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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 1997-09-02Mayor Joseph A. Fernekes Council: James L. Datzman Eugene R. Mullin lohn R. Penna gobert Yee MINUTES City Council Municipal Services Building Community Room September 2, 1997 SPECIAL MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO SEPTEMBER 2, 1997 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Section 54956 of the Government Code of the State of California, that the City Council of the City of South San Francisco will hold a Special Meeting on Tuesday, the 2nd day of September, at 11:45 a.m. in the City Council Conference Room, 400 Grand Avenue, South San Francisco, California. Purpose of the meeting: 1. Consideration and adoption of a resolution approving agreement between BART and the City of South San Francisco. A RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN BART AND THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO 2. Resolution approving the ALS Joint Powers Agreement. A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO'S PARTICIPATION IN THE JOINT POWERS AGREEMENT TO PROVIDE THE COUNTY-WIDE ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT SERVICES Dated: August 28, 1997 CALL TO ORDER: ROLL CALL: AGENDA (Cassette No. 1) City Clerk City of South San Francisco ACTION TAKEN 12:03 p.m. Mayor Fernekes presiding. Council Present: Datzman, Mullin, Penna, Yee and Fernekes. Council Absent: None. City Manager Wilson introduced Katharine Wellman and stated she comes from San Mateo as a Deputy. 9/2/97 Page 1 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Consideration and adoption of a resolution approving agreement between BART and the City of South San Francisco. A RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN BART AND THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO Resolution approving the ALS Joint Powers Agree- ment. .5'0 q A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO'S PARTICIPATION IN THE JOINT POWERS AGREEMENT TO PROVIDE THE COUNTY-WIDE ADVANCED LIFE SUP PORT SERVICES Steve Mattas' firm acquired her and she will be our principal Assistant City Attorney backing up Steve Mattas. He related: there were still problems with two fundamental topics and he can not get to use the term landscape, let alone address a linear park; the other concern is how to respond to people mak- ing complaints; the hours in the BART proposal were unacceptable; the City Manager spoke to BART Engineer Takas for he wanted an answer on the response time on noise complaints, for a 24 hour response time is nuts and he would not take that to Council; etc. Discussion followed: Councilman Penna asked what prevented BART from doing whatever they want to do, regardless of the contract; this is a holster with- out a gun that BART doesn't need to have an agree- ment; Councilman Yee feels if you don't get BART to agree to your terms it will be difficult when the time comes; he met Mr. Takas back in 1991 and 1992 and he would agree on whatever you said, but when it gets down to the nitty gritty, like the land- scape as they did in Colma, for he does not want our landscape to be done as in Colma; the landscap- ing in Colma looks terrible; the landscaping and the pedestrian path to the school are very important, for Councilman Yee will not be on the Council after November and the Council is going to get the dust phone calls and if you don't have a person to handle the constituents - it is too late and the City will spend its own money to deal with the problem; Mayor Fernekes wants to see the sketch of the land- scaping; he had a talk with one of the BART people Friday evening - they lost or have forgotten what we talked about years ago; we have been a team player and every time we talk, he has to remind them; etc. Acting Fire Chief Lagomarsino related: a task force was formed two years ago to improve emergency medical service delivery in San Mateo County; a cost analysis was conducted of the chosen pub- lic/private partnership option and a consultant was engaged to validate the projections of available revenue from the private provider, assist in devel- opment of a JPA and a business plan, and negotiate with the private ambulance provider on behalf of the JPA; it has been determined that response time requirements in the new county ambulance provider contract will increase the overall system cost to the 9/2/97 Page 2 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 2. Resolution - Continued. 9/2/97 Page 3 provider; the use of the fire departments in the County to provide ALS first response would reduce these costs, and the savings to the private provider would be adequate to pay the fire departments for these services; purpose of the Joint Powers Agreement; because of the significant nature of collectively entering into this activity an escape clause has been built into the JPA and is intended to provide member entitlements with the opportunity to withdraw from membership once all of the financial terms and operational requirements are known; there will be a period of time for providers to put their proposals together and negotiate regarding the fire paramedics for service; after that the County will take 30 days to review and analyze and prepare a proposal to the Supervisors; the S.S.F. Fire Dept. is unique to the rest of the County fire service, and our final role in the JPA is uncertain at this time; in addition to possible ALS engine companies, we have the ability to provide potential value-added services such as program administration, quality assurance, continuing education, and possible back-up transport services; although a final agreement has not been reached on our role, the escape clause allows us to continue to participate and if after the negotiation process with the JPA and the private providers we are not satisfied with the agreement or the revenue distribution formula we may withdraw without pen- alty; etc. Jim Selvitella, Fire Captain, stated he is President of and is representing the local union, the Department, and the citizens. He related: two years ago he went to the first meet- ing with Fire Engineer Tony Rivera and Chris Campagna, who are both union officers and moni- tored the meetings for their progress; the other day he had the opportunity to attend one of the final meetings, with respect to the proposal, and to be quite frank when they saw the proposal it went on for a full page about S.S.F. and its role in the JPA and he and others were kind of shocked that it was laid out as it was; it was brought to their attention that Andy Stark had quite a bit of correspondence with the JPA and in talking to the Chief it was his understanding there were many items to protect with the citizens and the public safety; when they saw the proposal going to the bidders they were surprised to see that the full-time ambulance service was going to be utilized by the contractors to serve surrounding AGENDA ACTION TAKEN Resolution - Continued. 