(The E-911 Advisory Committee discussed and/or voted on the following during their regular, quarterly meeting Thursday, November 20. ) E-911 by-laws: Members reviewed and approved the by-laws for the advisory committee. Two major changes were also approved. The committee eliminated a provision allowing members to appoint someone to fill in for them if they needed to be absent and striking a clause that lists all cities and departments represented on the committee. The item generating the most discussion was a provision to allow committee members to appoint a designee to represent them if they are unable to attend a meeting. Sheriff Ramsey Bennett stated he didn’t think the Board of Commissioners would appoint people to this board to give their responsibilities to anyone else. “If something is important enough to be voted on by the committee, then everyone on the board should be present,” the sheriff said. County Chairman Neal Bennett agreed, pointing out the committee only meets four times per year and it shouldn’t be that difficult for members to attend. EMS Director Daniel Royal said if a member is absent then someone can sit in and get all the information from that meeting but will not vote.
The committee also discussed adding Patterson and Offerman to the description of the advisory committee, since it includes both cities, but ultimately decided not to do an exhaustive list of agencies represented by the advisory committee.
Emergency policies: EMS Director Daniel Royal said a lot of changes need to be made to the current standard operating procedures (SOP). Sheriff Bennett said the Board of Commissioners have the final say in what is in the SOP. Blackshear Police Chief Chris Wright stated he would like to share a copy of the SOP for everyone on the advisory board to make changes on. Blackshear Fire Chief Bucky Goble has a copy of the SOP with his changes, and he will send them to the next department for changes. This will take 6 to 7 weeks to complete.
Next meeting: The date and time for the next quarterly meeting of the advisory committee will be announced later. The meeting will be at the Southeast Georgia Regional Agriculture Center in Blackshear.
