1 2 SUFFOLK REGIONAL EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES COUNCIL 3 H. LEE DENNISON BUILDING 4 100 Veterans Memorial Highway Hauppauge, New York 5 6 May 12, 2009 7:00 p.m. 7 8 9 10 11 12 BEFORE: 13 ED STAPLETON, Chairman 14 15 16 17 18 REPORTED BY: 19 THERESA PAPE, Court Reporter/Notary Public 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 2 P R E S E N T: 2 3 ED BOYD, Vice Chairman 4 GUY CASSARA, Secretary/Treasurer 5 HELEN ROSENBLUM 6 ROBERT DELAGI 7 JOHN SEARING 8 JANE McCORMACK 9 JOHN O'BRIEN 10 MIKE MIRRAS 11 ROBERT FRANZ 12 DAVID CARRIGAN 13 DIANA BARRETT 14 M.J. STARK 15 THOMAS LATEULERE 16 MATT ZUKOSKY 17 ELLEN KOMOSINSKI 18 BRUCE BLOWER 19 ROBERT CALARCO 20 JOE MICHEELS 21 KEVIN PESCE 22 DR. COYNE 23 TONY LAFERRERA 24 KAREN TODD 25 1 3 2 DR. LINDA MERMELSTEIN 3 BRUCE TALMAGE 4 MITCH SAVINO 5 THOMAS DURFEE 6 DR. ANTHONY SHALLASH 7 DAN LIEBOWITZ 8 MARTY MATUZA 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 4 2 (WHEREUPON, this proceeding 3 convened at 7:00 p.m. Off-the-record 4 discussions ensued, after which the 5 following transpired:) 6 (Time noted: 7:07 p.m.) 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. We're 8 going to call to order, and I'm going to 9 ask the Honorable Guy Cassara to lead us 10 in the pledge. 11 (Pledge of Allegiance) 12 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: And now a 13 moment of silence for any EMS providers 14 we lost during this period, as well as 15 our soldiers overseas. 16 (Moment of silence) 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 18 Okay. First, I need a motion for 19 approval of the meeting summary from 20 March 2-09. 21 SECRETARY CASSARA: I make a 22 motion. 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Second? 24 MR. FRANZ: Second. 25 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: All in favor? 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 5 2 ALL: Aye. 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Opposed? 4 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Abstained? 6 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 7 THE REPORTER: Who seconded, 8 please? 9 MR. FRANZ: Bob Franz. 10 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Bob Franz. 11 Yeah, we have a stenographer this 12 meeting for the purposes herein, but for 13 the whole meeting we have a 14 stenographer. That will require that we 15 all speak like me, loud. And, also, 16 that we all state our names when we 17 choose to speak, otherwise her life is 18 very difficult. I might even suggest 19 you turn your signs towards Teri over 20 here (indicating), so at least she has 21 that as a fail-safe if -- not that the 22 far ones are going to be that legible -- 23 THE REPORTER: No. 24 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- but it's a 25 fail-safe just in case you catch 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 6 2 somebody. 3 Okay. Correspondence was in your 4 packets. If you have any questions 5 about that, I guess Bob could address 6 it. 7 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 9 Officers' report, I'm going to forego my 10 report and defer it to Guy Cassara who 11 has an emergency tonight, and is going 12 to take a moment to give the 13 secretary/treasurer report. 14 MR. CASSARA: The balance as of 15 March '09, 32,489.75. Disbursements 16 from that period to April, we had 105 -- 17 $105 to Best Buy for software; the 18 Web site was $882 for March, April, and 19 May; reimbursements for -- for Marty 20 Matuza was $25 for miscellaneous 21 equipment; Long Island Office Supplies 22 was 283.99; and the Chris Deli was 23 185 for meeting expenses. That's a 24 total of 1,480, brought us a balance as 25 of March 31st, '09 to $31,018.76. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 7 2 Disbursements for April, OfficeMax 3 for software was 69.99; for the 4 IC class, Mama Sbarro was 186.83; the 5 faculty student association for the -- 6 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Interviews. 7 SECRETARY CASSARA: -- interviews 8 for the -- what do you call it? 9 At Stony Brook for the -- 10 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Working group. 11 SECRETARY CASSARA: Oh, for the 12 working group -- 13 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: The -- 14 SECRETARY CASSARA: -- 281.34. 15 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Uh-huh. 16 SECRETARY CASSARA: Total 17 disbursements for the month of April was 18 $538. That brought our balance to 19 $30,480.60. 20 Checks I wrote tonight was 368.40 21 for ink cartridges for the copy 22 machines; $882 for the Web site, and 23 that's three months; $207 reimbursement 24 for the IC class for Tom Lateulere; and 25 $800 for the Long Island Ducks for the 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 8 2 EMS Award Ceremony next week. 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Any questions? 4 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 6 Guy. 7 MR. CARRIGAN: Motion to accept. 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Second? 9 MR. FRANZ: Second. 10 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: All in favor? 11 ALL: Aye. 12 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Opposed? 13 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Abstained. 15 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 16 SECRETARY CASSARA: Can I just ask 17 to be excused? 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: No, you can't 19 be excused. 20 (WHEREUPON, Secretary/Treasurer Guy 21 Cassara left the proceeding.) 22 (Time noted: 7:11 p.m.) 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 24 Chairman's report, I have two things I'd 25 like to bring up, and first is the, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 9 2 obviously, proposed move from Health 3 Department to FRES. 4 Our committee, which is mainly 5 comprised of representatives from the 6 REMAC Committee and the Executive 7 Committee of REMSCO has met twice. In 8 fact, we were supposed to meet a third 9 time, but one of the things that hurt us 10 was the swine flu. And as a result of 11 that, we lost our esteemed Medical 12 Director, Dr. Mermelstein, and we lost 13 our esteemed Commissioner of Health, 14 Dr. Chaudhry, and they were not able to 15 attend and we're going to try and 16 reschedule them for a later meeting. 17 DR. MERMELSTEIN: We didn't get the 18 flu. 19 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yeah, I 20 know -- 21 (Laughter) 22 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I think they 23 got that, Linda. I think they got that. 24 We lost them from the meeting. 25 At any rate -- whatever. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 10 2 At any rate, the meetings we've 3 done to date, actually, have been, I 4 would say from my perspective, 5 fascinating and harvesting a lot of 6 information. For the people that have 7 taken the time to come to us, and they 8 took a real interest in giving us their 9 point of view, I thought, and I haven't 10 heard one person who spoke to us yet 11 that didn't have a very informed and 12 detailed point of view and an opinion on 13 the issue. It's been very, very rich 14 discussion. 15 We have taped everything. So if 16 you're interested in hearing those 17 things, we have everything taped. Make 18 sure -- we have transparencies for these 19 things, and that everybody has an 20 opportunity. And just to let you know, 21 we haven't worked out the fine details, 22 but what we envision as the fruition of 23 the process is to have essentially a 24 sort of debate-type process toward the 25 end where we form our recommendation. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 11 2 What we're going to do is write up 3 to you a very complete and detailed 4 report of points of view, let's say, 5 regarding medical direction, regarding 6 operational issues, regarding the 7 relationship of EMS to fire, and all of 8 that, and give you different -- 9 diverging point of views in that report 10 by essentially categories. 11 So we might say, Medical Direction, 12 it was the opinion of certain people 13 that medical direction is this, the 14 opinion of others that it was that. And 15 then to take you through the whole 16 process so that you get sort of a sense 17 of what people were saying of what the 18 issues are for this important, important 19 decision. 20 And then we'll have a night here, 21 we're going to dedicate a whole REMSCO 22 meeting to nothing but this, because 23 it's such an important issue. And then 24 we'll have an opportunity to all speak 25 our piece. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 12 2 We were thinking of maybe having -- 3 and we haven't concluded on this, I 4 would welcome anybody's opinion -- of 5 having a couple of, sort of position 6 people. You know, two people on one 7 side of the issue, if there -- if there 8 is an issue to be discussed, and two 9 people on the other side of the issue 10 to, you know, flush out some of the 11 points of view that are important to all 12 of us. And -- you know, so we're not 13 sure. We have to hear all of the data 14 first, and then, from that, formulate 15 something that's objective and fair and 16 reasonable for everybody. So that you 17 feel as we come out of it that maybe -- 18 you know, I would highly doubt that 19 whatever point of view I subscribe to 20 that it's going to be met totally, or 21 anybody else for that matter. 22 So that we have a nice, sensible, 23 disciplined hearing on the issue. And 24 then, from that, take our vote on 25 whatever we, you know, determine is a 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 13 2 good outcome. 3 So that's in our future. 4 Obviously, we got -- we've got -- 5 already have another meeting scheduled, 6 and I will be inviting Dr. Mermelstein 7 and Dr. Chaudhry back. I've sort of put 8 them at the end of the process, 9 recognizing that we're still in the 10 throws of this issue. And so we will do 11 that to make sure all the key people -- 12 we have invited some people that have 13 not yet responded yet, to make sure that 14 everybody gets a say in it, but we're 15 going to keep working on that and be 16 very disciplined and make sure that 17 everybody's represented in the process. 18 Okay. The second thing, just a 19 brief thing, that Tom Lateulere, Bob 20 Delagi, myself, Carl Goodman, and a few 21 other people attended a -- a great 22 presentation on the -- the whole issue 23 of STEMI and System Level STEMI. Now, I 24 think Suffolk County's done a great job 25 in the area of STEMI in that we're 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 14 2 pushing towards 12-lead EKG and all -- 3 but we really don't have a STEMI system. 4 Basically, what the Heart -- Heart 5 Association advocates for STEMI is a 6 system where EMS providers -- 7 Well, first, where the public's 8 extremely well educated in signs and 9 symptoms of heart attack so that they 10 gain access quickly. 11 Second, where EMS providers are 12 educated to the importance of 13 destination protocols where people have 14 access to what is known to be 15 scientifically the best intervention 16 which is PCI. And that systems are set 17 up for non-PCI hospitals to treat 18 patients, and maybe to transfer them to 19 PCI centers, and that kind of thing. 20 There's a tremendous amount of work 21 to be done, and the Heart Association is 22 going to take a lead role in trying to 23 get people together around the table, 24 because it is a controversial issue. If 25 you're a CEO of a community-based 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 15 2 hospital, maybe you're a little paranoid 3 about losing patients; you know, if 4 you're a CEO of a hospital that has PCI, 5 you know, maybe you're trying to -- you 6 know, you'd like more patients to be in 7 your hospital, and so on and so forth. 8 So there's a lot of issues around it. 9 But, basically, the conversation we 10 had at the table, we had a wonderful 11 presentation from North -- a North 12 Carolina system director who set up the 13 STEMI system in North Carolina, and it 14 was brilliantly developed and well put 15 together, and he -- he had a lot of good 16 issues that we absorbed and -- 17 So in our future, hopefully, the 18 Heart Association might take a lead role 19 as a facilitator to bring people around 20 the table and to start working towards 21 having a very -- a systems approach to 22 all this, where we comprehensively look 23 at the issue of ST-Elevation MI and the 24 management of ST-Elevation MI. 25 If you have any questions about 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 16 2 that, but that's in the future anyway. 3 Obviously, there are system issues and 4 state issues and other things to be 5 dealt with along the way. 6 So that's my report, and I will 7 turn to Ed Boyd, if he has something to 8 add. 9 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Well, I've 10 been with the -- the chairman on the 11 working group, and I certainly second 12 everything that he said. I will not 13 repeat it at all. 14 It would be remiss of me to go any 15 further without complimenting EMS staff 16 on the really exceptional job they've 17 done relative to the swine flu problem, 18 in terms of keeping everyone informed. 19 The flow of information from EMS 20 over the past couple of weeks has been 21 wonderful. It's most appreciated by the 22 people in the field. And, hopefully, it 23 will continue on all sorts of other 24 topics, because it's so important to 25 keep that communication open between the 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 17 2 EMS office and the providers. 