Snohomish County Fire District 1
Board of Commissioners
Minutes of Special Board Meeting
April 16, 2010
PRESENT:
Commissioner Jim Kenny, Chair
Commissioner Bob Meador
Commissioner Millie Judge
Commissioner Brian McMahan
Commissioner David Chan
Staff:
Fire Chief Ed Widdis
Executive Assistant Marsha Moore
Assistant Chief Mark Correira
Assistant Chief Brad Reading
Deputy Chief Scott Pearson
Deputy Chief Ray Mattox
Finance Director Kathleen Junglov
Executive Assistant Jeanne Startzman
Firefighter Thad Hovis
Budget Director Bill Cushman
Firefighter Scott Hamilton
Public Information Officer Leslie Hynes
Human Resources Specialist Cheryl Nelson
Public Education Tina Delisle
Captain Bruce Davis
MEETING WAS AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDED
CALL TO ORDER
Commissioner Jim Kenny, Chair of the Board of Commissioners, called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
None.
PROGRAM UPDATES
Assistant Chief Mark Correira – Operations was continuing the transition with Edmonds. The two aid units Edmonds had ordered arrived. Station 10 opened on April 15. The ladder truck was preparing to return to service.
Deputy Chief Scott Pearson – Chief Pearson was currently working on a compensation study. A hiring and promotional process was planned for this fall.
Assistant Chief Brad Reading – New World and the new CAD system were moving forward. The County E911 was hiring a consultant to update the maps. This was a code year and the cities were working to update their Fire Code. The District was encouraging them to adopt Appendix J and the Residential Sprinkler appendix. Public Education money for helmets was removed from the stations and public education was working to bring Edmonds crews up to speed on the District’s services.
Finance Director Kathleen Junglov – After losing two employees in January the Finance Department is getting back on track. Nicole McConnell filled one of the two positions. Nicole started March 1. Due to the server problems the Finance Department lost data back to February 19. Staff was working to re-enter the data, February was reconciled and March receipts were done. Ms. Junglov hoped to have it current by next week. She was also working on the District’s financial statements and finishing the asset inventory.
Captain Bruce Davis – The Training Tower was getting used a lot and the crews found it easier to not have to imagine a four-story building.
Public Information Office Leslie Hynes – The ribbon cutting was scheduled at Station 10 for May 22. Ms. Hynes was working on the fall newsletter and an open house at Station 17.
Human Resources Manager Cheryl Nelson – The new health care legislation will have an impact on the District and Ms. Nelson planned to attend a SHRM Conference this summer to learn more about the impact. Human Resources were working on reviewing the District’s policies.
LOCAL 1997 REPORT
Local 1997 President Scott Hamilton thanked the HR and Strategic Planning Committees for allowing the union to participate in the meetings.
The Local was spending time networking with District 7 and hoped to have the leadership of both Locals sit down with finance staff to receive a briefing on how the model would look.
Operations at Station 10 were going well so far and President Hamilton thanked Deputy Chief Mattox for all of his work.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
MUKILTEO MAPPING
Chief Widdis noted Mukilteo had asked the District for mapping services and it would equal 47 hours of GIS staff time. He suggested the District charge overtime for the services, which would be time and a half. The Board decided to discuss this further at the April 20 Regular Board Meeting.
STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE VISION
Commissioner Meador shared with the Board the process the Strategic Planning Committee was following. He noted they were taking a tentative approach and the District needed to define itself before planning the future. The Committee came up with five pillars and a set of data points they felt would belong under each pillar. Commissioner Meador noted the Chief would present a graphic on each data point at the second meeting of each month. The Committee wanted the Board’s input on the pillars and the data points. Commissioner Judge felt it was important to also make sure the plan fits in with the world the cities work in. Local 1997 President Scott Hamilton felt the process was great and the Labor group appreciated seeing the direction of the District defined.
The pillars the Committee recommended were People, Financial, Services, Community, and Growth. For the people pillar, the committee recommended the District report on the average year’s experience of the front line personnel, retention rate, and voluntary turnover rate over the last five years. Commissioner McMahan suggested including employee satisfaction. Commissioner McMahan felt the term ‘people’ was not specific enough and felt it should be refined. Commissioner Meador noted people referred to employees and the public was included under the community pillar.
The financial pillar data sets included; days of cash on hand, the bond rating, and average age of the stations and rolling stock. Commissioner McMahan felt if stations and apparatus were included, the pillar should refer to resources instead of finances. Commissioner Meador noted it all rolled together and at some point, each pillar will have additional items branching off them. Commissioner McMahan felt this pillar should include reporting of the liabilities and the ABLE Fund. Commissioner Chan suggested the financial pillar should be broad and include the cash balance/flow and suggested the Finance and HR Committee provide input for the people and finance pillars. Commissioner Meador wanted to ensure the entire Board be involved and did not want committees or individual Commissioners making decisions about the Strategic Plan. Commissioner Judge agreed it made sense to have the Finance Committee talk with staff regarding what data to report.
