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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, February 22, 2022 @ 18:00 A. Call to Order The meeting of the South Area Fire & Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 18:01 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 (via Google Meet) and Finance Director Dunbar; Village of Weston – Director of Finance Trautman (via Google Meet); SAFER – Interim Fire Chief Finke, Interim Deputy Fire Chief Lang, Battalion Chief Lauer 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 January 11, 2022, January 20, 2022, February 2, 2022, and February 9, 2022. Motioned by Maloney to approve prior meeting minutes from January 11, 2022, January 20, 2022, February 2, 2022 and February 9, 2022. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 5:0 Board of Directors approval of expenditures and receipts from January 2022. Motioned by Maloney to approve expenditures and receipts from January 2022. Second by White. Motion carried 5:0. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on Salary of Fire Chief. - Interim Chief Finke said Interim Deputy Chief Lang put together a wage study. - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said we try to use departments around the area that are close to our run volume and/or population. Before you, you see Stevens Point, Merrill, Wisconsin Rapids, we used Watertown because they are also seeking a Chief right now and Antigo. Antigo is smaller all the way around than us, but they’re a combination department and we put Antigo in there even though we knew they would slightly pull the numbers down. I ran two comparables, in yellow is an average of the wages and I put a median in which is the middle number of the six listed. Just for a comparable I put down what Chief Savage was making when he resigned. - White said the areas highlighted in yellow represents a fairly good range for the Chief and any subsequent Chief based upon future adjustments to that, I think a range is a good idea. - Maloney asked currently where is the Deputy Chief at? - Interim Chief Finke said roughly $86,000.00 without last year’s raise. I could get an exact number. - Maloney said right off the bat I was thinking $94,000.00 - $124,000.00, I needed a little bit more of a break from the Deputy Chief. The Deputy Chief could potentially be at $89,000.00 with the raise. - Schaefer said I think your top is a little high. I don’t have a problem with the $94,000.00. - Maloney said $119,000.00 is only a 20% raise on $99,000.00. - Schaefer said when you say it like that, that makes sense going 20% on the range and then you could put that into quadrants or thirds. - Maloney said when you said thirds before, that’s why I settled at $94,000.00 - $124,000.00. - Schaefer said I do like it to be rounded, so $94,000.00 - $120,000.00. - White said perhaps the new Chief might advise us of the salary range for other staff members. - Interim Chief Finke said it is something that we definitely need to look at, I know it’s been talked about several times over the last year or two. Our Battalion Chiefs have gotten significant raises over the last three to five years, so their salary is probably getting to the point of where a couple of the guys are getting towards where they need to be topped out. We do need to come back to the Board and have the Captains and all the full-time positions evaluated. - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said I get a salary study every year from the Wisconsin Fire Chiefs and we have looked at that to make sure when we raised some of wages last year we were in the ballpark. The problem with that particular study is it doesn’t have a top end; it has starting and we increased the Engineer and Captain pay to get them into the ballpark for where the starting is. Our Battalion Chiefs we are in the ballpark for where we’re starting them, we don’t have a top. Action: Motioned by Maloney for starting wage range for Fire Chief of $94,000.00 and current ceiling wage of $120,000.00. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on Fire Chief residency requirement. - Maloney asked what is current now? - Interim Chief Finke said there isn’t one, that was one of the questions a potential applicant emailed to Administrative Assistant Latimer and asked if there was a residency requirement and I said they can live anywhere, because we have nothing right now. - Maloney asked White, do we have one for EMPD? - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said state law is you can’t have a residency more restrictive than 15 miles. - Maloney said we’re bringing it up because somebody asked. - Interim Chief Finke said it spurred some conversation. - Maloney said I would entertain a 20-mile radius around each station. - Opall asked what is the state requirement? - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said the way the law reads is, “15 miles as the crow flies from the borders of the city”. - Schaefer said if we update the posting with salary can we say residency within a served area is preferred. I think policy should read that the Chief resides in the service area, but at a minimum must live within 15 miles of the boarder of the service area. - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said you have to start somewhere and I think we start with the Chief, the closer we get to a career service as we go the next 10, 15, 20 years I think we’re going to rely on residency requirements. - Schaefer said do we want to put a caveat at the end of the policy that says “or is allowed by the Board”? Action: Motioned by Schaefer the SAFER Board would prefer residency requirement of 20 miles from the boarder of the Town of Rib Mountain or the Village of Weston or as allowed by the Board. Second by White. