JOHNSON COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT #1 – Johnson County, Kansas

Board of Directors Meeting

Date:  April 19, 2011    Time: 7:00 p.m.

Fire Station #1, 490 New Century Pkwy, New Century, KS

BOARD MEMBERS           STAFF

Keith Johnson                         Max Sielert

Kent Harlow                           Rob Kirk

Mark Burdolski                       Kevin Ritter

CALL TO ORDER

Mark Burdolski called the meeting to order.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Kent Harlow moved to approve the agenda as submitted.  Keith Johnson seconded and the motion carried.

MINUTES

Corrections to be made on page 2, item C, correct to read the February 2011 financials were never tabled.  Also correct the title should show a title line of “February 2011 Financial Report”.  Also correction to page 3, reference to “Kirk” should show “Deputy Chief”.  Kent Harlow moved to approve the minutes as corrected from the March 2011 BOARD meeting.  Keith Johnson seconded and the motion carried.

FINANCIAL REPORT

With ¼ of the year complete we have 74.8% budget remaining, which indicates .2% over budget.  With employee expenses we have 76.4% which is the largest part of our budget and 1.4% under budget—which translates to around $28,000 under budget.  In consideration of these two facts, indicates we are in good shape.

The only unusual expense is shown in Misc Fire, this reflects the new Battalion Chief vehicle and the air packs which were necessary due to the consolidation.  Kent Harlow asked if there were other items budgeted in this item.  Chief Sielert said we work with the accountants to accurately show the bottom line of the budget, but we may have to have a new line item for capital purchases.  These are things we did not budget for.  There will be no “budgeted” money, but we must carry a line item to show expense.

Keith Johnson questioned if the Gardner contract was considered in this budget.  Chief Sielert explained how he used the Gardner consolidation which is included in the budget.   Keith Johnson indicates he would like to see an additional line item for the capital expense.  All board members agreed.  We also have new revenue that was not included in the budget.  A line item will indicate “over-collected” for the Kimberly Clack Tax Revenue that is received this year.  Our “published” budget was only for the Fire District and did not include Gardner consolidation.  Kent Harlow asked about the reason we got the Battalion Chiefs vehicle.  Chief Sielert explained that as we got closer to the consolidation, we realized we needed the addition of a Squad vehicle for all of the addition  medical calls in Gardner.  So the Battalion Chief vehicle was reassigned to that duty, and a new vehicle for the Battalion Chiefs was ordered.

Fuel expense is down and we seem to be saving a lot of money with the new Wright Express cards.  The biggest savings is the .06cents a gallon extra that we were paying when getting the fuel from the Airport.

We are still making purchases from Ottawa Coop.  Kent Harlow questioned expense for fuel while traveling for training.  Deputy Chief Kirk will check into the possibility to get a travel card for the specific use of traveling for training.

Kent Harlow questioned about seeing how much time is being paid for training hours.  Chief Sielert indicates we already track those hours and we can see about placing a line item in the budget for training payroll. 

Keith Johnson asked about the facility charge from O’Reilly Auto.  Chief Sielert indicated there are expenses for general items used at each station that does not necessarily relate to vehicles, and this was probably the case with the $67 charge.

Keith Johnson questioned about the estimate of the revenue from Kimberly Clark.  We have confirmation they did pay the County, but we have not received it as yet.  Chief Sielert has questioned them, but has not received any information from them so far as to why we have not received it yet.

Work comp and health insurance are doing very well even though historically they show increases from year to year.  We are getting ready to renew insurance and it is looking good to get good prices with our renewal.

Keith Johnson moved to approve the March 2011 Financial report as submitted.  Kent Harlow seconded and the motion carried.

BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

NONE

OLD BUSINESS

a. Chiefs Report

Fire Chief Max Sielert presented:

He has been working on re-writing the 2010 and 2011 budgets.  Along with that he is also working on the 2012 budget.  He has reviewed our insurance renewals that are due June 1^st.  Cretcher-Heartland gave us some new options for health insurance.  We are currently with Humana and the renewal rate is going up a total of $18,000 for the year.  Blue Cross has offered a favorable bid reflecting a reduction of $13,000 for the year.  The Coventry bid would reflected a 25% decrease.  United Healthcare will also submit a bid.  Each employee completes an application which effects the price from each of these bidders.  Coventry is exceptionally attractive.  Being a larger group after the consolidation might improve pricing for us.  It appears our options this year could actually save us money if undrer writing doesn’t greatly increase the price.   It would be up to the board to approve passing this savings on to the employees.  The other insurance coverage we offer should come out to be about the same amounts as this year.  Work Comp insurance appears will not go up this year.  In 2013 we will probably see a substantial increase due to our claims.  We should hear more in the next couple weeks.

The auto aid agreement is being implemented and was discussed in great detail at the last County Chiefs Meeting.  There was discussion as to how some County FD’s are signing contracts for service with organizations outside this County that are affecting other FD’s within this County. That was not the case with our Contract with Gardner.

Relative to the Olathe contract, he and Deputy Chief Kirk have received a lot of data on calls to the area affected by our former contract with Olathe. We will sit down with Marilyn and discuss this and she will submit to the court in July.

He reported that he has talked with an ISO representative in Chicago in regards to going through the re-evaluation process since our coverage area has changed and now includes the City of Gardner.  We discussed the station numbers and our current situation which has helped them understand our situation.  She indicates since we were a 5 before, she doesn’t feel it should change.  In consideration of all the drastic changes, however, it may be necessary to go through the re-evaluation process.

