NEW JERSEY UTILITIES AUTHORITY JOINT INSURANCE FUND

To: Safety Coordinators, Fund Commissioners and Risk Managers

From: NJUA JIF Safety Director

Date: April 22, 2011

Reference: April 21, 2011 EXECUTIVE SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES

The regular meeting of the New Jersey Utilities Authority Joint Insurance Fund Executive Safety Committee was held on April 21, 2011 at the Passaic Valley Water Commission in Totowa. The following members and professionals were in attendance:

Authority / NAME
Bayshore Regional SA / J. Michael Broyles
Bernards Township SA / Nicholas Pietrefesa
Musconetcong SA / Dave Biasi
Musconetcong SA / James Schilling
Rockaway Valley Regional SA / Maria Brush
Hanover SA / John Adamsky
Hackettstown MUA / Charles (Bud) Volkert
Mantua MUA / Donald Bonney
MRRSA / Jerry Cevetello
North Bergen MUA / Greg Sciora
Passaic Valley WC / Andy Bisesi
Passaic Valley WC / George Lewis
Readington-Lebanon SA / Jill Plesnarski
Rockaway Valley RSA / Maria Brush
Somerset Raritan Valley Sewage Authority / Michael Trent
Toms River MUA / Bernie Rutkowski
Two Rivers Water RA / Gregory Seaman
J.A. Montgomery / John J Zengel
J.A. Montgomery / Joanne Hall
PERMA / Cate Kiernan
PERMA / Maxine Tsao

ESCAPE ROUTES

George Lewis gave a short presentation on how to evacuate the facility should an emergency arise, and where the group should gather for a head count.

TECHNICAL TRAINING

Joanne introduced Jerry Cevetello, who gave a presentation on Water and Wastewater Security Safety Training. He reviewed the Essential Employees Registration Project, Credential Certification, Who Are Considered Essential Employees, Policy and Procedures, Travel Procedures, What Are Considered Essential Functions, Messaging Systems Available and the Importance of Employee Tail-Gate Safety and Security Talks.

Jerry distributed a hand-out on Reporting Suspicious Activity to The Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. The pamphlet is for the NJ Private Sector to Report any Suspicious Activity or Incident that you feel is related to Homeland Security or Terrorism. The number to call is 1-866-472-3365.

Jerry then gave a short talk on how the Office of Homeland Security has just changed its National Alert Warning System from a 5 color system to a 2 level system of either Imminent Threat or Elevated Threat.

A short video was viewed from the NJ Regional Operations Intelligence Center regarding the conflicts now occurring in the Middle East and the Implications for NJ. A graph indicated immigrants by county. The message was that more Home Grown, American Born, Web Site Influenced, Lone Wolf Terrorists are expected to surface.

MEETING COMMENCEMENT

The regular meeting was called to order at 11:45 a.m. by Chairman, Bernie Rutkowski, who thanked George Lewis and Andy Bisesi for hosting and providing the lunch, and Jerry Cevetello for the presentation.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Meeting Minutes from the March 31, 2011 meeting were approved and seconded.

OLD BUSINESS

SAFETY EXPO:

Chairperson: Mike Trent (SRVSA). The dates for the Safety EXPO’s are September 23rd at Camden and November 3rd at Middlesex. Chairman Trent reported that the date of the Camden Expo had to be changed due to a scheduling conflict at Camden.

A vehicle maintenance track is being developed and plans are to include vehicle inspection and snow plow safety. Also planned are trenching and shoring, excavation, arc flash, confined space entry, back and lifting safety, lockout-tagout, etc.

If anyone needs to contact him about the EXPO’s or would like to be on the Committee, you can reach Mike at .

SAFETY DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Safety Excellence Awards - The SIP Committee needs help reviewing the SIP & Safety Excellence Award language – no face time required - maybe just a conference call and or e-mail.

