Panel Discussion Questions
Allow R&R in lower 48 states for crews after 14 days to avoid excessive air
transportation cost by Sierra Pacific, also applies to crews going to Alaska, also can apply
to other situations.
A reminder for all of we are all taxpayers.
My understanding is that there is a guy in R-5 regional office telling contractors that it is
an acceptable practice to self dispatch or smoke chase. Why is this happening? How do
we shut him up? We have worked hard and long to eliminate this type of problem-out of
fairness to all contractors. It is a mistake to reward smoke chases by hiring at the
incident.
Are criminal background checks performed when assembling hand crews or engine
crews? Concern: ex –felons, sexual convictions, homicide convictions, within the fire
camp environment exposing a potential risk to incident employees. We had a homicide
at BIG BAR and I don’t want to ever go through that again.
Rental Vehicles continue to be a major headache. It seems that as the Forest Service has
a different contract some good, but some really bad. This needs to be standardized so
that a manager has some idea as to the requirements of the contract. Many times the
contract that the vehicles were hired under do not arrive until the incident is nearly over
The FS is beginning a multi-year competitive sourcing process as various functional
groups within the FS are studied. We are told if we are part of a group being studied we
should not make our self available for fire assignments especially if our regular jobs have
nothing to do with fire. Is the FS going to address this issue or loose a lot of FS folks on
fire teams.
It seems like many non-federal agencies especially in California are taking their people
off Type 1 and 2 teams. I’ve heard CDF LA County San Bernardino County have
removed their members from teams. Why & what for? Can we attend more than one
break out group? Do they repeat the info?
The agencies decide to utilize local restraints and correction kitchens for needs at an
incident. It will save $250,000. over the course of the incident. What will be involved in
determining how to utilize these resources? Answer for:LSC1 IBA
The State of Nevada gives you a delegation that restricts the use of out of area and
National contract resources. How will you handle this as the IBA or IC?
Air Ops has ordered and received mobile retardant plants to be placed at two locations.
To date the use has been minimal. What discussion should take place to address weather
this resource should be kept or released? Estimated cost for 14 days is $1 million.
Why do we need to have invoices & equipment shift tickets? It seems there is an
opportunity for duplication of payments & twice the confusion. One or the other should
be enough. This is twice the work.
Day off on back to back assignments. Is the day off at the home unit?
Outsourcing- Type 3 team and resources mop up. And BAER team resources
(implementation)
Is there any consideration to portal to portal time being considered at this time or is this a
dead issue? It would seem this would drive down cost by eliminating time keepers and
paper work associated with it.
I’ve talk to National contract caterers and they tell me their exempt from US DOT going
to the incident. Was this because NIFC dispatch declared it an emergency or is it in their
contract? If it isn’t then how do you get the word to the contractor that they have to
adhere?
AD drivers assigned to ground support - are they still paid hourly or will they be on a
daily rate? How do you track driving time- 10 hours out of 15 hour day- wheels turning?
Sitting behind the wheel?
Perception of supplements as excessive does not mean a reduction in diuretic sport drinks
like Gatorade / PowerAde along with dried meats? Will dried fruits be used along with
candy bars? What about granola bars and or nuts?
Contracting 101 Why in this interagency meeting were the Dept. of Interior, States, &
the rest of the FS regions not here representing their programs? Maybe all of the people
who sign EERA’s should get together & discuss their differences in rates and clauses and
try to standardize them.
You (Finance, IC) have been made aware that the structure protection group on your fire
has been logging 16 hr days, no meal breaks, and hazardous duty pay all week while
“prepping” An urban interface area, roughly 2 miles from the nearest fire front. The
DIVS says that this is the teams SOP when crews are operating in remote spike situations
(timekeeping) Q what questions would the IBA be asking?
Rent vs. Purchase; the buying team has acquired a large number of non expendable items
through purchase (small generator, computers, pumps, etc.) The incident is now
demobing. How does the buying unit determine the distribution of these items? SaleTransfer value- District fire cache?
When will the business group present a summary of the information they have discussed
and worked on the last couple of days? i.e. Contract language, cost savings, rental
vehicles.
How are purchases dealt with on multi-agency fires?
What is being done at the Washington DC level to resolve the reimbursement issue of
non-federal agencies personnel used in response to non-wildfire incidents? I have been
told that it is not legal for the USFS to use existing USFS-State fire agreements to
reimburse non-federal agencies.
Many of our own rules & regulations force us to waste money. As in purchased items
must be purchased by home units or given to caches who do not want these odd items.
Can’t we do like the military or FEMA which give these items to the other Federal, State,
or county agencies, or have a system in place to action off surplus equipment promptly?
I have been told by contractors that the time of signing they are being told its ok to bring
equipment not ordered. Although it is common for contractors to bring additional
equipment in hopes of getting it hired, for years we have been discouraged from
encouraging this practice of “fire chasing” and not having unfair hiring practices.
Logistics relies on the ordering process and fair opportunity for all contractors.
* I would like to see a clause that basically states contractor/vendors are only authorized
and expected to bring only what has been ordered and sufficient supplies, personnel etc to
maintain the equipment ordered for compliance with contract stipulations. Any other
equipment not ordered but brought to an incident is not to be brought to the incident base
or any other site under control by the incident. I am concerned that what is being
discussed by contracting officers is eluding or stating that it’s ok. It needs to be
discouraged to avoid the impacts on logistics at the incident and pitting contractor against
contractor to maintain fair use of all contractors.
IMS personnel in R6 a decision was made to not pay those who are AD’s who will go to
the IMS meetings this spring. (They won’t pay motel travel and perdiem; they know they
won’t be wages.) If they don’t attempt they loose their quals. This will be a loss to the
organization. What can be done to reimburse these people? * How do we track the hours
of drivers for those people who are not CDL’s i.e. Drivers for crews vans 10 people?
Should we require a log book for drivers of these vehicles to maintain safety first? What
can be done to incorporate in the contract to meet safe driving times? *To help cut cost
on fires out Type 1& 2 IMT’s are geared to manage incidents along with Type1 crews are
geared to stay on an incident for 21 days. Is there going to be a decision to have these
groups assigned for 21 days?
The State of Wyoming has provided you a budget for the WFSA & delegation. How will
you use this information in planning, ordering, and making tactical decisions as an AA,
IC, IBA?
Teams are being held accountable. What are the penalties for failure?
Please get rid of all the graphics on the alerts. It takes forever to download and
sometimes blows up my computer. * The alerts say immediate action; by who? Who
follows up? Who closes the loop? Who lets field know what happened with it? What are
we supposed to do with alerts?
Since items containing caffeine are not allowed will we be removing coffee and tea from
the food contract?
To IBA & IC & Log Chief. How far are we really willing to go in lowering cost? Rental
cars with single occupants; hotel rooms for many overhead teams buying teams, while
crews sleep in tents on the incident.
Many people do not drink coffee. They get their caffeine from pop. Since they have cut
out pop maybe they should cut out coffee purchase also.
Crew phones especially on remote incidents with satellite phone support and hence no
phone card capability can be expensive; very expensive. Considering Federal employee
entitlements, potentially military battalion’s regiments, state employee rules, plus AD and
contractor desires and the impact of an EEO in camp seeking fairness, what is reasonable
to provide or deny? What price moral?