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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, March 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 18:00 by SAFER Chairman Al Opall. Members Present Board of Directors – Langenhahn, Maloney (*excused at 18:45), Opall, Schaefer and White were all present. Also present: Town of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden (via Google Meet) and Finance Director Dunbar (via Google Meet); Village of Weston – Director of Finance Trautman; SAFER – Fire Chief Finke, Interim Deputy Fire Chief Lang, 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 February 22, 2022. Motioned by Maloney to approve prior meeting minutes from February 22, 2022 also approve expenditures and receipts from February 2022. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 5:0 Board of Directors approval of expenditures and receipts from February 2022. Motioned above. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on charges for ATV/UTV, Snowmobile, Hiker and Ski Rescue. - Chief Finke said there won’t need to be any action taken, this is just an FYI. I received an email about two or three weeks ago from the State Chiefs. There was a large fishing tournament on Lake Winnebago I do believe awhile back, there were multiple rescues that had to be made out there and emails were sent about the amount of money that was spent and how do they try to recuperate some of the money. We found out there is already some action going on about possibly doing something like they do out west. The DNR is looking at a $5.00 rescue card together, so when you purchase your deer hunting, fishing, ATV, snowmobile and other licenses you have the option to pay $5.00 for a rescue card. If you do need to utilize services, the $5.00 covers you. If you don’t purchase the card and the fire department wants to charge you $500.00, then you’ll have to pay the $500.00. The DNR did a simple addition, if half the people bought it that purchased a deer hunting license that would bring in about $2,000,000.00. None of this is done yet, but one of the things they are looking at is grants for purchasing those types of equipment. Another item is if a fire department does that type of rescue, then they can apply for funding through this fund and get paid back for overtime, backfill, or equipment, they list off all the different things. Again, nothing that is in place right now, but they think another year or two it should be up and running. - Schaefer said I think both Weston and Rib Mountain would have to pass an ordinance that allows for charging those fees. We were going to charge for vehicle (crashes) and you were working on the ordinances. Both communities have said yes and this Board has said yes, so it’s time. - White said would this include water rescues? - Chief Finke said yes. Action: No action taken. Discussion of Countywide EMS/Fire efforts and potential Study by County. - Opall said not so much fire, but mostly looking at EMS. - Schaefer said I asked for this to be put on the agenda to discuss what everyone knows. I know Langenhahn and Maloney were at the meeting. - Maloney said it was an agenda meeting and prior to that we’ve had some informal meetings with small communities in the Town of Marathon, no secret, no hiding and invited everybody to hear the stories from the small communities with 35 to 40-minute response times. - Schaefer said the same meetings that you were having needs to formally happen among the Chiefs. - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said it has been discussed at the MABAS meeting and I can put an agenda item on there. Action: No action taken. Discussion and possible action on automatic aid contract with Mosinee Fire District. - Chief Finke said there’s a couple words in there that Attorney VanderWaal thought needed to be updated and a couple items that Mosinee Fire wanted to change, but the rest of the contract is the same. We added the initial response of their Tender for the Town of Marathon. I know it has Ermeling listed on there, I will get that fixed. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to approve automatic aid contract with Mosinee Fire District subject to the change. Second by Maloney. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on disputed ambulance bill. - Chief Finke said this individual was advised to bring a letter because they are disputing, in writing by today which they did not do. We have an individual that was treated by our staff at State Park Speedway, sounds like they were involved in a crash during a race. Our staff extricated them from the vehicle, got them in the ambulance, did an assessment, took a couple sets of vital signs and then they refused transport, so the staff let them go. Based upon our billing practices, the patient got a bill which they are disputing. They said they’ve talked to everyone else at the race track and nobody’s ever received a bill, so they think they shouldn’t either. Our policies for billing are fairly cut and dried, if it’s a no transport call and we did an intervention like taking a blood pressure, long boarding, checking blood sugar or those types of things, you would get a BLS – Basic Life Support