3 That's it, thank you. 4 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 5 Staff and Regional EMS System 6 Report. 7 Robert Delagi. 8 MR. DELAGI: Thank you. 9 And I tend to speak fast, so I'm 10 going to try -- 11 THE REPORTER: Just keep your voice 12 up and I'll get you. 13 MR. DELAGI: -- to speak loud. 14 The March/April staff report has 15 been distributed for your reviewing 16 pleasure. I will touch on a few bullets 17 just to give you some detail. 18 The very first one, just to give 19 you an update on the electronic PCR 20 program. We recently completed the 21 30-day Pilot with our five agencies. We 22 had an end-users meeting to gain 23 information from those agencies to gauge 24 the success of the training and their 25 experiences, program functionality, and 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 18 2 so on and so forth. We've received 3 written confirmation from the State 4 Health Department that our data extract 5 was successfully transmitted and married 6 with the STATE data piece, which as you 7 know is an essential element. So we're 8 very pleased to hear about that. We 9 have about two more items on the 10 acceptance plan to kickoff as we 11 continue, and we -- we very much like to 12 formally accept the program during 13 National EMS week, but it really does 14 depend on whether or not we can get 15 those two pieces kicked off in time. 16 But we're working hard to do that. Once 17 we accept the program, we will then be 18 able to roll out the system to those 19 agencies who wanted to join up as one of 20 the first -- first group of agencies. 21 So we're -- we're just about there. 22 About halfway down, the 13th 23 bullet, you'll see some bold letters. 24 Just to remind everybody that we did 25 distribute information and applications 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 19 2 about the 2008 New York State EMS Awards 3 Program to the system. The applications 4 are due back no later than June 19th, I 5 believe there is some pamphlets here 6 again tonight. And this is something 7 that once again we need to recognize 8 ourselves, and to make sure that we -- 9 we get lots and lots of nominations 10 for -- for each of those eight 11 categories. 12 Right below that, just a reminder 13 that on Wednesday, May 20th, there will 14 be two inductees to the New York State 15 EMS Memorial in Albany. One of those 16 inductees is from Suffolk County, Edward 17 Mueller from the West Islip Fire 18 Department who died in the line of duty 19 in 2008. And it's very, very comforting 20 to go up there and -- and -- and be part 21 of this ceremony, which I will be doing 22 on your behalf. It's also very, very 23 comforting to turn to the crowd and see 24 folks from Suffolk County paying honor 25 to those folks. So anybody who could 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 20 2 possibly make it up there for the day, 3 it is truly appreciated. 4 The 17th bullet, just a few down 5 from there, as part of the H1N1 outbreak 6 work that Ed mentioned, we did partner 7 with Suffolk County FRES -- actually, 8 let me -- I'm reading the wrong one, I 9 apologize. 10 Well, let me stay on the H1N1 11 because that will come up later. 12 We did partner with FRES, and we 13 did modify some dispatch protocols where 14 call takers were using a series of 15 questions that were promulgated by the 16 National Association of Emergency 17 Medical Dispatch, with the medical 18 director's approval, and we were asking 19 additional information about specific 20 signs and symptoms that would give us an 21 indication of whether this person had 22 flu-like symptoms, had a fever, had a 23 cough, and -- and so on and so forth. 24 And we put a designation on the radio, 25 which you're probably familiar with now, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 21 2 FC. We're going to continue to do that 3 for at least the next week, and then as 4 things start to wind down, we will 5 reevaluate that and decide. 6 We can tell you that we're 7 monitoring our biosurveillance software 8 and we're monitoring the dispatch data 9 from FRES and from Babylon Central and 10 from East Hampton and several other 11 PSAPs, and we have not seen any uptake 12 in -- in significant call volume related 13 to patients with flu-like symptoms. So 14 that's a good thing. 15 Back to the bullet at hand, working 16 with FRES again, we also modified and 17 devised a regional hospital diversion 18 policy and communication pathway to 19 ambulances when hospitals are on 20 diversion. And this is nothing new for 21 EMS providers. EMS providers still have 22 the New York State Health Department 23 Policy Statement which basically says 24 that when so advised, you may honor a 25 diversion request. What the policy 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 22 2 statement -- that we're referring to is 3 an increased line of communication 4 between our two offices so that EMS can 5 go out and hold hospitals accountable, 6 and make sure they're doing the very 7 comprehensive things they need to do 8 before requesting a diversion. And then 9 get information to ambulances when 10 ambulances go en route to a call so that 11 they can enter that into the 12 decision-making process as early on -- 13 as early as possible. And we've done it 14 several times in the last month, and 15 we've had a lot of success in -- in 16 doing that. We've visited hospitals 17 and -- and made sure everybody was doing 18 what they need to do. 19 The bullets right below those, 20 you'll see LVAD and CAH. We're starting 21 to see more and more patients living in 22 our communities with sophisticated 23 technology. The LVAD is the left 24 ventricular assist device, and this is a 25 device that -- that folks with severe 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 23 2 cardiac conditions are placed on while 3 they're awaiting a heart transplant. 4 And when we find out about these, we 5 make sure that the EMS providers are 6 aware. We -- we touch base with the 7 hospitals, we provide focus training, or 8 at least facilitate focus training 9 depending on -- on what the case may be, 10 so that if EMS does get called to one of 11 these homes, they're aware of it. 12 Similarly, we have several 13 youngsters that we're working with right 14 now -- and you may remember this, we had 15 a REMAC-approved protocol for Southold a 16 number of years ago for a patient with 17 congenital -- adrenal hypoplasia. 18 That is more prevalent than we 19 thought. And we now have other kids 20 living in other communities with this 21 disease. And the treatment for this 22 is -- is very, very easy, and it's 23 extraordinarily important to get this on 24 board early. It's written in EMT-CC and 25 Paramedic Scope of Practice, so we're 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 24 2 working with these folks to modify 3 patient-specific and agency-specific 4 protocols, as we have done in the past. 5 The third bullet from the bottom, 6 we are very pleased to announce that 7 working with the New York State 8 Department of Health, we have secured 9 approval for EMT-CCs to provide CPAP 10 therapy. And what this basically means 11 is that the -- there are -- there are -- 12 there are two pieces that need to be 13 done. The first is the credentialing 14 and the authorization piece for all of 15 the new protocols. And the second piece 16 is targeted CPAP therapy training that's 17 based on the EMT-Paramedic Curriculum. 18 And the state has already approved 19 that, and what we need to do is conduct 20 targeted training for all of the CCs who 21 want to provide CPAP therapy, and you'll 22 hear more about that as time goes on. 23 We don't anticipate doing this until 24 probably mid to end summer, and perhaps 25 even into the fall. But the approval is 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 25 2 there and we are working on the 3 mechanism right now. 4 Any interested agencies who want to 5 bring CPAP into EMT-CCs or into their 6 agencies for their CCs and medics should 7 contact Tom Lateulere either by phone or 8 by e-mail. 9 I'll just very, very briefly refer 10 to the last bullet under Ambulance 11 Service Operations on page 2, and tell 12 you that we had an extraordinary amount 13 of work to do with the H1N1 influenza 14 outbreak. And I'm glad you found the 15 information useful, Mr. Vice Chair, 16 and -- and it certainly is comforting to 17 know that that information was out 18 there. 19 One of the things that I found 20 striking about it was people were 21 calling us to thank us, people were 22 sending us e-mails to thank us. And in 23 some cases, people thought that this was 24 related to the H1N1. And we had to 25 remind people that this is standard 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 26 2 operating procedure for any potentially 3 contagious disease with regard to 4 N95 masks, with regard to 5 decontaminating ambulances and 6 nondisposable medical equipment after 7 every call, and -- and with regard to 8 just making sure you notify the hospital 9 early if you have somebody whose coming 10 in with fever or a cough or a rash or 11 something like that. And we are pleased 12 that it was so well received, and we 13 will continue to do that. 14 Starting with Education and 15 Training, the first bullet. We've been 16 doing this for -- for quite some time 17 now, but we did want to point out -- we 18 will continue to point out that we send 19 out prehospital save letters 20 acknowledging the efforts of EMS 21 crews -- that's a typo, it should be the 22 SCPD, or both. 23 I think I had either ePCR or CPR on 24 the brain, and I kind of just made a 25 typo, and I forgot to finish the 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 27 2 sentence to give you the criteria. So 3 I'll let you all wonder about that until 4 our next REMSCO meeting, and then I'll 5 give you the criteria. 6 But, really, you know, what 7 this does is it pays homage to the 8 EMS providers or the police or -- or 9 both in terms of getting somebody back 10 with a -- return a spontaneous 11 circulation at risk through admission to 12 the hospital. 13 The third bullet, we're very 14 pleased that we had two of our staff 15 members participate in a National 16 Educational Standard Curricula meeting, 17 where we got a real chance to influence 18 the National Standard Curricula for 19 EMS providers and training. 20 And, Tom, I don't know if you want 21 to make any mention of that. 22 MR. LATEULERE: In the future. 23 MR. DELAGI: In the future. Okay. 24 MR. LATEULERE: Yeah, I think we 25 have enough on our plate tonight. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 28 2 MR. DELAGI: Okay. All righty. 3 MR. LATEULERE: Let's not scare 4 people. 5 MR. DELAGI: More to follow. 6 We did conduct one instructor 7 update class recently, and we thank the 8 REMSCO for supporting us in the 9 refreshment category. 10 And if you just turn to the last 11 page, the second bullet from the bottom 12 under Education and Training. 13 I just want to acknowledge the 14 extraordinary work that -- that our 15 per diem contractors and our EMS 16 division staff do in terms of the amount 17 of people that we train and the amount 18 of people that we process. And most 19 importantly, the -- the extraordinarily 20 high success rate that we're seeing on 21 all of our students who take the 22 practical skills exam and the written 23 examinations, and -- and we report on 24 this from time to time. And you can 25 just look at this, we had -- you know, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 29 2 99 percent of our 171 students pass the 3 practical skills exam. That's just an 4 extraordinary phenomenal success rate, 5 and we're very, very proud of that, and 6 we want you all to be aware of that. 7 And that's all I have for the 8 formal report, unless there are any 9 questions. 10 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Any questions 11 for Bob? 12 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Please 14 MR. LAFERRERA: Anthony Laferrera. 15 I just had a comment, I'd like to 16 thank Bob, Dr. Mermelstein, and FRES for 17 what they did with the PSAPs. I like 18 that very much. 19 MR. DELAGI: Thanks. 20 MR. BLOWER: Mr. Chairman -- 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 22 MR. BLOWER: -- I -- I have a 23 comment. 24 I -- I -- I would add my thanks to 25 the staff for a tremendous amount of 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 30 2 work, and -- you know, the regular work 3 continues, and then they get the swine 4 flu thing which takes a -- an inordinate 5 amount of time, but the regular work 6 continues as this report shows, and it's 7 really great, and we appreciate that, 8 and thank you. 9 But speaking from the public 10 interest, the -- the politically correct 11 name now of using -- instead of saying 12 "Swine Flu," using "H1N1" is very 13 confusing to the general members of the 14 public, because they don't know if 15 you're talking about a new type of 16 influenza or the one that was headlined 17 and sent all around the news media in 18 the beginning. 19 And I go back to the same problem 20 with -- when they came out Legionnaires' 21 disease. The American Legion went 22 ballistic, they said, Why don't they 23 call it the disease and name it for the 24 hotel? 