Western Lakes Fire District’s Fire Board or Commission

Western Lakes Fire Board Monthly Board Meeting April 22, 2024 Call to Order • George Morris called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. Board members present were George Morris, Jeff Roemer, Kent Lorenz, Mike Tompkins, Bill Riemenschneider, Dan DeBehnke, and Scott Carter. Proof of Notice • Chief Bowen announced that the notice was posted Friday, April 19, 2024, at 12:01 p.m. in accordance with open meeting laws. Pledge of Allegiance • Town of Oconomowoc resident Jo Goralski led the Pledge of Allegiance. Public Comment • George Morris opened the meeting up to public comment, of which there was none. Consent Agenda • Items listed under the Consent Agenda are considered in one motion unless a Fire Board Member requests that an item be removed from the Consent Agenda o Minutes of March 25, 2024 regular Fire Board Meeting o Payment of bills in the amount of $78,672.33. • Dan DeBehnke followed up on last months payment of bills check #95899 from March 4, 2024 in the amount of $131.57 as it did not have a payee. Chief Bowen explained that this was a credit card transaction and not actually a check. Finance Manager Cornett had provided Treasurer Lorenz with the details of the transaction on March 26th. • A motion was made by Jeff Roemer and seconded by Dan DeBehnke to accept the Consent Agenda items including meeting minutes from March 25, 2024 Fire Board meeting and payment of bills in the amount of $78,672.33. Motion carried unanimously. Fire Chief’s Report • Chief Bowen informed the Board that the District hosted the Rotary lunchean on Monday, April 15th. This was attended by over 30 Rotary members. The District provided an update to the Rotary on response times, services, and budget following the integratiuon of the sustainable staffing and funding plan. • The Chief will be presenting at WCTC on Pathways into the Fire Service in May. • Chief recognized the efforts of the Fire Equipment Committee and DC Igl in getting the new aerial truck ready to be placed in-service on May 1st. This has been a significant undertaking and everyone has really stepped up. The various aerial operators have also been busy getting familure with the truck and gaining experience to be checked off. • The Chief reminded the board of the upcoming Ladder Ceremony on Wednesday, May 1st at 4pm at Station 3 (Downtown Oconomowoc), and the Taste of Western Lakes Open House on Monday, May 20th starting at 5pm at Station 1 (Pabst Farms). • Chief Bowen reviewed with the Board a training program that is being developed in partnership with Conway Shield on the use of aerial trucks. The District will be hosting three 8-hour programs taught by Heavy Equipment Operators at the Milwaukee Fire Department. The course is designed to give WLFD operators additional training and experience with these apparatus. Page 1 of 4 Chief Officer Reports • George Morris asked the board if they had any questions for the Chief Officers on their reports or if any of the Chiefs had anything to add. • Scott Carter had questions about the use of different types of apparatus for calls. He asked BC Carriveau to provide more information on the grassfire response on his shift and how different apparatus is used. Carter wishes to learn more about apparatus usage to be able to explain to elected officials and citizens. He would like to see more information in the future on the different apparatus used by the District. Presentation – Community Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover • Chief Bowen, AC Gscheidmeier, DC Meyer, DC May, and DC Ingersoll provided the Board with an update on the progress of the District’s Community Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover. The team has been working on this weekly since January and is nearing completion of the District’s first Community Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover. This document is full of data and statistics about the District and Communities it serves. This information is a neutral analysis of the District, Communities, and Commercial Properties and is helpful in making data-driven decisions based on local and National Standards. This process follows the accreditation process. The Risk Assessment has been completed and the team is working on the Standards of Cover. The final Risk Assessment will be presented in June along with the initial Standards of Cover. The document currently is over 130 pages, and has a lot of informative information. • Chief Bowen recognized the work of the team on the Community Risk Assessment. Command Staff including AC Gscheidmeier, DC Meyer, DC May, and DC Ingersoll have been meeting weekly to complete this assessment. In addition Fire Inspector Boldt and FF/Med Krueger finished the OVAP and Heron scoring of every occupancy in the District. This has been a lot of work but most importantly a team effort. • Several members of the Board commented on how informative this document is so far. They really appreciate the efforts of the team, and look forward to using the final documents in the future. Jeff Roemer