WHO WE ARE – The “Run With The Heroes 5K” is a race with a purpose…It’s more than just winning! It was designed to bring communities together with first responders, to honor fallen heroes of emergency services and show support for their families. Emergency Responders, which include Police, Fire, and EMS, are one large family, and each year “Run With The Heroes” honors a fallen brother or sister.
This year, the run will honor three individuals:

Austin Police Department Officer – Drew Bolin
EMS Paramedic – Tracy Chambers
Austin Firefighter – James Glass
In remembrance of our fallen First Responders, one of our own, read more at www.sotx.org. Their spirit lives on in our hearts.
Each year, Austin Police officers team with Special Olympics Texas’ athletes to run the “Flame of Hope” to the Opening Ceremonies of Special Olympics Games. This year, in the spirit of the partnership with the Law Enforcement Torch Run, “Run With The Heroes” is honored to donate its proceeds to Special Olympics Texas’ athletes and their goals!
TIMING – This is a chip timed event. Timing provided by Cadence, Austin, Tx.
You will NOT be included in the results if you do NOT wear a timing chip!
AWARDS – We will recognize the top three male and female overall masters, and top three open male and open female finishers in the following age groups with a commemorative medal:
• 14 and under • 15–19 • 5 year age groups from 20 to 65+.
Medals will be awarded to the three male and female participants using wheelchairs. All SOTX athletes will receive a ribbon.
Peace Officer, Fire and EMS Awards*: • The top three male and female finishers in each category will receive medals. • The top three male and female masters in each category will receive medals. • Your credentials will be verified at the awards ceremony; bring your department identification with you.
REGISTRATION FEES – Pre-Registration by September 6th $25. Late Registration or Event Day $30.
Special Olympics Texas Donations $_________ (make checks payable to: Special Olympics Texas • Attn: 2010 Run with the Hereos 5k • 7715 Chevy Chase Dr • Suite 120 • Austin, Tx 78752
PACKET PICK-UP – Location and Schedule.
RunTex • 422 W. Riverside • Austin, TX 78704 • 512.472.3254
Friday, September 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Race Day • Sunday • September 12, 2010
6:45 am – Registration and Packet Pick Up
8:00 am – 5K Start
Post-Race Awards and Celebration
Check In and Race Start and Finish at: Waterloo Ice House at Southpark Meadows • 9600 IH-35 South • Austin, TX
Parking: “Target” Stores parking lot

WAIVER – In consideration of your participation in this race and acceptance of this entry form, I hereby release the sponsors, officials, owners of the facilities used for this race and any and all groups, people or facilities connected with the “Run With The Hereos 5K” at Southpark Meadows for any and all injuries by me at said race. I further certify that I am physically fit to participate in the run. I grant full permission to any and all of the foregoing to use my (and my child’s) name, or photographs, videotapes, or other recordings or participation in this event, without obligatin or liability to me (and my child). I also understand that entry fees are not refundable. I have read this agreement carefully, understand it, and certify my agreement by my selections above.

Contact: Teresa Bowen
Contact Phone: 512-974-8203
Event Site: Web site
Registration: Registration site

The Austin Public Safety Commission’s Recommendations for Public Safety Departments’ Funding in the 2010/2011 Budget

These are our recommendations for Police, EMS and Fire. The timing for additional funding in each of these recommendations reflects the Commission’s concerted attempt to balance the public safety needs of
the community with the recognized realities of funding resources in each upcoming budget.

