10/16/2001 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 10/16/2001 looked at. Mrs. Kasler inquired as to whether there was a response to the meeting that had been held in August. Mayor Musial said there was no response at this point. The Fire Department is proposing adding three firefighters in 2002, another three in 2003, another three in 2005 and another three in 2007. This year we have added three firefighters. Mr. Limpert asked to clarify if the request for the twelve firefighters over several years was in addition to the three added this year. Mayor Musial said that was correct. Dave Boatman, 2093 Brown Road, Lakewood, Ohio, president of the firefighters union, said that so far this year only two firefighters have been added. The third is still being processed. The firefighters to be added in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007 would all be additional. He noted that the Mayor had said he was looking at other plans and asked if any other group other than the firefighters had submitted a plan. The Mayor said not that he was aware of. Tom Hreha, 6418 Surrey Drive, said that he had previously asked Council to consider a law outlawing price gouging in times of national emergency. He wondered if any progress had been made on this issue. Mr. Limpert said that both he and Mr. Miller had requested legislation, and the Law Department had asked them to cooperate on presenting one request. They plan to do so. President Saringer said that she would like to hold a meeting of Council-as-a-Whole to discuss with the Mayor the issue of preparing the safety forces for the future. Mrs. Kasler asked for clarification as to which of two issues would be discussed: the plan for staffing or immediate needs with regard to safety because of what is happening in our cournry right now. She is assuming that, if the Mayor has a plan, Council would hear about it at budget time. The Mayor said that is something that certainly will be in consideration. President Saringer said it was a combination of both-you have to have adequate equipment and staffing in order to prepare for the future. Fire Chief Ed Bak, 6286 Somerset, said that last year an ordinance was worked on and there were discussions about some of the issues that have been mentioned this evening. At that time, it was discussed that one of the things we had to do was look toward the future. Obviously, we all have a vision. One of our visions is to try and make our safety forces the best that we can. Some of those issues were addressed in the hiring of the three personnel this year. Other alternatives are being considered. There have been some things presented to the Mayor. Everyone is aware of the problem. Everyone is aware of NFPA 1710 which is a deployment issue of firefighters-something that is going to have to be looked at in the very near future. Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, was chairman of the charter review commission in 1995 and one of the issues that was brought before the charter review commission at the time w~,"~ . amendment that he proposed to make ~ firefighters full-time employees. At that time there was an attack on firefighters throat the west and other areas where they were not so strongly unionized_ and they were actually nrivatizine fire __