provided feedback that this is the materials he was looking for and this has been done well, and he realizes how much work has gone into this. Discussion/Action – Shared Equipment Agreement • Chief Bowen reviewed with the Board an Equipment Sharing Agreement that has been drafted to be considered with other Fire Departments. A similar agreement has been used in Milwaukee County for the past couple of years and assisted Departments with sharing equipment and apparatus. Overall it helps with secondary and reserve apparatus being available and reducing the overhead for each department individually. This was a goal the board had for the Chief this year, and this initial step between WLFD and the Village of Merton will help prove the concept. Over the last seven years, the District has had to borrow other departments' apparatus and has loaned an ambulance to a department. This formal agreement provides a consistent approach and process to shared equipment and apparatus. The agreement addresses just in time training, insurance, and operating costs between the participating departments. In the future as more departments consider this type of agreement it will help with the overall number of apparatus each department has to maintain. • A motion was made by Jeff Roemer and seconded by Kent Lorenz to approved the Equipment Sharing Agreement as presented. Motion carried unanimously. Discussion/Action – ATV Replacement (2024 CIP) • Chief Bowen reviewed a guideline for the District’s Training and Conference Attendance of Employees. Deputy Chief Konen, Assistant Chief Gscheidmeier, Karen Mundt, and Chief have been developing this guideline to provide clearly defined paths for employees to attend certification training, outside trainings, and conferences. The team worked with legal to ensure requirements are Page 2 of 4  met or exceeded as they pertain to FLSA. Further education of team members is a joint partnership between the District and employees. • Bill Lincoln asked why a track system is not included in this unit. DC Igl, explained that it was a heavy consideration but ultimately to stay within budget the decision was made to not purchase the track system. Over the next year further evaluation will be done to determine if the District should maintain two ATV’s with tracks or one. Currently, the District is maintaining three ATV’s (south, middle, and north) and only one has tracks. When the next unit is replaced, the decision on tracks will be made. • A motion was made by Dan DeBehnke and seconded by Scott Carter to approve the purchase of a Polaris UTV in the amount not to exceed $34,961.46 for Polaris Sales as quoted from the government branch. Of the original $50,000 budget, the remaining $15,038.54 is to be used to outfit the UTV with a fire suppression skid unit. Motion carried unanimously. Discussion/Action – Station 6 Garage Doors (2024 CIP) • Chief Bowen opened up the discussion on the Station 6 Gargage Door and Opener Replacement project. The Doors and openers are currently going on 20 years of service and beginning to have mechanical and maintenance problems. This project is included in the 2024 CIP and includes the replacement of the main apparatus bay doors and openers. The same doors have been installed in other WLFD stations and improved the utility costs due to improved RF ratings and also having windows on the east side which create a greenhouse affect in the winter months and warm the bays. A total of three bids were received and the recommendation is to approve the lowest bid for the project. There is a 9th door for the shop area which we do not have a price on. When the bidding was originally being done by AC Schuetz this door was missed, and is not a primary response door. • The orginal budget for facilities capital outlays is $70,000. The request is to encumber the capital budget for the purchases and installation of 8 garage doors, openers, with rails, and safety lights in the amount not to exceed $65,740. Of the original budget $4,260 would be available for the necessary electrical work for the safety lights to complete the project. • Jeff Roemer wants all doors to be replaced at the same time because he believes it's the best approach. When getting bids, we should consider the entire project for accurate pricing. The board agrees with this, as doing it at a later date would not be efficient and would probably end up costing more. • A motion was made by Jeff Roemer and seconded by Dan DeBehnke to approve the bid from Rod’s Doors and to request a quote from Rod’s for the 9th door and opener to also be replaced in the amount not to exceed $70,740 and to allocate an additional $4,260 for electrical work for a total project cost not to exceed $75,000. The Chief shall report the next month on the results of this project. Motion carried unanimously. Discussion/Action – Station 1 HVAC (2024 CIP) • Chief Bowen and AC Schuetz reviewed with the Board the Station 1 HVAC capital project. Included in the capital projects for this year is replacement of the HVAC system at Station 1. Over the past years the station has seen increasing