Police Austin police Chief Art Acevedo testified before the Commission that APD is 500 officers short of what a city the size of Austin, both in terms of population and geography, must have to serve effectively the community. Austin now has approximately 1.5 officers per thousand population, while Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Fort Worth have between 2.5 and 3.5. The PSEM consolidation (airport police and park rangers) into APD impacts the officers per thousand population calculation as these additional officers also brought with them responsibilities that had to be assumed by APD. Significant annual increases in both emergency and non-emergency calls have caused unacceptably long response times with the attendant stress on the system. In calendar year 2009 APD had 41,915 emergency calls, with an average response time of 7:51, and 327,523 non-emergency calls with an average response time
22:55, for a total of 369,438 calls for service. Taking a mandatory proactive approach and looking forward, without additional resources, there obviously will be increases in response times because of increased call volume. The effect of this shortfall of officers is seen in the number of fatal and critical injury accidents (which are falling in the rest of the country), in the absolute number of residential and commercial burglaries, and of burglaries of vehicles. Vandalism and graffiti plague our neighborhoods. The best deterrent to all of this is high police visibility, which is impossible with so few officers. “Community Policing”, especially in working with kids to keep them out of gangs, is also not a reality because the department is so understaffed that patrol officers only have enough time to go from call to call. The average response time to even the highest priority calls is too high. At the April meeting the Commission heard testimony from representatives of the FBI, DEA, DPS and APD regarding the increasing gang/drug cartel challenge in Austin, with an associated increase in violent and property crimes, and that Austin has been designated a High Intensity Drug Area (HIDA) by the office of National Drug Control Policy. The DEA resident agent in charge recently informed the commission chair Lauderdale that in order to obtain maximum benefit from the High Intensity Drug Area
(HIDA) designation, the Austin Police Department will be called upon to support the HIDA task force with dedicated officers, thus stretching the already scarce APD personnel even further. He does not change his opinion from his testimony that drug and cartel activity is increasing significantly in Austin.
1. All of these factors have led the Commission to have as a primary recommendation increasing APD’s authorized manpower strength by 50 officers effective March 1, 2011, and by 50 officers effective September 30, 2011.
2. By January 1, 2011, APD should create and complete a blueprint of data and judgments, to provide justification for the likely increases in future budget years in APD’s authorized strength with on-going analysis of the following factors: (1) Reported crime; (2) Emergency calls; (3) All calls for police service;
(4) Existing and projected population growth and demographic changes in Austin and the surrounding metropolitan area, combined with the commuting patterns into Austin that increases Austin’s actual population during various day-parts; and (5) Existing and projected crime patterns, most especially organized crime and gang/cartel activity, which is important if Austin is to have a mandatory proactive, anticipatory rather than reactive budgeting process for law enforcement. The data and subsequent analysis should provide an empirical foundation for a ratio of officers to citizens of greater than 2.5 officers per 1,000 people (looking at the total population which will always be greater than the number of Austin residents) as a minimum required for an effective police department.
3. We anticipate this blueprint will support the need for the higher ratio than currently exists and the Commission recommends a Council resolution to make similar increases in APD’s authorized strength in the 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/2014, and 2014/2015 budgets, or more quickly as need indicates and funding resources are available. We urge APD to investigate all technologies to improve performance, build public trust and control costs. (One opportunity to control costs would be partnering with Travis County’s Starflight program for pilots, mechanics and hangering facilities for APD’s helicopter operation.)

EMS 1. The 2010/2011 budget must fund staff and equipment for 24 hour coverage Medic units for the Harris Ridge station (Medic 29) and for the Harris Branch station (Medic 32). Units had been in these stations, but funded by Travis County until facilities could be built to accommodate these units. The County stations have been built, and are now occupied by the units that had been placed on a temporary basis in the Harris Ridge and Harris Branch stations. In order to continue to provide EMS coverage for the neighborhoods in the first response territories of the Harris Ridge and Harris Branch stations, EMS has continued to staff these stations with overtime personnel. It is important to emphasize that both the Harris Ridge and the Harris Branch stations must be Medic units, and not “Demand” units, to insure protection on a 24 hour basis for their surrounding neighborhoods. Construction is scheduled to be completed in
July 2010 for joint use EMS/Fire station to serve the annexed Avery Ranch area, and a Medic unit for this station should funded in the 2010/2011 budget.
2. A “Demand” unit must be funded to go into operation on April 1, 2011, to assist in the department’s efforts to reduce response times for emergency medical calls, and reduce the need for moving Medic units out of their first response territories during expected high call volume time frames. This is an economical way to manage both call volume loads throughout a 24 hour period and the critical issue of paramedic fatigue. Reducing the need to move units around the system’s coverage area during high call volume periods will also reduce fuel costs and vehicle maintenance and replacement costs.
3. Because of the system’s increasing call volume, along with issues relating to paramedic safety issues and to be able to provide instructions to callers on how to manage patients until an EMS unit arrives (initiating CPR, controlling bleeding, delivering babies, opening obstructed airways, etc.), three additional communication medics should be added for the EMS dispatch center.
The Commission noted that EMS paramedics voted to decline a contracted pay increase, providing the City $2,300,000 over a three year period, on the assumption that the money would be used to provide necessary improvement in the EMS system. Also, EMS fees were increased which was expected to add over $4,000,000 in additional revenue to the City’s general fund on an annual basis. Yet a unit was not placed in the 2009/2010 budget despite increasing call volume. Thus no unit has been added since the 2006/2007 budget.

