MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1998

PRESENT: Chair: Ryan. Members: Carsky, Kaplowitz, Latimer, Mosiello, Swanson, Wishnie. Staff: Barbara Fratianni, Emilia Vita.

ALSO PRESENT: Anthony Pagano, President, Yonkers Firefighters Association.

Chair Ryan called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m.

The minutes of February 17, 1998, were approved as amended on the motion of Legislator Kaplowitz, seconded by Legislator Wishnie, all in favor, none opposed, motion carried 7-0.

Mr. Ryan mentioned the editorial on mutual aid, appearing February 19, in Gannett Suburban Newspapers. The editorial suggested that the Committee on Public Safety start addressing the issue. In response to the editorial, Mr. Ryan called Ron Patafio, editor, and informed Mr. Patafio that the Committee, since the start of the new term, has been examining mutual aid and several related fire and emergency services issues. He also pointed out that Gannett reporters have not covered any of the Committee’s meeting thus far, including the first meeting -- held in the evening in North Castle -- where fire services officials were invited to attend and speak with us about their major concerns. Moreover, no reporter has bothered to call the Committee Chairman to inquire about the activities or work of the Committee. Mr. Patafio said the complaint was " fair enough."

Mr. Ryan called to the attention of Committee members his memo of February 19, sent to all Legislators to update them on the Committee’s activities, as well as the February 20 memo from Mr. Mosiello recommending public hearings on mutual aid.

As requested by Board Chair Latimer, the Committee Blueprint for the Public Safety Committee was drafted by Chair Ryan and distributed to all members for comments and/or suggestions by the next committee meeting.

Mr. Ryan will ask Committee members to approve a "final" Blueprint at the next Committee meeting.

Mr. Ryan introduced Mr. Pagano who was in attendance to speak to the Committee on the topic of mutual aid. Points made by Mr. Pagano in his presentation include:

• Each community has responsibility to provide for initial attack on a fire.
• The system is abused by communities that fail to provide minimum attack capability.
• Yonkers is providing mutual aid assistance to communities and in effect covering for insufficient personnel levels, vacations sick leave, closed fire houses, insufficient equipment.
• More and more fire departments are responding to medical emergencies.
• Some departments are using mutual aid to handle ordinary circumstances.
• Yonkers has minimum strength with maximum 26 man initial attack on a fire.

Legislator Moseillo stated the Mutual Aid was provided to provide the appropriate level of services in times of disaster or any extra ordinary circumstances. He believes that Mutual aid has developed into situations used under ordinary situations and this is inappropriate conduct.

Board Chair Latimer inquired about Yonkers mutual aid statistic for last year. Mr. Pagano provided the following:

• Yonkers responded to 33 calls for assistance from other communities.
• Out of 1,500 fires, Yonkers called for mutual aid assistance only 15 times.

• By comparison, out of 25 fires, Mt. Vernon called for mutual aid assistance 24 times.

Mr. Latimer also thought it would be useful to see statistics for the past five years showing the number of fires in the County, broken down by municipality, and the mutual aid statistics for the fire departments in Westchester’s larger cities.

The points made by Committee members included:

• Mutual aid works in Westchester.
• This is not just a firefighter union issue and the problems in the system must be discussed diplomatically with all parties involved.
• The point that some municipalities -- by failing to adequately budget for fire protection, knowing that the large fire departments in the area will come to their aid - may be taking advantage of or abusing mutual aid.
• Mutual aid is being blamed for local budgetary constraints.
• "60 Control" maintains statistics on fires and mutual aid activity.

Mr. Pagano thanked the Chair and Committee members for the opportunity to speak with them.

Mr. Ryan stated that the Committee will continue this process of gathering information on mutual aid and related fire and emergency services issues.

With no other business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 10:05 a.m., on the motion of Legislator Wishnie, seconded by Legislator Swanson.