Deputy Chief Rob Kirk presented:

He submitted a copy of reports to the board showing an example of what information will be available through Firehouse.  This shows calls to Edgerton and Gardner and the detail of those calls.  Our EMS calls are well within  the 5 minute average time limit called for in the contract.  The different graphs were discussed and the issues that created certain situations will be verified.  Chief Sielert asked about the average for “all calls” and he indicates the EMS and FIRE columns will need to be averaged in order to give the City of Gardner information per their contract.  This will be available each month for the board members to review.  The average for all district calls reflected 4.8 minute average.  Along with this report we have a report that shows our activity of Public Relations events.  We will have an updated report next month.

The Gardner contract says:  “the district will provide the city quarterly activity reports including but not limited to number, type and location of responses, number of hours and type of training provided and special activities conducted.  These reports should be completed in about 2 weeks and the final report will be sent to board members by email.  We will then present this to the Mayor at that time.

b.  Staff Reports

NONE

c.  Approve policy revisions [tabled]

Mark Burdolski moved to bring the Policy Revisions back to the table.  Kent Harlow seconded.  Chief Sielert discussed the policies being submitted were updated for changes to include the addition of Battalion Chiefs and proper chain of command.  The following Policies were discussed and had the noted comments prior to the decision to approve.  Those not approved are so noted.  Deputy Chief Kirk presented the changes which are shown below.

99.00   OK

99.01   OK… Kent Harlow asked why the chain of command was not utilized in the last paragraph, it indicates  go to immediate supervisor or fire chief.  Chief Sielert explained that this must be used in order to establish a way for employee’s to report harassment without going through their immediate supervisor if the complaint is about that supervisor.

99.02   OK… Kent Harlow asked if it shouldn’t be changed to include chain of command?  Deputy Chief Kirk indicates they will review this.

99.03   OK

99.04   OK

100.01 OK… Kent Harlow asked that “SPG” should be explained in order to indicate what it stands for.  Also the chain of command should be included in this policy.  The evaluation portion did not get changed.

100.02 OK

100.03 OK… Kent Harlow suggests that where it says “Fire Dist” it should say “employee with fire Dist #1”.

100.04 OK… Kent Harlow suggest to correct this one as well, as it should read Fire Dist “#1”.

100.05 OK

100.06 OK… Changes: Range and rates were changed; added Lieutenant and our chain of command was updated;  exception for the salaried employees.  Keith Johnson questioned dividing salary by the number “2912” to get the hourly rate for shift employee’s. Chief Sielert explained that 2912 hours is the number of scheduled hours they work in a year since they work 24 hours at a time.  Deputy Chief Kirk and Chief Sielert’s hourly rate is calculated by dividing there salary by 2080 hours as they work a 40 hour week.

100.07 OK… Changes: the addition of Lieutenant; certifications and description for Captain and Battalion Chief; equipment and their certification; Captains need NIMS300 and other certifications are required for different levels of command.

100.08 OK… Changes: changed to provide needs for FRA requirements.

100.09 OK… Changes: added Lieutenant and Battalion Chief.

100.10 OK… Changes: added Deputy Chief and Battalion Chief

100.11 OK…  This is a NEW policy for including duties for a Acting Battalion Chief.

100.11.C   OK…  This is a NEW policy for including duties for an Acting Captain.

. … CORRECT TO “100.11.1”…..

100.12 OK… Keith Johnson ask for an explanation of the “call back time pay”.

100.13 OK… Changes: updated due to more personnel.

100.16 OK

100.16.A   OK… This is a NEW policy adding a vacation selection process by chain of command.

…..CORRECT TO “100.16.1”

100.25 OK

100.28 OK…  Changes: verbiage change only.

100.29 OK…  Changes: per occurrence.  Keith Johnson asked for clarification of the need to change this policy.  Chief Sielert explained with examples how this change in policy would be applied and suggested their approval to add a few words to clarify the actually meaning.

100.30  OK…

100.31    TABLE THIS POLICY …  Changes: increase amount of purchase that required approval from the board.  The limit is currently $300.  Keith Johnson suggested change from “district” newsletter, to read  “regional” newspaper for bid requests.  Chief Sielert indicates Marilyn stated that Fire Districts are not required to request bids for purchases.  Keith Johnson suggested limits of:  #5 limit $3,000, #6 limit  $3,000; #___  limit $10,000  and anything over #8 for $50,000 must be approved at board meeting  … could be approve by email or next meeting.

100.07-01  OK…  Changes:  job descriptions

100.07-02  OK…  Changes: Add District #1

100.07-03  OK…  Changes: Add District #1

[Missing .04]

100.07-05 OK…  Changes: Add District #1

100.07-07 OK…  Changes: Add District #1

Keith Johnson  moved to approve the Policies above as submitted with the exception of 100.31 which is tabled until next meeting.  Kent Harlow seconded.

d.  Consider adopting Kansas Records Retention and Disposal Schedule [tabled]

Mark Burdolski moved to bring the Policy Revisions back to the table.  Kent Harlow seconded.  Discussion was held as to the needs of a policy for retention of documents.  Kent Harlow made a motion to accept this policy as submitted.  Keith Johnson seconded, motion carried.

NEW BUSINESS

Joshua Shaw presented information on the Relay For Life walk which is being supported by the employees.  We had a team last year and will be doing it again this year.

FUTURE MEETINGS

The next Board meeting will be held on the 2nd Tuesday,  May 10th and will begin at 7:00 p.m.

ADJOURNMENT

At 9:25 p.m. Mark Burdolski moved to adjourn the meeting and continue with executive session.  Keith Johnson seconded and the motion carried.

There was a 15 minute Executive Session convened

Personnel Issues