FIRE Many buildings in the City, such as apartment buildings and homes, were built under construction and fire codes that have proven to be inadequate, as seen in the number of working fires. With a large percentage of these fires, battalion chiefs require only additional manpower and not additional apparatus, but the only way to get this additional manpower is by pulling units out of their first response territories and also moving other units out of their first response territories to provide backup coverage, resulting in increased response times for fire and medical calls that occur in the neighborhoods covered by the stations whose units have been moved. In addition, fires that occur in the new high rise residential buildings would require significant manpower resources. Because of the potential need for significant manpower at any working fire, a large number of engine and ladder companies are sent on all alarms. To reduce the increased response times in the first alarm territories in all of these situations due to dispatching so many units only because of the need for manpower and not apparatus, the Commission recommends the following:
1. For the five fire units that currently do not have four firefighter staffing, until the goal of having four firefighters on each unit is reached there be funding for one of these units to have an additional firefighter effective March 1 and September 30 of each budget period. Four person staffing is critical in situations involving civilians and/or firefighters entrapped in burning structures, as it allows for a significantly greater opportunity for successful outcomes in such situations.
2. There are three special operations/rescue/hazmat units with two firefighter staffing. Placing two additional firefighters on each of these units would allow the units to assume if necessary the manpower responsibility of a ladder company, thus reducing the need for a ladder company, with its manpower and technical expertise, to be dispatched on first and additional alarm fires. Therefore funding for increasing from two to four fighters on the three rescue units should occur for one of these units on September 30 of each of the next three budget years.

911 CE NTER Response times for APD, EMS and AFD are impacted by inadequate staffing in the 911 communications center because of delays in a caller being able to reach a 911 call taker who has the responsibility of transferring requests for EMS and APD to those dispatch centers, as well as taking information for APD responses. This deficit must be addressed as soon as possible.
Your Public Safety Commission met Monday, June 7 at 4:00 p.m. in the Boards and Commissions meeting room. We had one item on the agenda requiring a vote of the Commission and updates from Chief Al Eells on the public safety cameras and grant activity from the three Departments, Police EMS and Fire. We heard citizen concerns on our Commission efforts, the cameras and grant efforts by departments. Several citizens came and provided prepared testimony on the existence of various crimes in their neighborhoods and urged us to address needs for policing resources. We noted their concern of safety in their neighborhoods, their fear of crime and their concerns about the relative response of police. This meeting and this one action agenda item represents the culmination of a great deal of effort on the part of the Public Safety Commission and all persons and groups involved with the Commission. I think
the recommendation speaks cautiously yet directly to concerns we have about ensuring the public safety of all in Austin. Austin today is increasingly a national and an international city. We are the capital of the nation’s second largest state that even in very difficult economic times sets a pace and a model for others in the United States and North America. Texas is the nation’s leading exporting state and our educational and research institutions are recognized and are an important resource in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Yet we are also faced not simply with local crime but with a frightening level of civic deterioration along our border and in many parts of Mexico as well as Central America. Never in the past has Austin been as susceptible to public safety threats that originate far from the city’s limits and this emerging reality was reflected in our findings.