9/2/97 Page 4 areas and they highlighted for the Council those areas of concern; we are here with some of our con- cerns and it is not a labor issue, but a level of ser- vice and we feel very strongly for the surrounding cities for this will improve their level of service, but it will not improve ours; if anything it could lower the level of service. Discussion followed: Councilman Yee stated he met with the Fire Chief a couple of months ago regard- ing this particular subject matter and the Chief gave him a review, but did not get very close to the issue; the idea he got from the Fire Chief was that the County as a whole will benefit from this; he represents S.S.F. and are we giving up or are we improving or what are we gaining from this; City Manager Wilson stated that question cannot yet be answered, for what you have is a JPA set forth in structure and we are unique players; the question is does it benefit or is it harmful and that is yet to be determined; he recommended that the Council enter into the agreement because it is going to improve service in the County; the County is going out to bid and we will determine if there is a role for S.S.F. to play and the answer can be no, for it has no value to the providers for they are doing nothing but making money off of us; we are not being reim- bursed for our new paramedics because we have a full complement while other cities have to train paramedics and are reimbursed; it was the position of the Board Friday that the JPA shows we have 22 paramedic slots assigned and to employ the plan you need 36 paramedics; we paid for our 22 paramedics and the Board will only pay for the 14 additional paramedics needed; Daly City needs 36 paramedics and they don't have any and this will come out of the pot, which did not set well with staff for some- one has to pay for the 14 additional we need; that will be determined in the contract prior to drop out; they call it for the formula for the reimbursement needs to be part of the agreement that you have the chance to say yes or no; the Mayor stated the City was always told we bring no value, yet we have no reimbursement for the training of our paramedics; the Vice Mayor, in reading the material, did not see a lot of benefit for the City in the JPA and for the same reason felt that the southern cities should be in the Roundtable; it still seems to the Vice May- or to be logical to stay at the table, for we can always leave; Councilman Yee questioned if we enter the JPA, at what point does it come back to AGENDA ACTION TAKEN 2. Resolution - Continued. City Manager Wilson Left the Meeting Due to a Commit- :-ent for Jury Duty. Council to say this is what we want you to approve; it will be coming back for they will be meeting with all of the entities and there will be another piece of paper and at that time we can say we are not going ahead; they are asking us to join the JPA prior to that; Assistant City Attorney Wellman believes they already have gone out for the RFP and they are going to come up with a contract for services and we can negotiate the term; Mayor Fernekes stated this City is not a member of the negotiating team, they are six elected members who negotiate from that body the Mayor sits on; when it comes back to the JPA cities will have some input for it has to come back for approval; we can withdraw if we don't accept this, but only after the JPA is formed; we can negotiate our services with the potential providers, we can transport and they give us money; this is something this City does already through mutual agreements and are suggesting to make that available to outside services; this is not a confiden- tial document even though it is so marked; the City Manager said he is not interested in reducing servic- es; and Councilman Datzman questioned how far we extend ourselves by sending our ambulances outside to assist the County; we have that agreement right now in major disasters where our ambulances assist the County on a daily operational where all other ambulances were depleted; this agreement is not going to upgrade our system; the players in this agreement are not So. San Franciscans, they are outsiders who have a great input on our resources; this City has one vote on the governing body and we do not have a member on the executive body; Montara and Colma are still looking at the agree- ment; Mayor Fernekes has concerns that the service levels will drop and this is from sitting in the meet- ings, and our service levels will drop any time the ambulances leave our City - which is not aiding our citizens; we can join the JPA and pull out later; Councilman Penna has grave concerns about this, because we are light years ahead of the other cities in our services to our citizens and we are not a major player in the way the contracts are drawn; etc. M/S Yee/Mullin - To adopt the Resolution. RESOLUTION NO. 101-97 Assistant City Attorney Wellman stated the Motion should also include adopting the first amendment. 9/2/97 Page 5 AGENDA Resolution - Continued. ADJOURNMENT: ACTION TAKEN Carried by majority voice vote, Councilman Penna and Mayor Fernekes voted no. M/S Mullin/Yee - To adjourn the meeting. Carried by unanimous voice vote. Time of adjournment was 1:04 p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Barbara A. Battaya, City Clerk City of South San Francisco APPROVED. losep)~/'A. Fe~nekes, Mayor Citypf South/San Francisco The entries of this Council meeting show the action taken by the City Council to dispose of an item. Oral communica- tions, arguments and comments are recorded on tape. The tape and documents related to the items are on file in the Office of the City Clerk and are available for inspection, review and copying. 9/2/97 Page 6