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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, May 14, 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 17:31 by SAFER Chairman Mark Maloney. Members Present Board of Directors – Cronin, Maloney, Opall (via Zoom) and Schaefer were all present, Langenhahn was absent and excused. Also present: Village of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden; Village of Weston – Administrator Gebert; SAFER – Fire Chief Finke, Deputy Fire 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 April 10, 2024, and approval of expenditures and receipts from April 2024. Motioned by Cronin to approve prior meeting minutes from April 10, 2024, and expenditures and receipts from April 2024. Second by Schaefer. - Schaefer said what’s an escalator? I didn’t know that we had an escalator. From Schindler Elevator Corp, ok it’s an elevator. Motion carried 4:0. D. Business Items 17:33 Motion by Schaefer to adjourn into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(g) for the purpose of 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, to wit: union negotiations. Second by Cronin. Roll-call vote: NAME: Aye Nay Cronin X Maloney X Opall X Schaefer X Motion carried 4:0. Remain in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(c) to considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility, to wit: 2023 annual review of the Fire Chief. 17:50 Motion by Schaefer to reconvene to open session. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 4:0. Discussion and possible action on closed session item. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to approve for the Fire Chief a 5% raise payable to the first of the year. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 4:0. Discussion on Internship Program. - Chief Finke said this is more of an FYI for the Board, Deputy Chief Lang and I met with Maloney and Cronin about two months ago. With the merger of EMPD and Rothschild PD and that section of the building and some potential opportunities now. Other parts of the state, especially the Madison Metro area, Fox Valley area and Eau Claire area have fire internships that are live in, so you literally live at the fire station while you’re taking your fire and EMS classes. We’ve looked into doing something like that with NTC and Deputy Chief Lang and I met three times with (NTC Director of Public Safety & Community Safety Simulation Center) Heilmann. The goal is to work with NTC and that they would add this into their fire and paramedic curriculum, that for somebody who wants to go into the fire service and they can’t afford an apartment because they’re going to school, so they’ll have a place where they can live, they can work while they’re living there, go to school and we would help them with their tuition which is all a good thing for the individual. It’s a good thing for us because it gives us somebody that will work at a reduced rate because we’re covering their living expenses and they’re in the station. My thought would be three people, one for each shift. I don’t know what the full intentions are of the Village (of Weston). - Maloney said thank you, we might have jumped the gun a little bit and I’ve had a few calls or questions from some other Trustees. I think we’ve got to run it through administration and directors. - Chief Finke said the intention with this tonight was to bring everyone up to speed, there’s a long way to go and I think it brings a lot of opportunity not only to us, but to the entire region. My thought was primarily the office area that EMPD had. - Cronin asked would it ever be more than three people? My thought was if there was that indication that it would be more than that, that you should design it for more than that. - Chief Finke said potentially up to six people, which would be two per shift. It’s hard to say what is going to happen in five or ten years. - Cronin said my thought is that it is a public safety building, if there was ever the potential that you wanted to go up to six, you should do that right away because if we use it for something else it’s going to be hard to get that space back. - Administrator Gebert said at this moment we said police is going to stay the way that it is as we transition in, because they’re still coming back to gather items. The building is ours, but the furniture and all the stuff that’s inside is really three communities. Until we figure out that next step, we’ve said it’s just going to stay there for now and be safe. - Chief Finke said the biggest first hurdle is to get NTC to have buy-in, their big concern is that they didn’t have enough credits available. More updates to come on that. Action: Discussion only, no action was taken. Election of At-Large Board of Director. - Maloney said I believe that would be Langenhahn’s position. - Chief Finke said yes and I did talk to Langenhahn this morning and he is interested in staying on. He apologized he could not make it tonight; he had a meeting in Ashland. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to appoint Langenhahn as At-Large Member. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 4:0. Attorney Referral. - None End of Month Budget review. - Chief Finke said the up-to-date budget is in your packet if anybody has any questions.  - Schaefer said that revenue is looking thin. - Chief Finke said we got a deposit yesterday; it was better but still wasn’t good. We met with EMS-MC Customer Success Executive Schrader last week Tuesday and assured us it is coming. - Maloney said it’s a little disappointing that the whole month goes by and we’re still nowhere. - Deputy Chief Lang said part of the reason why we got delayed part of another month is because they changed over from Lifequest to EMS-MC, so they changed all of their database and software to the new company and that has created another delay. - Cronin said but their problems aren’t our problems. - Maloney said when I get that every single day on why a truck is late or fruit didn’t last two days longer and I try to give them any kind of it’s not my problem. That’s not our problem, they should’ve known that, they should’ve figured out there was going to be some hiccups, they’ve got to float that money to us whether it’s right or not. If we’re owed $288,000.00, they should float us $250,000.00 right now. - Chief Finke said that part of it wasn’t their fault, but the other parts of it were their fault. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Fire Chief Finke said we talked about some updates earlier. We’ve had a couple of busier days lately, but otherwise overall it’s been somewhat slow. Even though our call volume has been a little bit low, it seems like the severity of our calls have been more acute than normal. - We have our boat here is anybody wants to take a look at it, it is setup and operating. The crews have been out training on it the last 10 days or so. Rib Mountain Marine did a great job of getting that set up for us and the deal they gave us on the motor, they treated us really well. - We made our last large payment on the new aerial and that was for the chassis and we paid for the actual aerial device itself, so the only payment remaining is the truck body. Last update I had on that, is we should see that truck in probably 6-8 weeks either late July or early August. o Maloney asked who will letter that truck? o Chief Finke said usually we will have Super Lettering & Signs o Maloney said when it is here? o Chief Finke said when it’s here. o Maloney said hold off on that a little bit. - We had a lot of grass fires this year for obvious reasons with being very dry and very windy. 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: Nothing on personnel. - EMS & Fire Incidents: EMS and fire responses are there. - Training: Training hours are listed with topics. - Apparatus: The new boat arrived. - Fire Prevention/Public Education: Activities 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. - Next meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at SAFER Station 1. - Cronin has nothing. - Opall has nothing. - Schaefer has nothing. - Maloney has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Cronin to adjourn. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 4:0. Maloney adjourned at 18:25