These are difficult times and our City is faced with increased rates of crime, high call volume for Fire and EMS services, stubborn traffic congestion and potential future problems coming from the growth of Austin and its visibility across the nation. We are a city visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year and with a growing host of business, cultural and recreational activities that have an international component. This success that the City enjoys derives from having neighborhoods, business and governmental settings that are safe. To continue this desired balance of tradition and innovation requires us to address fundamental shortfalls that are developing in public safety resources. We have therefore concluded even in this difficult financial time that we must address these shortfalls as the increased expenditures represent investments in our future. We expect public safety issues including assessing adequate preparation of the City’s resources and the conduct of members of these City Public Safety resources will continue to be important public concerns.

Comments and Questions to:
Mayor
lee.leffingwell@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2250

Council Members
sheryl.cole@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2266
mike.martinez@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2264
laura.morrison@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2258
chris.riley@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2260
randi.shade@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2255
william.spelman@ci.austin.tx.us 974-2256

This message paid for by Professor Michael L. Lauderdale (Chair) and Michael R. Levy (Vice Chair), City of Austin Public Safety Commission

Travis County Commissioners Court: Precinct 4 Margaret Gomez , Judge Samuel T. Biscoe, Precinct 2 Sarah Eckhardt

Texas State Senate: District 14 Kirk Watson , District 25 Jeff Wentworth

Texas House of Representatives: District 46 Dawna Dukes , District 47 Valinda Bolton , District 49 Elliott Naishtat, District 50 Mark Strama , District 51 Eddie Rodriquez , District 52 Diana Maldonado

District Court 147: Cliff Brown

District Court 331: David Crain

County Court at Law 3: Olga Seelig

County Court at Law 6: Brandy Mueller

We also pushed to add a peak load unit to the budget.

The city manager and four of the council members did not place a high enough priority on this to make it happen. Three of the council members placed an additional peak load ambulance as their top priority. We will not be staffing the new station to serve Avery Ranch, just like we did not staff the new station at Spicewood Springs (although AFD has been budgeted and is staffing both.) It seems as though we are becoming more and more a system status EMS system. Which makes it difficult to be a system that paramedics can retire from.

The voting got under way at 9 a.m. at City Hall as Austin City Council members tackled the final Fiscal Year 2010 budget first thing Monday morning.

“We’ve listened to the community and brought forward a budget that maintains core services including public safety,” said Austin City Manager Marc Ott. “We explained to the community early on what we were facing, received unprecedented input, and with the Council, worked toward meeting those concerns.”

Several public hearings came before the final vote, which included citizen input the Austin mayor said highlighted the best decisions for the community and helped guide the outcome.

“Through this process, parks and libraries will stay open, public safety will be maintained, infrastructure will continue to be built and we will preserve core city services,” said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell in a statement .

For months, city departments have had to find ways to make cuts in order to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall due to the economic downturn.

Some of those cuts include city employees giving up about $10 million in pay concessions, including the police union giving up $4 million in pay raises to save the police cadet class.

EMS workers meanwhile gave up $750,000 in pay raises. Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Employees Association President Steve Stewart said he is still unhappy, the council did not add an additional ambulance to the city’s fleet.

“Our call volume will go up, and we have no more resources to meet that call volume,” said Stewart.

Council Member Sheryl Cole said there is still time to amend next year’s budget as well.

“We are going to have to consider their equipment requests throughout the year,” she said.

Taxpayers will also be paying for the cuts. For single-family homeowners, the median increase in their property tax bills is estimated at $85 per year.

This means one-half of the homes will see an increase less than this amount.

Some budget highlights:

• No operational cuts to fire emergency response, emergency medical services, 911 dispatch, police patrols or police investigation
• Maintains scheduled police cadet class
• Invests in City’s infrastructure
• Avoids reductions to recreation center and library hours.

Still, Leffingwell said Austin continues to perform better than most cities because of its strong, diverse economy. The mayor said Austin’s quality of life continues to be its greatest asset.

