gonna be a lot less. If we have 10,000 EMS runs, obviously it'll be substantially more. So you're asking to execute an agreement with the billing company? Yep. It's to take Andre's as the billing company up. Contract with Andre's to contract with Andre's to become our billing service. And so we're canceling with someone else? Correct. Okay. Correct. Our current vendor that we have now, we have not been happy with their customer service. We get several phone calls each day just complaining that they're unable to get hold of customer service as a patient. So they'll reach out to us. It was just a nightmare. So we... Customer service internally and externally. Yeah. Okay. Are you having issues also with that they aren't collecting from some of them, that there's, you know, you've lost some money because they didn't pursue it enough or they didn't send it to the client? So there was a discrepancy with the collections. Yes, it was a mess. So if the individual was not making payments and after the 120 days, you know, the 30, 60, 90, yeah, we were losing that collection ability. And I know it's not a large revenue source, but it's still, so we weren't going after clutches with this company. It was a little miscommunication between city and the company, but moving on, this Andre's will be taking care of that. Okay. They do contract with the third party, which, you know, Caitlin and I have been taught, yeah. So it will be handled as soon as, hopefully the things are in order in January. Perfect. Thank you. Do we need a motion? I don't make a motion to approve this. I'll second. Okay. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Chair votes yes. Okay. Resolution moving on 3.3. Resolution number 117-2122. Resolution authorizing the appropriate city officials to execute the documents necessary to purchase an ambulance from American response vehicles, Inc. for the Schwoigen-Feyer Department and to make other purchases necessary to equip the new ambulance. Yeah. So thank you again, Chair. So as I explained several, several months ago in our, we're discussing our capital improvements plan and all this was one of our items on the agenda there was to replace our ambulance. So it is replacing a six, roughly a 16 year old ambulance. So AV is, or ARV as they're known now is a very reputable company that it's a new company for us, but here in Schwoigen, but again, I'm familiar with them, used them. The money that we're asking for on the extra items would be to make sure that it is increasing from a four fleet ambulance fleet to five ambulance fleet. So it's making sure that we have the proper equipment on there to be our reserve ambulance and put it in frontline service when needed. So we are actually going from four vehicles to five. So yeah, it's everything that's associated with the cost is on a yes ma'am. So what you're saying is you're gonna keep the 15 year old ambulance but move it to the back only as needed. Correct, unfortunately, Alderfelde, we have to do that. Normally you would want to get rid of it, trade it in and sell it, but because we need a spare, we have to keep this. So we're gonna keep the best out of all four that we have now, the best maintained and the one that's best and move that to reserve and replace our oldest unit with this one because it is brand new. So it will be put in frontline service.  I'm in favor. And I'm guessing that this is going to be what kind of timeframe, I know with vehicles right now where things are kind of dicey. Yeah, Mike has started this process literally, I mean, probably about five, six months ago and we're talking at least eight months into next year before you get it. Well, even, yeah, we're hoping that we would get it. But yes, there's a huge supply shortage. We're running into the same issue with our engine that we ordered and everybody approved back in February of this year. I don't know if you guys recall me talking about it, but it hasn't even gone to the assembly line yet. It hasn't even been, and that was back in February, it was supposed to go in June. So everything is in high demand. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that we will get it in the fall of next year because the ambulances are getting older and older and they're costing more to maintain as well, so. Okay. All right. Do we have a motion? I will make a motion to approve this. Yeah, I will second. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Opposed? