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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, June 8, 2021 @ 18:00 A. Call to Order The meeting of the South Area Fire and Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 18:01 by SAFER Chairman Al Opall. Members Present Board of Directors – Maloney, Opall, Schaefer and White were all present, Langenhahn was absent and excused. Also present: Town of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden; Village of Weston – Director of Finance Trautman; SAFER – Fire Chief Savage, Deputy Fire Chief Finke, EMS Division Chief Bechel, Battalion Chief Lohman, Lieutenant Zellner, Engineer Haessly, FF Kolb and Administrative Assistant Latimer. There was one guest (media). B. Correspondence/Comments from the public on issues related to the SAFER District None C. Consent Items Board of Directors approval of prior meeting minutes from May 11, 2021. Motioned by White to approve prior meeting minutes from May 11, 2021. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried unanimously. Board of Directors approval of expenditures and receipts from May 2021. Motioned by Maloney to approve expenditures and receipts from May 2021. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried unanimously. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on take home vehicles. - Maloney said I don’t have a copy of our policy, but talking to some of the people that have vehicles, and some of the calls I’ve been getting. I just want to reaffirm that they are not to hide them, no matter what their doing. In Deputy Chief Finke’s case and I don’t mean to point him out, if he’s leaving work and going to his other job, that Car can sit in the parking lot and I’m going to defend that with anybody that calls me, because that’s a Safety vehicle. I don’t think it’s clearly stated in our policy. - Schaefer said our Sherriff’s Patrol, that is part of the contract we have with them, they take that vehicle home. - White said part of the advantages of having that is they can respond to a call directly from their home. - Schaefer asked who has a Car? - Chief Savage said it’s just Deputy Chief Finke and I. - Maloney said there’s more than just two. - Deputy Chief Finke said there are more vehicles, they’re not take-home vehicles. - Maloney said for Deputy Chief Finke it got to the point he’s trying to be a little bit more discreate, then I get a phone call one day and five minutes later I get another phone call from somebody else that he’s trying to hide it. I said he’s not trying to hide it; he’s trying to be humble. I couldn’t defend him, because our policy doesn’t say that and I think our policy should be changed. Wherever you are, if you’re going to Target, you can take it with you because it’s a response vehicle. - White asked does SAFER have a formal policy on this? - Chief Savage said yes we do and it’s very vague. It basically states that we will maintain, fuel and inventory. - Opall said would you like to write something up and bring it back for the next meeting. - Chief Savage said we can. - Opall said is there anyone on the Board against it? - White said I think our staff is responsible enough to do the right thing. - Chief Savage said the way it’s set up, Deputy Chief Finke lives just out of Weston and I live in Rib Mountain, so we are On Call all of the time which is part of the job and it’s not a big deal and for us to be able to jump in our car and go right to the scene, Deputy Chief Finke is there quick and if he’s leaving his business, it’s even quicker. - Maloney said you don’t have to explain, I had a hard time with those two phone calls and we need to have something in writing that specifically says that. - Schaefer said Maloney I appreciate you defending our Officers and I agree we should have a policy and bring it back to us and we’ll take a look at it. If you want to bounce it off of White, that’s a good idea. Action: Direction to Staff, move to next Agenda. Discussion and possible action on Appendix B – 1 and B – 2. - White said B – 1 is the agreement between Rib Mountain and SAFER for the lease of their station. Has it been signed at all? It’s my understanding talking to some of the Trustees there was a discrepancy between the maintenance where B – 1 said $2,000.00 and B – 2 said $3,000.00. - Trautman said in the minutes at the meeting that they signed that lease, there was discussion on the dollar amount. - Schaefer said the leases should be relatively identical, we should pick one amount and go with that for both. - Maloney said there was another issue with snow removal and Rhoden hit it right on the head and I had to listen to that from a few of the Village’s Board members. - White said matter of point, there are three tenants at this building, not just one. When I worked here, I used to get here at 6 o’clock in the morning and snow blow the walks just so we could get in and I didn’t think anything of it. This is a big lot and the SAFER employees shouldn’t have the responsibility to shovel this, there’s the Municipal Court, and Everest Metro PD. It says in both lease agreements that Rib Mountain should do the Rib Mountain station and Weston should do the Weston station. If SAFER feels like doing it, then more power to them. I don’t have a problem with the lease the way they’re worded, they’re both worded equally as far as snow removal. - Opall said so the issue is with the $2,000.00 and $3,000.00? - Schaefer said you mow the grass and get a little help occasionally, but you pretty much plow Station 1. Now that’s causing an issue with the Weston Board. - White said certain people. - Chief Savage said