no transport bill which is what they got for $275.00. I don’t think there’s a lot of action that anybody needs to take tonight, but we had it on the agenda in case they did bring us a letter. Action: No action taken. Presentation on 2021 Audit. - Trautman gave the presentation. Discussion and possible action on Fire Chief compensation. - Opall said does this really need a closed session? - Maloney said it is public record, it’s the position we are talking about, not an individual’s performance. In my mind it doesn’t need to be closed session. What was the wage of the former Chief? - Interim Deputy Chief Lang said $99,800.00. - Maloney said $99,000.00 to $104,000.00 and I’m fine as I leave anything this Board decides. I’m comfortable with whatever you four decide once I leave and will support your decision. If you’re going to talk about the past position to the new position with the raise, I believe his current with the 3 percent is $89,000.00, right? - Administrative Assistant Latimer said it’s $90,825.00. (*Maloney excused himself) - White said I think it would be a different situation if we had someone that came into this department from outside. Chief Finke is very familiar with the operations and has handled a lot of the day-to-day duties, I have no problem with at least starting him out where the former Chief left off. - Opall said that $99,800.00 included his raise for this year also?  - Administrative Assistant Latimer said the Chief did not receive a raise for 2022. - Opall said that gives us a variable with another three percent on top of that if that is what the raise would have been. So where does that put it, $102,000.00? - Schaefer said I think bringing Chief Finke in at $102,000.00 to $104,000.00 is what we should give and he’s going to be unbridled with having to take care of his boss and running a department. We’re going to get to see what he can do. - White said I think he’s got a lot in his work plan for us to review what he’s accomplished this year. - Chief Finke said I do have one request as far as PTO, and if we can’t, I completely understand. Can we top off my PTO and match the PTO that the former Chief was getting? - Schaefer said so tell us our PTO policy and where are you at in the policy. - Chief Finke said right now I accumulate at 9.538 hours per pay period, the next level up is 10.462 hours, which is an extra hour per pay period. My other request was to top off my PTO balance which would give me roughly 40 hours of PTO. Which would take me to the maximum hours of 312. - Opall asked how many years in the fire service do you have? - Chief Finke said 21 years total in the fire service - Schaefer said how many do you have here? - Chief Finke said counting Rib Mountain, probably 12 or 13 years. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to set the wage at $103,000.00 and put Chief Finke at the maximum PTO accrual at 10.462 and fill up his PTO bank. Second by White. Motion carried 4:0. Attorney Referral. - None. End of Month Budget review. - Chief Finke asked is there any questions? - White said for me it’s just overall are we above or below? - Chief Finke said we’re right on target and some like Maintenance of Other Equipment we always run high at the beginning of the year because we do a bunch of our annual maintenance during the first quarter. Cardiac monitors, SCBAs and flow testing masks. The Fire Software we are over budget on, there was an unexpected price increase from ESO, we have paid everything for the year for ESO. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Fire Chief Finke said we made a job offer for our open Captain position, which was accepted and he passed all his medical screenings. Hopefully we will have him here in two to three weeks. His name is Chris Klapeotke and comes to us with a lot of experience and knowledge. He is currently a firefighter for Truax Field in Madison and is a Crew Chief which is like a relief Lieutenant and he’s a paramedic. - I posted the Deputy Chief position, internal only as per the direction of the Commission. - Our hovercraft is coming along and we have three people we will be sending down to get training hopefully in the next three to four weeks. - It’s been a little bit slower, but it’s that time of the year we typically get slow in March and April. We’re still ahead on call volume. - The Fire Chief from the Village of Kronenwetter resigned, he’s moving back home, so they have a Fire Chief position open. - I believe I will have to get sworn in at the Village and the Town and I’ll research that and let you all know. Possibly with our contracted areas also. Report from Interim Deputy Fire Chief - Interim Deputy Fire Chief Lang said we’ll be posting an announcement on Facebook tomorrow for our new 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 Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 18:00 at SAFER Station #1. - Langenhahn has nothing. - Maloney said congratulations Chief Finke. - Schaefer said as our new Chief, welcome aboard. - White has nothing. - Opall said I would like to publicly congratulate Chief Finke on his new position. G. Adjourn Motion by Schaefer to adjourn. Second by White. Motion carried 4:0. Opall adjourned at 19:16