S.A.F.E.R. Board of Directors

OFFICIAL NOTICE & MEETING AGENDA of a Board, Commission, Committee, Agency, Corporation, Quasi-Municipal Corporation, or Sub-unit thereof AMENDED 10-27-14 Meeting: S.A.F.E.R. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Members: L White {c}; A Opall; B Ermeling; P Kachel; K Langenhahn Location: Rib Mountain Town Hall; 3700 North Mountain Rd, Wausau Date/Time: Tuesday, OCTOBER 28, 2014 @ 6:00 P.M. AGENDA ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION (All items listed may be action upon) Notice is hereby given that a majority of the S.A.F.E.R. Fire Commission may be present at the above noticed meeting due to the proximity of meeting time/location. This constitutes a meeting of the S.A.F.E.R. Fire Commission pursuant to State ex rel. Badke v. Greendale Village Bd., 173 Wis.2d 553,494 N.W.2d 408 (1993), and must be noticed as such, although the S.A.F.E.R. Fire Commission will not take any action at this meeting. 1. Call to Order. 2. Comments from the public on issues related to the SAFER district – This period is an opportunity for members of the community to come before the Directors and present to them their comments related to the financial and administrative management of the SAFER district. No action will be taken on comments received at this meeting. 3. Consent Items. a) Approval of prior meeting minutes from Tuesday 10/14/2014. 4. Business Items. a) Consider request from Village of Marathon City regarding mutual aid agreements between Marathon Fire Department and SAFER. b) Consider whether to recommend department budget of FY 2015 to the Board of Supervisors for the Town of Rib Mountain and the Board of Trustees for the Village of Weston for adoption and approval. c) Discussion and action on repair costs for 79 Engine 11. 5. Staff Reports. a) Reports from Fire Chiefs. b) Reports from Administrators. 6. Set next meeting date and discuss items for next Board of Directors meeting agenda. 7. Adjourn. This notice was posted at the Municipal Centers and sent to the Wausau Daily Herald newsroom on 10/27/14 @ 9:30 a.m. Please note that, upon reasonable notice, efforts will be made to accommodate the needs of disabled individuals through appropriate aids and services. For additional information or to request this service, contact the Rib Mountain Town Municipal Center at (715) 842-0983.  OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Regular Meeting Tuesday, October 14, 2014 @ 6:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order The regular meeting of the South Area Fire and Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 6:03 PM by SAFER Board Chairman Loren White. MEMBERS PRESENT – Loren White, Keith Langenhahn, Allen Opall, Peter Kachel and Barb Ermeling. Weston Finance Director John Jacobs, Village of Weston Administrator Daniel Guild, Town of Rib Mountain Administrator Gaylene Rhoden, Chief Meilahn, Deputy Chief Savage, Shift Commander Andy Schlagel and 4 audience members were also present. 2. Comments from the public on issues related to the SAFER District There was no public comment or correspondence. 3. Consent Items a) Approval of prior meeting minutes from Tuesday 9/23/2014. Motion by Langenhahn/Opall to approve meeting minutes from 9/23/14. Motion carried unanimously. 4. Business Items a) Discussion and action on 2015 Budget Jacobs distributed a budget packet to SAFER Board members. There was a brief discussion on several items in the packet. Due to Board members receiving this information at the time of this meeting, they will take the time to review and discuss further at the next meeting. b) Discussion and action on Automatic Aid and/or better mutual aid agreements with Town of Maine Fire Department. Chief Meilahn reported he attended a Town of Maine Board meeting on 10-2-14. At that meeting it was explained to the Town of Maine that SAFER’s charter needs to be updated outlining the the process to bring in a new entity. He stated talks will continue after SAFER completes the budget process. 5. Staff Reports a) Reports from Fire Chiefs Meilahn distributed a run report to board members. A written report was included in the meeting packet. There was a brief discussion on a contract issue between Town of Stettin and the City of Marathon. He stated he will also be working on updating EMS contracts. b) Reports from Administrators No reports from Administrators 6. Remarks from the Directors (No motions will be made, and no action will be taken related to policy affecting the S.A.F.E.R. District as a result of this agenda item). No remarks from the Directors 7. Set next meeting date and discuss items for next committee agenda. Next meeting date is scheduled for October 28, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. 8. Adjourn Motion by Opall/Ermeling to adjourn at 6:43 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. Prepared by Rhonda Christiansen on October 22, 2014. Presented for consideration to the Board of Directors on October 28, 2014.  