it did with a particular Weston Board member who was on SAFER Board at the time, because if the plow broke or the lawn mower broke that Weston should have to pay for any of that and that was the biggest point of contention and from what I can remember, that’s why the lease agreements never got signed. - White said a point of detail here, I was just provided with a signed copy of the lease between SAFER and the Village of Weston, so we actually do have a signed copy. - Schaefer said and your lease says $3,000.00 and you will do the maintenance. So, the only one outstanding is Rib Mountain’s. - White said I’m going to hang onto this for dear life. From 2018 signed by Barb Ermeling and attested by our Clerk and signed by Al Opall and whoever’s signature that is. - Schaefer said we need a Rib Mountain lease and I don’t have a problem with going to $3,000.00 and keeping it the same. Then we’ll say we’re going to do the plowing and the grass. - White said if you want to plow or mow the lawn, more power to you. Just don’t get hurt. - Deputy Chief Finke said one interesting point, we have a local lawn care company that last year they took care of the lawn at Station 1 and this year they are now taking care of the lawn at both stations for free. Action: Rib Mountain Board to draft lease. Weston’s signed lease will be Appendix B – 2. Moved to next Agenda. Discussion and possible action on Second Amendment to the SAFER Charter 2021 v4. - White said I went through it again and I found some word errors. - Opall said what is your pleasure gentlemen, would you like to adopt it with the changes? - White said what is the process Mr. Chairman? Do we approve it first and then send it to each municipality? - Schaefer said it has to be unanimous and we need Langenhahn. Action: Moved to next Agenda for full Board approval. Attorney Referral. - None. End of Month Budget review. - Chief Savage said I’m happy to report that our revenue is not only on track, but we should be well above ambulance revenue. The increased revenue is obviously from ambulance revenue, we’ve been extremely busy with interfacility transfers. Our Battalion Chiefs and our Full Time Captain deserve a good hand in that, because they’ve been really good on getting those out. - Deputy Chief Finke said at the current pace we’re on budget to be a little bit over a quarter of a million dollars above revenue. - Schaefer said are you running heavy on expenses because you’re running more ambulance calls? - Deputy Chief Finke said the Outside Contracted Services which is the ambulance billing. - White said from my understanding they take their money before we get it. So, it really doesn’t come to us. - Chief Savage said out Part Time Overtime is a little heavy. - Deputy Chief Finke said we have two new part time people that will start working shift in July, so that hopefully will lessen the burden a little. - Schaefer said what are you getting for standby at Rock Fest and Country Fest? - Deputy Chief Finke said $10,500.00 and they also asked us to do Covid swabs from 11:00 till 9:00 every day. We used our fee schedule that was already approved by the Board and we’re charging them the dollar amount based upon the fee schedule to come and do that. We also transport about 10 to 15, so we get the revenue from that. 18:38 Motion by Schaefer to adjourn to closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute Section 19.85(1) (e) Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conduction other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session: Contract negotiations with Joint Service with the Village of Marathon and Fire Contract for the Town of Marathon. Wisconsin Statute Section 19.85(1) (g) Conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved: Pending Litigation. Second by Maloney. Roll-call vote: NAME: Aye Nay Maloney X Schaefer X White X Opall X Motion carried unanimously. 19:26 Motion by Schaefer to return to open session. Second by White. Roll-call vote: NAME: Aye Nay Maloney X Schaefer X  White X Opall X No action taken in open session after returning from closed session. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Chief Savage said the training burn in the Town of Marathon went very well. I was not there; I was at a conference and Deputy Chief Finke and Battalion Chief Lang where there and lead it. We will have another in Rib Mountain within a month. - The crews have been working hard, late today we had many calls all over lunch time. We were able to take them all, though we’ve called for mutual aid; one today, three on the big structure fire day, so I’ll say less than six in the past month. Everything we have covered, and that’s including getting transfers out the door. - We’ve changed our uniform policy a little this week, to allow the crew to wear t-shirts because it’s hot. Report from Deputy Fire Chief - Deputy Chief Finke said like Chief Savage said, the training fire went smooth. - The only other thing I wanted to reiterate is that the crews have been very busy and have done an excellent job getting transfers out. Today we are 81 transfers above last year this time and they’re actually in Milwaukee right now, and we’re about 220 calls up overall from last year this time. F. Remarks from the Board of Directors to set the next meeting date as well as discuss items for the next meeting agenda. - Next meeting scheduled Tuesday, July 13, 2021 at 18:00 in Rib Mountain. - Maloney has nothing. - Schaefer has nothing. - White has nothing. - Opall has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Schaefer to adjourn. Second by White. Motion carried unanimously. Opall adjourned at 19:27