July 12, 2018 Minutes
Fire District Commissioner Meeting
Gordon called the meeting to order at 8:00. The opening prayer was offered by Roger Anderson. Those present were: Commissioners Jim Deuel, Roger Anderson, and Gordon Ball. Dallin Gambles was absent, and Mike Miller arrived late after attending the Menan City Council meeting. Fire Chief Carl Anderson as well as Battalion Chiefs Blaine Ker, Jim Kelly, Nic White, and Mitch Bingham were in attendance. Also present were District Attorney Dennis Wilkinson and Nile Hall with Melanie Sullivan keeping the minutes. There were a few patrons present.
Agenda Approval: Roger moved to accept the agenda as presented. Jim seconded. The vote by Jim, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
Minutes: The minutes were previewed by the commissioners previously. Jim moved to accept the minutes as written. Roger seconded. The vote by Jim, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
Budget Review: Melanie reviewed the budget. We are under budget from where we would expect to be at this time of year and the Menan building is pretty much paid for.
Approval of Expenditures: Jim reviewed the expenditures and said that the they were in line with where we expect them to be. He moved to accept the expenditures of $230,104.46. Roger seconded. The vote by Jim, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
Patron Input (3 minute time limit): There was no patron input.
OLD BUSINESS:
- Menan station progress/change order receipts: Carl showed the commissioners the letter from Graham Whipple with the change orders that have been made throughout construction. The change orders came to $105,340 with costs cut of $49,186. The total change was $56,154 in excess of the bid. They are very close to being done with the building.
- Menan station open house: Carl visited with the BC’s and would like to schedule the open house on Thursday, Aug 23rd.
NEW BUSINESS:
- Sue Kenney – Jefferson County Fair Kids Day: Sue thanked the district for having volunteers at the fun run.
She asked that the district provide a prize for Kids Day as they have in the past. The commissioners thought they could donate a prize of not more than $300. Jim moved to purchase a prize of no more than $300 and put Carl in charge of finding a prize. Roger seconded. The vote by Jim, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
Sue also said that as the president of Lions Club, she would invite the fire district to reach out to the Lions Club for any service the district might need. The Lions Club is going to push carbon monoxide training and would like to have the fire district represented in this training.
- Discussion and vote on salary change for fire chief: Jim and Roger were involved in a committee meeting to discuss changes in compensation. The proposed changes are in line with the Department of Labor standards.
For the new fire chief, Carl Anderson, Jim moved to make Carl’s salary $70,000 effective Aug 1st. Roger seconded. The vote by Jim, Mike, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
- Discussion and vote on compensation change for volunteers:
Jim presented several proposals for changed to fire fighters and EMTs. The first would increase compensation for their volunteer time from $12.00 to $15/hr. Along with that, he proposed raising the stipend for the battalion chiefs from $400 to $600 and changing the captain and lieutenant stipend from $150 to $300 effective August 1st.
To encourage the volunteers to answer the calls, the first call a volunteer responds to during any calendar day will be paid at $30 for the first hour and $15 dollars/hour after that. Jason Avery pointed out that in the smaller stations, there are fewer calls so the volunteers on call may not get paid if there are no calls even though they are required to be the area. Jim said that they have considered this but finances are holding them back from a flat compensation for pager time. The amount to pay a flat rate to on call volunteers would be well above the department of labor guidelines. Jason said it is hard to recruit and retain volunteers when there is no incentive for them to be on call and respond to calls. Carl said that they want to try this for six months and if it doesn’t work, they will work to change it to compensate pager time.
Jim moved to increase the stipend for Battalion chiefs from $400 to $600. And increase the stipend for captains and lieutenants from $150 to $300. Roger seconded. The vote by Jim, Mike, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
Jim then moved to increase the compensation for fire fighters and EMTs from $12 to $15 with the first call the volunteer responds to in any calendar day paid at $30 for the first hour. This is for a six months trial basis. Roger seconded. Mike abstained from voting. The vote by Jim, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
- Discussion and vote on the process for filling Assistant Chief position: Carl read a letter explaining the opening for Assistant Fire Chief. Applications will be taken from July 16th to July 27th. Carl proposed that the pay for the Assistant Fire Chief be in the range of $55,000-60,000 dollars. Carl would prefer to make the hire from within the district. If someone can’t be found in house, then they will look outside the district. Roger moved to accept the posting of the assistant fire chief position as written. The vote by Jim, Mike, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
- Discussion of medical record retention: Carl said that at the district office the medical records go back at least 15 years. He talked to Dennis Wilkinson about how long the records needs to be kept. Dennis explained that there are different classes of documents and that he and Carl will put an SOP together outlining how long different documents need to be kept and bring that to the commissioners next month. This will help determine when records can be destroyed.
FIRE CHIEF REPORT: Carl reported that Jared Giannini has been hired as the logistic and training assistant. He has put together a couple of task books for the BC’s to approve.
Aug 4th is the annual district picnic starting at 5.
Carl and Nile have been working on the budget for the next fiscal year.
PIO REPORT: Courtney was not present but has been posting on the internet.
BATTALION CHIEF STATION ACTIVITY REPORTS:
Station 1. Jim reported that a couple of new EMTs passed the test. They are in the process of hiring another EMT. EMS calls 62, fire calls 11. They did clean up a car/moose collision. Moral is good. The volunteers are stepping up to make sure shifts are being covered.
Station 2. Blaine reported that they had a water rescue. 12 EMS calls and 2 fire calls. They had a combined water training with Rigby.
Station 3. Nic: 8 ems and 2 fire calls. They are losing two volunteers.
Station 4. Mitch: 7 EMS and 4 Fire calls. They backed up Roberts on a trailer house fire and a water rescue. They also responded to a carbon monoxide call. They have had a lot of people tour the station with a very positive response.
COMMISSIONER REPORT:
Mike attended the Menan City Council meeting concerning the drainage at the new Menan station. The Menan mayor explained that the drainage from the fire station was draining properly and that there is no issue with the fire district.
Gordon thanked the volunteers and Jim moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:23. Mike seconded. The vote by Jim, Mike, Roger, and Gordon was unanimous.
Roger-EMS & Training/Gordon-Equipment /Dallin-Facilities/Jim-Budget/Mike-PR