JOHNSON COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT #1 – Johnson County, Kansas

Board of Directors Meeting

Date:  May 10, 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                       Trig Morley

CALL TO ORDER

Mark Burdolski called the meeting to order.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

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

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Kent Harlow moved to approve the minutes from the April 2011 Board meeting minutes as submitted.

Keith Johnson seconded and the motion carried.

FINANCIAL REPORT

Chief Sielert indicated we were doing well on our budget since we have 68% of the budget remaining with 66% of the year to go. Nothing unusual was posted this month.  Employee expenses are still under budget.  We are over-budget on unscheduled overtime.  Keith Johnson asked why this happened.  Chief Sielert explained we had a lot of vacation time and we must maintain minimum staffing level’s. This being our first year operating as a combined department we had to estimate what overtime would cost us based on combined budget figures of what the 2 separate departments spent for overtime last year. It now appears we have probably under estimate what overtime will cost us and will need to adjust that figure for 2012.

Kent Harlow asked about phone expense.  Chief explained this was due to the billing from Time Warner for Station 2. Time Warner had continued to send the bills to the City of Gardner after our consolidation and it took several months for this to be discovered. Once the billing was corrected, we had to pay for three months at one time.

Kent Harlow asked about accounting cost.  Chief explained this was due to an audit last year and we will be over budget in accounting again this year, due to another audit that will be done this year.

Kent Harlow asked about facilities cost showing only 18% left.  Chief indicated this was due to more remodel costs at station 2, which was not expected and a result of the consolidation.

Kent Harlow asked about the miscellaneous Fire Equipment line item only having 8.6% remaining.  Chief explained we posted the purchase of our new Battalion Chief vehicle to this line item, which made this over budget.

Chief Sielert explained that all though the budget looked good, we were still having cash flow issues and needed to consider borrowing enough funds to get us through until all of our budgeted revenue is received. We started the year with a cash flow problem due to the loan payoff.  We had to spend $200,000 in January just to pay off the loans we had in 2010 that were taken out as a result of the City of Olathe not honoring our contract for the last 2 years and unexpected startup cost and expenses due to the consolidation in November 2010. When you look at what we spend per month minus the consolidation startup cost, we will have more than enough revenue to get through the year, we simply had all of our large expenses right up front and that has created the need to borrow until all of our revenues are received. We will get our next large tax distribution the 1^st of July, but what we now have and the revenue we receive between now and July 1^st will not be enough to keep us going until that distribution is received.

Chief Sielert proposes that we take out a loan with Metcalfe Bank to cover expenses until July, and feels it should be no problem with the bank as we have done this with them before.  If you look at how much we are spending per month ($196,103 average) this amount for 12 months would make us ending the year with $2,353,236 in expenses or almost $100,000 under budget.  This shows that we are not over spending, but that the cash flow issues is the result of having to pay the loan we had for the 2010 that was needed because the City of Olathe not paying us the $130,000 they owe us and the start up cost associated with the consolidation with Gardner.

Kent Harlow asked about the loan process and length of the loan.  Chief indicated that he would like to see us borrow this money until February 1^st in order to keep this from happening again.  This way it will cover us no matter when our funds come.  Once the funds come from Olathe and Kimberly Clark and the truck we are selling, these funds will bring us in line with our budget and we will have more than enough remaining at the end of the year to pay off the loan along with covering all operating expenses.

Chief will send the board members information about the bank loan by email within a few days.  Deputy Chief Kirk reported the bid for the truck is currently at $7,700 which will help.  Chief believes we now have enough history and information on the consolidated department to properly estimate the 2012 budget and will consider the numbers for 2012 when calculating the loan.

Keith Johnson asked why we are not receiving our Kimberly Clark money.   Chief went over what had happened to date, explaining the Treasurer told him he did not know why this was not included in our March disbursement.  Keith Johnson suggests we call someone and inquire what “the system” is in receiving disbursement payments.  Keith suggested we call Calvin Hayden  to let him know that we will have to borrow money due to non-payment of these funds. Chief suggested Keith send an email to the County Treasurers tomorrow asking when and how we will get the back taxes for Kimberly and copy Calvin Hayden on the email.