2011 Fatalities - There have been 5 fatalities to date this year in the MEL. Toms River Twp. DPW had a crush fatality when he somehow got crushed between the body of a roll-off truck, and Jackson Twp DPW had a fatality where the individual was struck by a car while crossing a street. The Fairview DPW employee was crushed between a trash truck and the building when the brake was not set on the truck and it began to roll. We need to continue having daily tool box or tail gate safety talks with employees to continually remind employees to work safely, reinforce safety rules, emphasize lockout-tagout procedures and to be ever vigilant of unsafe conditions.

Changing the Way We Think About Safety – Joanne commented that we should also be talking about the new program and to engage employees in the discussion. The Program includes Environmental Issues as well. A supply of the Changing the Way We Think About Safety DVD’s were provided along with the DVD on Survival Driving for members to take back to their facilities.

New Learning Management System – Joanne and Cate commented that the old not-user-friendly system is in the process of being replaced with a new system that is very user-friendly. The new Learning Management System will make it much easier to register and sign-on, track employee training, make it much easier to navigate through the system and will make it much easier to add in non-MSI Training to an employees training record. All prior employee training records will be transferred to the new system.

By mid-May you will start to see some of the MSI Learning Management System screens start to change. Joanne demonstrated what some of the new LMS screens will look like via her laptop.

At least ONE CONTACT PERSON for each facility is needed prior to activation.

LOST TIME ACCIDENT FREQUENCY:

The report was given by Maxine Tsao of PERMA. We are doing well, only 2 members with lost-time to date. The LTAF for the NJUA is currently 0.58. This is an improvement from last year where the NJUA LTAF at this same time was 1.51. The NJUA is currently ranked 2nd best of the 15 MEL JIF’s. Keep up the good work!

MEETING TOPIC COMMITTEE:

·  Chairperson: Jill Plesnarski, Readington-Lebanon SA

·  Members: Anthony Stagliano, Mt Holly MUA.

The May meeting will be at Manasquan River Regional SA. – The May 19 meeting topic for technical training will be a discussion on summer seasonal hazards (insects, heat, hydration, poison ivy, grass cutting, ticks, and youthful employees). Bring your thoughts and questions to join in on the discussion.

Several considerations included Pre-Employment Physicals, and possibly seasonal safety topics such as heat advisories, bee stings, ticks and Lymes Disease, sunburn, poison ivy, dog bites, etc. Jill asked that if you have suggestions to please let her know.

Regulatory Inspection UPDATES

Bernie commented that “parts washers” of a certain size are required to be permitted. Bernie will email the “parts washer permit alert” out to the committee. Bernie said to contact your EJIF inspector at PMK/Birdsall for assistance in getting the proper permits. Copies of the documents have been posted to the web site along with the minutes.

Bernie also commented that some of the Toms River employees were doing jet-vac work in the vicinity of an abortion clinic when they noted quite a lot of bright red blood going through the sanitary sewer system. Jill commented that standard disinfection procedures need to be followed along with BBP Training.

Joanne commented that a BBP Train the Trainer 3hr Class is provided annually through the MSI Training Program. A DVD, Power Point Slides and Program Guide is provided to keep by those taking the training course.

NEW BUSINESS:

Safety Handbook Update - A committee of Maria Brush, Nick Pietrefesa, Mike Trent and George Lewis will meet at the next Executive Safety Committee Meeting to review the NJUA Safety Handbook to see if any changes need to be made.

ADJOURNMENT:

With no further business to discuss, Chairman Bernie Rutkowski adjourned the regular meeting at 12:35 p.m.

Date / Location / Time / Topic /
May 19, 2011 / Manasquan River Regional SA / 10:30 a.m. / Summer Seasonal Hazards
June 16, 2011 / Cape May County MUA / 10:30 a.m. / CDL update
July 21, 2011 / Hanover Township SA / 10:30 a.m. / WC Claims Panel
August 18, 2011 / Toms River MUA / 10:30 a.m. / One Call (tentative)
September 15, 2011 / Camden County Emergency Training / 10:30 a.m. / Annual loss review & Expo walk through
September 23, 2011
NOTE CHANGE / Camden County Emergency Training / All day / Safety EXPO
October / No meeting
November 3, 2011 / Middlesex Fire Academy / All day / Safety EXPO
December 15, 2011 / Evesham MUA / 10:30 a.m. / E-JIF Update

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