White River Township Fire Protection District
*** Pre-Meeting Report for February 4, 2003 ***
Compiled January 28, 2003
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1. 2002 year-end financial report was received from Mr. Coonrod at the January 6, 2003 meeting.  No current financial report has been recorded in the minutes since October 2, 2002.

2. Chief Tibbetts has not heard from either Earthtek or Future Construction.

3. Station 52 update. 
1. Chief Tibbetts met with Don Corteau a few weeks ago and made recommendations that have been taken into consideration.  Chief Tibbetts has not yet received any formal reports from Mr. Corteau regarding the project. 
2. Work is almost completed and we are anticipating moving back into the building by mid-February.  There will be a few loose ends that will be tied up once the weather warms (roofing, concrete drive repairs, landscaping, etc.).
3. Chief Tibbetts is in the process of trying to get the carpet replaced through the insurance claim.  The existing carpet has been cleaned twice with no improvement. 

4. Need guidelines from Brian Bosma for expenditures out of the Rainy Day fund.

5. Chief Slauter will be present at February’s meeting with more information regarding the Job Task Evaluation proposal with Public Safety Medical Services.  However, he is unsure what the boundaries will be and is waiting to hear back from Brian’s office after sending information to him for legal review in December.

6. Scott Cassin’s first day as Deputy Chief was January 13, 2003.  Don Young’s first day as Battalion Chief was January 12, 2003.

7. Conditional offer of employment was extended to Mark Hart.  Mark has since completed all aspects of his PERF physical.  While we are awaiting official word from the physician, he was told that everything is in order and we anticipate no problems.  It may be approximately 4-7 weeks before he can start  (due to delays in getting book completed from physicians, getting the final approval from PERF, and allowing Mark to give sufficient resignation notice from his current employer, etc.).

8. We still need to extend conditional offers of employment to two more Lieutenant candidates to complete our staffing for 2003.  There are two current hiring lists. 

Candidates from the original list are as follows:

      1.      Steve Coover – will decline if offered
2.      Gary Coons – will decline if offered
3.      Kyle Brooks – will decline if offered
4.      Nick Alford – will accept if offered
5.      Jeff Smith - will accept if offered
6.      Steve Rowland – status unsure

             Candidates from the second list, which was created for Paramedics only, are as follows:

      1.      Donald Young – hired October 2002
2.      Mark Hart – accepted offer January 2003
3.      Scott Shane – status unsure**
4.      Scott Grove – status unsure**

           ** The final two candidates on this list scored below what we feel is an acceptable competency level.  It is
            then the recommendation of the fire department that this list be expunged. 

Based on the information shown here, we will be recommending at the February meeting that the District make conditional offers of employment to Nick Alford and Jeff Smith, respectively. 

9. Kim has requested Brian email her what he gave the previous Fire Chief regarding a certificate that is to be placed in the FT employee’s personnel file which shows their hire date and merit rank. 

Chief Cassin has researched previous minutes and hiring process files, and has found the following:

            Mike Dutton  
                    -         Hired 10/1/99 with merit rank of Battalion Chief
                    -         Appointed to Chief 10/1/99
                    -         Resigned 3/16/01
            Mike Tibbetts
                    -         Hired 10/1/99 with merit rank Battalion Chief
                    -         Appointed to Battalion Chief 10/1/99
                    -         Appointed to Fire Chief  7/10/01
            Scott Cassin
                    -         Hired 10/1/99 with merit rank of Battalion Chief
                    -         Appointed to Battalion Chief 10/1/99
                    -         Appointed to Deputy Chief 1/6/03
            Eric Brown
                    -         Hired 10/1/99 with merit rank of Battalion Chief
                    -         Appointed to Fire Marshal 10/1/99
            Joel Thacker
                    -         Hired 10/1/99 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 10/1/99
                    -         Appointed to Battalion Chief 7/10/01
            Bruce Alexander
                    -         Hired 10/1/99 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 10/1/99
            Joe Settles
                    -         Hired 02/01/01 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 02/01/01
            Jeff Wilson
                    -         Hired 09/01/01 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 09/01/01
            Carey Slauter
                    -         Hired 10/01/01 with merit rank of Battalion Chief
                    -         Appointed to Battalion Chief 10/01/01
            Andy Martindale
                    -         Hired 01/01/02 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 01/01/02
                    -         Resigned 6/02/02
            Jim Engmark
                    -         Hired 01/01/02 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 01/01/02
            Kevin Skipper
                    -         Hired 01/01/02 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 01/01/02
            Casey Arkins
                    -         Hired 01/01/02 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 01/01/02
            Don Young
                    -         Hired 10/20/02 with merit rank of Lieutenant
                    -         Appointed to Lieutenant 10/20/02
                    -         Appointed to Battalion Chief 01/06/03 

10. Master Agreement was approved at the January meeting, pending one date change.  Brian will make this change and bring corrected copies to the February meeting for signatures.

11. Supplemental Agreement for 2003 was tabled until the February meeting until an annual contract dollar figure could be agreed upon.  Curt Coonrod expressed some concerns about being able to fund the amount shown after this year.  Board members will consider this and make a decision at February’s meeting.

12. List of meeting dates for 2003 has been emailed to everyone.  If you did not receive this, please let Kim know ASAP.

13. The District recently approved the purchase of a tactical truck.  A committee has been formed for the project and is being chaired by Chief Slauter.  The committee has traveled to other central Indiana fire departments to get ideas from trucks that are already in service.  More information will be available next month.

14. With the promotion of Scott Cassin to Deputy Chief, the need exists to purchase another staff vehicle.  The last staff vehicle purchased was just received this month and was to replace the Crown Victoria, which was removed from regular service for mechanical reasons.  Based on the invoice of this most recent purchase, the cost of the staff vehicle for the Deputy Chief should not exceed $35,000.  The District Board will be asked to vote on this at the February meeting so that the QPA (quantity purchase agreement through the State) can be signed.

15. At the January meeting, Butch requested that Kim review previous minutes and develop a “reference manual” for the Board that shows various important issues discussed (i.e.:  hiring, personnel, policies, etc.). 

The policy manual and all previous minutes will soon be converted to HTML format.  This is a special formatting which will allow several things to occur:

1)      These documents can be published to the website as public records;

2)      These documents will be “searchable” as one large file.  This will allow easier access to specific information requested;

3)      Accessibility will be greatly enhanced – anyone with a computer and Internet access can view these documents.