Harrisburg, PA – State Fire Commissioner Ed Mann has announced that a bipartisan commission, created for the purpose of devising strategies to improve the delivery of emergency services across the Commonwealth, has completed its required formal report and submitted it to the House and Senate.
“For the past 25-years, study after study identified the problems and challenges we all face,” Mann said. “In most cases, they were obvious, such as volunteer recruiting and retention. Now, for the first time, we are focusing our collective energies on finding solutions to these problems.”
The 25-member commission was created through Senate Resolution 60, which was passed by the General Assembly in 2003. After a series of meetings, the commission drafted its formal report containing suggested legislative actions to improve emergency services delivery statewide. Some of those legislative recommendations are:
- Changing statutory language to define emergency services more clearly.
- Adopting legislation to reform the delivery of emergency services.
- Reforming current emergency services laws.
- Offering tax credits to current emergency services personnel and employers of volunteer emergency service workers.
- Establishing grant programs that would encourage emergency services volunteerism.
The Commission includes fire and emergency medical service leaders, local government representatives, key state agency staff and members of the General Assembly.
According to Mann, SR 60 represents the first time all involved partners, namely first responders, local government officials and members of the Legislature, were at the table working together toward an acceptable resolution to the problems facing community public safety programs.
Courtesy of http://www.nvfc.org.
