White River Township Fire Protection District

Board Meeting Minutes

September 6, 2005

 

District Board Members Present: Chuck Shufflebarger, Butch Sutton, Jon Raker, Paul Kite and Jim Dodson.

 

White River Twp Fire Department Employees Present: Mike Tibbetts, Scott Cassin, Eric Brown, Jim Engmark and Kim Clawson.

 

Others Present:  Steve Dyson and Jeff Logsdon (Kroger, Gardis & Regas).

 

 

  1. Meeting called to order at 7:03 p.m.

 

  1. Motion by Jim and 2nd by Butch to accept September minutes as presented.  All in favor and motion carries.

 

  1. Chief Cassin gave an update on the financial report.
    • Page 8 – Balance sheet.
    • 2005 fire loan doesn’t actually exist yet.  The negative number shows what we have spent to date on the station 51 project.
    • General fund overages:

Ø      Overtime is due to Don Young comp time cash out.

Ø      Vehicle maintenance over budget mostly due to major repairs to Aerial 53.

    • Chuck approved of the format that the presentations have been made in.

 

  1. Station 52 update.
    • Chief Cassin has no updates.  He called the Senefelds after the last meeting.  They repeatedly stated that they would have something to him and have not yet done so.
    • Chuck suggested to begin placing items in writing to them.
    • Bids were supposed to be ready in March or April.
    • Chief Cassin stated that he would continue working on getting an update.
    • Jeff Logsdon stated that their office has not received anything.  He feels that there may be a health issue involved.

 

  1. Station 51 update.
    • Brian has mentioned to Jeff that he is ready to move forward, but wants to make absolutely sure that we are wanting to stay with Senefeld and Associates.  We do own the drawings.  Chief Cassin stated that the only thing we have is the drawing, with no dimensions.
    • Jim stated that based on their performance history, he is ready to move onto another company.  Butch cautioned that they make sure they know what problems may exist in switching to another company.
    • Paul suggested sending them a letter addressing each of our concerns.
    • Butch urged the contract stay on hold for the time being.
    • Motion by Jim and 2nd by Butch to open discussions on severing our relationship with Senefeld and Associates.
    • We are unsure at this point what we owe them or what they owe us.
    • Jon stated that their working relationship with us has been consistently poor.  Chief Cassin stated that they have repeatedly missed meetings.
    • Their last budget was over by almost $200,000 and we didn’t find out about it until the day before it was presented.
    • Jim suggested that someone personally notify the Senefelds of our concerns and find out what their response is.  He further suggested that the attorneys come to the next meeting with at least three viable substitutions for the Senefelds.  Jim stated the he feels this is no longer at the staff level, but needs to be addressed at the board level.  He is available for the Senefeld meeting.  Chuck asked Jim to email everyone with the date of the meeting and see who else is available.
    • Everyone agreed to seriously consider other options.
    • Jim’s earlier motion has been tabled until next month.

 

  1. The Department of Local Government Finance has approved our new station, 3-1.  We are currently waiting for the Tax Commissioner to grant final approval, probably sometime next week.

 

  1. Fire Protection Ordinance update:
    • Chiefs Brown and Tibbetts have met with the Johnson County Commissioners, who approved the ordinance minus the zero lot line.
    • They want to make the zero lot line a county wide ordinance.
    • The first reading has been performed on our ordinance and it is now at the state level.  Once it is approved there, it will come back to the Commissioners who will grant final approval.
    • The Commissioners seem very much in favor of our ordinance.

 

  1.  Butch brought it to Chuck’s attention, perhaps in an email, that the department’s strategic plan has not been formally approved by the Board.
    • Chuck would like to share his opinions of it.

Ø      Some aspects have already been discussed at length at the board level, and some haven’t.  Those that haven’t included:

-          Training facility: Was never discussed at the board level.

-          EMS transport service:  Was discussed numerous years ago but never approved due to the financial constraints.

Ø      There may be aspects of it that need to be approved by future board members.

Ø      Overall, he felt this was a well written document.

Ø      Project timelines should be flexible.

    • Jim commended Scott on his hard work on this document and felt that this was a vision that was driven by the mission statement.  He stated that the expenditures discussed in the plan have not been approved by the board, especially the long range items (for example, station 4).
    • Paul stated that the training facility and EMS transport items also alerted him.  He does not have any problems with them, but does want to discuss them at length.
    • Butch stated that he feels we have a tendency to forget what has been approved and what hasn’t.  He stated that this needs to be addressed in the plan doesn’t have a suggestion on how to fix this problem.  He stated that some items have been publicized as being pursued by the fire department, have not actually been approved by the Board.  He also stated that the vehicle retention schedule has not been formally approved by the Board, but it appears in the strategic plan.
    • Jim stated that he would be willing to work with someone on breaking the document down into categories of “working”, “approved”, “recommended” or “needs discussion”.

 

  1. Chief Brown stated that due to a recent increase in property sales, he suggested that we speak with Josh McCarty about what he still has available.  Everyone agreed that preliminary discussions should be started on acquiring property.  Steve Dyson will check on what fund the sale proceeds would go to if we do acquire the property, the decide we don’t want to build there.

 

  1.   Discussion re-opened on the strategic plan summary pages.
    • 2006

Ø      Fire loan for purchase of property:  needs discussion.

Ø      Delivery of new engine:  needs discussion.

    • 2007

Ø      Fire loan for training facility:  needs discussion.

Ø      Specs on replacing heavy rescue:  needs discussion.

Ø      Vehicle rotation schedule:  needs discussion

    • 2008

Ø      Construction of station 53:  needs discussion.

Ø      Station location/number:  needs discussion.

    • General

Ø      EMS transport program:  needs discussion.

Ø      Salary presentations:  needs discussion.

 

  1.   Jim stated that he and Chuck have had a discussion on Personal Leave day and Perfect Attendance day, as well as compensation.  He inquired on adding all benefits to the salary to determine the TOTAL compensation package.  He also thought of getting this same number from other departments.  Chief Cassin explained why this is incredibly difficult to be done this way.  Butch suggested that if we compare closely to two or three, that we try to determine the TOTAL compensation package for just those entities.  Chuck suggested Steve review our current data and develop a recommendation.  Steve stated he would work with Chief Cassin on this.

 

  1.   No further new business and meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.

 

 

 

>> Next meeting is Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. at White River Fire Headquarters. <<