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on Interim Positions one-time Bonus Compensation. - Opall said per the direction of the Board, Maloney and I communicated and we looked at the Deputy Chief assuming the position and we said $5,000.00 and the difference in salary is about $12,000.00 right now. If the Board wants to go back a bit or increase, that’s up to you. - White asked would this be a one-time thing? - Opall said it’s a one-time bonus. - Maloney said I wouldn’t mind if that was paid out in quarters. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to award a one-time bonus of $5,000.00 to the Interim Chief paid out as directed by the Interim Chief. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0.  - Opall said moving on to the Interim Deputy Chief, that’s what we did not talk about. What might the difference in salaries be there? - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said my base and Interim Chief Finke’s base is about $10,000.00. - Schaefer said I will suggest $3,000.00. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to award a one-time bonus of $3,000.00 to the Interim Deputy Chief paid out as directed by the Interim Deputy Chief. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0. Attorney Referral. - None. End of Month Budget review. - Interim Chief Finke said nothing real significant there as we’re early into the year. Nothing major unless anybody has questions. - Schaefer said the Village of Marathon, did we pay them their fees for this year? - Administrative Assistant Latimer said yes. - Schaefer asked if we paid them a prorated amount or the full? - Interim Chief Finke said we paid them a prorated amount through February 15th. - Schaefer asked when did we cut that check? - Interim Chief Finke said 2 weeks ago maybe? E. Staff Reports Report from Interim Fire Chief - Interim Fire Chief Finke said the one thing I have and I brought up briefly at the Village of Weston meeting last night, I think it would be something to potentially explore if both the Town and Village boards and this Board are onboard with this, I think we could all benefit from an HR professional that we can maybe share between SAFER, the Town and the Village. With what we just went through, I think somebody that really understands the HR laws would be beneficial to all of us. I did a lot of things over the last couple of months, I know the basics and some of the rules about Firefighter overtime and things like that. When it comes to long term disability and other things, I’m not afraid to say I’m not a professional in that. I did ask for some advice from some people at the Town and the Village, and no offense to them because there is no HR professional at the Town or the Village. If a termination or something like that where ever to get handled inappropriately, that could be a very expensive thing for the Town, the Village or SAFER. We rely so heavily on our attorney if we have any questions like that right now. Report from Interim Deputy Fire Chief - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said Saturday the 12th we got called for a fire on Parrot Ln in Rib Mountain. We had an IFT crew out, so we had five initial responding. Interim Chief Finke was out of town and we let each other know, the page went off and I responded right away. We had significant fire showing, knock down was very quick for as much fire that was showing. We called a box alarm, so the City of Wausau, Riverside and Mosinee for an ambulance came and assisted us. - We’re going to be doing interviews for the Captain on March 2nd. We have three applicants, two internal and one external. That will fill the position left by Andy Lohman who was a Battalion Chief. 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, March 22, 2022 at 18:00 at Village of Weston Municipal Courtroom. - Langenhahn has nothing. - Maloney said I think those emblems are unbelievable. - Schaefer has nothing. - White has nothing. - Opall has nothing. G. Business Items  18:58 Motion by Schaefer to adjourn into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(c) for the purpose of considering performance evaluation data of a public employee over which the Fire District Board has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility: 2021 Review of SAFER Deputy Fire Chief. Second by Maloney. Roll-call vote: NAME: Aye Nay Langenhahn X Maloney X Schaefer X White X Opall X Motion carried 5:0. 19:10 Motion by Schaefer to convene into open session. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on closed session agenda item. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to give Deputy Chief Finke a 3% raise retroactive to January 1, 2022. Second by White. Motion carried 5:0. H. Adjourn Motion by Schaefer to adjourn. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0. Maloney adjourned at 19:12