Work group finalizes survey questions and distribution plan to identify EMPs and employment arrangements

The work group spent substantial time refining the survey staff will send to fire chiefs to collect the denominator and operational details needed to model cost impacts. Molly (staff) walked members through conditional logic, definitions and question order; the group revised phrasing to ask whether a department “directly provides emergency medical services” to avoid counting subcontracted private ambulance providers.

Members agreed to use a drop-down department list to ease post-survey matching with administrative records, to instruct fire chiefs that the survey should be completed by the fire chief (or delegated deputy), and to minimize individually identifying data. Counsel flagged that age and years-of-service information can be private under state law; members directed staff to use five-year age bands or summary tables if legal review requires it. The group set Sept. 30 as the likely survey close date and planned to review charts and tables in early October.