White River Township Fire Department

            Senior Staff Meeting

           

            Thursday, August 5, 2004

 

 

                       

Present:       .

Chief Tibbetts

Chief Cassin

Chief Slauter

Chief Brown

Chief Thacker

 

Kim Clawson
Lt. Settles

 

 

 

  1.  Meeting called to order at 8:15 a.m.

 

  1. Discussion on termination of Erin Hensley.

-        Tony Slusher present for this discussion only.

-        Tony presented statements from those who work with Erin and have had no problems with him.

-        Tony stated that Erin’s attorney has contacted him regarding his termination.

-        Tony has also talked to the District’s attorney, Tricia Leminger regarding this termination.

-        Both attorneys feel that this has been handled poorly. 

-        Casey Arkins was brought in to give his accounting of the day that Erin decided not to work his shift due to a birthday party.  He stated that he never told Erin to “not worry about it”.

-        We should have had a pre-termination hearing after the last senior staff meeting.

-        Everyone agreed that when you release someone from employment that they should not be given a reason if you are releasing them because Indiana is an “at will” state.

-        Chief Cassin feels that we have enough evidence to support the termination, but that it should have been handled differently.  We will need to receive legal counsel on this.  Once we receive legal counsel, we can proceed accordingly.

-        Tony & Casey left the meeting.

-        Everyone agreed that Chief Tibbetts will be the one to contact Tricia Leminger to obtain her opinion and direction on this.

-        Everyone also agrees that whenever someone is released, they should be told face-to-face, instead of just sending a letter.

 

  1. Personnel Issues

-        Brett Ramer:  June 24 hrs; July 13 hrs.

o      Is now placed on indefinite suspension, pending hearing w/Chief Tibbetts.

o      Send letter to have him contact Chief Tibbetts for a hearing to discuss his lack of hours and future with the department.

o      Chief Tibbetts will call him today.

-        Josh Meadows

o      August 2nd letter from him to Chief Cassin notifying him that he will be taking a leave of absence for 60 days, effective 8/3 and resigning from his shift.

o      A review of the policy requires 2 weeks notice to request a leave.  Chief Slauter notified him that this was an inadequate request.

o      Request denied due to not receiving two weeks prior notice and request.

o      Chief Slauter will contact Josh and make sure he understands that a REQUEST must be received with two weeks notice.

 

  1. Letters of intention for the open Battalion Chief position were received from Jeff Wilson, Kevin Skipper and Mark Hart.  Chief Thacker feels that we should do the Captains process first and from that appoint a Battalion Chief so that their permanent rank is that of Captain and not Lieutenant.  Chief Thacker will organize this process.  The test will be Tuesday, September7th at 0900 hours.  Interviews will be the following week, possibly 9/14 and 9/15.  Chief Cassin requested that Chief Thacker put together a timeline for the processes for the Captains and open Battalion Chief position.  Chiefs Tibbetts and Slauter will work on finalizing a Captain’s job description.  Interview board will be Chiefs Tibbetts, Cassin and Slauter.  Chief Thacker will contact the three who turned in letters of intent for the Battalion Chief position and let them know what is going on.

 

  1.  No building construction updates available at this time.

 

  1. Badge numbering policy.  The budget for the gear only calls for three numbers and not four.

 

  1. Ryan Cox invited in to discuss the quartermaster system.

-        Guide for operations distributed.

-        No major changes noted.

-        Recent clothing order just placed for t-shirts.  Please let your personnel know.  They should be in within the next couple of weeks ago.

-        Chief Brown suggested a “trade out” limit.

-        Chief Cassin suggested “revisiting” cutting checks to employees annually for the clothing allowances after the first of the year.

-        Chief Cassin also suggested that ALL orders be submitted through the quartermaster, so that items can be assured to match the uniform specifications.

-        Everyone agreed with the suggestion to change Engineers uniforms to show the wheel instead of the silver stripe.

-        Leave the rest of the uniforms “as is” (all officers gold).

-        Current policy states that you will have your unit number on your helmet shield.  However, now that we are switching to badge numbers, it was suggested we just have the shields show rank.  Ryan was instructed to develop something and bring it back to senior staff.

-        Chief Thacker addressed the possibility of issuing separate shirts for the recruit class to cut down on the amount of shirts we would need to replace at the end of the recruit class.  Ryan will check into the options and report back to senior staff.

-        Ryan does not need to get a PO from the Chiefs to approve someone buying clothes at Uniform House.

-        Ryan was thanked for his hard work and was excused from the meeting.

 

  1. Nextel plan will be revisited once the Captains are in place.  Some Lieutenants will need to begin paying for their own Nextels once the Captains are in place.  Chief Cassin will review this and suggest the appropriate changes.

 

  1. Chief Slauter sent E-mail to officer staff regarding road closure at Smith Valley Road/Peterman Road.

 

  1. Admin 5 is now in dispatch’s console.  Tony Napier has stated that he will remove this but there is no guarantee that it will not be put back in later.

 

  1. Lt. Settles stated that they are still working on getting the best deal on wood for cribbing.

 

  1. Lt. Settles stated that some of the Lieutenants are upset because staff meetings are being cancelled due to no agenda items.  He says that just because there are no items on the agendas, there still may be plenty of open discussion.

 

  1. Chief Thacker has had some of the new hires already approach him requesting specific shift and station assignments.  He says that shift assignments need to be based on their seniority which is based on how they finish the recruit school.  Chief Thacker requested that he receive support from the remaining Chiefs in this decision.

 

  1. Chief Thacker will be setting a meeting to discuss timelines for hiring processes. 

 

  1. Chief Thacker mentioned that all of our personnel are eligible for free membership to the Gathering Place.  He will be sending an email out and requested that this be placed in the next newsletter.

 

  1. Charles Lake and Thom Hord have offered the use of the Gathering Place to have the Strawberry Festival next year.

 

  1. Chief Brown stated that the fire prevention division has been very busy recently and thanked the Chiefs for allowing some of the personnel to be involved while on duty.

 

  1. Chief Brown addressed rumors that are going around that some of our members were involved in the last trailer fire.  Those personnel are being dealt with by Chief Brown.  Chris Polanco has been suspended for 30 days and Andy Cline has not been spoken with yet.  Chief Brown will notify Polanco of the suspension today.

 

  1. Chief Cassin stated that we need to begin the next part time process ASAP.  Chief Slauter confirmed with Tony Slusher that the Board wants nothing to do with the next part time hiring process.  He told Tony that we need that in writing from them.