Commissioner McMahan felt it was difficult to attempt to do the strategic plan with a committee and wanted to see a vision, where the District wanted to go, and how to get there. He wanted to know when the data collection pre-planning phase would be complete and when planning would begin. Commissioner Meador did not feel money was budgeted for a consultant and it was important for the committee to do prep work first, before a consultant comes in. Commissioner Chan agreed it was important to have an idea of what was needed to discuss. Commissioner Meador suggested the Board consider a special meeting in July or August dedicated to the Strategic Plan. Chief Widdis agreed it was good to see where the District was.
The service pillar included data points regarding EMS patient outcomes, response times, quality of service or customer satisfaction, and how often does the District provide Automatic and Mutual Aid. Commissioner McMahan suggested the response times be broken down by segments and the areas the District did or did not have control over be identified. He also suggested going back five years to see the net effect of building stations and adding staff. Commissioner Judge felt five years was a good mark and consistent with the other suggested data points. Commissioner McMahan suggested looking at how often automatic aid comes into the District and include public education under services.
The committee suggested data points under the community pillar include; percent of incidents with post action contact, number of people reached through public education, and the gross total of citizens reached. Commissioner McMahan suggested including data points related to code enforcement to the community pillar.
The fifth pillar, growth, includes data points showing the increase in population served over the last five years, area District intended to provide service to, and station location and staffing and future station needs. Commissioner Judge felt it was important to look at the area the District intended to provide to and adopt some sort of narrative policy defining that area. Commissioner Meador agreed the Board needed to set boundaries in order to know potential before extensive long range planning. Commissioner Judge also suggested the District set a standard of what the public should expect as an urban level of service.
Commissioner McMahan suggested the District explore digital dashboards for reporting.
Commissioner Kenny called for a break at 10:58 a.m.
Commissioner Kenny reconvened the meeting at 11:20 a.m.
STATION 18 PROJECT REVIEW
Eric Schaer (TCA), John Smith (DEA), Michelle Langrehr (TCA), Cindy Wellborn (DEA), and Craig Sheets (Robinson Company) attended the meeting to provide the Board with an update on the history of the site and the current water issues at the Station 18 construction site. Mr. Smith noted there were claims for additional work done and the design team was evaluated the claims through the resolution process. Commissioner Judge asked if there was any sense the site was compromised and Mr. Smith felt with the current design and changes that have been made the building was well designed. Mr. Schaer was confident water issues had been addressed. Commissioner McMahan asked for an estimate of how much the water issues had cost. Project Manager Craig Sheets noted with the claims and change orders roughly $600,000, however, he noted all the changes and claims were still within the budgeted amount for the project.
The Board discussed the claims made by some subcontractors and the emails received by the Board. Mr. Schaer noted the design team was trying to work out the issues, and if they could not be worked out it would go to mediation, then binding arbitration. Commissioner Judge urged the design team to move quickly to reach a resolution. Chief Widdis noted he would be meeting with Corestone and hoped to reach resolution. Commissioner McMahan asked the design team if they felt the site was safe enough to build a station to last and Mr. Schaer responded he did.
Commissioner Kenny called for a break at 12:29 p.m.
Commissioner Kenny reconvened the meeting at 1:26 p.m.
DISTRICT 7
Commissioner McMahan asked Chief Widdis to explain the recently updated map with the assessed value per grid. Chief Widdis showed the Board the map, explained the assessed values in District 1 grids, and pointed out the difference in some of the District 7 grids. Commissioner McMahan pointed out District 7 provided more of a rural level of service in some areas and District 1 does not cover any rural areas today. He noted this would be a difference in philosophy between the two organizations. Commissioner McMahan felt the staff needed to have a discussion on attrition. Commissioner Meador agreed. Commissioner Kenny noted both sides would have problems to address and the net benefit was what was important. Chief Widdis felt many of these issues were hurdles, but not walls.
NON-PARTNER AND PARTNER CITIES
Commissioner McMahan felt it was important to ask what needs our partner cities had. Commissioner Meador felt our non-partner cities felt the RFA model lacked flexibility and they might be more willing to partner if there were choices in the service model. Chief Widdis felt the benefit charge could provide the flexibility in funding cities were looking for.