repairs to the various units which are now 14 years of age. A total of three bids were received and the recommendation is to approve the middle bid which is within budget. This recommendation is based on the detailed analysis and proposal provided by Kettle Moraine Heating & Air Conditioning. This bid also includes all electrical and permit costs which the low bid did not include. The scope of the project includes the HVAC units in the living and administrative quarters. At this time the apparatus bays are not included, but will be evaluated and bid over the summer with the remaining funds in the CIP. • Mike Tompkins expressed that he wished he had the full costs for the apparatus bays at this time as well. AC Schuetz explained that the apparatus bay units were not included as the cost to replace the living and administrative units he felt would already exceed the budget amount. The apparatus bay units also require a more detailed evaluation to determine what is best for the large bays. Page 3 of 4  • A motion was made by Mike Tompkins and seconded by Jeff Roemer to approve the purchase and installation of 4 furnaces and 4 air conditioners with the removal of all existing equipment, ensuring proper disposal of refrigeration from Kettle Moraine Heating & Air Conditioning not to exceed $39,311. Motion carried unanimously. Discussion/Action – District Accounting and Payroll Software • Chief Bowen and Finance Manager Cornett reviewed with the Board the process of evaluating and bidding out the District’s new accounting and payroll software. At the recommendation of our auditors, City of Oconomowoc Finance Director and North Shore Fire/Rescue 3 vendors were selected to provide demonstrations and quotes for their software. The vendors are: Work Horse, Civic Systems and BS&A. After the software demonstration Work Horse did not provide a bid. Civic Systems was the lowest at $64,414 implementation and training and an annual cost of $8,480. BS&A was the highest at $95,190 for implementation and training with and annual cost of $20,690. Civic Systems conversion process was 6-8 months whereas BS&A is 12-18 months. • The Chief, Human Resource Manager, and Finance Manager feel both programs would work for the District. BS&A had a significant cost to implement over Civic Systems ($34,956) and was not flexible in pricing and the process. North Shore Fire/Rescue, which is relatively similar to our District in size and structure has used Civic Systems for several years. They are currently re- evaluating software to see if there’s something better available and are looking at BS&A. • Chief Bowen did inquire if there would be a savings if both North Shore and Western Lakes chose BS&A. BS&A agreed that they could possibly reduce the training costs but it was not significantly different and the time frame for North Shore Fire/Rescue to make a final decision was not as critical as the District. The District must go live by January 1, 2025 in order to process payroll. • The original budget for accounting and payroll software is $25,000. While the implementation, training and annual cost are over the budgeted $25,000 Civic Systems is willing to spread the payments over 2-3 years at 0% interest. At contract signing 50% or $32,207 (note – insurance came in $35k under budget) would be required for 2024 and the remaining amount will be budgeted in 2025 and going forward. Although this is over budget, there are cost savings with the addition of the Finance Manager. In the following years, the District should see a cost savings in payroll processing costs as well. • The request is to encumber the $64,414 for Civic Systems accounting and payroll software with half of the cost being funded in 2024 and the remainder in 2025 and 2026 ($32,207 / 2 = $16,103.50/yr). The ongoing cost for Civic Systems is roughly $8,500 and well within the $25,000 budgeted. • Dan DeBehnke asked if this is the cloud based option or server based option. The board and staff feel the cloud based option is the most secure and functional option in the event work has to be completed remotely. • A motion was made by Mike Tompkins and seconded by Jeff Roemer to approve the purchase and conversion of the current accounting software to Civic Systems with 50% due at contract signing and the remaining implementation and software costs due the following two years ($32,820.50 /2 = $16,410.25/yr). Total cost not to exceed $65,641. Software will “go live” as of January 1, 2025. The ongoing annual cost of $13,280 along with the financed portion for implementation and training will be included in the future District budgets. Motion carried unanimously. Future Agenda Items and Meetings • The next regular meeting of the board will be Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 4p. The meeting is the Wednesday before due to the regular Monday meeting falling on Memorial Day The meeting will be held at Station 1 (Pabst Farms). Adjournment • At 5:28 p.m. a motion was made by Jeff Roemer and seconded by Dan DeBehnke to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried unanimously. Page 4 of 4