02 City Council (8/25/03) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 8 advised that a portion of that is built in overtime on how they pay. He said that the department averages 20 to 25 out of county trips per month. He said that one of the things that impacts them is there are three shifts and three crews and a supervisor and when someone takes off on vacation, the supervisor drops back in their slot in order to save overtime. They do not call people in to work that slot. If they have someone off and another person calls in sick, injury or illness, they do not have a choice, they have to pay someone to work that slot. Mr. Klinkerman advised that they also hire part time people to fill in when they can. On a question by Councilman Weekly regarding the furniture and fixtures account, Mr. Klinkerman explained that this was due to the new HIPPA Law, the Patient Privacy Act, which requires them to do a lot of things with their patient records. They are required to keep them locked up and secure and inaccessible to anyone. He said they have file cabinets that are 15 years old that do not lock and they were unable to fit them with locks so they have to enclose their storage area to protect the records. They maintain in paper form about 5 years of patient records. These records are microfilmed and now they are imaged going back to 1987. Mr. Klinkerman said they have file cabinets and storage shelves along with replacing furniture at the 4 stations because over the years the furniture gets worn out with the stations being manned 24 hours a day. They plan to replace chairs at the North and South side Stations and probably replace a refrigerator. They managed to get one at a lower price this year so the $600.00 for a refrigerator can be removed from their budget. He said the computer desks were actually in the surplus to be sold at auction and they took those, so they would not have to buy new ones and placed them at the stations. Councilman Guest wanted to know what the new dispatch console was for. Mr. Klinkerman said the Police Chief is picking up the cost of one of them, and the Fire Department and EMS is going to split the cost of one console that will replace the existing console at the dispatch center. Mr. Klinkerman said that account can be reduced by $3,500.00.