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you. You're welcome. Resolution number 106-2122-12621, a resolution establishing polling locations for the city of Sheboygan beginning in 2022. Meredith, take it away. Thank you, Chair. I'm gonna pass out a couple of maps. Leslie, there is the map that's online already on the city's website. The locations are on the resolution. This is kind of gives everybody a visual of what it looks like. I know everybody else wants to see one. So these we were kind of revisiting because we talked about this as part of the redistricting resolution that went through a few months ago and I apologize, it's so small. It's kind of hard to see. So the new locations that we would have for the city that haven't been used before are the Humane Society, the Fountain Park Methodist Church and Christ Lutheran Church. So those are three brand new locations. We've already been out there with the DPW staff doing the ADA assessment and fixing any little things that we've had to fix. And they are good to go for 2022. The rest of our locations are ones that we have used before in the past. And I think I asked you this last time we talked about it, but you've confirmed that there is transportation to say the Christ Lutheran Church for wards 19 and 20. Correct. And it's actually been a little bit better when we had the senior center, they would have to switch bus routes and this has actually improved that. So that's a good thing for us to. Yes, you said there's three new. In addition to what was already there. So we have three more places. We had eight, we were in the midst with COVID. We've switched so much in the last two years just with like First United, this will be our first time back since before 2020, before COVID hit. So we have switched that to Kiwanis and like City Hall has been here when the senior center closed, we've had to find a replacement for that. So that's kind of some of the mixing up that we've done, but we have increased from eight to 10, which I think will be helpful for the city and our voters as well. Yes. And just a quick reminder, it's the Humane Society Christ Lutheran Church and. And the Fountain Park Methodist Church. So that's right up here by the, it's very close to the library, but it's very populated area here as well. So we're only putting one ward at that church, which it's about 2,500 people. So. And you will be sending out notices to people about if their polling places changed or where they need to go. Because of the redistricting as well, we are going from 26 to 20 wards, which will, everybody will have another ward.  We already sent the county is helping us print postcards. We're going to send out to everybody that's registered currently to make sure that they checked to make of what more they voted and what polling location. So we're having like 15,000 addresses are getting a poll postcard as well. And then I know the sun just did my office. So they're going to run an article which will be helpful. I said it helps with the education tool and that as well. And we always send out our notices before, but. Okay. Do you have an advertising budget?  And part of that might just be when they talk about elections coming up. We don't want to really send, we've been talking about this, but it's going to be really important to do it closer to an election as well. We have the postcards printed, but we don't want to send them. February election is always hit or miss if we have a primary. So we might not have an election until April. And so we're waiting on those just to get a little closer. But yes. Hurry up and wait. Right. Thank you. Any more questions? Any more questions? I will make a motion for this presentation. Second. Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair votes aye. Motion carried. All right. Next meeting date. That's the last hour. What was that talk? You need the last RO. Oh, I missed one. Yep. Wow. Sorry. I want to get out of here. I guess. Number 108 21 22 12 6 21. The city clerk submitting various license applications. Of course. We're recommending granting all the applications. Just a note that there is one new class B liquor license. Transfer for the place that used to be pinkies bar and grill. There are a couple of premise description issues that need to be cleared up, but that shouldn't prevent you from granting. They'll just work with them before they issue it. So approval is recommended. Okay. Second. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Chair votes aye. Motion carried. All right. Now next meeting date. January 12. If there is a need for a meeting. Between them, which we are working very hard to prevent. We'll try to schedule something that works for everybody, but the 29th. Would be have been a normal date and that's just not. Okay. Ideals. We appreciate that you're working. I haven't on 29. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. Chair votes aye. Motion carried. Thank you. Merry Christmas everyone. Happy new year. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. Chair votes aye. Motion carried. Thank you. Merry Christmas everyone. Happy new year.


