City Council intent on getting to bottom of fire dept. needs

After a lengthy discussion on the Belleville Fire Department at the Nov. 15 regular, in-person meeting of the City Council, Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Marcotte made a motion for the council to commit to a methodology and means of improving the fire department and form a committee to focus on understanding the fire department.
Councilman Ken Voigt seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Mayor Pro Tem Marcotte was attending his last full meeting of the council since he opted not to run for reelection and his replacement will be sworn in at the next meeting. He agreed to help study the fire department to find what is needed.
Mayor Kerreen Conley said she volunteered Marcotte to study the issue last month because of his expertise. She said he’s recognized nationally and, “He’s a big deal.”
Marcotte works full time for the Northville Township Fire Department and teaches fire fighters throughout the nation.
The focus on the fire department started at the Nov. 1 meeting when Marcotte told of his experience of calling the city fire department for a gas leak and having nobody come. After 21 minutes of waiting out in the cold, with his wife and two small children, he asked Van Buren Township dispatch to send VBT fire department and it did.
The council asked for information on the situation and City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson provided preliminary information. Chief Robinson said he wants a full meeting with the fire department command staff within the next week to come up solutions for their problem. He said he wants the fire department to be able to respond when called.
Chief Robinson said he provided information on exactly how VBT dispatch works, the time stamps from CLEMIS for Marcotte’s Potter Drive incident, and other information.
He said VBT has been great to work with and he knows Public Safety Director Greg Laurain felt it important to make a response in the newspaper to the report of Marcotte’s complaint. Robinson said VBT was great in providing the information. They have industry standards and that’s what they should be, he said.
Marcotte said he wants people to know the intent of his statements at the last meeting was to study the state of fire service in the community and to help it be that when people call they get service.
“I know it’s a difficult job to do,” he said noting he had some years of paid-per-call fire fighting. He said people work full time and are called out at night and have to go to work in the morning. And, it’s not just for fires, but it’s all-hazard response, as it is all around the country. For medical responses, seconds count, he said.
He said the figures provided by Chief Robinson show a significant amount of calls not responded to and the city asked the township only nine times for mutual aid. He said he understands not to call for mutual aid so as not to overburden the township, but he doesn’t know what kinds of calls they were.
Marcotte said they need to look at what can be improved and not only recognize the state of the organization and what contributed to this, but how to handle recruitment and retention.
He said studies show Midwest communities Belleville’s size should have 6.45 fire fighters per 1,000 people, around 24 fire fighters.
“I’m simply trying to understand the level that’s acceptable and comfortable,” Marcotte said.
Fire Chief Brian Loranger said he’s never been allowed to have the 18 fire fighters he wanted because of the budget. He said he “gets them, trains them, and they go on to other departments.”
Chief Loranger said right now is a different world for hiring, with difficulties getting paid-per-call fire fighters and even full-time fire fighters. He said they used to get 2,000 people applying for a full-time position and now they get four. He said he has only two fire fighters who live in the city with the rest in Sumpter and Van Buren townships.
Marcotte said now they have the simple information, but they don’t know how many respond to calls and the average response time and whether calls are priority versus non-priority.
A fire fighter said he’d been trying to get information for a week on the 26 alarms the department missed, but the city doesn’t have a record because the city didn’t respond.
Resident Lacey Marcotte said she has served as a fire fighter for 14 years and her concern is where HVA is coming from. She’s had experience that they are coming from Toledo or Jackson. She also asked about the eight minutes Councilman Ken Voigt said was the time VBT used to respond after no response from the city.
“There is no eight minutes,” said Chief Robinson.
Later Councilman Voigt said he quoted what was told to the council at a report on the fire department last spring.
Lacey Marcotte, the sister of Mayor Pro Tem Marcotte, said the city can design a standard operating procedure that after five minutes there is mutual aid.
“There are a lot of SOPs,” said Robinson. “The experts are going to tell us what are the best practices. I have Councilman Marcotte in my cell phone for help.”
Marcotte questioned the Belleville fire fighter response percentages presented to the council, with average response for command staff of 14.4% and average response for sergeant and fire fighters of 20.3%. He said he had worked for a fire department that demanded at least 30% or they would put a lock on your locker.
While discussing the number of fire fighters needed, Chief Loranger said every time he turns in his requested payroll for the upcoming year, it gets hacked.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make it work,” Voigt said.
“Me, too,” Loranger said.
During discussion, Councilman Tom Fielder said the voters approved two mills for public safety capital expenses and after the final report on the fire department, voters might have to make another decision.
In other business at the one-hour-and-11-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved addition of the Van Buren Public School Education Foundation 5-K run to the previously approved Winter Fest activities. The foundation wanted to have the run before the parade on Saturday with a new route, but police in the city and Van Buren Township thought that wasn’t a good time. “So we’re back to the old crappy route,” said foundation representative Whitney. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 5, and go along the usual route from Horizon Park to Main Street, to Denton Road, over the bridge, and turning on the first dirt road on the left and back. The longest that could take would be an hour and 15 minutes, so they would clear the High Street area by the time the church starts its service at 10:30 a.m.; and
• Approved accounts payable of $86,249.60 with the following departmental purchase in excess of $500: to Quill, $1,442 for conference room chairs for police squad/training room and workstations for the police department. Chief Robinson was able to get $80.89 worth of credit for the purchase. Shipping is free.