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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Wednesday, December 22, 2021 @ 15:00 A. Call to Order The meeting of the South Area Fire & Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 15:01 by SAFER Chairman Al Opall. Members Present Board of Directors – Langenhahn, Maloney, Opall, Schaefer and White were all present. Also present: Town of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden and Finance Director Dunbar; Village of Weston – Director of Finance Trautman; VanderWaal Law – Shane VanderWaal; SAFER – Deputy Fire Chief Finke, EMS Division Chief Bechel, Battalion Chief Lang 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 October 14, 2021 and November 9, 2021. Motioned by Maloney to approve prior meeting minutes from October 14, 2021 and November 9, 2021 also approve expenditures and receipts from October and November 2021. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 5:0. Board of Directors approval of expenditures and receipts from October and November 2021. Motioned above. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on League of Wisconsin Municipalities 2021 Grant. - Deputy Chief Finke said we received a Grant from the League for Parks and Recreation and SAFER doesn’t do a lot with Parks and Recreation. I read through there and further down it says we can use it for whatever want, but they would kind of like it to be used on things that would beautify like landscaping and benches and items like that. I don’t have anything in particular in mind, I don’t know if the Board has anything they would like to see. One thing we have discussed back and forth a couple of times is the updated signage at either station. - Schaefer said the next thing we’re going to be talking about is signage and that’s a good idea to throw it towards the signage of what we’re going to spend. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to accept the Grant and direct staff to tell us what they want to spend it on in the area of either signage or other beautification. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on write off of account 15-13922-000-000. - Trautman said this is an old account and the balance hasn’t changed in four or five years. The original purpose was set up for doubtful accounts/NSF checks in 2015. Paperwork from 2016 showed the majority of the balance was from back then. We already have two allowance accounts, so I was looking at eliminating this account. The exact amount is $2,679.59. - Schaefer said we wouldn’t write it off, we would just eliminate it? - Trautman said it’s an amount that was reserved for doubtful accounts and probably already expensed. To eliminate it, I would debit the allowance and credit the ambulance revenue. - White said is this money owed to us or just sitting there? - Trautman said this was money that we set up as a receivable. - Dunbar said this is what you should touch when the money comes in and showing on the balance sheet. Since these have already probably come through, we haven’t adjusted the account as it should have been in the past years. So now we’re trying to adjust it as it probably has already happened and it didn’t hit the balance sheet like it should have. Action: Motioned by Maloney to approve write off of account 15-13922-000-000. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on District deposit to Employee HSA. - Deputy Chief Finke said this is something that we did last year and traditionally when it comes to health insurance we work with the Village (of Weston) and EMPD on that, we obviously don’t have to follow what they do, but traditionally we have. So, this year again the Village is making deposits to HSAs on behalf of the employees, we have budget availability to do that also. I wanted official permission from the Board to do that, numbers for this Employee $377.00, Employee and spouse $820.00, Employee and child(ren) $689.00 and Family $1118.00, which is a one-time deposit into their HSA. - Schaefer said shouldn’t that be just the policy as opposed to us doing that each year? - Deputy Chief Finke said last year was the first time we ever did that. - Schaefer said I don’t want this brought to the Board year after year, it should be a part of our policy. We can vote on it now and bring it back to us. Action: Motioned by Maloney to approve District deposit to Employee HSA. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on SAFER Emblem. - Deputy Chief Finke said the Board has discussed several times about this branding effort and we really do truly kind of go by two different names with SAFER and some people say South Area Fire District. Honestly when you stop and think about it, most of the people that say South Area Fire District are the people that work here. - Maloney said it’s on all the trucks and all the vehicles. - Deputy Chief Finke said the people from outside with MABAS and Dispatch, they always say SAFER on the radio. Departments refer to us as SAFER and yes, it’s much easier to say obviously. We had a couple emblems that Super Lettering came up with, which we took to our Strategic Planning Committee and at our last committee meeting one of our Battalion Chiefs drew an emblem and I had sent that to Super Lettering which is what you have in the packet. There is one change we talked about, the Maltese cross here would be eliminated and the Star of Life would be centered. - Maloney said I seem to have a little flair; I cannot help it. Real quick, I like it, I think this (the lettering) is confusing, the “EST.” and “2014” should be moved down and you shift the “Emergency Response” and spin it on the wheel and bring “Fire &” over so “Fire & Emergency Response” are on one line with a stronger letter font and a solid gold which will make it stronger. Action: Bring back after changes have been made. Updated chart of Charges for SAFER Services for 2022. - Deputy Chief Finke said the only changes made to that were the changes in our Intercept Fees which went up from $150.00 to $225.00. Then all of the changes for the EMS charges for the ambulance that were agreed upon at the last Board meeting. