Police and Fire Commission (Meets 2nd Wednesday of each month at 4:45 p.m.)

MINUTES POLICE AND FIRE COMMISSION Superior, Wisconsin 1. The regular meeting of the Board of the Police and Fire Commission for the City of Superior was called to order Wednesday, April 14, 2021 at 6:00p.m. Participants joined the meeting via Google Meet. 2. ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Howard Hendrickson, Ephraim Nikoi, Arthur Gil de Lamadrid, Shawnu Ksicinski Also present: Asst. Chief Kiel, Chief Gordon, HR Director Koneczny There being a quorum present, the meeting was in order. 3. RECOGNITION OF NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC The recording secretary mailed and/or delivered agendas and agenda packets to persons or organizations listed, and the meeting was legally noticed in accordance with Wisconsin State Statutes open meeting law. 4. Approval of minutes: March 10, 2021 Motion by Commissioner Hendrickson, seconded by Commissioner Nikoi and carried to approve the minutes from the March 10, 2021 meeting. 5. Police & Fire department updates Chief Gordon said a firefighter recently left the department. Chief Gordon said that there was an emotional component to the individual wanting to leave and the Chief said this gives him even more insight to the importance of everyone’s mental health. Chief Gordon said they are trying to change how firefighters see some of the tramatic events. The culture has changed also in that these events are followed up on and are talked about now. Chief Gordon believes that the department has eliminated the stigma concerning mental health. March is Fire training month and firefighters are happy to be attending training again. The Chief mentioned how wonderful it is to have the new facility to conduct training. There has also been out of town training. Three firefighters in Colorado last week and one going next week. Everyone traveling has been vaccinated. Asst. Chief Kiel said the department has been extremely busy the past couple weeks. Administrators interviewed all fifteen candidates on the hiring list, and are in the process of backgrounding ten of those individuals. Asst. Chief Kiel said we had a great group of people on this hiring list. Chief Alexander has made eight conditional offers of employment so far, and Asst. Chief Kiel said these are good quality people and we are excited to move along in this process. Of those ten we hope to send three to recruit school May 24th. We also have two people, one certified, and one that will take the reciprocity test, and hopefully we can get those two started in May also into our Field Training program. There are also three candidates we would like to send to recruit school in August. We do have three in recruit school now, scheduled to graduate in May. All in all the testing process was very lucrative for the department. Asst. Chief Kiel discussed a couple of recent deaths resulting from overdoses. Asst. Chief Kiel said we continue this fight against opiods and with the help of the Fire Department we continue to save lives. Both Chief Gordon and Asst. Chief Kiel talked about the new human trafficking task force and think it will be a very valuable tool for us. Director Koneczny told commissioners about the new position in the Police Department, Community Resources Specialist. This position is non-sworn, and will assist officers and be another resource for mental health issues in the community. With HRC and City Council approval in coming weeks, we hope to begin recruiting for this position very soon. Asst. Chief Kiel briefly spoke about the tragic citizen deaths involving police in our country recently. He said we have a great department, very capable officers. He talked about the intensive training that is given to our officers, including the new virtual reality software that we recently purchased, and he believes training is a great asset in preventing this type of tragedy. No action 6. Tabled from March 10th meeting: Letter from Chief Gordon; completion of probationary period, Melcher Motion by Commissioner Hendrickson, seconded by Commissioner Gil de Lamadrid and carried to approve the completion of probationary period, Melcher. 7. Letter from Chief Gordon; completion of probationary period, Elliot 8. Letter from Chief Gordon; completion of probationary period, Orton 9. Letter from Chief Gordon; completion of probationary period, Jones 10. Letter from Chief Gordon; completion of probationary period, Shaw Motion by Commissioner Gil de Lamadrid, seconded by Commissioner Hendrickson and carried to approve items 7, 8, 9 and 10. 11. Discuss Police Officer interview questions. Motion by Commissioner Nikoi, seconded by Commissioner Hendrickson and carried to move into closed session at 6:45 p.m. Motion by Commissioner Gil de Lamadrid, seconded by Commissioner Hendrickson and carried to return to open session at 7:21 p.m. Motion by Commissioner Nikoi, seconded by Commissioner Hendrickson and carried to adjourn the meeting at 7:21 p.m. Submitted by: Donna Swanson Recording Secretary