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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, November 9, 2021 @ 18:00 A. Call to Order The meeting of the South Area Fire & Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 18:00 by SAFER Vice Chairman Mark Maloney. Members Present Board of Directors – Langenhahn, Maloney, Schaefer and White were all present, Opall was absent and excused. Also present: Town of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden and Finance Director Dunbar (virtual); Village of Weston – Director of Finance Trautman (virtual); SAFER – Fire Chief Savage, Deputy Fire Chief Finke (virtual), EMS Division Chief Bechel, Battalion Chief McBain and Administrative Assistant Latimer. 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 September 14, 2021. Motioned by White to approve prior meeting minutes from September 14, 2021. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 4:0. Board of Directors approval of expenditures and receipts from September 2021. Motioned by White to approve expenditures and receipts from September 2021. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 4:0. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on 2022 – 2023 CIP Budget. - Finance Director Dunbar said you all have seen this Budget; all we have done now is bring the $390,000.00 over as a prepayment on the Ladder Truck. That is the only difference here, we separated out the Capital piece and added that into the Heavy Motorized. - Schaefer said probably for 2022 we should sit down in February or March and talk about growth and how that effects the Fire District. - Maloney said I agree. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to approve the 2022 Capital and Operational Budget. Second by White. Motion carried 4:0. Discussion and possible action on Fee Schedule. - Chief Savage said there is a rate survey that came back from LifeQuest and myself, Deputy Chief Finke and EMS Division Chief Bechel talked about it and their recommended rate we think is a little steep for an increase. Our recommendation is that we match what the City of Wausau is doing, that will give us an increase, but not too steep. - Maloney said my thought, we should be taking the average except for the bottom two and from the bottom the fifth and sixth up, we should take the recommended rate and everything else switches to the average rate. - Schaefer said so you’re going above the recommended. - Maloney said absolutely. - EMS Division Chief Bechel said the average rate is a little skewed because Waukesha is quite a bit more than everyone else. - Schaefer said I’m a little concerned and I get your logic and appreciate it, my first gut was to go there, but I don’t want it used against me when we go for Kronenwetter, if we go for anyone else or even combine with another area that wants help. - Maloney said then the only course of action is to completely follow Wausau across the board. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to adjust the rates to be compatible with the City of Wausau as presented. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 4:0. Discussion and possible action on Audit Proposal. - Chief Savage said we sent out three RFP requests and received one back from Hawkins Ash, and we definitely have the experience with them. - White asked would this be for a three-year contract? - Chief Savage said yes. Action: Motioned by White to approve the 2021 thru 2023 Audits to Hawkins Ash for $23,400.00. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 4:0. Attorney Referral. - Two open records requests, both from Marathon. End of Month Budget review. - Chief Savage said we’re at 83%, LifeQuest is coming in strong and we’ve been exceptionally busy. We have two more payments conservatively of $110,000.00. We noticed we have to change a couple of tires yet, there’s miscellaneous maintenance items that we wait until the end of the year to see if we have money left over. 18:42 Motion by Schaefer to adjourn to closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute Section 19.85(1) (f) Preliminary consideration of specific personnel matter, if discussed in public would be likely to have an adverse effect upon the reputation of any person involved in such personnel matter: Including discussion regarding performance concerns by department employees. Second by Langenhahn. Roll-call Vote: NAME: Aye Nay Langenhahn X Schaefer X White X Maloney X Motion carried 4:0. 18:46 Motion by White to return to open session. Second by Langenhahn. Roll-call Vote: NAME: Aye Nay Langenhahn X Schaefer X White X Maloney X Motion carried 4:0.  No action taken in open session after returning from closed session. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Chief Savage said the day after our last Board meeting, I went and got tested and was positive on Saturday. I was down for easily ten days and was out for three weeks and I took one week of PTO. Report from Deputy Fire Chief - Deputy Chief Finke said I was out for ten total days, six work days. - White said the email you sent with the link to the IRS, I couldn’t make any sense of it. o Chief Savage said we had multiple attorneys look at it and two out of the three said, we can’t give you an opinion because we don’t understand it. o White said getting reimbursement for taxes you pay as an employer related to paid leave for staff members who are home due to Covid. - Deputy Chief Finke said Administrative Assistant Latimer might be able to jump in on this, but we asked our payroll company at one point we did qualify, correct? o Administrative Assistant Latimer said yes and it only went through September 30, 2021 and receiving the credits or payments was confusing. o Deputy Chief Finke said that’s the part we’ve been struggling with, because we’ve had close to a dozen employees that have been off for Covid and the only employees that had to use PTO are Chief Savage and myself. o Maloney asked why did you and Chief Savage use PTO? o Deputy Chief Finke said because I was told I had to by you. o Maloney said that is not true and Weston is still looking at how this is paid. o Deputy Chief Finke said Maloney had called me and there was a discussion about PTO and you had said something along the lines, “I don’t think that’s what the tax payers would expect” and so I didn’t cause any problems and I didn’t want to have problems six months down the road, I just put in PTO. o Maloney said I had followed up with “we need to be consistent”. When you just said you two took PTO, I said is that consistent or because the timing is off. o Deputy Chief Finke said it was a proactive move by me, just because I didn’t want this to get forgotten and then six months from now an accusation is made and I’m in trouble. 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, December 14, 2021 at 17:30 at Village of Weston Municipal Courtroom. - Langenhahn said the Village of Marathon is looking to replace their fire truck for $400,000.00. The Village doesn’t have sufficient revenue for fire service provided by the department. The Village has been meeting in closed session about SAFER for months, the Village said in the paper they are not getting paid. - Maloney has nothing. - Schaefer said obviously there is pandemic leave which is required under the law, which expired. I didn’t know about the conversation and I’m picking it up as we’re sitting here. The Chief is the Chief Administrator and probably should have a rule and report to the Board on it and get our comments on it. That’s something we should have done a while ago. o Chief Savage said we did, it’s the policy the Board approved with one of the meetings with Sparks. The concern with not doing the two weeks is that we’re going to have employees showing up that shouldn’t be at work. o Schaefer said I don’t have a problem with that, does that sunset at all? o Chief Savage said it doesn’t according to the policy, because at the time the CDC was coming out with this version, then two weeks later this version. o Schaefer said we have a policy, and we’re following it. o Maloney said both gentlemen should be paid back their PTO. We can have a discussion on the next agenda. - White has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Langenhahn to adjourn. Second by White. Motion carried 4:0. Maloney adjourned at 18:59