25 So, I mean, my point is, if you're 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 31 2 going to start being politically correct 3 with one, then you've got to be that way 4 with all. You can't just pick it now 5 and say, Well, now, we don't want to 6 call it "Swine Flu," we're going to use 7 "H1N1." 8 And I -- I -- and it's not a 9 criticism to you guys, because this is 10 coming from the national people, but 11 it's very confusing to members of the 12 public when you change the terminology 13 in midstream when you're trying to get 14 out information that the general public 15 will understand. 16 Most of us sitting around this 17 table understand it quite well, because 18 we're involved with it on a day-to-day 19 basis. But for most members of the 20 public, they don't. So I'm just 21 throwing that out. 22 There's not much we can do about 23 it, but let's at least be consistent. 24 If we start to warn the public about one 25 thing, be consistent and keep telling 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 32 2 them the same terminology. 3 That's my comment from the public 4 end. 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Any other 6 questions of Bob? 7 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 9 Bruce. 10 I see Tom Cronogue is not here. 11 Is anybody prepared to give any 12 report for Tom Cronogue? 13 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Carl Goodman 15 is not here. 16 Is anybody -- 17 SPEAKER: He's at REMAC. 18 MR. MATUZA: It's supposed to be 19 Winslow, I'm sorry. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I know. 21 But Dr. Winslow is not here either. 22 MR. MATUZA: No. 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 24 Communications, Tom Lateulere. 25 MR. LATEULERE: One thing I want to 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 33 2 say is Infrastructure Solutions, that's 3 who we have the Web site, they have been 4 really phenomenal. We asked them to 5 change a few things on the Web site 6 concerning the H1N1 influenza. Any 7 needs that we had, they were changed 8 within minutes. 9 One of the things I do want to 10 break out, I did some looking on the 11 stats. The week before that we were 12 averaging 600, 650 hits a day. When 13 that week actually occurred, our hit -- 14 our volume was up to 1,400 hits. So we 15 do realize that a lot of providers were 16 actually going to the Web site to get 17 up-to-date information. 18 So it's -- I thank REMSCO for 19 letting us really switch over and really 20 have a Web site now that everybody can 21 use not just for a day, but really up to 22 the minute. So once again, I want to 23 thank REMSCO for -- for having that 24 confidence in us with that Web site 25 company. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 34 2 And that's all I have. 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. Thank 4 you, Tom. 5 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Tom, that 6 1,400, was that a weekly figure or -- 7 MR. LATEULERE: That was a daily. 8 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: A daily 9 figure. 10 MR. LATEULERE: We were hitting 11 1,400 a -- hits a day. With -- 12 8 o'clock in the morning, and at 13 1:00 p.m., the highest hits. I'm afraid 14 after 1:00 p.m. -- I guess a lot of 15 people were at work and they had their 16 lunch, but -- I don't want to dissect it 17 any further than that, but -- 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Right. 19 Yeah, I'd like to reply by saying 20 that it has -- the Web site has a lot of 21 utility. I go there all the time. You 22 know, I'm looking for this or that, or a 23 training session or whatever -- 24 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Yeah. 25 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- it has a 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 35 2 tremendous amount of utility. 3 So I think you've done a great job, 4 Tom, and -- 5 MR. LATEULERE: Actually -- 6 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- you took -- 7 MR. LATEULERE: -- I have to thank 8 the staff -- 9 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- taking the 10 lead role to get -- get that cooking. 11 MR. LATEULERE: And the EMS staff 12 has been great working with us. Carl 13 and Regan have been great putting stuff 14 on, so they should get their due on 15 this. 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Great. 17 Our Public Information Officer, 18 Ellen Komosinski. 19 MS. KOMOSINSKI: Okay. 20 As all of you I'm sure are aware, 21 next week is EMS week, and the Longevity 22 Ceremony at the Long Island Ducks game 23 is May 19th. There was an RSVP date of 24 April 24th, and I can report that there 25 are ten council members that RSVP'd that 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 36 2 are attending. There are 80 tickets 3 purchased. Eighty providers will be -- 4 will be attending, and those are 15-, 5 20-, 25-, 30-, 35-year recipients. And 6 I spoke to the Long Island Ducks today, 7 and they let me know that they also have 8 individual phone calls from departments 9 who are sending and paying themselves, 10 but they are sending members that want 11 to attend, and we should have a little 12 over 150 all together. So that's all 13 done, taken care of, I can't wait for it 14 to be over. 15 We have a color guard. I have 16 asked Mitch Savino to be in charge of 17 the color guard. So he is taking care 18 of that for me; correct, Mitch? 19 MR. SAVINO: Yes. Well, we are in 20 need of an EMS flag. And strangely 21 enough, we can't find an EMS flag other 22 than a -- individual agencies. So if 23 anybody has a Star of Life or an 24 EMS flag we can use, we might want to 25 incorporate that in the color guard. If 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 37 2 not, perhaps we should created one. 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: We can buy 4 one. 5 MR. SAVINO: We have no EMS flag, a 6 generic EMS flag. 7 If anybody has an EMS flag we could 8 use, we'd like to incorporate that into 9 the color guard. 10 MS. KOMOSINSKI: And lastly, I'd 11 like to let everyone know, if you've 12 taken a look at the Web site, it's 13 posted, the REMSCO Award nominations are 14 out. They were mailed on April 9th. 15 Return is June 19th, no later than 16 June 19th. I placed brochures out on 17 the table and I have applications here, 18 the extras, if anyone's interested, but, 19 again, you can either go on our Web site 20 or the state Web site and the 21 application is there. And after the 22 19th of June, I will have Marty send out 23 an e-mail getting the executive 24 together, and we'll do some voting. 25 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: And let me 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 38 2 just say, you know, this, obviously, was 3 the Longevity Award. This strategy, we 4 defined that first. We were saying, Oh, 5 my God, it's going to be a total 6 disaster, because the early registration 7 for it was very low. I didn't find this 8 one particularly to be impressively low, 9 although we would have liked it to be 10 more than that. And, certainly, that's 11 something we'll go back to the table on 12 to reevaluate if that's the strategy we 13 want to do in the future, or do we want 14 to come up with another bright idea. 15 We originally talked about a ball 16 game in the summer and whatever, we had 17 a lot of other ideas. To make it more 18 meaningful, because the Longevity Awards 19 always got lost in the REMSCO Awards, 20 they were just sort of an appendage to 21 the REMSCO Awards, and we want to bring 22 significance to it. So I'm sure you'll 23 be taking a lead role in, you know, 24 trying to look at that critically. 25 And, Bob, again, disaster planning. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 39 2 MR. DELAGI: Okay. The committee 3 has not met in -- in a while, but -- but 4 we do have some agenda items that we 5 need to work on. And I will be calling 6 a committee meeting in the very near 7 future, interestingly enough to resume 8 the talks about pandemic influenza 9 planning. 10 And, specifically, we're looking at 11 two areas where we want to develop a 12 plan to utilize physicians at 13 call-taking centers to screen patients 14 with flu-like symptoms so that we can 15 reduce surge on the hospitals. And in 16 many cases -- 17 In fact, there's a new algorithm 18 that was just put out by the National 19 Association of Emergency Medical 20 Dispatchers called "Pandemic Influenza," 21 it's Protocol 36, and it actually makes 22 reference to flu specialists. 23 So some of the things that we 24 started to work on now are coming to 25 fruition at the national level. And the 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 40 2 reason for that is so that we can make 3 decisions on having patients taken to 4 alternate care facilities, which is the 5 second piece to this. Again, to reduce 6 surge on hospitals. 7 If patients just need fever control 8 management or hydration, they don't 9 necessarily need to go to a hospital. 10 So we envision setting up alternate care 11 facilities -- and, again, we're talking 12 about, you know, an attack rate of 13 60 percent. We're talking about 14 significant numbers of sick people here. 15 Not like we saw with the H1N1, but those 16 are the current predictions back to the 17 Avian influenza. 18 So I will need the REMSCO's 19 assistance in starting to develop some 20 of the -- the plan -- the plan for that. 21 So we will be meeting in the very near 22 future to start brainstorming out. 23 We have been busy with the New York 24 State Health Department and our partners 25 here in Suffolk County, Nassau County, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 41 2 Westchester County in the health and 3 emergency management fields to address 4 evacuation of health care facilities. 5 And we had a meeting a few weeks ago 6 where we ironed out the standard content 7 elements for health care facility 8 evacuation planning for hospitals. And 9 what this essentially is is a crosswalk 10 for hospitals to make sure that they 11 have all of the standard content 12 elements in each of their respective 13 plans. And as you can imagine, 14 transportation is a very big piece to 15 this, the good news is that most people 16 don't necessarily need an ambulance. 17 So -- so we need to tie in ambulances, 18 ambulettes, medical taxi cabs, trucks, 19 buses, anything else with wheels and a 20 motor on it to make sure that we get 21 this done. So we're working with 22 hospitals right now, and then followed 23 very closely by skilled nursing 24 facilities and then adult homes. 25 And then, finally, we have been 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 42 2 working on several exercises, three of 3 them to be exact. Two got postponed due 4 to the outbreak, and one will be held 5 shortly. And that one involves dialysis 6 surge, where we have a dialysis center 7 that goes out of service and we need to 8 address issues of throughput at -- at 9 nearby dialysis centers. 10 So a lot of work involves, you 11 know, the region, but, again, we'll be 12 convening soon to -- to address that 13 issue, as I mentioned. 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 15 Bob. 16 Any questions for Bob? 17 (WHEREUPON, there was no response) 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. Next 19 topic is education and training, of 20 which Jay Gardiner, unfortunately, is 21 excused tonight, and guess who's taking 22 care of it; Bob. 23 So, Bob, why don't you -- 24 We do have a significant thing 25 tonight. We have a -- a rare core 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 43 2 sponsorship application that was 3 submitted. And we had a great, I 4 thought, Education and Training 5 Committee meeting; very open, very 6 positive, very well structured. Jay ran 7 it, and Bob's going to give the report 8 that came out of that meeting. 9 MR. DELAGI: Okay. And I've been 10 asked to do that in my role as staff to 11 that particular committee. I'm not a 12 member of the Education Committee, so I 13 do want to just make that clear. 14 Just so everybody is aware, we 15 received a core sponsor application from 16 Hunter EMS Ambulance as they make 17 application to receive authorization at 18 the regional level to teach basic life 19 support courses consisting of CFR and 20 EMTP training. 21 Our responsibility as a REMSCO, 22 according to Article 30 and Part 800 of 23 the State EMS Code, is to review the 24 application and forward a recommendation 25 to the New York State Health Department 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 44 2 within a specific time frame. And our 3 activity tonight, those constitute 4 adherence to that specific time frame. 5 Our charge is to take a look at 6 objective criteria to make sure that the 7 applicant is capable of conducting 8 courses in the name of the New York 9 Health Department, and to make sure that 10 they understand what's necessary with 11 regard to the proposed equipment list, 12 course schedule, course faculty, medical 13 direction, and attestation that they 14 understand the New York State Department 15 of Health rules for conducting courses, 16 ADA compliance, organizational 17 structure, and -- and -- and so forth. 