Hello and welcome to This Week in the City. Highlights brought to you from the Public Relations Media and Marketing Department with the City of Columbia. On Tuesday, September 12th, Columbia City Council will hold committed meetings. These are the details for the meetings for this week. Mayor Daniel Rickerman will be holding a town hall meeting in each of the four City Council districts, as well as a meeting for the business community. The first meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 12th at 6 p.m. at Earlwood Park, located in 1113 Recreation Drive. This meeting is for constituents and residents of District 1. Again, City Council District 1, the Mayor's Town Hall meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 12th at 6 p.m. at Earlwood Park, 1113 Recreation Drive. For additional information regarding these meetings, please visit our website at columnsc.gov or contact the Mayor's Office at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Local small business owners and entrepreneurs can also join the Office of Business Opportunities on Tuesday, September 12th, for a workshop. The Office of Business Opportunities is partnering with the Richland Library, SCORE, and the U.S. Small Business Administration, the South Carolina Small Business Development Center and the Benedict College Women's Business Center to host the Columbia Lender Matchmaker event on Tuesday, September 12th, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Richland Library Main Auditorium. For additional details regarding this workshop, please visit our website at columnsc.gov or contact the Office of Business Opportunities. On September 13th, the City, along with Dominion Energy, will hold a joint press conference regarding Saludo River Access. The press conference will be held at 2 p.m. The press conference will be live-streamed and you can view it on our city's website at columnsc.gov or from our YouTube channel. On Thursday, September 14th, please join Mayor Daniel Rickerman, Columbia City Council members, the City Manager, Teresa Wilson, along with city officials and the local community, for a ground-breaking ceremony for Filming Park. The Revalalization Project will begin on September 14th on Thursday at 10 a.m. with a ground-breaking. The ground-breaking will be held again at Filming Park, located at 930 Laurel Street. For additional details regarding this major project and ground-breaking ceremony, please visit our website at columnsc.gov or contact our Parks and Recreation Department at<PHONE_NUMBER>. On Thursday, September 14th, the Office of Business Opportunities will host another workshop this week. The Office of Business Opportunities will host Selling My Business, a workshop with guest speaker Doug Lienberry. The workshop will be held from 11 a.m. until 12.30 p.m. at Irwin Park, located at 11.13 Recreation Drive. Participants in this workshop will learn what copyrights are and how they are valuable to a company, how to protect trademarks and the value in protecting a trademark, and what a basic contract does to a small business and what could happen if there is not a contract in place. To register for this workshop, please visit our website at columnsc.gov or find the workshop link on our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also call the Office of Business Opportunities at<PHONE_NUMBER> for assistance. Also on Thursday, September 14th, the Planning Commission will meet at 4 p.m. at City Hall and Council Chambers. For agenda items, visit our website at columnsc.gov. You can also visit our website if you would like to view the meeting via livestream. There will also be a public community meeting held on the evening of Thursday, September 14th. City of Water will host the Rosewood Phase 1 public meeting, starting at 5.30 p.m. and ending at 6.30 p.m. This public meeting will be held at the Edistone Discovery Park. Again that's Thursday, September 14th at 5.30 p.m. and the meeting ends at 6.30 p.m. For additional details, visit the Columbia Water website and also check out their social media platforms for more details. On Friday, September 15th, City Officials will join Five Points Officials for a Commemoration Ceremony in honor of the late Joe Azar. This ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Richardson Street. On Friday, September 15th, please join the Planning and Development Services Team along with Locals for Parking Day, join them on Main Street and on other streets in the downtown City Center Corridor. Parking Day will be held starting the morning at 10 a.m. and will end that afternoon. Come out and see what inventive ideas are developed for Parking Day this year. And once you finish visiting Parking Day on Friday, September 15th, please go out to Food Truck Friday at the REI Co-op Parking Lot located at the corner of Bull and Colonial. Come out and try some of the best food from Food Truck vendors in the City of Columbia. Food trucks will be at the location from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. As you will see on your screen, these are the food trucks that will be at the location this Friday. You can also support a fundraising effort for Breast Cancer Awareness on Friday, September 15th by coming out to the Popcorn and Lemonade sale to be held at the City of Columbia's Payment Center located at 3000 Hardin Street. Come out between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and spend your lunchtime getting some delicious popcorn and thirst quenching lemonade while also supporting a very worthy cause. Friday, September 15th also kicks off National Adoption Weekend. Come out to Columbia Animal Services on Friday, September 15th and Saturday, September 16th for free pet adoptions on both days. For hours for the shelter, please visit our website at ColumbiaSC.gov or call 803-776-PETS for more information. And on September 16th, it's time for the Dulk Tank fundraiser featuring Mayor Daniel Rickerman.  All proceeds from this fundraiser will go to Benefit Sistercare and money will be donated to the organization in October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Mayor Daniel Rickerman has volunteered to sit in the dunking tank on Saturday, September 16th starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 1 p.m. Come out and take a chance to dunk the Mayor and support a worthy cause which is increasing awareness about domestic violence. For additional details, visit our website at ColumbiaSC.gov or contact Public Relations Media and Marketing at<PHONE_NUMBER> or email us at PIO at ColumbiaSC.gov. So this is definitely a very, very busy week in the city and we share lots of details about lots of various events and meetings. If you would like a repeat of this information or more details about any of our events and meetings, visit our website at ColumbiaSC.gov. Also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You can also email us at PIO at ColumbiaSC.gov with your questions or call us at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Do what you can to get connected with the city and we are right here to help you. Remember, we are Columbia.


