Rotary Club of Jacksonville President Bill Mason said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is scheduled to speak to the club at its meeting next Monday at the Omni Downtown.
Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000-08 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. His committee assignments include Commerce, Science and Transportation, Foreign Relations, Intelligence and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
He has been making headlines for his opposition to the Affordable Care Act and is part of a group that supports the elimination of the plan, often referred to as "Obama Care," by removing its funding from the federal budget.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. and is open to Rotary Club of Jacksonville members and their invited guests.
Monday's speaker was Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Director and Fire Chief Marty Senterfitt.
Senterfitt, a veteran of more than 24 years in local public safety, was appointed as head of the department in December 2011 by Mayor Alvin Brown.
Before being appointed as director and fire chief, Senterfitt served as division chief of the City's Emergency Preparedness Division.
Of the 130,000 calls the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department will respond to in a year, about 100,000 calls are for medical response. Of those calls, 20 percent are low-priority or false calls, 70 percent are calls to reduce suffering or pain and 10 percent involve life and death, he said.
Senterfitt expects the department to respond to more than 130,000 calls in the next year for medical emergencies, fires, hazardous material issues and homeland security.
"There is a life saved every hour by our department," he said.
Senterfitt said his job is to ensure that not only does the department provide the highest level of service to the residents of Duval County, but that the services are delivered as efficiently as possible.
He said changes made in the department in the past few years include ensuring people are billed for the services rendered.
"We found we were very effective in responding to medical calls, but weren't very effective in billing for them," Senterfitt said.
Annual billing for medical calls has increased from about $30 million a year a few years ago to almost $50 million last year, he said.
Fire prevention inspections also are an area that has been improved. Senterfitt said only one out of three buildings was inspected annually a couple of years ago, but that has improved to all buildings being inspected each year.
Billing for the service also has improved. Senterfitt said the department was conducting $1.8 million worth of fire inspections annually, but billing only $450,000 for the service.
One area of cost savings has been the type of rescue unit the department is purchasing. Senterfitt said the City is moving away from the $250,000 rescue units to a more economical model based on a Chevrolet pickup truck. In addition to costing about half as much as the older units, the Chevrolet gets about 8 mpg, compared to 3 mpg for the older units, he said.
The department is working to implement a single-vehicle response protocol. Senterfitt said only 15 percent of the calls received are for fires, with 85 percent for medical emergencies. That type of call does not require a rescue unit and a fire truck.
"My goal is to give you the most effective fire department in the United States, but at the same time, we must be efficient," said Senterfitt.
"Our response times are improving, our revenue is up and our costs are down. The value of the fire department is improving for the residents of Jacksonville," he said.
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