18 And because the Suffolk REMSCO is 19 not a core sponsor itself, the Suffolk 20 REMSCO is also able to consider the 21 impact of an additional core sponsor in 22 the region on all the other current core 23 sponsors in terms of sustaining student 24 bodies of adequate size, making sure 25 that a new core sponsor does not dilute 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 45 2 the student pool to the degree that it 3 has a deleterious effect on sustaining 4 the operational viability at the 5 existing core sponsorship. 6 And even though I've said a lot of 7 things, our charge is very narrow. Our 8 charge really looks at the application 9 for completeness and to make sure that 10 the applicant has demonstrated an 11 understanding of what they need to do to 12 conduct courses. 13 And during our Education and 14 Training Committee, as well as having 15 staff look over the application, the -- 16 the committee brings forth a seconded 17 motion tonight that the REMSCO recommend 18 approval to the New York Department of 19 Health Bureau of EMS of the application 20 of Hunter EMS to become a training core 21 sponsor at the PLS level in Suffolk 22 County. 23 And the seconded motion opens it up 24 for debate on the floor, which we need 25 to conclude with the roll call vote. So 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 46 2 I'm putting that out there now so 3 that -- 4 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Fine. 5 MR. DELAGI: -- I don't forget 6 about it. 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Fine. 8 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Uh-huh. 9 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: So do we have 10 a seconded motion -- 11 MR. DELAGI: We have a seconded 12 motion -- 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: We have a 14 seconded motion -- 15 MR. DELAGI: -- from the committee. 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- okay. 17 So let's discuss it -- discuss the 18 motion on the table. 19 Does anybody have any opinions or 20 discussion? 21 Just to let you know, all the core 22 sponsors at the meet- -- were there at 23 the meeting, you know, to have their say 24 on this. And I thought that was a very 25 practical strategy. And they did indeed 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 47 2 abstain from the vote in terms of that. 3 To my knowledge, that was the -- 4 MR. DELAGI: That is correct. 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: That was the 6 outcome of it. 7 So we -- we had a very rich 8 discussion on it. There were certainly 9 issues that were of concern, having to 10 do with the criteria Bob had talked 11 about, which was impact, particularly, 12 on the system -- was probably the most, 13 you know, significant issue. And 14 Hunter, in fact, came back with 15 additional data, and the vote was 16 actually postscript to the meeting 17 itself. 18 So, at any rate, any -- any 19 discussion on this motion? 20 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 22 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: One -- 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I'm sorry, 24 Tom. 25 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: One -- one -- 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 48 2 one question to Bob or to Ed. 3 Who is Hunter targeting as students 4 for this class? 5 MR. DELAGI: I think the best thing 6 to do, and I apologize for not doing it 7 sooner, is introduce -- 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 9 MR. DELAGI: -- Mr. Tom Durfee 10 who's listed as the core sponsor 11 administrator, Dr. Anthony Shallash who 12 is listed as the medical director, and 13 Mr. Dan Liebowitz who is listed as -- as 14 the owner of Hunter EMS. 15 I can comment off the application, 16 but if you'd like to field that 17 question -- 18 MR. DURFEE: Sure. 19 Our main focus -- 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Mr. Durfee -- 21 MR. DURFEE: Tom Durfee. 22 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Spell your 23 name for her, because you don't have a 24 sign. 25 MR. DURFEE: D-U-R-F-E-E. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 49 2 THE REPORTER: Don't want to spell 3 it wrong. 4 MR. DURFEE: That's okay. Thank 5 you. 6 THE REPORTER: Okay. Go ahead. 7 MR. DURFEE: Basically, our main 8 focus as wanting to train EMTs, 9 particularly, is as the recruitment and 10 retention tool for Hunter EMS. Our 11 feeling is, if we can bring folks that 12 are looking to get into the health care 13 industry and train them as EMTs and 14 bring them onto our ambulances, we can 15 better serve our clientele and be more 16 responsive and be able to handle 17 increased patient populations going 18 forward. And that's the main focus for 19 the -- 20 As far as where those students 21 would come from, the same place students 22 come from, a training EMT program. You 23 know, anybody who's interested in 24 breaking into healthcare and into EMS 25 as -- as a possible career path are the 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 50 2 students we're looking for. 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 4 Tom. 5 MS. TODD: (Indicating) 6 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Karen. 7 MS. TODD: Karen -- 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Karen Todd. 9 MS. TODD: -- Todd. 10 Where do you get your EMT employees 11 now? 12 MR. DURFEE: We actively market all 13 around through Monster.com and other ad 14 sites as any other employer does, just 15 looking for qualified EMTs that want to 16 come -- come work. 17 MR. CARRIGAN: (Indicating) 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Dave. 19 MR. CARRIGAN: I have a question 20 that -- 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Dave Carrigan. 22 MR. CARRIGAN: It sounds like this 23 is more like a recruitment. I -- I use 24 that term kind of loosely, because EMS 25 service itself and the volunteer side is 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 51 2 losing people, and to have them go on 3 and lose them because they're studying 4 for Hunter -- I shouldn't say studying 5 for Hunter, but being -- I sound like -- 6 it sounds like, to me, a recruitment. 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Indeed he -- I 8 think that's what he said, it is a 9 recruitment. It is. 10 MR. CARRIGAN: Are we losing any -- 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I don't think 12 it's an issue that we can consider in 13 terms of our application, per se, you 14 know, but indeed I think they indicated 15 it was for recruitment and retention of 16 their employees. 17 MR. SEARING: (Indicating) 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, John. 19 MR. SEARING: A couple of 20 questions. 21 John Searing. 22 One, was -- was the ap- -- did the 23 committee determine the application to 24 be complete? 25 MR. DELAGI: Yes. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 52 2 MR. SEARING: Okay. So that's -- 3 that's one of our charges. 4 What was -- I'm sorry, Bob, what 5 was the other? 6 MR. DELAGI: That they -- that they 7 understand -- 8 MR. SEARING: Okay. And so did the 9 committee -- the training committee 10 decide that that -- 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 12 MR. SEARING: -- was indeed the 13 case? 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 15 MR. DELAGI: Yes, the equipment 16 lists, the instructor, coordinator, and 17 certified lab instructor lists, the 18 proposed core schedule, the -- 19 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Medical 20 direction. 21 MR. DELAGI: -- the medical 22 direction, Dr. Shallash's CV, the -- the 23 policies and procedures manual for a 24 core sponsor on how it will conduct 25 business with its students, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 53 2 intermediation policies, it's testing 3 procedures, all the things that are -- 4 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Clinical 5 agreements, did you mention that? 6 MR. DELAGI: -- clinical agreement 7 with Good Samaritan Hospital is intact. 8 So -- so the answer is yes, everything 9 is in there and -- and meets the 10 standard. 11 MR. SEARING: Do we have any idea 12 of how many EMTs are in a volunteer end 13 of it that also work for Hunter? 14 Because it seems to me that having an 15 additional core sponsor might actually 16 increase the number of EMTs available in 17 the end, because it's maybe a different 18 change of schedule that are available to 19 a volunteer side of the house. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I'm sorry, 21 John, rephrase the question. How many 22 volunteers -- 23 MR. SEARING: I -- I guess I'm just 24 trying to figure out, do we know -- and 25 it may not be pertinent, do we know how 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 54 2 many volunteers in the system actually 3 work for Hunter, or do you guys have any 4 idea -- 5 MR. DURFEE: I can't give you an 6 exact number, but I can tell you it's -- 7 it's in the ballpark of -- somewhere -- 8 50, 60 percent of our employees are also 9 local volunteers in Suffolk and Nassau 10 County. 11 MR. SEARING: So it might be a good 12 thing that we might be actually 13 increasing the pool of EMTs available to 14 us as a volunteer service, both fire and 15 EMS. 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: A double-edged 17 sword. 18 MR. SEARING: Absolutely. 19 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 20 MR. CRONOGUE: (Indicating) 21 MR. LATEULERE: (Indicating) 22 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Tom. 23 I'll get to you, Tom. 24 MR. CRONOGUE: Go ahead. 25 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Tom, go ahead. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 55 2 Don't fight over it. Go ahead. 3 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. Just, how 4 many students do you expect to graduate 5 in the course of a year? 6 MR. DURFEE: We're hoping to 7 run a course size of approximately 8 24 students. 9 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: You have to 10 speak up, Tom. 11 MR. DURFEE: I'm sorry, am I not 12 loud enough? 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: You're not 14 doing a good job in that department. 15 MR. DURFEE: That's unusual, I'm 16 usually too loud. 17 Our hope is, at current facility 18 size and current staffing levels, 19 instructors, to run courses of about 20 24 students. Obviously, we want to 21 graduate as many of those as possible, 22 we would hold a minimum of one course a 23 year. 24 MR. CRONOGUE: So we're not talking 25 large numbers here? 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 56 2 MR. DURFEE: We're not talking huge 3 numbers, no. 4 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: That's Tom 6 Cronogue. 7 Tony Laferrera. 8 MR. LAFERRERA: Yes. I don't know 9 if I'm looking at this in the wrong way, 10 because I never have anything against 11 training, but I know that we have to be 12 Suffolk EMS, and there's reimbursement 13 when students pass. Do we -- I don't 14 know if I sounded cruel, but do we lose 15 anything to Suffolk EMS in revenue -- 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: (Head gesture) 17 MR. DELAGI: No. 18 MR. LAFERRERA: -- or anything like 19 that? I mean -- 20 MR. DELAGI: No. Let me just 21 comment on -- on the revenue piece in 22 general, and then you could speak -- 23 MR. LAFERRERA: I hope I'm not 24 wrong -- 25 MR. DELAGI: -- to your program 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 57 2 specifically. 3 MR. LAFERRERA: I hope I'm not 4 wrong on that. 5 MR. DELAGI: No, no. No, no, no. 6 No, reimbursement -- reimbursement 7 comes from the New York Department of 8 Health, and reimbursement goes to any 9 number of -- of core sponsors that train 10 EMS provides all across the state 11 without regard for whether they're 12 volunteer or commercial providers. 13 The state dedicated EMS fund, which 14 you've heard me talk about many times, 15 has money in it that we ask for through 16 a training plan and budget template 17 process every two years. And there's a 18 piece of finance law that says that 19 50 percent of the money in the dedicated 20 EMS fund must be used for training. 21 Interestingly, you've also heard me 22 say this before, I'm not saying anything 23 new tonight, the state typically gives 24 back money, because we can't spend 25 enough money to train people across the 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 58 2 state; not just here in Suffolk County, 3 but statewide. 4 So -- so in terms of is any core 5 sponsor -- whether it be us, the police, 6 the college, or the -- Stony Brook 7 University -- going to lose money, the 8 answer is no, we're not going to lose 9 money. And the -- the answer is is that 10 it's not all -- it's not going to affect 11 the amount of money we have available to 12 us. We will still get paid for the 13 money -- paid for the people we train. 14 MR. LATEULERE: (Indicating) 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Tom. 16 MR. LATEULERE: I just have one 17 thing to add to what Bob said. In order 18 to get state reimbursement, you cannot 19 charge tuition. That's the big caveat. 20 Right now we only charge for the books. 21 But if you're a core sponsor that 22 charges for tuition -- 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: At the 24 college. 25 MR. LATEULERE: -- at the college, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 59 2 you cannot seek reimbursement at this 3 point from the state. 4 MR. DELAGI: Thank you. 5 MR. LATEULERE: I just want to 6 clarify that. 7 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Tony, yes. 9 MR. LAFERRERA: Are you -- are you 10 going to have a fee? 11 MR. DURFEE: We're -- we're meeting 12 as a recruitment troop, so no, there'll 13 be no fee due. 14 MR. LAFERRERA: You're not going to 15 have a fee, but you get reimbursed? 