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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, January 9, 2024 @ 17:30 A. Call to Order The meeting of the South Area Fire & Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 17:30 by SAFER Chairman Mark Maloney. Members Present Board of Directors – Cronin, Maloney, Opall and Schaefer were all present, Langenhahn was absent and excused. Also present: Village of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden; Village of Weston – Administrator Gebert (arrived at 17:57); SAFER – Fire Chief Finke, Deputy Fire Chief Lang, Captain Lohman (via Zoom), Firefighter Haas (via Zoom), Firefighter Stanchik (via Zoom) 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 December 12, 2023, and approval of expenditures and receipts from December 2023. Motioned by Schaefer to approve prior meeting minutes from December 12, 2023, and expenditures and receipts from December 2023. Second by Cronin. - Schaefer said so we have some late fees and interest on our credit card. Groove Life, what is it? Latimer bought it. - Administrative Assistant Latimer said it was my uniform belt. Motion carried 4:0. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on Auto Aid Agreement with Riverside Fire District. - Chief Finke said I’ve been trying to get with them for a while and Chief Bowen didn’t want to do anything initially, but Deputy Chief Lang and I took him to lunch. It’s the same agreement that we have with Wausau Fire, we’ll send an engine to their fires and they’ll send an engine to our fires. It definitely makes sense, because we have certain areas that they would arrive first to and they have fires in Schofield that we would arrive first to. - Maloney said I think that’s fantastic, when I saw it on there I was thrilled. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to approve Auto Aid Agreement with Riverside Fire District. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 4:0. Staffing Presentation. - Chief Finke said the Board had asked for this following our last meeting and this will be similar to the presentation done in May, I did update the numbers through the end of the year. Right now, our daily staffing is eight, with a minimum of six people and when we’re staffed at six, we have four people at station 2 and two people at station 1. When we’re staffed at seven, we have four people at station 2 and three people at station 1. When we’re staffed at eight, we have five people at station 2 and three people at station 1. The  most concerning is when we are at six people, there’s only two people at station 1 and as soon as the ambulance goes out then there’s nobody here, anything that comes in after that they’re going to wait for a response from station 2. - Roles: Battalion Chief oversees the entire district. The Captain oversees this particular station (station 1). The Engineers run the apparatus, but their main responsibility is running ambulance calls. The FF/EMT or FF/Paramedic running calls. IFT Staff performs interfacility transports and they’re all on call, they don’t have set hours. - Staffing of six: Station 1: Med11, Engine11, Truck11 or Tender11, they have to cross staff all of those vehicles. When there’s a crew of only two, if the ambulance or any other vehicle is out that means nobody else can respond from that station. Station 2: Med21 is staffed and Rescue21 is staffed. If we get an interfacility transport when were at minimum staffing, we have to get at least one person to come in off duty or we can’t take it. - Staffing of seven: the only thing that changes is we get an additional person at station 1 to do something. If the ambulance is out and a serious medical call comes in, they can first respond to provide some care. If there’s a fire call, they’ll respond, but one person cannot fight a fire. - Staffing of eight: we gain another ambulance, because Med22 is staffed at station 2. - Structure Fire Response: minimum of ten firefighters on scene within ten minutes, we’re closer to seven to nine within that first ten minutes. We just approved another Auto Aid Agreement, so now we have agreements with Wausau Fire and Riverside Fire. - Comparable departments: Marshfield Fire is usually the one that we look at closest and right now their daily staffing is eleven, they’re trying to add two more people to get to thirteen. Stevens Point Fire is our next closest and they’re currently staffed at thirteen, their Chief said they’re going to referendum this coming year and try to add six more people to get up to fifteen. - Firefighter workload: this is broken up by the calls each department has and based upon how many people are on duty. So basically, the workload of the crews and we have way more than anybody, again we look towards Marshfield Fire. Our crews run a lot of calls and they do not get much time off. - Response times: unfortunately, over the past several years continue to rise every year and the main reason for that is because of increased call volume we are continually