White River Township Fire Protection District
Board Meeting Minutes
March 4, 2008
District Board Members Present:
Rev.
Paul Kite
Butch Sutton
Jeremy Pell
Scott Cassin
Eric Brown
Jim Engmark
Charlie Fraker
Nick Alford
Scott Tichenor
Mike Combs
Scott Wiegle
Crystal Young
Others Present:
Steve Dyson
Note: Motions are italicized and in blue.
Rev.
Mr.
Dodson stated that there were a couple of miscellaneous items that are being
added to the new business section.
i.
The balance sheet
has been changed to reflect the requests by the board to list both assets and
liabilities.
ii.
Assets are
listed the same as previously.
iii.
As far as the
liabilities:
1. payroll is outstanding for pay on Friday.
2. three fire loans are still outstanding with the 2002
due to fall off the list at the end of the year.
iv.
Mr. Kite asked
if the payroll liability that is outstanding is equivalent to one pay. Chief Cassin stated that it is but the number
fluctuates depending on the time of the month and when state and federal taxes
are due.
i.
The 1000
category is currently well under budget.
1. The difference is due to one position going unfilled
at this time.
ii.
The uniform
category is over but there are several purchases at the beginning of the year,
a lull during the middle of the year and it picks up again near the end of the
year so it will even out.
iii.
The 3000
category is well under budget.
1. Natural Gas has also been flagged by the chief. This category is not weighted so the number
is an average throughout the year and will even out in the summer months.
a. Mr. Kite asked if the department is doing anything to
become more “green”.
b. Chief Cassin stated that there haven’t been any new
policies lately.
i.
There has been
almost no movement.
ii.
Some unappropriated
funds have been spent for the sewer project to cover a payment for engineering.
i.
Chief Cassin
stated that January is always heavy with the Health Insurance deposit, a larger
payment for Commercial Insurance and the Workman’s Comp audit taking up a big
percentage of the budget but they will even out throughout the year.
i.
Chief Cassin
stated that the department plans on doing an additional appropriation for the
total near the end of the project.
ii.
Mr. Dyson
suggested that the department might want to do it for the next board meeting so
there will not be any confusion as to where the money was spent for audit
purposes.
i.
The department
received a large cagit check from the county for $263,000.
1. A certain percentage must go to the Rainy Day Fund.
2. The balance (approximately $32,000) was deposited
into the General Fund.
ii.
Mr. Dyson asked
why the entire amount shows up under the Gen Fund.
1. Chief Cassin stated that there is no way to enter a
deposit under the Rainy Day Fund so he will have to manually fix that in
QuickBooks.
i.
Chief Pell
attended the
ii.
Page 19 of the
packet is a copy of the letter from the Board of Commissioners stating their
appreciation to the Board for assuming the operation and maintenance of the
sirens for
iii.
Mr. Kite stated
that Commissioner Kite was unable to attend the meeting but stressed to him the
strong feelings of the
iv.
A motion has
already been made to take care of the sirens as long as there was a strong
commitment from the Commissioners so that issue has been settled.
i.
1. Ms. Leminger has taken care of the necessary
ads. (including the Indy Star and all
other Legal requirements)
2. The property has also been listed on the web site
with the link to the history of the property.
3. Bids will be opened on March 17th at
2:00pm with Ms. Leminger in attendance.
4. Chief Pell stated that seven people have shown
interest.
a. He has shown the property two times already and has an
appointment for another later this week.
5. Chief Pell asked if the Board would like to call a
special meeting to review the bids or wait until the April meeting.
a. Ms. Leminger did not recommend the special meeting
but wanted to know if the board was interested in speeding up the process.
b. Mr. Sutton wondered if the board should wait to see
if there were any bids to open.
c. Mr. Dodson stated that a meeting for Tuesday March 18th
at 7:00 could be posted and if it is not necessary it could always be canceled.
i.
Chief Pell asked
how much notice had to be posted for the meeting.
ii.
The notice is
normal, 48 hours.
iii.
The meeting can
be posted and can be canceled within 15 minutes of the meeting.
6. Mr. Sutton did stress that it was important for Chief
Pell to remind the board of the meeting.
ii.
JE Mechanical
1. CNA Surity (performance
bond holder for JE Mechanical) has contacted Ms. Leminger stating that JE
Mechanical is in default on a contract.
a. The district is not to send any funds to them at this
time because they are in default of the performance bond.
2. The District is still in the negotiation phase and
has been halted at this time. Ms.
Leminger still has all the information and will review it and keep it until
needed.
i.
To recap there
is more corrosion on the Ladder. It has
already been sent to the factory once.
ii.
The department
received local quotes for the job but KME was not receptive and wanted the
Ladder to come out to their warehouse again.
1. The warehouse is located in PA and would be very costly
to make the trip again.
2. With some discussion KME gave the authority to have
the work done locally with Dickenson Fleet.
3. The issue is that White River Fire Protection
District is the one in contract with Dickenson Fleet. The warranty authorization from KME and the
quote from Dickenson Fleet have been attached to the packet for review by the
board. (pg. 20-22)
iii.