RFA
Commissioner McMahan felt it was a good time to resume talks regarding the Regional Fire Authority and the District should drive the process and invite partners to re-engage in the process. Commissioner Meador agreed and suggested one of the Mayors drive the process. Chief Widdis felt the Board needed to talk with the city councils. Commissioner Chan felt the Board should focus on District 7 and not run a parallel process. Commissioner Kenny agreed and felt there was not enough energy to do both and District 7 would take a lot of energy. Commissioner Judge agreed there was not enough energy to attempt an RFA and District 7 merger. She suggested Chief Widdis discuss with Chief Eastman how District 7 felt about a RFA.
Commissioner Kenny called for a break at 3:03 p.m.
Commissioner Kenny reconvened the meeting at 3:24 p.m.
HUMAN RESOURCES
POLICY - POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE FIRE CHIEF
Commissioner Judge briefly explained to the Board the intent of the policy and the different topics included in the policy. The Board changed section 2.1.5 to read, “Hire, appoint, assign, supervise, evaluate, and terminate employees.”
The Board discussed the need for this policy. Commissioner McMahan was concerned with how it worked with the Fire Chief’s job description and contract. He suggested legal look at all three documents and compare them.
Commissioner Chan felt the Board should approve the organizational structure and shared a concern about a Chief deleting a program without Board approval. Commissioner Judge felt the Chief should be able to decide what was the most effective way to run the department within the budget. Commissioner McMahan suggested the language was too ambiguous and it needed to be clear to protect the Board and the Chief.
Commissioner Kenny asked to edit 2.1.19 to add “District” before legal counsel. Commissioner McMahan asked to edit 2.1.14 to read “…maintain, track, and …” Commissioner Chan asked if the Board agreed with 2.1.16 to give the Chief authority to talk with elected officials. Commissioner Meador felt the Chief should be able to talk with Mayors about issues. Commissioner McMahan was happy with the wording to allow the Chief to develop and maintain relationships.
Commissioner McMahan suggested adding the amount of $250,000 in 2.1.15 for emergency spending. Chief Widdis felt that was appropriate. Commissioner McMahan also suggested the financial policy be reviewed to ensure there was no conflict between the authorities delegated in that policy. Commissioner Judge noted this would come back to the Board at the April 20 Regular Board Meeting.
SHARED LEAVE POLICY
Commissioner Judge noted this was a new policy. Commissioner McMahan asked if this had been bargained and Local President Scott Hamilton said the draft looked good, however, it had not officially gone through JLM. Commissioner Judge said it would be tabled until JLM on April 25.
FACILITIES SPECIALIST
Commissioner Judge noted the HR Committee recommended making this a permanent position. Chief Widdis provided the background on the position and Deputy Chief Mattox discussed the current workload and the need for a permanent position. Human Resources Manager Cheryl Nelson provided the Board with information regarding the cost to the temporary agency for the current temporary employee and what the cost would be to create a permanent position and hire the current temporary employee.
MOTION
Commissioner Millie Judge: Move to create a position for Facilities Specialist and authorize the Chief to hire the current temporary employee.
Second: Commissioner Bob Meador
Motion passed unanimously.
BATTALION CHIEF AND CAPTAIN JOB DESCRIPTIONS
Chief Widdis noted these job descriptions were out of date and have been updated.
EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS
The HR Committee started the Employee Handbook by finalizing a table of contents and wanted Board approval to move forward with the process. Commissioner Judge noted the discipline policy would need to be discussed and it could potentially change the employment status. Commissioner McMahan asked that the smoking policy use the term tobacco instead. Commissioner Judge noted at this point the employees had no contract or guiding policy. The Board agreed to move forward with the Employee Handbook.
2011 BUDGET
FORECAST MODELING
Chief Widdis presented the Board with an updated forecast model showing an estimated -8% drop in AV for 2011. The model showed what it looked like through 2015 with the decrease in AV.
ALTERNATIVE FUNDING
Chief Widdis provided the Board with some information regarding the Benefit Charge and would like to hire a consultant to look at the feasibility of the Benefit Charge. The proposed timeline would put it to the voters in 2011. Commissioner McMahan asked to have the consultant provide the Board with a presentation. Commissioner Judge liked the concept and felt it would be a benefit for the cities that have a smaller call load. Commissioner Meador wanted more information on the shortfall estimates. The Board discussed having the consultant come for a presentation and Chief Widdis said he would work on that.
OTHER
VOLUNTEERS
Chief Widdis noted there had been some issues with the Volunteers getting pagers and turnout gear and that was solved. He added the Air/Light Unit’s Chassis was almost completed.
BOARD DISCUSSION
Commissioner Chan asked if there would be an update on the IT situation and Chief Widdis said on Tuesday.
The Board decided to not meet on Saturday April 17 and asked Executive Assistant Marsha Moore to note it was cancelled.
Commissioner Kenny adjourned the meeting at 5:07 p.m.