responding from station 1 to Weston and station 2 to Rib Mountain to cover those second or third calls. Med11 in 2023 went to Weston 153 times and Med21/22 came to Rib Mountain 36 times. We try during the day especially for fire training the crews will go over to station 2, we do that because there’s more call volume over there, then myself, Deputy Chief Lang and Director of Medical Services Gordon are usually at station 1 and we can first respond if it’s a significant call. - Mutual Aid: in 2023 we called Wausau Fire 39 times and we called Riverside Fire 37 times, so we requested mutual aid 76 times. Then we responded to Wausau 30 times and Riverside 5 times for a total of 35. - Cronin said just out of curiosity on those 911 calls, what’s the average dollar amount collected on a bill? - Chief Finke said about $400.00. - Needed staffing levels: at a minimum we really need staffing of ten, so that will allow us to maintain three ambulances so we don’t have to call mutual aid 76 times and we can get reasonably sufficient staffing numbers to fire scenes. Just before this meeting tonight we had a vehicle crash and that was an ambulance and rescue truck of four people, then there was a med call in Weston and the ambulance from station one had to take it, so that six people and we have eight on-duty. If we have a fire right now, we have two people that will go. Deputy Chief Lang and I watch closely at night and especially on the weekends how many ambulances are out, so we can try to come in and cover as soon as possible if something happens. - Station staffing plan: if we were fully staffed, this is how it was look, we’d have four people at station 1 and six people at station 2 and as people would take vacation or injuries the people would get taken away from station 2. - Funding sources: we hopefully still have the funding increase from Medicaid starting in 2025. Levy increases or the SAFER grant. Action: No action taken. Discussion on SAFER Grant. - Deputy Chief Lang said the SAFER grant opens in the next couple of weeks, part of the reason why we did the staffing presentation is if we put in for a SAFER grant, we need direction on how many to put in for. Our preference would be to put in for six. If we would put in for the grant and receive the grant, the grant would pay 100% of wages and benefits for those six people in 2025, in 2026 it would pay 66% of those six, in 2027 it would pay 33% of those six and in 2028 it would pay 0% and we would be required to keep them on shift. Also, there’s a new requirement in the state of Wisconsin and you cannot regress in staffing, once we got to that point, we wouldn’t be able to regress back. The other reason we’re bringing it up is because there’s been a conversation about funding sources for 2025 for the Village of Weston. I don’t know if a motion would need to be made, but a recommendation on how many staff to put in for, or if we want to do it at all. No motion or action would need to be taken unless the grant was approved and at that point you would have to decide at that point if you want to accept the grant. Our history, we have received this SAFER grant at one time and it wasn’t denied by the Board. - Chief Finke said it was a completely different Board at that point and the only question of the Board that was asked is on year five we can fire them all, right? - Deputy Chief Lang our ask would be to write it for six, but then it needs to be funded. - Opall asked what I would like to know is what would be the cost in year two, the cost in year three and then the overall cost when we’re paying full wages. I would have to know that per person. - Deputy Chief Lang said six people would be $600,000.00 - $700,000.00. - Chief Finke said we will get you solid numbers, the problem we have right now is we’re not going to know what those numbers are until we have a union contract. - Schaefer said so why six people versus two? You just gave us a presentation for two people. - Deputy Chief Lang said it’s two per shift with a total of three shifts which is six people. Anytime we talk about staffing we have to multiply it by three. - Cronin said can you pull that chart backup that shows the calls for firefighters. I don’t think numbers lie, what’s the number of calls per firefighter for us? - Deputy Chief Lang said 535 for us. - Cronin said and how many for Wausau? - Deputy Chief Lang said 371 for Wausau. - Cronin said as someone who has spent time, that’s extremely alarming. When we talk about wanting to attract employees, burnout is something that you have to think about. I think part of the reason why we struggle with that is the union forming, and the other part is the crews are running ragged time and time again. When you look at that and the other stats about how often we don’t have fire coverage, yes, we are an EMS department, but were also a fire department and its equally as important to have that as well. - Deputy Chief Lang said we’ve had three structure fires in the last three weeks. - Cronin said I don’t