Kyle was a typical college freshman. Bye, honey. Good luck, son, who wanted to join a frat. Huh. You think you're good enough to be in Betahouse? But he never expected the hazing of a lifetime. If you want to be in Betahouse, you're going to have to wear this hat. If you want to be in Betahouse, you're going to have to drink this beer. If you want to be in Betahouse, you're going to have to wear this hat.  This something. Are you really going through with this? I have to. For Betahouse. How far will Kyle go? Yeah, we're kind of like cool grad on campus. To get into Betahouse. If you want to be in Anime Club, you're going to have to wear this hat.


Okay, so let's say we have int A, and I'm going to assign int A to the value 555, and then we have int, this is a pointer to an integer, and then we're going to call this P, and we're going to assign this the address of A. Okay, so what are we doing here? Basically what we're doing is we are defining a new variable A, and this A is of type int. Then what we're doing is we are creating a new pointer, and we're assigning the address of A to be the value which is going to be stored inside of this pointer, and don't forget this is a pointer to an integer. Now what we can do is we can actually print out the value that's stored in A by accessing P, and I'm going to show you how to do that. So we can say C out, and then we actually have to use this operator called the dereference operator. It's a little confusing because we use the same character here to define a pointer to an integer, but we also dereference here with the C out. And just to go over what we're doing again, so what we're doing is we're creating a new integer, and we're calling it A, and we're assigning it the value 555. Then what we're doing is we're creating a pointer to an integer, and we're assigning to this pointer the address of A, and here what we're doing is we're actually going to that address, and we're getting the value that is stored at that address. So we're going to A, we're going to the address of A, and we're saying, okay, what is the value at this address? And we're actually printing it out on this line. So let's actually compile this and see how this works. Okay, so as you can see, we got the value 555 back, and that's good, that's exactly what I expected. But you know what you can actually do? What we can also do here is we can create a pointer that points to a pointer. So we can say int, and then we give it these two asterisks symbols, and basically what these tell us is the first one tells us that this is a pointer to a pointer of type int. So again, to read this to you again, the way I read this is this is a pointer to a pointer of type int. And we're going to give it a name. So I'm going to say this is P, and what we can do here is we can store the address of P. So don't forget pointer, the value that's stored in pointer is an address. But this pointer has its own address as well. So what we can do is we can reference P and store its address instead of this variable. Then what we can do is we can actually dereference this variable. But here's the problem. If we dereference this variable, what we're going to get is we're going to get the value which is inside of this variable, which is P. And the value stored in this, the variable P, is the address of A, right? And because of that, we're not going to get the value of A, but we're going to get the address of A. And let me just show you how that works. So as you can see, we get some gibberish. This is the address of A in memory, supposedly. Now, if we actually dereference this again, save this and write, and then we compile this, and then we can actually run it again. We see that we're getting back the value which is inside of A. And we can just keep doing this like infinitely. The way that these data tapes work in C++ is essentially you can just keep making values. So we can just keep making pointers that point to other pointers. So for example, we can say this pointer, we're going to make another one that points to a pointer to a pointer of type int. And it's going to call this, and I'm going to assign it to the address of the previous pointer. And if we try to print this out, we try to print this out, we are going to get basically, we have to dereference this three times to get the value that's stored in A. So if we write quit, and then if we compile this, and then we run this again, we get 5555 back again. Okay, thanks for watching. And I hope you enjoyed this video, and I'll see you later.