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to approve the Schedule Charges. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0. Attorney Referral. - None. End of Month Budget review.  - Deputy Chief Finke said the updated budget is in your packet, I don’t have a lot other than, we’re still doing well. The ambulance revenue came at $230,000.00 over what we budgeted. - Trautman said we got another $114,000.00 to add to that, that was deposited in the bank account in December. 15:42 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 Maloney. Roll-call Vote: NAME: Aye Nay Langenhahn X Maloney X Schaefer X White X Opall X Motion carried 5:0. 16:27 Remain in 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. 16:50 Motion by Schaefer to return to open session. Second by Maloney. Roll-call Vote: NAME: Aye Nay Langenhahn X Maloney X Schaefer X White X Opall X Motion carried 5:0. No action taken in open session after returning from closed session. E. Staff Reports Report from Deputy Fire Chief - Deputy Chief Finke said we had a small grant that we had available to us from Workers Comp Insurance and it had to be used to purchase things that they very strictly identified and for the Fire Department it was a cot, power load system or a stair chair where our options. Luckily since we’re ordering a new ambulance, we ordered a cot with that ambulance, so I had the company that we purchase the ambulance from send an invoice for the cot that we bought. I sent that in for the grant and we’ll get roughly $864.00. - We got a letter from Security Health our health insurer and it’s a bit of a grey area, but they said effective January 1, 2022, Covid testing that is not deemed medically necessary will not be covered. So currently  whenever we had an employee that had the sniffles, cough or anything leading to Covid, we tell them, make an appointment, go get a test, and if it comes back negative you can come back to work. I don’t know if they’ll cover that or not. I don’t know if that is deemed medically necessary, it’s a grey area and they get to make those decisions and we don’t. I don’t want employees to start getting bills for tests that we’re making them go get. With that being said I did a little research and I called Aspirus yesterday and I’m sure you have heard of them, because the government is sending them to everybody, but I went and got these test kits (rapid Covid tests) at Walgreens this morning and we used one and they also got a test at Aspirus too. So right now, when we send somebody to get tested, it takes roughly a day to get results back. This, you get back in 15 minutes and the issue with getting them back in a day is a person will miss their 24-hour shift and we have to pay someone overtime or work short staffed, with this they stick a swab in their nose and sit in a room for 15 minutes. My question is, is the Board ok with us purchasing them. I asked the person at Aspirus if these are accurate and accepted and they said that’s what they use there in Occ Health. It does and it has put us in a bind when we have to send somebody home. We’ve had more negative tests than positives, but everyone of them has missed their 24-hour shift. o Schaefer said I don’t have a problem with you using them personally, and I think that is an operational call because you are now leading this department and you need to make those command decisions to get people in seats to help people and protect the public and yourselves. You have the ability to do that and spend the money per kit, with that being said, you should be looking how to get free ones. o Attorney VanderWaal said what if an employee says I don’t really trust this test, I want to go to Aspirus. Is the department covering that cost even though we’re offering the free test? Does the employee get to decide to go to Aspirus because they don’t trust it? And then does the department cover that cost? o Deputy Chief Finke said the other thing to consider if we’re going to use this, we would have to make it that this is our test. Because otherwise somebody could say, no I’m going to get the Aspirus test because I get paid 24-hours off. o Attorney VanderWaal said you need to be clear about your operational determination, so the employee knows. o White said I hope you develop a written protocol to put into place, so in the event you’re not here you have a checklist of do this, then this. o Deputy Chief Finke said we have a Safety Committee which one of our Battalion Chiefs heads up and they already have a meeting set up for the 27th and they’ll come up with a policy. - Our call volume is very high and as of today we are 475 ambulance calls over last year and we’ve had at least 3 days this month with over 20 calls in the day. o Schaefer asked will you have any sort of let off with Kronenwetter going to Riverside on January 1? o Deputy Chief Finke said it’s going to be minimal, because with Fire and EMS, we’re going to be at 4,000 calls this year and Kronenwetter is between 250-300. It will help a little bit, other thing that is going to kick in I think is the other agency in town that is able to do Intercepts in the county significantly raised their fees. I think almost everyone is going to call us for Intercepts, even though we raised our fees, but they raised theirs even more. 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, January 11, 2022 at 17:30 at Village of Weston Municipal Courtroom. - Langenhahn has nothing. - Maloney has nothing. - Opall has nothing. - Schaefer has nothing. - White has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Schaefer to adjourn. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0. Opall adjourned at 16:50