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

BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

None

OLD BUSINESS

a. Chiefs Reports

Fire Chief Max Sielert presented: He and Deputy Chief Kirk met with the Mayor and showed him all the statistics we had shown the board at the last meeting.  We decided to meet with the Mayor and present our information required by the contract to him prior to giving it to the City Council.  The reports for EMS and Fire calls were combined for Gardner.  Mayor suggested we bring this information to the work session in June.

Another situation arose in the fact that Larry Fotivich has been very out spoken against the consolidation.  On his web site he states that the Fire District “stole the fire department from the City”.  He also stated that the City was going to see a 25% tax increase in the next few years due to the consolidation.  Chief shared the information he had printed off from his website.  Deputy Chief Kirk indicated the website was shut down so a copy of the website was given to all board members.  Chief felt that Larry may have been misinformed and he feels we should help him to understand the actual situation. Kent Harlow asked permission to talk with Larry, since he had been acquainted with him through school.

Chief discussed the Olathe lawsuit with Marilyn recently.  He gave her the emails that had been sent between dispatch and Olathe when this was all being setup.  There was also a list of questions from Olathe that we answered.  I have been sending her all the items that I feel she should know in order to validate our case.  She has a deadline of June 6^th for her presentation to Olathe.  When we first started she questioned our position, due to the lack of calls we actually made.  Once she understood the contract was not for a specific amount of calls, but for the “service” of coverage.  He feels after this meeting with Marilyn we have made some headway in our position for this case.

Chief Sielert went through the proposals submitted by the health insurance vendors this past month.  With our current carrier we will see a 10% increase. All other carriers that gave us quotes would show increases of between 30% and  50% over our current cost.  It appears we have to stay with Humana, due to being only a 10% increase.  This would be approximately $14,000 a year increase.  The increase was due to the health issues of our personnel.  They did explain that this was the smallest increase we have seen in the past 6 years.

We will see no increase in premiums this year for Dental .  The Work Comp and property insurance will show a 5% increase, or around $6,800 a year more.  So, combined, all of our insurance will increase about $26,000 for the year. The increase in our contract amount with the City of Gardner will result in  us getting more than twice that amount in revenue from the City which will more than cover this unexpected increase.  Kent Harlow asked about any increase in employee’s cost.  Chief had calculated this to be about $9 per check increase to employees.

He is focusing on 2012 Budget right now, so he will hold off on getting the 2011 budget republished.  He will forward this information once it is available.  Kent Harlow asked if there was a need for a work session in order to prepare for the budget.  Chief indicated that until we get our assessed values in July, we would not be able to plug in the actual numbers, so we wouldn’t need a work session until that time.

We will have an awards ceremony and picnic next Thursday, May 19^th at 6pm here at Station 1 and Chief extended the invitation to the board members.  We asked for RSVP from everyone since we will serve hot dogs and hamburgers.

We had a little problem with last Accounts Payable.  They were processed and mailed as usual, however, when an employee tried to cash a check, we found the routing numbers and account numbers were missing.  The accountants had failed to print this on all the checks.  They issued new checks to the vendors who were unable to process using hand written numbers. The accounts did not charge for the new checks.

Deputy Chief Rob Kirk presented: He mentioned the gas card discussed at the last meeting for training expense was secured and is now available.

We received an invitation from the Sheriff’s office to attend a meeting where we will be receiving an award in recognition of our assistance.  The award was for helping them a year ago in testing a new product to lift finger prints off of different burnt items.  Lt Cory Neal, our volunteer, coordinated the entire event.  Our volunteers and staff both participated in burning different surfaces and vehicles to use for their tests.  A written presentation was made on this event and it will be presented at a national conference.

b. Staff Reports: None

c. Approve policy revision #100.31 tabled from April Board meeting

Keith Johnson moved to bring this policy to the table for approval.  Chief Sielert presented the corrected policy that was discussed and requested at our last meeting.  All the SPG’s from last meeting that were approved have now been implemented. Kent Harlow made a motion to accept this policy as submitted.  Keith Johnson seconded, motion carried.

NEW BUSINESS

None

FUTURE MEETINGS

The next Board meeting will be held on the 2nd Tuesday, June 14^th, and will begin at 7:00 p.m.  We discuss a date for the work session during the week of July 8^th.

ADJOURNMENT

At 8:10 p.m. Kent Harlow 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