think we can afford not to increase our staffing at this point. I don’t know how that’s going to work funding wise, both of the municipalities are going to have to do some work with our perspective Boards. I don’t think we can afford to keep kicking this can down the road. - Schaefer said when is the date it has to be in? - Deputy Chief Lang said I think it opens up maybe next week and we have until the end of February. - Opall said we’ll have to work some numbers out and see what it might look for future wise for our municipality and I’m sure Weston wants to do the same. - Chief Finke said what we’re looking for is at least the Board is supportive of it and if we were to get it, at that point the Board would give it serious consideration. That’s all that were asking for at this point, because we don’t accept it until we hear “do you want it” and we can just say no at that point if we have to. Deputy Chief Lang and I don’t want to put in all the work if the thought of the Board is no were not going to take it anyway. That is all for trying to accomplish tonight. - Deputy Chief Lang said we don’t want to put in for too many or too little, if you’re not comfortable with six and you’re comfortable with three, we’ll put in for three. In a perfect world if you compare us to Marshfield, we’d be putting in for nine. - Chief Finke said I was surprised when I ran the numbers of how far off it was. We also ran numbers a different way and six of our paramedics run 80% of the calls, it’s the six full-time Engineers and they’re running almost every call. - Schaefer said Rhoden what’s the penny worth on our budget?  - Rhoden said were hovering at 9 to 10. - Schaefer said so it’s a twenty-cent increase. As this goes forward, we’ll probably need to, from the Rib Mountain perspective have this kind of presentation to the Board. - Deputy Chief Lang said as both municipalities grow as they both are and as our call volume increases, this helps us get there with some help from the federal government. Action: No action taken. Attorney Referral. - None End of Year Budget review. - Chief Finke said the up-to-date budget is in there. - Schaefer said is the revenue the revenue? It’s at $106,000.00 over budget. - Chief Finke said we still have one more payment coming. As far as expenditures, there’s a little bit that needs to come out of there yet, we’ve got half a payroll and a couple bills from 2023. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Fire Chief Finke said the EMS call volume is about status quo, but fire type calls we’ve certainly had an interesting few weeks. We had a propane truck roll over today that was leaking, we’ve had three structure fires in the last three weeks and we continue to have carbon monoxide issues. I haven’t had time to do my homework on it yet, like I mentioned before I was out doing a fair amount of fire inspections for all the apartment buildings in both communities and I finished up on December 30th and there’s a lot of rules to the carbon monoxide with the state and which buildings they have to have them in and which ones you don’t. If it’s all electric and there is no gas burning devices you don’t have to, which I understand. Then there’s some that were grandfathered in if they were built before a certain date. I need to do a little bit of code review, but I’ll come to both municipalities with the request to change fire code that any multi-family residential complex that has gas burning appliances have to have a carbon monoxide detector on all floors. Report from Deputy Fire Chief - Deputy Fire Chief Lang said the report is in your packet and I’ll give you the highlights. - Personnel report: We had four positions to fill and we did some recruitment and had ten candidates that we interviewed, of the ten we hired four, two internal and two externals. One of the four is a current paramedic, two will graduate in May, the fourth person will be starting paramedic classes soon. - EMS & Fire Incidents: EMS and fire responses are there. - Training: Training hours are listed. EMS training hours are up from what they’ve been because we have Director of Medical Services Gordon. - Apparatus: Nothing. - Fire Prevention/Public Education: Those are listed. - Grants/Projects: No grants. F. Remarks from the Board of Directors to set the next meeting date, as well as discuss items for the next meeting agenda. - Tentative Special meeting scheduled Monday, January 22, 2024 at SAFER Station 1. - Next meeting scheduled Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at SAFER Station 1. - Cronin has nothing. - Opall said I am wondering how tough it would be to update our Charter, because Schaefer may want to retire and maybe we don’t have to have two elected officials on the Board. o Maloney said the makeup of the Board, I think should have some elected officials. - Schaefer has nothing. - Maloney has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Cronin to adjourn. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 4:0. Maloney adjourned at 18:55