01-14-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM 4A STAFF ORIGINATOR: John Swenson, Public Safety Director MEETING DATE: January 14, 2019 TOPIC: Automatic Aid/ Mutual Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) — Forest Lake Fire Department VOTE REQUIRED: 3/5 INTRODUCTION The Lino Lakes Public Safety Department (LLPSD) is requesting council approval to enter into JPA for fire suppression operations with the Forest Lake Fire Department. BACKGROUND The Public Safety Department receives and provides fire suppression assistance to the Centennial, Spring Lake Park, Blaine, Mounds View (SBM), White Bear Lake and Forest Lake Fire Departments. This fire suppression assistance is for both auto and mutual aid responses. Auto aid response occurs on a structure fire only and results in neighboring jurisdictions being automatically dispatched at the same time as the primary responding fire agency is dispatched. Mutual aid is assistance that may be requested through the dispatch center by the primary fire agency when additional resources are needed to adequately address the response needs. The automatic fire aid enables jurisdictions to leverage partnerships to improve response times and resource deployment. The existence of fire auto aid agreements with neighboring jurisdictions is one of the criteria that the ISO evaluates as part of their review. We have agreements in place with all neighboring jurisdictions with the exception of the Hugo Fire Department. The City of Forest Lake has requested that we formalize our existing business practices related to fire auto and mutual aid in a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA). This JPA is attached to this staff report for your review. Anoka County agencies have language within the Anoka County Fire Protection Council Agreement related to fire auto and mutual aid. We have an existing JPA with the City of White Bear Lake for fire auto and mutual aid. Lino Lakes fire staff has provided fire assistance eleven times in 2016 and five times in 2017. Our neighboring jurisdictions provided assistance to our staff eight times in 2016 and five times in 2017.