“I am very optimistic about Austin’s economic future,” said Leffingwell.

Meanwhile, the city council has set a hearing on the tax rate for Sept. 24 at 6 p.m., with approval expected Oct. 1. The budget takes effect Oct. 1.

]]> http://austinparamedics.org/2009/09/14/city-council-passes-budget/feed/ 0 http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/31/is-it-time-for-an-ems-station-in-manor/ http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/31/is-it-time-for-an-ems-station-in-manor/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:36:24 +0000 admin http://sandbox.netvictories.com/atcemsea/?p=27 Manor is a small, two-water-tower-town just east of Austin. It’s home to about 5,000 people.

Norma Ortiz and her husband have called Manor home for two years.

“When you live in a small town we really are being neglected by everybody else,” Ortiz said.

During her time in Manor, she’s had to call 911 twice — once for her husband and once for her grandson.

Both times Manor Police Department showed up in a just a few minutes, followed by Manor’s Fire Department.

“And then after a good while, a good while, the ambulance then came in,” Ortiz said.

One reason it took so long for the ambulance is that the closest Austin-Travis County EMS station is in Austin, seven miles away.

“It would be about 12 minutes, the soonest that ambulance could get to the downtown area of Manor,” the president of the Austin-Travis County EMS Union, Steve Stewart, said.

It should, according to the EMS union, take an ambulance only 8-9 minutes to respond to a Priority 1 call.

“Unless you really need us, four minutes isn’t really a big deal, but on the type of calls where you’re having a heart attack or having a stroke, four minutes can make a big difference,” Stewart said.

According to the union, it’s up the City of Manor and the Emergency Service District to pay for a place to house an ambulance.

The union says so far they’re getting ignored. According to the union, the reason is nobody seems to have the money to pay for it.

“I hope that people could see the writing on the wall and decide to solve the issue before we get to the point that it causes someone their life,” Stewart said.

But for now, Ortiz knows if she has to call for an ambulance she’ll get one “eventually.”

Many are worried one day “eventually” will be too late.

]]> http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/31/is-it-time-for-an-ems-station-in-manor/feed/ 0 http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-employee-association-raises-concerns-about-public-safety/ http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-employee-association-raises-concerns-about-public-safety/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:50:42 +0000 admin http://sandbox.netvictories.com/atcemsea/?p=12 The Board of the Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Employees Association (A/TCEMSEA) unanimously opposed the City Manager’s Executive Budget for lack of funding Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response resources.

“We are very concerned about this situation. It puts the public in danger by not allowing us to achieve minimum response times and that’s not what our mission is,” stated Steve Stewart, president of A/TCEMSEA. “EMS management, the employees and our employee association have been diligently working for over the last few years to help the city with their shortfall, while our budget gets significantly cut and now we are lacking resources– which affects our ability to protect the public.”

“We have squeezed out everything we can and as our population grows, it is important to add ambulances to meet the stringent standard of care the citizens of Austin and Travis County deserve,” Stewart continued. “Our employees have stepped up every time the City has asked and we voted overwhelmingly to give up pay with an understanding and hope that the City would utilize this money to help EMS improve their service to the public.”

The City of Austin’s 2009-2010 budget cut nearly $1 million of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) budget; of which A/TCEMSEA acquiesce to most of those cuts. A/TCEMSEA renegotiated their current contract earlier this month and gave up $615,109 in raises this year, a savings to the city of over $2.3 million over the length of the contract, according to City of Austin (COA) calculations. The EMS contract renegotiation vote passed with over
88% of the association members voting to give up their raises to help the city budget shortfall.

In addition, A/TCEMSEA recently pushed for a fee increase, approved by the City Council last month, which will bring in an additional $3.7 million this year, which goes directly into the City’s general fund. Unfortunately, this added revenue will not be used for necessary additional EMS resources. According to the COA Executive Budget Summary, EMS’s total contribution to the City’s Budget (from revenue generated) is $26,915,982, which is 61.5% of EMS’s $43.7 million total budget.