Memorandum To: Steve Meilahn, Chief, South Area Fire and Emergency Response District From: Peter J. Conrad Date: 10/23/2014 Re: Village of Marathon Mutual Aid Agreement I was asked to review the Mutual Aid Agreement between the Town of Rib Mountain and the Village of Marathon City to determine whether S.A.F.E.R. would be bound by that Agreement. I did not find anything in either the S.A.F.E.R. Charter, or the minutes of any S.A.F.E.R. Board meeting to indicate that S.A.F.E.R. agreed to take on this Agreement. Therefore, S.A.F.E.R. is not a party to that Agreement. However, that does not answer the question of whether S.A.F.E.R. should enter into a Mutual Aid Agreement on terms substantially the same as those laid out in the Town of Rib Mountain/Village of Marathon City Agreement. That is not a question I can answer, as that is a decision of the S.A.F.E.R. Board. Mutual aid agreements are expressly permitted by Wis. Stat. § 66.03125. That statute provides, in sum, that one fire department may request assistance from another, and unless there is an agreement in place the responding fire department may charge for personnel and equipment costs.1 While it is not expressly stated in the Rib Mountain/Marathon City Agreement, it appears that Rib Mountain and Marathon City did not charge for providing mutual aid. That said, the “existing” Agreement is between Rib Mountain and Marathon City – not S.A.F.E.R. As you are aware, pursuant to the resolution that the Village of Weston and the Town of Rib Mountain passed in creating S.A.F.E.R., both municipalities “dissolved” 1 Wis. Stat. § 66.03125 provides as follows: 66.03125 Fire departments; mutual assistance. (1) In this section "fire department" has the meaning given in s. 66.0314 (1) (c). (2) (a) Subject to sub. (3), upon the request of a fire department, the personnel of any other fire department may assist the requester within the requester's jurisdiction, notwithstanding any other jurisdictional provision. (b) If a request for assistance is made under par. (a), payment for the requested services shall be made by one of the following methods: 1. If an agreement under s. 66.0301, or any other agreement between the parties, for the payment of such services exists, the terms of the agreement shall be followed. 2. If no agreement described under subd. 1. for the payment of such services exists, the governmental unit that receives the assistance is responsible for the personnel or equipment costs incurred by the responding agency if the responding agency requests payment of those costs. Page 1  October 23, 2014 their respective fire departments, and collectively formed S.A.F.E.R. Thus, S.A.F.E.R. is an entirely new entity. The S.A.F.E.R. Charter does not provide that the then existing agreements entered into by the individual members would be assigned to S.A.F.E.R. Further, I could not find where the S.A.F.E.R. Board accepted an assignment of the Rib Mountain/Marathon City Mutual Aid Agreement. Accordingly, S.A.F.E.R. is not a party to that agreement. See e.g. Maciolek v. City of Milwaukee Employes’ Retirement System Annuity and Pension Bd., 2006 WI 10, ¶ 22, 288 Wis. 2d 62, 709 N.W.2d 360 (one cannot enforce a contract against an entity that is not a party to it). Nevertheless, S.A.F.E.R. may want to enter into such agreement with Marathon City. If that is the case, we should update that agreement such that it is acceptable to all parties. The Board must make that decision. If you need anything further regarding this matter, please let me know. Page 2 Repair of 79 Engine 11 As you may recall 79 Engine 11 sustained damage to a compartment door. We now have the bills for repair; $1,392.25 for the door, paint, etc. form Pierce Mfg. and $837.40 for the actual repair with Sanders Collision Service for a total price of $2,229.65. The deductible amount with our insurance is $500.00 The question before the Board is do you wish us to pay the entire cost of the repair or make an insurance claim? Fire Chief Report October 28, 2014 Battalion Chief (BC) Hiring Process: All written testing and interviews have been completed. Conditional employment offers have been given to three SAFER candidates; Lt. Kyle Lech, Lt. Kelly Bechel, and MPO Hieronimus. The offer is contingent upon successful completion of a background check which will be conducted by the Everest Metro Police Department, physical/drug screen, and psychological evaluation. Seniority for this group was determined with input from our Fire Commission after that interview and as outlined above. For your information seniority for the three current Battalion Chief’s (McBain, Lauer, and Schlagel) is based on date of hire. Lieutenant and MPO Vacancies: With the three BC job offers there will be vacancies which will need to be filled at Lieutenant and MPO. As soon as practical we will begin the internal application, testing, and interview process. The vacancies are not extra positions and are part of our existing staffing and budget. EMS Contracts: We have three (3) EMS contract which will expire on December 31, 2014. They are with the Town of Easton, Town of Guenther, and Town of Ringle. With the help of our fiscal agent and our attorney these documents are being worked on and we hope to bring them to the Board during November for approval. Once this is completed the contract will be sent to the respective communities for approval and signatures. Our remaining contracts with Kronenwetter, Town of Marathon, and Town of Stettin are valid until December 31, 2015. Our plan for 2016 and beyond is to have all of our EMS contracts contain the same language and rates (adjusted yearly or as needed) with input from our EMS billing company. All contracts will be reviewed by our attorney prior to execution of the contracts. Mutual Aid Agreements: We will need to review and/or redo any mutual aid agreements, beyond MABAS, which the former Rib Mountain and Weston Fire Departments had prior to SAFER. Our attorney is aware of this and will be assisting us with this project. SAFER Charter Review/Revision: As a reminder, once the budget season is complete, we will need to begin the process of review/revision of our initial Charter document. Upon completion this will allow us to better communicate and discuss with other communities the process by which they can join SAFER or contract EMS and/or Fire response from us.