JOHNSON COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT #1 – Johnson County, Kansas

Board of Directors Meeting

November 9, 2010

Fire Station #3, 490 New Century Parkway, New Century, KS

BOARD MEMBERS           STAFF

Keith Johnson                         Max Sielert                  Justin Ducey      Patrick Ballard

Kent Harlow                                                               Matt Gillotti

Mark Burdolski                                                           Andrew Dilda

CALL TO ORDER

Mark Burdolski called the meeting to order.

AGENDA

Financial reports were not delivered prior to the meeting, so Keith Johnson moved to table the minutes and financial reports until the meeting on the 18^th.  Kent Harlow seconded and the motion carried.

MINUTES

Minutes from the October 12, 2010 board meeting will be reviewed and approved at the next meeting.

Minutes from the October 20, 2010 special board meeting will be reviewed and approved at the next meeting.

FINANCIAL REPORT

Chief Sielert advised he had information to report about finances.  In October we received revenue from the state cost share, which was a reimbursement for Wild land purchases.  Also received were funds on our regional grant, which was reimbursement for the radios.  We have receipts from Workman’s Compensation which is related to Tyson Graham’s claim.  We received the 4^th quarter payment from the Airport Commission.  With the receipt of our final tax distribution in October, we are now approximately $11,000 under collected.

Expenses for October included two accounts payables and payrolls.  The first payroll was large due to retirement settlement for accrued vacation.  We have identified $36,000 of expenses in our operating budget that should be coded to the Temp Note funds.  This will not be shown on the October report, but these adjustments will be completed and reflected on the November report.  We talked about being short on funds due to the unpaid Olathe payments.  We now know that Olathe has no intension of making their payment and have filed their motion indicating they are right.  So we now go to the next step in the process to deal with this issue.  The Airport Commission can pay us for first quarter 2011, but needs to renew our contract before they can pay us.  The loan on the vehicle is still an option for a 3 month note.

The transition date for the merge of operations with the City of Gardner is planned for November 26^th.  This date allows for time to get everything in order.  One of the reasons for the delay was the City Manager and Fire Chief’s reluctance to give us access to their employees, as long as they were still employed by the city.  We have met with those employees now and will begin their processing tomorrow.  On November 26^th we will also get 1/12^th of the contract payment from the City of Gardner.

On November 18^th we also renew the sale of the bonds and that money should be received within a few days after that.  Most of that money is spoken for, but the money we do have for our fire truck payment is not due until the 27^th and this will give us options.  We also have our 1^st payment coming from Gardner.  Kent Harlow asked about delay of payment for the Gardner truck until Jan 1^st.  Chief Sielert advised he felt the payment on this truck should be made as agreed since we will be using this equipment.

BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

None

OLD BUSINESS

Chiefs Report

Chief Sielert presented: We went through the bond rating process this past week with a one hour phone conference. Dustin Avey with PiperJaffray was also present on the conference call.  Most of the interview included questions about financial information during the past few years.  I had all the information needed at hand and was able to answer all of their questions during the conference. Dustin indicated we did well on the conference and that we should get a good rating.  There are only two government entities in Kansas that have received AAA+ rating.  The majority of government entities in Kansas receive an A+.  We received word that we also received an A+ rating.  We do not know what our interest rate will be as yet, but should know by the 18^th.

We did get the service contract signed from the City of Gardner.  I still have not received a copy of the exhibits attached to the contract, but Rob Kirk has promised I will have them by tomorrow.  As mentioned previously, the change over for tones and consolidation of operations will change on November 26^th.  We will officially begin our service to the City of Gardner at that time.   Our new hires will begin their processing tomorrow.

Due to the increase of payroll from the new staff members, we will have to re-publish our 2010 and 2011 budgets to allow for these changes.  I will have these prepared for approval at our December board meeting.

On November 18^th the board will need to approve the Bond Resolution.  I have it posted here as required for the 10 day time frame prior to approval.   The approval of this resolution will allow the bonds to be sold.

Three of our staff that received their Red Card has been in Wyandotte County the last three days to help with a control burn.  They are being paid through state payroll during this assignment.  Monday evening staff member, Mike Hirshmann was shown in the TV clip on channel 5 while working at the site.  There was also a great article in the newspaper which focused on Fire District #1 being involved and at the forefront of being certified Wild land.  We have received a lot public recognition from being certified as well as from this event, which is good for us.

We had a fire at the Christmas tree farm on 167^th recently.  They were cleaning up and burning a small area when one tree caught fire and immediately ignited more trees.  Our staff was there in time to save over half of his crop.

The remodel of Dennis’ old office and station #132 is under way.

Keith brought up the possibility of moving our meetings to other stations in the future.  Chief Sielert said that could easily be done, but asked to hold off until after the first of the year until the bond issues and contract issues have been resolved.

One of the Fire Chiefs from Fire District #2 sent a questionnaire to all the Johnson County Fire Chiefs asking for their cost per capita for providing fire protection.  I submitted our response including the before consolidation and after consolidation numbers.  They completed their survey and shared the results.  Prior to our consolidation, we would be considered to be the most expensive in the county due to our population being very small.  Overland Park was the cheapest.  However, after the consolidation which will include our new population and budget with the City of Gardner, our per capita is the least expensive in all of Johnson County.  We found this to be pretty good information to have available.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Approve the County Wide Auto/Mutual Aid Agreement.

We have talked about this agreement previously and a new version is now complete.  This version is very similar to the previous one reviewed before.  The Johnson County Fire Chiefs came to a consensus that this version is workable.  Meeting the Appendix=A requirements of staffing each engine has been an issue in the past.  The wording included that if you respond to mutual aid you must have “3 people” on each engine.  Our consolidation with Gardner will have us in a better staffing situation to be able to cover this requirement.  If we don’t have 3 people available on our engine, we can call and tell them we only have 2 people available, and it will be up to their department to waiver the 3^rd person requirement. Chief Sielert recommended this be signed.  Signature of the Chairman and Secretary were required.  Kent Harlow moved to accept the agreement, Mark Burdolski seconded and motion carried and the document was signed.

FUTURE MEETINGS

The next special meeting will be held Thursday, November 18^th at 6:00 pm.  This meeting is to cover the bond approval.  Also the minutes and financial report for October will be reviewed and approved.

The next Board meeting will be held on the 2nd Tuesday, December 14^th, and will begin at 6:00 p.m.

ADJOURNMENT

At 7:45 p.m.  Keith Johnson moved to adjourn the meeting and continue with executive session.  Kent Harlow seconded and the motion carried.

There was a 30 minute Executive Session convened for contract negotiations.