16 MR. DURFEE: I'm sorry? 17 MR. LAFERRERA: You're not going to 18 have a fee, but you can get reimbursed 19 from the state? 20 SPEAKER: That's the only way. 21 MR. LAFERRERA: Am I saying that 22 wrong? 23 SPEAKER: That's the only way they 24 can get reimbursed. 25 MR. LATEULERE: Are you asking, is 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 60 2 it your intention to seek reimbursement? 3 MR. LAFERRERA: Thank you. 4 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: It's great 5 that we have translators here. 6 (Laughter) 7 MR. DURFEE: Not at this time for 8 basic programs going forward. We're -- 9 we're looking to subsidize ourselves to 10 gain employees. As core sponsors, down 11 the road, anything's possible. 12 MR. LAFERRERA: And just one other 13 thing, is that -- Anthony Shallash used 14 to be Chief New York City EMS? 15 MR. DURFEE: That is the Anthony 16 Shallash we're talking about, yes. 17 (Laughter) 18 MR. LAFERRERA: Thank you. 19 MR. CRONOGUE: Just one other 20 question. Will -- and I guess this 21 would go to Bob. 22 Will they be able to assist the 23 students in -- who are volunteers, in 24 seeking reimbursement for the cost of 25 the class? 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 61 2 MR. DELAGI: I -- I would defer to 3 Hunter. That would be something that 4 the agency would have to -- the core 5 sponsor or the agency would have to do. 6 MR. DURFEE: Are we open to 7 assisting the volunteers in the region? 8 Absolutely. 9 MR. CRONOGUE: No, what -- my 10 question is, would you be assisting 11 peop- -- employees -- they're now 12 employees. 13 MR. DURFEE: Yes. 14 MR. CRONOGUE: You're running an 15 academy, basically, is what you're 16 doing. 17 MR. DURFEE: Yes. 18 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. Would those 19 employees who were volunteers, would you 20 then, upon completion of the course, be 21 assisting them in looking through -- 22 obtain reimbursement for cost -- the 23 cost of the course through the state? 24 MR. DURFEE: Okay. Well, if we -- 25 I'm not sure I fully understand -- 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 62 2 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Speak up -- 3 MR. DURFEE: If you're talking 4 about -- 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Speak up, Tom. 6 MR. DURFEE: If you're talking 7 about EMTs that are volunteers that are 8 part of Hunter EMS, yeah. And they're 9 re- -- and you're talking about 10 recertifications and things like that, 11 we certainly would be helping -- 12 helping them with that. Recertification 13 programs are probably the main area 14 where you seek reimbursement from the 15 state -- 16 MR. CRONOGUE: Uh-huh. 17 MR. DURFEE: -- so absolutely we'd 18 help them with that. We wouldn't be 19 asking any of our employees to pay for 20 their training -- 21 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. 22 MR. DURFEE: -- out of their own 23 pockets. 24 MR. CRONOGUE: Thank you. 25 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 63 2 MR. TALMAGE: (Indicating) 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Bruce. 4 MR. TALMAGE: Bruce Talmage. 5 With the -- in looking at it, was 6 there a determination that the -- it's 7 only 24 students in the first year, 8 would this affect enrollment in the 9 other classes in the other -- from the 10 other sponsorships? 11 MR. ZUKOSKY: I can speak from the 12 college perspective. Over the past 13 three years we've -- we have closed 14 classes due to low enrollment. This is 15 the first year that classes have been at 16 max capacity for two consecutive 17 semesters. The -- you know, at -- at 18 the meeting -- 19 By the way, Matt Zukosky -- 20 THE REPORTER: Thanks. 21 MR. ZUKOSKY: -- Z-U-K-O-S-K-Y. 22 Will there be an impact? I -- I 23 don't know that 24 students is going to 24 make an impact at -- at year one, at 25 year two. Who knows. I -- I tend to 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 64 2 agree that training is a good thing and 3 education is a good thing. And -- and 4 I -- I tend to agree with -- with 5 Mr. Searing that more training and more 6 EMTs available to our pool in Suffolk 7 might be a good thing. So my 8 perspective, even though I'm not voting, 9 is that I don't see it as a huge impact 10 on the education system as a whole, from 11 the college's standpoint. 12 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: And with that 13 makes it -- I presume that's Tom's 14 opinion, too -- unanimous -- or is that 15 your opinion or not, Tom? 16 MR. LATEULERE: Well, I'll -- I'll 17 add something to that. 18 As everybody here knows, we train 19 close to -- almost 2000 students here in 20 Suffolk County a year with 24 courses. 21 We have cancelled courses due to 22 low enrollment, and we've actually 23 cancelled classes in that area. 24 However, with that being said, you know, 25 I'll follow suit, that, you know, if 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 65 2 students can get additional EMS 3 education, it's going to better the 4 system as a whole. And at this point in 5 time, the numbers that they're looking 6 at will not have an adverse effect on 7 the Suffolk County EMS core sponsors. 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: And likewise 9 from Stony Brook. 10 MR. SEARING: John Searing. 11 I just want to circle back around 12 to something Mr. Carrigan said. I'm not 13 sure what -- what Dave was -- where -- 14 where he was going with his comment, but 15 I don't believe that the re- -- their -- 16 Hunter's recruitment and retention is 17 going to affect the volunteer fire EMS 18 services adversely in terms of EMTs 19 because -- I mean, it's a tough economy 20 out there. People have to work multiple 21 jobs -- I mean, I think it's just 22 add- -- again, adding to our pool. 23 I can speak from my own department, 24 we've had a couple guys who have -- have 25 gone to work for privates, and it hasn't 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 66 2 affected what they're doing now. At 3 least they're making money and 4 they're -- they're able to survive and 5 stay in the community. So -- 6 MS. TODD: (Indicating) 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Karen. 8 MS. TODD: Karen Todd. 9 Who are your instructors and 10 where -- where are they coming from? 11 MR. DURFEE: They're coming from 12 all over. A couple of them are current 13 employees. I have a small pool myself. 14 David Caldor (phonetic) is one of our 15 paramedics, he's also an instructor, and 16 a couple of other sponsors in Nassau 17 County. Anthony Gorman (phonetic) is -- 18 works for another private agency full 19 time in a quality improvement capacity, 20 and teaches at Laguardia Community 21 College as an instructor there, 22 EMT-paramedic programs. Jeffrey Spencer 23 was the former director of Laguardia 24 program, a north shore sponsorship now, 25 drives an ambulance there full time. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 67 2 Carol Cronogue is one of our -- 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I'm sorry, 4 Tom, you have to speak up. You happen 5 to be, unfortunately, in the back of the 6 room -- 7 MR. DURFEE: Yeah. 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- so speak 9 up. 10 MR. DURFEE: I'm sorry. 11 And I'm leaving somebody out, I 12 just had the list in front of me to tell 13 you who that is. 14 MR. CRONOGUE: I've just got to 15 correct one thing on you. 16 MR. DURFEE: Yeah. 17 MR. CRONOGUE: It's Caroline 18 Cronogue -- 19 MR. DURFEE: I'm -- I'm sorry, 20 not -- 21 MR. CRONOGUE: -- who's your 22 employee. 23 MR. DURFEE: -- not Mrs. Cronogue. 24 And I'm leaving somebody out. 25 MR. CARRIGAN: (Indicating) 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 68 2 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Dave. 3 MR. CARRIGAN: Yes. As John said, 4 he didn't know where I was going on 5 this, but a lot of our EMS people are 6 jumping and going on to paid 7 departments, paid with part-time or 8 full-time. 9 My concern is that if we keep 10 turning out people paid, eventually the 11 EMS service -- as a volunteer, only a 12 volunteer. I'm not talking about a 13 volunteer that says, Yeah, I am a 14 volunteer and then takes the -- the 15 education course and stuff like that. 16 I'm talking about EMS people that 17 actually don't get paid for doing the 18 job, and that's my concern. If we're 19 dwindling those people, then I wouldn't 20 be in favor of something like this. And 21 that's my whole -- 22 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I hear you. 23 MR. MICHEELS: (Indicating) 24 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 25 MR. MICHEELS: Joe Micheels. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 69 2 As a manager of a commercial 3 service, I think it behoves us as an 4 industry to provide training such as 5 Hunter's proposing. Many of my 6 employees have to go to Nassau County or 7 the city to continue their education 8 because they can't fit in the courses 9 offered, perhaps, by Suffolk, by Stony 10 Brook, or the other agencies. And if 11 they're able to cater it around the 12 employee's schedule, it's definitely 13 going to help them. 14 MR. CRONOGUE: (Indicating) 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 16 Tom Cronogue. Tom Cronogue. 17 MR. CRONOGUE: Just a thought, but 18 these people would have to work 19 somewhere. And if they've been trained 20 as EMTs, this now gives us a pool from 21 which to recruit. So I think it then 22 behoves us to recruit amongst Hunter's 23 employees to volunteer within the 24 communities where they live. And I see 25 it as an addition to us, not a 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 70 2 detraction to us from the volunteer 3 service. 4 They're a different type of 5 business. They're a commercial 6 ambulance operation. They're not 7 looking to do 911, they're not looking 8 to do what we do, they're not looking to 9 take our work away. I see them as a -- 10 I see this as a benefit to the volunteer 11 service, not a drawback. 12 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Tony. 14 MR. LAFERRERA: The application, 15 Bob, was just for basic, or was it 16 refresher as well? 17 MR. DELAGI: Well, it was for basic 18 life support -- 19 MR. LAFERRERA: Right. 20 MR. DELAGI: -- which includes 21 refreshers. 22 MR. LAFERRERA: Okay. 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Any more 24 comments? 25 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 71 2 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. So we 3 have a -- a motion, a second. 4 All in favor? 5 MR. LATEULERE: Actually -- 6 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Oh, I'm sorry. 7 MR. SEARING: Actually, we have to 8 make a motion to now either approve or 9 disapprove. 10 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Sorry. 11 MR. DELAGI: So the seconded motion 12 from the committee was to recommend 13 that -- recommend to New York State EMS 14 that Hunter EMS core sponsor application 15 be approved. 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Right. 17 MR. DELAGI: That's the seconded 18 motion. And then we need to do a 19 role-call vote whenever you're ready. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: So we 21 need -- we do need a role-call vote for 22 this issue? 23 MR. DELAGI: Yes. 24 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 25 MR. LAFERRERA: I just want to 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 72 2 clarify -- 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 4 MR. LAFERRERA: -- you know, on 5 your -- that committee, did they vote -- 6 MR. DELAGI: Yes. 7 MR. LAFERRERA: -- all in favor? 8 MR. DELAGI: Not -- well, it wasn't 9 unanimous, but the committee voted to -- 10 MR. LAFERRERA: It was the 11 majority? 12 MR. DELAGI: It was the majority. 13 MR. LAFERRERA: That's good. Fine. 14 DR. MERMELSTEIN: (Indicating) 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, 16 Dr. Mermelstein. 17 DR. MERMELSTEIN: You mentioned 18 that there were some that abstained from 19 the vote. 20 MR. DELAGI: Yes. 21 DR. MERMELSTEIN: Who was that and 22 why? 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Well, the core 24 sponsors, obviously, because the 25 conflict of interest -- 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 73 2 DR. MERMELSTEIN: I just -- 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- I didn't 4 vote. 5 DR. MERMELSTEIN: I want to abstain 6 from this vote since -- 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 8 MR. LATEULERE: (Indicating) 9 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Did you want 10 to say something? 11 MR. LATEULERE: Actually, I want to 12 bring something up for the Education 13 Training Subcommittee. Myself and Matt 14 Zukosky, we were not members of that. 15 We were actually there to enroll the 16 core sponsors. 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Right. 18 MR. LATEULERE: So we really didn't 19 abstain, we actually recused ourselves. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Right. 21 MR. LATEULERE: I just want to 22 clarify that -- 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 24 MR. LATEULERE: -- because we 25 weren't part of that vote that night. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 74 2 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Then I guess I 3 fall into that category as well. I 4 recuse myself as having a conflict. 5 Who was the abstention then, Bob? 6 MR. LAFERRERA: How did it pass? 7 (Laughter) 8 MR. LAFERRERA: If everybody 9 recused themselves, how did it pass? 10 One man left. 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: No, there were 12 actually three people left, because some 13 people didn't show up for the Education 14 and Training Committee. 15 MR. DELAGI: It was -- 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: People that 17 usually show up, if you know what I 18 mean. 19 MR. DELAGI: Bear with me, I just 20 had it somewhere. 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: And then Jay 22 did a -- I think a -- a follow-up vote 23 via the e-mail. 24 MR. DELAGI: There were four -- 25 there were four eligible voters at -- at 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 75 2 the committee. Three voted yes, one 3 voted no. 4 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. It's a 5 majority. 6 Is there another question, Linda, 7 or does that clarify it? 8 DR. MERMELSTEIN: That's -- 9 MR. LAFERRERA: I'm sorry. 10 When that happens, does that ruin 11 the quorum for that -- for that 12 committee? 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: You don't need 14 a quorum, this is a committee. 15 MS. McCORMACK: You don't need a 16 quorum. 17 MR. LATEULERE: Committees don't 18 need a quorum. 19 MR. LAFERRERA: I see some 20 questions coming down the road, that's 21 all. 22 MS. TODD: I -- I -- if I may. 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, please. 24 MS. TODD: Karen Todd. 25 I did have one other question now 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 76 2 that the -- the gentleman at the end 3 there brought up the subject as a 4 commercial provider as well. 5 Does he entertain any future 6 application for sponsoring EMT core? 7 MR. MICHEELS: Joe Micheels. 8 Not at this time. 9 MS. TODD: Not at this time. 10 MR. MICHEELS: No. 11 MS. TODD: Okay. 12 I -- I was just thinking along the 13 terms of it might further drain the 14 system that is -- that is in place now, 15 and we did make it quite clear that 16 under the law, that governs this body 17 that we are not to bring anything 18 into -- into effect that would have a -- 19 a negative effect on the core 20 sponsors -- 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Right. 22 MS. TODD: -- that are there now. 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I agree. 24 MS. TODD: So it does leave the 25 door open, again, and, you know -- 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 77 2 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Well, that was 3 the -- the significant discussion we had 4 on the committee, I'll -- 5 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 6 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- you know, 7 I'll say that. 8 Yes, Tony. 9 MR. LAFERRERA: This wasn't brought 10 up at our last meeting; correct? This 11 is -- this is the first time this 12 council is being approached with this? 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Bob. 14 MR. DELAGI: No, we have -- we have 15 had other core sponsor applications in 16 the past. You -- you may recall that 17 the Shirley Community Ambulance used to 18 be a core sponsor. That was withdrawn 19 after a number of years. We did 20 entertain a core sponsor application 21 probably two years ago, and there were 22 some issues associated with that at the 23 state health department level, and that 24 applicant was denied at the state level. 25 So yes, this is something that we have 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 78 2 done in the past. 3 MR. LAFERRERA: All right. I've 4 got to be honest with you, this is the 5 first one for me. And I don't know if 6 it would be right for me to -- with the 7 people who I represent to even cast a 8 vote without going back to them to let 9 them know about this. I don't know if 10 you can table this for another month -- 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: That's -- 12 that's not an option, because we have to 13 have a decision at this meeting. 14 MR. DELAGI: But -- 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: We absolutely 16 have to have a decision at this meeting. 17 MR. DELAGI: You raise a valid 18 point, and -- 19 MR. LAFERRERA: I don't think 20 that's fair. 21 MR. DELAGI: -- and if you feel 22 that you need to abstain, you certainly 23 have the -- the right to do that. 24 I'll just point out to you, though, 25 that the -- remember that the REMSCO's 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 79 2 responsibility extends beyond the 3 volunteer EMS system. The REMSCO has 4 statutory and regulatory responsibility 5 to do certain things for all EMS in a 6 particular region. That includes the 7 commercial sector. Even though the 8 commercial sector in this county doesn't 9 provide emergency 911 response, they are 10 still a very viable and vibrant and 11 necessary piece of our regional EMS 12 system. And -- and that's where our 13 focus should lie. 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 15 Now, I don't have my sergeant at 16 arms here tonight. Who -- so we have to 17 take a role-call vote now -- 18 MR. DELAGI: Yes. 19 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- right, Bob? 20 MR. DELAGI: Uh-huh. 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: So begin -- 22 begin the role-call vote, Bob. 23 MR. DELAGI: Okay. Dr. Coyne. 24 DR. COYNE: Yes. 25 MR. DELAGI: Mary Joe Stark. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 80 2 MS. STARK: Yes. 3 MR. DELAGI: Tom Lateulere. 4 MR. LATEULERE: Recuse my vote. 5 MR. DELAGI: Bruce Blower. 6 MR. BLOWER: Yes. 7 MR. DELAGI: Tom Cronogue. 8 MR. CRONOGUE: Recuse due to family 9 conflict. 10 MR. DELAGI: Robert Delagi, I'm 11 going to abstain as well. 12 Helen Rosenblum. 13 MS. ROSENBLUM: Yes, reluctantly. 14 MR. DELAGI: Let the record reflect 15 that Guy Cassara is absent. 16 John Searing. 17 MR. SEARING: Yes. 18 MR. DELAGI: Robert Franz. 19 MR. FRANZ: Abstain. 20 MR. DELAGI: Let the record reflect 21 Dr. Winslow is absent. 22 Matt Zukosky. 23 MR. ZUKOSKY: I'm going to recuse 24 my vote at this time. 25 MR. DELAGI: Michael Mirras. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 81 2 MR. MIRRAS: Yes. 3 MR. DELAGI: Michael Ryan. 4 SPEAKER: He's absent. 5 MR. DELAGI: Dr. Mermelstein. 6 DR. MERMELSTEIN: I'm going to 7 recuse. 8 MR. DELAGI: Let the record reflect 9 Jay Gardiner is absent. 10 Diana Barrett. 11 MS. BARRETT: Yes. 12 MR. DELAGI: Edward Boyd. 13 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Yes. 14 MR. DELAGI: Frank Silsdorf. 15 MR. SILSDORF: Yes. 16 MR. DELAGI: Karen Todd. 17 MS. TODD: No. 18 MR. DELAGI: John O'Brien. 19 MR. O'BRIEN: Yes. 20 MR. DELAGI: Tony Laferrera. 21 MR. LAFERRERA: No. 22 MR. DELAGI: Mitch Savino. 23 MR. SAVINO: Yes. 24 MR. DELAGI: Bruce Talmage. 25 MR. TALMAGE: Yes. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 82 2 MR. DELAGI: Jane McCormack. 3 MS. McCORMACK: Yes. 4 MR. DELAGI: Ed Stapleton. 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Recuse myself. 6 MR. DELAGI: Rob Calarco. 7 MR. CALARCO: Yes. 8 MR. DELAGI: Did Dr. Tarzia 9 (phonetic) come in? 10 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: No, he's not 11 here. 12 MR. MATUZA: Kevin's -- Kevin's 13 here for -- 14 MR. DELAGI: Say again. 15 MR. MATUZA: Kevin Pesce's here for 16 Dr. Tarzia (phonetic). 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Oh, the 18 alternate, yeah. 19 MR. DELAGI: Okay. 20 MR. PESCE: Yes. 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: By the way, if 22 we call the name and the alternate's 23 here, acknowledge. 24 MR. DELAGI: So Kevin Pesce, 25 P-E-S-C-E, that's -- say again, please. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 83 2 MR. PESCE: Yes. 3 MR. DELAGI: Dave Carrigan. 4 MR. CARRIGAN: Abstain. 5 MR. DELAGI: Joe Micheels. 6 MR. MICHEELS: Yes. 7 MR. DELAGI: Okay. The count is 8 16 yes, 2 no, 8 abstentions, and 9 4 absent, for a total of 30 seated 10 council members. 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: So the motion 12 carries. 13 Thank you. 14 Anything additional, Bob? 15 MR. DELAGI: No. 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 17 Legislative, Jane McCormack. 18 MS. McCORMACK: How do I follow 19 that, huh? 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Really. 21 MS. McCORMACK: Come on, that was 22 all the excitement of the whole night. 23 Heck, we haven't had that much 24 discussion in a very long time. 25 I have nothing controversial from 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 84 2 the Legislative Committee. 3 In the interest of a greener world, 4 I did not print out my five-page 5 handout, because you have it last time. 6 And, quite honestly, there hasn't been 7 too much happening. But if you're 8 desperate for one, if you want to drop 9 me an e-mail, I'll be happy to send it 10 to you in a file. 11 You know, I'm just going to mention 12 a couple little ones just sort of as 13 points of interest. There are some new 14 things coming on. 15 There is a -- a bill that has 16 sponsorship both in the assembly and in 17 senate that allows a person -- proposing 18 to allow a person to drive a fire truck 19 without possessing a commercial driver's 20 license. Apparently you all are real 21 familiar with this. It's news to me, I 22 don't drive fire trucks, but -- 23 MR. BLOWER: You soon may be able 24 to if it passes. 25 MS. McCORMACK: Our latest -- our 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 85 2 understanding from this is that this is 3 referred to transportation. Apparently 4 there's been some discussion around some 5 fire communities that this has been 6 signed by the governor, I have not been 7 able to validate that. So -- you know, 8 me and the governor, we're like this 9 (indicating), we talk all the time. But 10 as far as I know, and as far as what's 11 posted on the Web site, this is still 12 not -- it's -- it -- in -- it's referred 13 to transportation in the senate, and 14 that's where it sits. 15 There are a couple of new bills out 16 there. Again, let me just think what -- 17 what's exciting. What's exciting? 18 I don't know if this is -- 19 interests you guys as much, you know, 20 you're all EMS. I'm more hospital, but 21 they interest me. 22 There's a -- a bill in the assembly 23 and the senator to require Breathalyzer 24 tests for drivers involved in accidents 25 that cause serious physical injury or 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 86 2 death. I think this is a momentous 3 bill, personally, that needs full 4 support of anyone in the medical 5 community. Because right now, you know, 6 if -- if somebody is driving drunk and 7 plows through your house, it's really 8 not required that they are tested for 9 alcohol. So -- usually they are if 10 there's serious injuries, the police 11 usually get involved, but it's not 12 required. 13 There's also a bill in the assembly 14 to prohibit the use of cellular or 15 wireless telephones while operating a 16 motor vehicle. Somebody's actually 17 going to get -- proposing something 18 stronger than what we have in Suffolk 19 County, which, you know, I mean, it's -- 20 you see it all the time, people do it. 21 And the only other one that's 22 exciting, and this one, the emergency 23 medicine physicians and the trauma 24 surgeons are excited about, is there is 25 a bill that was passed in the assembly 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 87 2 and referred to the senate that 3 prohibits insurers from denying benefits 4 for medical services that occur as a 5 result of the insured being intoxicated. 6 You with me on that one? 7 So when the no-fault laws went into 8 effect, they were written such that if 9 you were drunk and driving, the idea 10 being that you should be punished for 11 that behavior so that your no-fault 12 insurance doesn't apply, and, therefore, 13 your no-fault is not going to cover your 14 hospitalization. It seems like a good 15 thing, but it didn't really deter people 16 from drinking and driving. What ended 17 up happening is that the entire medical 18 community no longer documents alcohol on 19 the chart for fear of not being paid. 20 So that from a social, you know, sort of 21 public health issue, we really don't 22 know how many of our injured patients 23 are actually intoxicated. 24 So this has been a push, you know, 25 for a lot of people in the medical 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 88 2 community for some years to say, You've 3 got to change the law. It's well 4 intended, but it not serving its 5 purpose. It's actually serving to go 6 against sort of the public health push 7 for trying to know about alcohol. So 8 that one's out there. 9 And that's it. Again, if you want 10 more details, call me, I'll send you my 11 notes. 12 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Tony. 14 MS. McCORMACK: If you want to look 15 up some yourself. Anthony knows a few 16 of his own. I'll -- see, he always 17 comes -- 18 MR. LAFERRERA: Just -- 19 MS. McCORMACK: -- with a couple. 