Introduction - Proposed Ordinance Amending Chapter 38 (Emergency Services) of the Pasco County Code, To Modify When an Application for Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (COPCN) Can Be Filed and Adding an Administrative Procedure for Renewal of COPCNs- No Funding Required

1:32:29R fifty eight? And he runs career source too. He's the chairfighter.

1:32:40Chief welcome. Morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Scott Cass and Fire Chief Pasco, Fire Rescue. I am here this morning for an introduction to a proposed ordinance amending Chapter 38, Emergency Services of the Pasco County Code. to modify when an application for certificate of public convenience and necessity, C O P C N, can be filed and adding an administrative procedure for renewal of C O P C N's no funding. All right. I guess I have to flip the button here,

1:33:10huh?

1:33:13I'm going to refer to the common acronym C O P C N several times throughout my short presentation. So just as a reminder, it is certificate of public convenience and necessity. But today we're here to bring forward a request to modify our current EMS ordinance. Specifically, Pasco County Code of Ordinances, Chapter 38, which I said a minute ago, is emergency services, which promulgates the provisions for the county's ability to obtain Emergency medical transportation services for its citizens through the

1:33:43use and issuance of C O P C Ns. So under that particular section, it does designate that C O P C Ns are applied for annually currently. This process, of course, is very, very time-consuming. It takes about five months from start to finish. And it is a lot of work for specifically our fire rescue EMS division, as well as assembling the entire EMS advisory board, as well as it's very time consuming for the applicant themselves. Once they do uh Uh

1:34:14once they do receive a C O P C N license, it is good for a period of two years. Um so what ends up happening is that by issuing these C O P C N certificates every year, we end up with a whole uh all of them out of sequence with each other. So what we are proposing today To solve this is Allowing a uh amendment to the application period to be every other year for every two years. And that'll subsequently be on the odd number years. And

1:34:44this will allow all the C O P C N certificates to be issued at the same time and be on the same cycle, which is also going to match up with the state uh licensing for C O P C Ns. Additionally, uh as a part of this, we are also asking uh to allow the provision That will s essentially grant the county administrator the approval to Um uh approve renewals instead of the renewals uh the applicants having to go through that entire process just for a renewal this

1:35:14will allow now s us administratively to go through the renewal packet and as long as they meet all the criteria that's set forth in the current ordinance the county administrator will have the authority to approve that without having to assemble the uh EMS advisory board or bring the uh Exactly.

1:35:31So by doing all this of course that's gonna streamline the entire process and make it a a lot simpler for um a lot of people. Now you should have received this morning an updated agenda memo. There was a modification that was made at the last minute, so hopefully you have that today. But that's uh that's uh allowing now the county uh attorney's office to advertise uh for the public hearing b uh rather than board records just because of the very very tight time frame from which we have to work. So what we are asking for specifically today is to approve the amendments to Chapter 38 of the Pasco

1:36:02County Court of Ordinances and allow advertisement of the ordinance amendments for public hearing on November ninth, two thousand twenty one at one thirty PM at the historic Pasco County Courthouse Dade City.

1:36:14And then me too, please.

1:36:20I'll wait for the mo I'll I'll make the motion but I'll uh allow her to obviously do her thing.

1:36:27Yeah because thank you and I I think this is really good that we're doing this way but there's still s I think some board direction missing. Okay. And that was that um Um showing need. So the ordinance falls short in failing to correct the inconsistency between section 38-43C that contains the required elements each application must include and section 38-45 that details the review criteria the EMS Advisory Board and the BOCC must use to consider whether to issue the C O PN. It

1:36:57doesn't mention that the applicant need um has to show need, so then you can get unsolicited applications all the time. And I think we gave board direction that we wanted That the They should have to show a need. So There's um maybe two ways we can go. Implement to your cycles proposed and add that an applicant will include in their application signed statements or testimonies from leaders in the healthcare industry and medical facilities that the applicant proposes to serve,

1:37:28attesting to the need and necessity of another ambulance service and how the public interest will be served by the granting of a C O P C O P C N. Um Okay. Uh discontinue and there's I have some other notes here, but discontinue the process of accepting unsolicited applications for new C C O P C N S. and charge the county administrator's office with determining when a potential need may be present in the county and when When one exists, publicly invite ambulance

1:37:58providers to submit applications for C O P C N. So

1:38:05You know, I think we need to still have that in there. Mr. Chairman Mariano.

1:38:09Yes,

1:38:09sir.

1:38:10I think Commissioner Starkey's right on point. Um this could b save you just you talk about all the time it takes to go through this when there's really not a need anyway, we can streamline this whole process and still serve the citizens best. So I appreciate them suggestions. That's what we you and I talked

1:38:25about. Exactly. Yeah. So there's a second part to this. It's not part of today's uh modification request and and introduction. But subsequent to the hopefully the approval of this amendment uh modification that we will assemble a s a small team of people that are that are gonna look specifically at the ordinance. Because the the existing ordinance is very antiquated and there's a lot of outdated material in that. I think it was originally crafted in 1984. So we've uh behind the scenes the County Attorney's Office has

1:38:55already done a lot of a legwork looking at other counties and other uh systems that are in place that are, you know, far better than what we do here. So we needed to do this today to buy us some time because now this will give us a whole year now to work on that and bring back something that will that will accommodate. That will

1:39:11take a whole year?

1:39:12Well we have that time. We're because the next application period won't be until a year from January. So not till January twenty three.

1:39:20I have the time.

1:39:20Um if this is approved. So we will use that time between now and then to come up with a a um hopefully a better uh solution that will address all of your requests.

1:39:30Excellent. We I guess you kind of have board directions that we want something like that in in your Whatever you come up with.

1:39:37So I have a motion. Down a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed like say? Motion passed five zero.

1:39:46All right, thank you. And thank you to the County Attorney's Office and to our agenda coordinator for making all this happen in such a short period of time.

1:39:52Chief, I can tell you uh in my district. I've already heard about the inspections going on. And that people never have had because you didn't have the system out there for fire marshal to be doing some of those inspections. And that team's out there working 'cause I'm hearing from a lot of my people that uh have businesses at Probably n never been checked. It

1:40:13Yeah.

1:40:13Should have been done a long

1:40:14time ago. So good. Hopefully it was positive feedback. I know I've I've got the same thing. And you know, I haven't had an inspection in ten years or eight years and now they're seeing them. So hopefully over the course of the next several years we'll be able to get into all those commercial occupancies on a very regular basis and make us safer.

1:40:29I think it's good and I I I see s good feedback coming back from it, things that people overlook. overlook of how they stack their supplies and things in office and

1:40:38it's usually very simple things. Yeah that's

1:40:40a big deal.

1:40:44Thank you Mr Chairman Mariano thank you

1:40:45all.

1:40:45Appreciate it.

1:40:46Mr Chairman Chief I I just want to say and I appreciate you working very close with Sally Sherman, the inspections team. You guys guys are doing a great job working together to get stuff done. to take care of the citizens too that are trying to build and expand their businesses. So thank you.