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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, June 11, 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, Langenhahn, Maloney, Opall and Schaefer (via Zoom) were all present. Also present: Village of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden; Village of Weston – Administrator Gebert and Finance Director Trautman; SAFER – Fire Chief Finke, Deputy Fire Chief Lang, Captain Lohman, Engineer Schultz (via Zoom), Firefighter Haessly (via Zoom), Firefighter J. Hanson 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 May 14, 2024, and approval of expenditures and receipts from May 2024. Motioned by Cronin to approve prior meeting minutes from May 14, 2024, and expenditures and receipts from May 2024. Second by Opall. Motion carried 5:0. D. Business Items Election of SAFER Board of Directors Chair and Vice Chair. - Maloney said we had a discussion on this, did I not hear that possibly the Chairs don’t always have to be the President or did I not hear that? - Chief Finke said I don’t think they need to be. - Rhoden said I don’t have the Charter in front of me. - Opall said the same officers as before Maloney, if you’re willing to do that? - Maloney said I would be, but if someone wants it, then go ahead. Action: Motioned by Schaefer to nominate Maloney as Chair and Opall as Vice Chair. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 5:0. Election of At-Large Fire Commissioner. Action: Motioned by Cronin to nominate Phelps as At-Large Fire Commissioner. Second by Opall. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on approval of Labor Agreement with Fire Union. - Chief Finke said you should’ve received that in an email last week, does anyone have any questions, concerns or comments? The Union has not ratified it on their end as of yet, but they’re meeting by the end of the month. - Cronin said are you happy with it? - Chief Finke said for the most part. - Schaefer said a couple things I noticed is the majority time people who are not paramedics are not eligible for health care until 2025, but paramedics are eligible. - Chief Finke said as of today paramedics are already eligible, but between today and the end of the year as far as health insurance there will be no changes. Per the contract the majority time people which are now full- time, their health insurance will not start until the 1st of the year (2025) and any of the paramedic providers are already offered that insurance. - Maloney said name other sized departments that are not union. So Rothschild is or is not? - Chief Finke said not union. - Maloney said Kronenwetter? - Chief Finke said not union, they’re volunteer. - Maloney said Mosinee? - Chief Finke said not union, but they only have three full-time. - Deputy Chief Lang said you have to have a minimum of three, but one of them is the Chief who is not eligible. - Maloney said so once you get to a certain level? - Deputy Chief Lang said you have to have a certain amount of full-time employees. - Maloney said would Rothschild be at that level now? - Chief Finke said yes. - Schaefer said the way I read the contract only the four majority time non paramedics are essentially grandfathered in; to remain that way, new people would need to reach paramedic. - Chief Finke said there’s more than four, there’s six. - Maloney said Merrill is union? - Chief Finke said yes. - Maloney said but Rothschild would be the only one in the area then that would be eligible. - Gebert said the process from here would be they would ratify, then it would come here to be ratified and then it would be complete? - Chief Finke said I believe this Board can approve it tonight and once they approve it, it will be complete. I did check with Attorney Dietrich prior to all of this and he said everything that we were doing is appropriate. Action: Motioned by Cronin to approve the Labor Agreement with the Fire Union. Second by Opall. Motion carried 4:1. 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. From a revenue standpoint, how much we have this month, I don’t know, they have not gotten back to me and I’ve asked multiple times. o Maloney said so we were out $90,000.00 and now we’re out $120,000.00? o Chief Finke said we’re just short of revenue and I was hoping to have some numbers for the Board tonight and hopefully show that we’re catching back up, but they have not gotten me those numbers. o Schaefer said have we had a payment since last time? o Chief Finke said no. o Maloney said when did we switched? o Chief Finke said we didn’t switch, they got bought out. o Maloney said are there others in the same category? o Chief Finke said other fire departments? I don’t know the answer to that for sure. I’m frustrated and I was worried about when the buy-out happened, that was my main concern. o Maloney said what kind of money are we owed right now? o Chief Finke said it’s not so much that they owe us money that they’re keeping, it’s the software issues, some of which were our fault at the beginning, some of which were on them that took some time to get caught up. o Maloney said do we have an attorney to send a letter or something? o Chief Finke said we could.  o Rhoden said if there’s something in that language about assignment of buy-out in the agreement with Lifequest. o Chief Finke said he will look at that. o Maloney said is there a website you can go to to look at this collection? o Chief Finke said their big sell to the new company is they have this dashboard you can log into and it’ll give you up to the minute information and we have told them many times over the past three weeks that we can’t get into it. We log in and there’s nothing on the screen and they haven’t fixed that either. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Fire Chief Finke said our Brush truck is up in Antigo right now getting set up and it should be done next week or at the latest the week after. When that happens, we’ll get our current Brush truck on the auction site like we normally do. - The boat sold for $3,000.00. - The Ladder truck is still on track to be delivered the last week of July or first week of August. - We’ve been busier. Report from Deputy Fire Chief - Deputy Fire Chief Lang said the report was handed out and I’ll give you the highlights. - Personnel report: We had one full-time firefighter who has left for a full-time position at Wisconsin Rapids Fire Department. - EMS & Fire Incidents: EMS and fire responses are there. - Training: Training hours are listed with topics. - Apparatus: The new Brush truck like the Chief said. - 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, July 9, 2024 at SAFER Station 1. - Cronin said can we put an agenda item on next month’s that we can take action and refer the EMS billing to our attorney if need be? - Langenhahn has nothing. - Opall has nothing. - Schaefer has nothing. - Maloney has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Langenhahn to adjourn. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 5:0. Maloney adjourned at 17:59