20 MR. LAFERRERA: Just to let you 21 know, on April 8th, the governor signed 22 that into law with -- 23 MS. McCORMACK: Yeah, see, I -- 24 MR. LAFERRERA: On April -- yeah, 25 on April 8th, you can operate the fire 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 89 2 vehicle without a CDL to and from 3 alarms. It has been taken out of the 4 transportation committee and given to 5 codes committee. All right. The 6 opposed -- the new proposed amendment 7 eliminates the current emergency 8 operation returning -- and returning 9 limitations to simply extend the 10 exemption for a CDL to a fire vehicle 11 operated by a firefighter acting 12 pursuant to his or her official duties. 13 So what that means is back and 14 forth to alarms, and what they're 15 looking for is drills, parades, so on 16 and so forth. That's what's being run 17 through the legislature right now. 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: There you go. 19 MR. SEARING: Go ahead, because I 20 think we have the same question. 21 MR. DELAGI: Bob Delagi. 22 Is it signed by the governor or is 23 it in committee? 24 MR. LAFERRERA: No -- 25 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: It can't have 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 90 2 been signed by -- 3 MS. McCORMACK: Clarification. 4 MR. LAFERRERA: Back on April 8th, 5 the governor had just signed into law an 6 amendment to the vehicle and traffic law 7 permitting the operation of a fire 8 vehicle without a CDL to include 9 returning from an emergency. 10 MR. DELAGI: Oh, okay. 11 MR. CRONOGUE: Is that 115A, 12 Anthony? 13 MR. LAFERRERA: 501 and 501A. 14 MR. SEARING: So it's not the same 15 as the assembly bill and the senate bill 16 then? 17 MR. LAFERRERA: Right. Actually -- 18 MR. SEARING: Okay. So -- 19 MR. LAFERRERA: Actually, the fire 20 academy, this is their first 21 notification on that new Web site. No, 22 I'm saying, that's where -- this came in 23 today on the 12th. 24 MR. CRONOGUE: I'm not talking 25 about the bill number, I'm talking about 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 91 2 the actual BTO site. 3 MR. LAFERRERA: 115A, yes, sir. 4 MR. CRONOGUE: 115A -- 5 MR. LAFERRERA: It's right here 6 (indicating). 7 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. 8 MR. LAFERRERA: Yes, sir, 115A. 9 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Now, the fire 10 academy is parroting something that an 11 attorney Upstate wrote -- 12 MR. LAFERRERA: It's been signed 13 into law. 14 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: -- and I think 15 that source is questionable right now. 16 MR. CRONOGUE: (Indicating) 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, Tom. 18 MR. CRONOGUE: That particular 19 section, the 100 section of the vehicle 20 and traffic law, that's actually just a 21 definition, it's not really an 22 operational part of the VTL. So we may 23 be a little light there. 24 And, also, while I'm on the topic, 25 I think we may be missing an opportunity 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 92 2 here to assist our volunteer membership. 3 You know, we're offering, Well, you can 4 have your low sap (phonetic), you can 5 have this, you can have this, we have 6 picnics, we have dinners. How about, 7 we'll get you your CDL, and we train our 8 operators become commercial drivers? 9 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Tony. 10 MR. LAFERRERA: I have one more 11 thing. 12 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes, no 13 problem. 14 MR. CRONOGUE: I mean, that might 15 be expensive -- 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Go ahead. 17 MR. SEARING: Some actually are. 18 There are some departments that are 19 already doing it, and some have balked 20 at the cost. 21 MR. CRONOGUE: Is there any chance 22 that we could look into maybe either a 23 county or a state bid along those lines? 24 MR. SEARING: To offer the 25 training, or -- or are you talking 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 93 2 about -- 3 MR. CRONOGUE: To offer the 4 training. 5 MR. SEARING: -- or are you talking 6 about getting a grant? 7 The academy might not be eligible. 8 I seem to remember talking about this 9 with Dave -- 10 MR. CRONOGUE: But -- 11 MR. SEARING: -- a little bit. 12 MR. CRONOGUE: But if we were to 13 speak to like (inaudible) CDL in East 14 Farmingdale -- 15 MR. SEARING: Sure. 16 MR. CRONOGUE: -- and say we have 17 X number of firefighters and ambulance 18 drivers who would be interested in 19 obtaining CDL licenses -- 20 MR. SEARING: Can we get a better 21 price? 22 MR. CRONOGUE: -- can we get a 23 better price. 24 Is there any chance we could look 25 into that? 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 94 2 MR. SEARING: I'll look -- yeah, I 3 can look into that. 4 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. Thank you. 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. Tony. 6 MR. LAFERRERA: Yes. Just to bring 7 everybody up to date, Bruce saw me 8 working hard this morning -- 9 MR. BLOWER: I did. 10 MR. LAFERRERA: -- in front of the 11 legislators. As you know, this past 12 week there was a home rule message 13 presented for -- to help our PSAPs, the 14 12 PSAPs throughout the county, with the 15 diminishing funds. It was to provide a 16 wireless surcharge, 30 cents, on the 17 cell phones in Suffolk County. And at 18 about 6:30 tonight, they passed it at 19 13 to 5 to have this home rule go into 20 effect to enact Senate Bill -- ready, 21 Jane? 22 MS. McCORMACK: Uh-huh. 23 MR. LAFERRERA: Senate Bill S4026, 24 and Assembly Bill A7336. That's 25 Senator Foley, Senator Sweeney, on 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 95 2 getting the funds for our PSAPs, and 3 only for our PSAPs, to keep the 4 infrastructure, training, and equipment 5 going throughout the 12 PSAPs, which 6 effects village police departments, 7 Suffolk County Police Departments, FRES, 8 Smithtown Fire District, Babylon Central 9 Fire Alarm, Southampton, Southold, 10 Greenport, and -- Green- -- yeah. And 11 that's where we're at. They passed that 12 tonight at about 6:30, 13 in favor, 13 5 against, and the work continues -- 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 15 MR. LAFERRERA: -- to keep those 16 PSAPs going. 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 18 MR. CRONOGUE: A quick question on 19 that. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 21 MR. CRONOGUE: And this money will 22 only go to designated PSAPs; correct? 23 MR. LAFERRERA: That is the way 24 it's written by Mr. Foley and 25 Mr. Sweeney. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 96 2 MR. DELAGI: (Indicating) 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 4 MR. CRONOGUE: And it won't be used 5 to cut corners. 6 MR. LAFERRERA: And if there's 7 anything extra -- 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I'm sorry. 9 MR. LAFERRERA: What they do is 10 they present the budget to the 11 legislators. They come out with a 12 figure that go to -- goes to the PSAPs. 13 If there's anything left over, it rolls 14 over to the following year -- 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: I'll get to 16 you, Bob. 17 MR. LAFERRERA: -- just for those 18 PSAPs. 19 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay. Thank you. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. Bob, 21 and then John. 22 MR. DELAGI: Is the -- is the 23 surcharge money tied to the use of 24 emergency medical dispatch? Do you 25 know? 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 97 2 MS. TODD: In volume? 3 MR. DELAGI: No, not volume. In 4 previous -- in previous legislation, in 5 order to get 911 money and surcharge 6 money, a PSAP had to be doing EMD. 7 MR. LAFERRERA: Correct. 8 MR. DELAGI: And I'm just wondering 9 if this version contains that same 10 language. 11 MR. CALARCO: Rob -- 12 MR. LAFERRERA: Correct. 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Rob. 14 MR. CALARCO: Rob -- 15 MR. LAFERRERA: No, he's right. 16 MR. CALARCO: Rob Calarco. I'm 17 from the legislature, worked for 18 Legislator Eddington. 19 The -- the home rule that was 20 passed and the state legislation that's 21 pending that we're all looking to see if 22 it will be approved will direct this 23 30 cent surcharge funds to be paid to 24 the county directly. From there, the 25 county legislature will be responsible 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 98 2 for actually directing that to the 3 various PSAP projects -- 4 MR. LAFERRERA: That's the way it 5 was written. 6 MR. CALARCO: -- as we see 7 necessary. How that's going to be done 8 is -- it's likely to be done on some 9 sort of a proportional basis, I don't 10 know who fields that calls, but the 11 money is specifically for the use of the 12 enhanced 911 services only. 13 MR. LAFERRERA: That's the way it's 14 written in the law. 15 MR. DELAGI: Thank you. 16 MR. LAFERRERA: Everybody knows, 17 when this all started, it wasn't even 18 Verizon back then, and each of the 19 contracts that provided the PSAPs was 20 $98,000. It was down to $40,000 this 21 year, and the contract for next year is 22 zero dollars for the PSAPs. So that's 23 why that was -- 24 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: John, did you 25 have something you wanted to add? 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 99 2 MR. SEARING: I just wanted to 3 clarify. This isn't new -- I mean, I 4 don't know if people are familiar. This 5 comes from the actual fixed landlines, 6 is where this emanated from, in the 7 homes. And as that has declined over 8 time, people get rid of their -- their 9 fixed -- their -- their -- the revenue 10 has been lost and able to be -- keep the 11 PSAPs up to date, and that's part of 12 what prompted all of this. So it's -- 13 MR. LAFERRERA: But -- 14 MR. SEARING: -- it doesn't go 15 anywhere else except to the 911 16 committee, which helps dole it out, and 17 it -- you know, it upgrades the -- the 18 PSAP equipment updates to 911 -- 19 MR. LAFERRERA: We were down to 20 22 percent -- 21 MR. SEARING: Yup. 22 MR. LAFERRERA: -- 22 percent hard 23 line phones. And if you have cable, the 24 phones -- the VLIP, they -- they don't 25 pay into that. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 100 2 MR. SEARING: Correct. 3 MR. LAFERRERA: So that's where a 4 lot of the revenue is going. 5 MR. CRONOGUE: (Indicating) 6 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 7 Tom, do you have something to 8 add -- 9 MR. CRONOGUE: That's what I wanted 10 to ask you. 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- or Rob? 12 MR. SEARING: Yes, it -- it's -- it 13 is directed. 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Rob. 15 MR. CALARCO: And just -- the 16 process that this still has to go 17 through is that the state assembly and 18 the senate still have to approve -- 19 MR. LAFERRERA: Correct. 20 MR. CALARCO: -- the bill, and then 21 ultimately Suffolk County must then come 22 back and -- and actually enact a law. 23 So we're several steps out on the 24 process. 25 MR. LAFERRERA: Oh, yeah, he's 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 101 2 right. 3 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: There you go. 4 MR. SEARING: And -- and I -- and 5 through the chair to Rob, if I may. 6 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yeah. 7 MR. SEARING: Rob, I think that 8 includes voice in the state one, 9 though -- 10 MR. CALARCO: No, it does not. 11 MR. SEARING: No, it does not. 12 Okay. 13 MR. LAFERRERA: No, it doesn't. 14 MR. CALARCO: This -- this specific 15 home rule came to a state legislation 16 for cell phones -- 17 MR. SEARING: Okay. 18 MR. CALARCO: -- only -- 19 MR. LAFERRERA: Cell phones only. 20 MR. CALARCO: -- and -- and those 21 cell phones that have had emergency ties 22 to Suffolk County. 23 MR. SEARING: That's okay. 24 MR. CALARCO: And I believe it does 25 exempt certain cell phone carriers, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 102 2 but -- you know, like the county or -- 3 or the various, you know, public 4 entities. 5 There is -- there is pending -- 6 something being worked up in the state 7 for the voice- -- the voice-over 8 Internet phones. If that -- or will 9 that come to fruition, I don't know. 10 We're -- we're getting close to the end 11 of -- 12 MR. SEARING: That's a big number, 13 too. 14 MR. CALARCO: -- may not get that. 15 MR. LAFERRERA: That will be worked 16 out federally, too, for voice. 17 MR. SEARING: Okay. 18 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. Any 19 further discussion? 20 Let me suggest in the future on 21 these legis- -- this is the most vibrant 22 legislative discussion we've ever had, 23 honestly. But that -- when we have 24 issues like that, that we bring it to 25 Jane's attention so it comes under a 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 103 2 structured process, you know, here. I 3 think that would be very good. You 4 know, have an interest in -- make sure 5 it gets to Jane -- 6 MS. McCORMACK: Right. 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- she puts it 8 on the agenda. Not that this wasn't a 9 rich discussion, I'm just saying -- 10 MR. LAFERRERA: Well, actually -- 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: All I'm 12 worried about is, this is the most 13 undisciplined meeting I've ever run in 14 the sense of we have, you know, sort 15 of -- 16 MR. LAFERRERA: I think it's great. 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- loose 18 discussion going on. But, you know, in 19 the process of, I'm just saying, 20 acknowledging and discipline and 21 communication. That's my point. 22 Resource needs. We've got a big 23 issue tonight, Bruce Blower. 