Currently, A/TCEMS has 30 ambulances and 2 peak load units to cover 1,700 square mile area of Austin/Travis County. Over 1.2 million people live in Travis County and are covered by EMS. Call volume for EMS services this year is expected to reach over 110,000 calls. A/TCEMS has not been allocated a new response resource since 2007.

]]> http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-employee-association-raises-concerns-about-public-safety/feed/ 0 http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-concerned-about-city-budget/ http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-concerned-about-city-budget/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:39:20 +0000 admin http://sandbox.netvictories.com/atcemsea/?p=31 The Austin/Travis County EMS Employees Association’s Board has unanimously opposed the city’s budget for emergency medical services.

The Association says the City of Austin’s 2010 budget does not provide enough money for EMS to do its job and keep response times low.

Last month city staff proposed budget cuts to cover a $30 million shortfall. EMS employees have voted to forgo pay raises this year.

]]> http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-concerned-about-city-budget/feed/ 0 http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-employee-association-raises-concerns-about-public-safety-2/ http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-employee-association-raises-concerns-about-public-safety-2/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:37:40 +0000 admin http://sandbox.netvictories.com/atcemsea/?p=29 The Board of the Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Employees Association (A/TCEMSEA) unanimously opposed the City Manager’s Executive Budget for lack of funding Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response resources.

“We are very concerned about this situation. It puts the public in danger by not allowing us to achieve minimum response times and that’s not what our mission is,” stated Steve Stewart, president of A/TCEMSEA. “EMS management, the employees and our employee association have been diligently working for over the last few years to help the city with their shortfall, while our budget gets significantly cut and now we are lacking resources– which affects our ability to protect the public.”

“We have squeezed out everything we can and as our population grows, it is important to add ambulances to meet the stringent standard of care the citizens of Austin and Travis County deserve,” Stewart continued. “Our employees have stepped up every time the City has asked and we voted overwhelmingly to give up pay with an understanding and hope that the City would utilize this money to help EMS improve their service to the public.”

The City of Austin’s 2009-2010 budget cut nearly $1 million of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) budget; of which A/TCEMSEA acquiesce to most of those cuts. A/TCEMSEA renegotiated their current contract earlier this month and gave up $615,109 in raises this year, a savings to the city of over $2.3 million over the length of the contract, according to City of Austin (COA) calculations. The EMS contract renegotiation vote passed with over
88% of the association members voting to give up their raises to help the city budget shortfall.

In addition, A/TCEMSEA recently pushed for a fee increase, approved by the City Council last month, which will bring in an additional $3.7 million this year, which goes directly into the City’s general fund. Unfortunately, this added revenue will not be used for necessary additional EMS resources. According to the COA Executive Budget Summary, EMS’s total contribution to the City’s Budget (from revenue generated) is $26,915,982, which is 61.5% of EMS’s $43.7 million total budget.

Currently, A/TCEMS has 30 ambulances and 2 peak load units to cover 1,700 square mile area of Austin/Travis County. Over 1.2 million people live in Travis County and are covered by EMS. Call volume for EMS services this year is expected to reach over 110,000 calls. A/TCEMS has not been allocated a new response resource since 2007.

]]> http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-employee-association-raises-concerns-about-public-safety-2/feed/ 0 http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-union-opposes-austin-budget/ http://austinparamedics.org/2009/08/04/ems-union-opposes-austin-budget/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:35:08 +0000 admin http://sandbox.netvictories.com/atcemsea/?p=25 The Austin/Travis County EMS Employees Association has voted unanimously to oppose Austin’s Budget. The group says the budget is putting public safety at risk.

The group says it gave up annual raises hoping the money would be put back into EMS. However, that does not appear to be happening. Officials say that with fewer resources for a growing population, response times are going down. Crews are also being shifted to other stations.

“The chances of having a high priority call are greater in the central area,” said Steve Stewart of Austin/Travis County EMS. “So we’re pulling units in to cover that area. So it’s really going to affect the most is the people who live in the outlying areas or in the areas with low call volume. “Those units that are stationed in their neighborhoods are being pulled in.”

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