The issue is
that
iv. Butch Sutton motions to accept the bid form Dickenson Fleet to repair the Ladder and receive reimbursement from KME. Paul Kite seconds.
v. All in favor and motion carries.
i.
Chief Wilson has
turned in a letter of resignation as a battalion chief and would like to return
to Captain.
ii.
Chief Pell has
looked at the requirements for the position and the policy does not state that
it has to come from the rank of Captain.
He has also reviewed the District Board Minutes and it was instructed to
come from the rank of Captain.
1. Chief Pell asked if the policy should stay the same
or if it should be changed to reflect the suggestions of the Board.
2. Chief Pell has also looked at the Safety Board
Document to make sure the process is being done correctly.
iii.
Mr. Sutton is
not sure of the philosophy as to why it must be a Captain.
1. Mr. Kite stated that it narrows the pool
considerably.
2. Mr. Sutton believes that the discussion was driven by
Chief Tibbetts.
3. Chief Brown recalled that the discussion concerned
budget reasons.
a. If a Captain is promoted and the Battalion goes back
to a Captain it is a wash.
b. If a Lieutenant is promoted and the Battalion goes
back to a Captain there is a $5300 increase in the budget.
4. Mr. Sutton also stated that it would add another
person to the top which they believe is too heavy already but still is not sure
that it should be an absolute policy to take from the pool of Captain.
5. Mr. Kite would rather fight the $5300 increase than
promote by default.
6. Chief Pell would rather give the position to a
Captain since they have worked their way up through the chain of command but
since the pool is so small opening the position to a Lieutenant might bring a
candidate that is more experienced.
a. At this time there are only two Captains that would
qualify.
iv.
Mr. Dodson does
not want to change the policy to read that the position has to come from a
Captains rank.
1. Mr. Sutton has no problem with overriding the minutes
since that is what is driving the conversation.
v. Butch Sutton motions to override the minutes of August 3, 2004 and remove the requirement that a Battalion Chief must come from the Captains Pool (put in place to avoid having too many Captains) and allow the Battalion Chief position to be considered from both Captains and Lieutenants to increase the available pool. Paul Kite seconds.
vi. All in favor and motion carries.
i. Mr. Sutton would like to start discussing a timeline now for the budget process.
1. He believes there was no time spent discussing the budget last year and would like to spend more time reviewing the budget this year.
ii. Mr. Dyson presented last year’s timeline.
1. May – Fiscal plan presented to the board
2. June – Chief Cassin presented the preliminary budget
3. July – Introduction of the budget and Public Hearing / No motions were made.
4. August – Budget adoption
iii. Mr. Dyson stated that the budget can be adopted as late as September and the process can be started as early as April.
iv. Mr. Kite would like to have the opportunity to view the compensation package with the intent of looking at it as an overall number for a position.
1. The Strategic Plan is geared for a certain percentage in raises but the board needs to discuss on how they should be determined.
v. Mr. Dodson stated that nothing should be put in the budget regarding compensation and benefits until they have had time to discuss the issue, the strategic plan should be suspended for now.
1. Mr. Sutton asked when it would be practical to introduce the budget.
2. Mr. Dyson stated that once the session is over which should be in a couple of weeks.
3. Mr. Sutton asked if it would be beneficial to push back the budget to get idea of what is going on.
vi. Mr. Dyson asked if they would like to set a similar schedule but with the flexibility of two meetings in August for other issue.
vii. Mr. Dyson stated that the estimate of affect on a budget will be approximately 1, 2, or 3%, it will be area specific.
1. Those with higher tax rates will be most
affected.
2. House Bill 1001 has passed but there are a couple of things that have been eliminated in the Senate version.
a. Spending caps have been eliminated. Under the cap the County Council would have ultimate say over everyone’s budget. If spending only goes up 4% for the entire county, the council would have the ability to lower one budget to raise someone else’s.
b. Mr. Kite stated that no individual unit would effectively have control over their own budget.
viii. Mr. Sutton would like to get the timeline for next month and what items are priorities.
1. He would like to have all these things set before May since the budget is finalized in May.
2. Mr. Kite would like a little better knowledge of where the budget numbers come from.
3. Mr. Sutton believes if the budget is discussed legitimately and it is documented then if there are any questions they would be able to refer to the discussions.
i. Wireless Network Repair
1. In early January the computer system went down at Station 52 that connects all the stations.
2. We had the company come in to fix the radio and
antenna that had quit working.
3. Company operations depend on the computer network, so
it had to be fixed.
4. Mr. Kite questioned if there were a maintenance
agreement when the equipment was first put in.
a. Chief Cassin stated that there was not an agreement.
5. The equipment was replaced in 2005 due to a
lightening strike. This time the
equipment quit working. At this point
there is no evidence of a lightening strike.
6. The bill for this work is on page 23 of the packet
and the department would like a motion to pay the bill.
7. Paul Kite motions to pay the bill to Wireless Networking Solutions for the repair of the network equipment. Butch Sutton seconds.
8. All in favor and motion carries.
ii.
Chief Pell
clarified with the board that he will go through the Battalion Chief process
and bring a name to the board next month.
1. Mr. Dodson agreed with the process.