24 MR. BLOWER: Okay. The committee 25 met earlier this evening before this 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 104 2 meeting on the application that was 3 received for transfer of operating 4 authority of the assets of Medical 5 Express Ambulance Corp to Ace Ambulance 6 Service, LLC. This is a transfer of 7 ownership. This is an existing service 8 that the ownership would be transferred. 9 We heard a presentation from 10 EMS staff that they did the checks, 11 all the -- the T's were crossed and the 12 I's were dotted. The state health 13 department has approved the fitness and 14 competence of the new owners of, you 15 know, this existing service, which 16 happens to be the same principles of 17 Hunter Ambulance that we heard from in 18 the application to be considered before. 19 And the committee then voted a -- 20 and seconded a motion to be presented 21 here tonight, in which we are suggesting 22 approval of by this body, and forward to 23 the state approval of the application 24 for transfer of operating authority 25 pursuant to Public Health Law, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 105 2 Section 3010, Sale of Assets of Medical 3 Express Ambulance Corporation to Ace 4 Ambulance Service, LLC. 5 And that's the motion from -- the 6 seconded motion from the committee, 7 Mr. Chairman, and I believe, again, we 8 need a role-call vote on this. So if 9 you care to open the floor for 10 discussion. 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Any discussion 12 on the motion? 13 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 14 MR. BLOWER: By the way, I should 15 add, we do not need a -- a public 16 hearing, because it's -- it's an 17 existing service, and it's basically a 18 transfer of ownership. So no public 19 hearing is required. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. 21 Bob, would you like to commence? I 22 don't hear any discussion. 23 MR. DELAGI: Okay. 24 Dr. Coyne. 25 DR. COYNE: Yes. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 106 2 MR. DELAGI: Mary Joe Stark. 3 MS. STARK: Yes. 4 MR. DELAGI: Tom Lateulere. 5 MR. LATEULERE: Yes. 6 MR. DELAGI: Bruce Blower. 7 MR. BLOWER: Yes. 8 MR. DELAGI: Tom Cronogue. 9 MR. CRONOGUE: Recuse, same reason. 10 MR. DELAGI: Robert Delagi, voting 11 yes. 12 Helen Rosenblum. 13 MS. ROSENBLUM: Yes. 14 MR. DELAGI: Guy Cassara is absent. 15 John Searing. 16 MR. SEARING: Yes. 17 MR. DELAGI: Robert Franz. 18 MR. FRANZ: Yes. 19 MR. DELAGI: Dr. Winslow is absent. 20 Matt Zukosky. 21 MR. ZUKOSKY: Yeah. 22 MR. DELAGI: Mike Mirras. 23 MR. MIRRAS: Yes. 24 MR. DELAGI: Mike Ryan is absent. 25 Dr. Mermelstein. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 107 2 DR. MERMELSTEIN: Yes. 3 MR. DELAGI: Jay Gardiner is 4 absent. 5 Diana Barrett. 6 MS. BARRETT: Yes. 7 MR. DELAGI: Ed Boyd. 8 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Yes. 9 MR. DELAGI: Frank Silsdorf. 10 MR. SILSDORF: Yes. 11 MR. DELAGI: Karen Todd. 12 MS. TODD: Yes. 13 MR. DELAGI: John O'Brien. 14 MR. O'BRIEN: Yes. 15 MR. DELAGI: Tony Laferrera. 16 MR. LAFERRERA: Yes. 17 MR. DELAGI: Mitchell Savino. 18 MR. SAVINO: Yes. 19 MR. DELAGI: Bruce Talmage. 20 MR. TALMAGE: Yes. 21 MR. DELAGI: Jane McCormack. 22 MS. McCORMACK: Yes. 23 MR. DELAGI: Ed Stapleton. 24 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 25 MR. DELAGI: Rob Calarco. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 108 2 MR. CALARCO: Yes. 3 MR. DELAGI: Kevin Pesce. 4 MR. PESCE: Yes. 5 MR. DELAGI: David Carrigan. 6 MR. CARRIGAN: Yes. 7 MR. DELAGI: And Joe Micheels. 8 MR. MICHEELS: I recuse myself. 9 MR. DELAGI: Okay. We have 24 yes, 10 2 abstentions, and 4 absent, for a total 11 of 30 seated members. 12 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 13 Bruce -- 14 MR. BLOWER: Thank you. 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: -- and thank 16 you, Bob. 17 Nominating, Helen Rosenblum. 18 MS. ROSENBLUM: No activity that I 19 know. 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Good. 21 The executive, Ed Stapleton. 22 I sort of did my report at -- under 23 the chairman's report. But I do want to 24 say something, something came up during 25 the meeting about the number of people 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 109 2 on the education and training, which I 3 was very disappointed in, too. That was 4 our most vibrant committee. But it -- I 5 think it speaks to committee involvement 6 on the chair level, on the -- we all 7 signed up for committees. And when it 8 comes sign-up time, people sign up for 9 two committees, three committees. But 10 when it comes showing up to committee 11 time, you know, there just weren't a lot 12 of people at the meeting and it really 13 did have a sense of, Gee, we don't have 14 enough people, but this is the committee 15 meeting. 16 So all I'm doing is encouraging the 17 chairs to make sure they actively pursue 18 their members, and the members say, 19 Look, you've made a commitment to be on 20 a committee, show up to the committee. 21 So I think it's very important we all 22 take our responsibilities to that as 23 well. 24 Obviously, there was the added 25 damage that three of the people who'd 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 110 2 normally would be at the Education and 3 Training Committee were recusing 4 themselves, but we were part of 5 participation. But at the end of the 6 day, there were only four people who 7 could vote. So I think that is an 8 important consciousness-raising issue. 9 Bob, New York State EMS Council 10 Delegate Report. 11 MR. DELAGI: You'll be pleased to 12 hear that there is no report. 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Good. 14 Tom, did you have something to say? 15 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Response 16 Committee, Tom. 17 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Oh, Response 18 Committee, yeah. 19 MR. CRONOGUE: Well, we met at the 20 quarters of Riverhead Ambulance -- thank 21 you, Bruce. We had a small meeting, we 22 had six people from the East End. We 23 got some very good input from the East 24 End, some good ideas. The sense I left 25 with is that the East End is reasonably 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 111 2 happy with the performance and the 3 things that REMSCO is doing. Naturally, 4 they would like to see us do more 5 directed in their -- towards their -- 6 how do you say in America -- 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Constituency. 8 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: No. 9 MR. CRONOGUE: Well, not just 10 constituency, but specific problems that 11 they face with geography and things 12 along those lines. But we had a 13 positive meeting, I'm again looking to 14 continue. 15 And should any group -- I've 16 reached out to the Nesconset Fire 17 Department, asked them if they'd be 18 willing to hold the next one, I haven't 19 received an answer yet back from the 20 chief's office. Should any group -- not 21 limited to fire departments, should any 22 group be willing to invite the Response 23 Committee to stop in in the off months 24 and hold a meeting in their quarters, we 25 would be more than happy to come knock 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 112 2 on your door and -- you don't have to 3 supply refreshments, it's not a regular 4 meeting. 5 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Good. 6 MR. CRONOGUE: Okay? 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 8 MR. CRONOGUE: That's that. 9 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 10 New York State EMS Council Delegate 11 Report. 12 MR. DELAGI: There is no report. 13 I'll be attending the series of meetings 14 June 8, 9, and 10 on your behalf. 15 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you. 16 Old business. 17 Any old business? 18 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 19 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: New business. 20 MR. LAFERRERA: (Indicating) 21 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Yes. 22 MR. LAFERRERA: You're not going to 23 want me here anymore. That's it. 24 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: No, it's okay, 25 Tony. 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 113 2 MR. LAFERRERA: No, but of -- of 3 importance, the fire academy and FRES 4 held a new chief seminar at the fire 5 academy May 3rd. Out of 27 chiefs 6 there, two were EMS chiefs. And I have 7 to say, the biggest presentation and 8 done very well. And I want to thank you 9 for it. It was (inaudible) presentation 10 to the new chiefs on EMS and Suffolk 11 County. So I thought that was done very 12 well. 13 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Good. 14 MR. LAFERRERA: Also, as you might 15 have heard before, I was with the 16 legislative body this morning. And I 17 just want to say that out of all 18 18 legislators, they recognized Bruce 19 for his dedication and service, and he 20 was presented a proclamation this 21 morning, and I want to say 22 congratulations again to him. 23 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Just to 24 clarify that, Bruce Blower has been a 25 major leader in the county for 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 114 2 handicapped services for three decades, 3 probably more, and he is retiring. 4 So here-here for Bruce Blower. 5 (Applause) 6 MR. BLOWER: However -- I 7 appreciate that -- 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: But he's not 9 retiring from us. 10 MR. BLOWER: -- I'm not retiring 11 from REMSCO. 12 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: There you go. 13 MR. BLOWER: So you can't get rid 14 of me yet, guys and gals. But I -- I 15 appreciate it. 16 I've had the privilege of serving 17 under five county executives. While I'm 18 there, I've seen tremendous changes in 19 disability issues and disability rights. 20 We never had any federal laws when we 21 started protecting disabled. And I've 22 also seen my love -- I'm an ambulance 23 volunteer from Huntington Community 24 First Aid Squad, one of the charter 25 members, I've been president six times, 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 115 2 and, you know, I'm -- I'm a life member. 3 So my true love is being an ambulance 4 volunteer. 5 I'm going to continue doing the 6 things I like and go on. I have 7 grandkids in this county, so I'm staying 8 here, my wife and I. So you'll see me 9 around, and I'll be back at the next 10 meeting. 11 Again, thank you one and all for 12 your kind wishes, I appreciate it. 13 We're going to move onward and upward 14 and keep doing great stuff I'm told. 15 Thank you, I appreciate it. 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 17 Bruce. 18 Any other new business? 19 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 20 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Announcements? 21 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 22 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. So the 23 next meeting date is July 14th, 2009. 24 I'd like a motion to adjourn. 25 MS. TODD: Would you like to 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 116 2 mention the Burn Center Recognition Day 3 in Stony Brook. 4 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: That's an 5 announcement, Karen. 6 MS. TODD: I'm sorry, it didn't 7 come to me. 8 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: No, don't put 9 me in charge of that. 10 Go ahead, make the announcement. 11 MS. TODD: The -- the Burn Center 12 Recognition Day is -- 13 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Sunday. 14 MS. TODD: -- May 17th -- 15 VICE CHAIRMAN BOYD: Sunday. 16 MS. TODD: -- at -- it's a Sunday, 17 at the -- Stony Brook. There are signs 18 everywhere pointing you to the right 19 room. There are refreshments served, 20 and there are people who -- departments 21 and individuals and corporations that 22 make donations in great numbers are 23 recognized. And usually the -- and 24 always the staff who do a wonderful job 25 with any burn patients, and occasionally 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 117 2 a surviving burn patient will attend. 3 It's really a very good day. And it 4 would be great, if as many people who 5 are interested in that part of our EMS 6 could be there, it would be wonderful. 7 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Thank you, 8 Karen. 9 MS. TODD: It's at 1 o'clock; 10 correct? 11 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: A motion to 12 adjourn. 13 MR. MIRRAS: (Indicating) 14 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Second. 15 MR. FRANZ: (Indicating) 16 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Okay. All in 17 favor? 18 ALL: Aye. 19 CHAIRMAN STAPLETON: Opposed? 20 (WHEREUPON, there was no response.) 21 (WHEREUPON, the meeting of the 22 Suffolk Regional Emergency Medical 23 Services Council was adjourned at 24 8:32 p.m.) 25 1 Suffolk Regional EMS Council 5/12/09 118 2 3 4 C E R T I F I C A T E 5 6 I, THERESA PAPE, a Shorthand Reporter and 7 Notary Public of the State of New York, do hereby 8 certify: 9 That the foregoing is a true and accurate 10 transcription of the stenographic notes taken 11 herein. 12 I further certify that I am not related to 13 any of the parties to this action by blood or 14 marriage; and that I am in no way interested in the 15 outcome of this matter. 16 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my 17 hand this 12th day of May 2009. 18 19 20 21 ___________________________________ THERESA PAPE 22 23 24 25