| BOARD MEETING MINUTES November 17, 2009 1. Call to order. The Board meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGANCE 3. Roll Call of the Board Members. Board Members Present: Jerry Loynachan Gary Selig Jim Doskocil Dan Atkinson Rick Parker Board Members Absent: None 4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES a. Approval of the minutes of October 20, 2009 There was a motion to approve minutes of October 20, 2009 by Gary Selig and a second by Rick Parker. The vote in favor was unanimous. 5. REPORTS a. Financial Reports Tina Dillahunty gave the Financial Reports for Summit and Fort Valley. There was a discussion of the reports. Tina explained the Out of District report and how the income amount is figured. Tina explained the credit card report and that we have 10 visa cards and a discover account and who they are issued to. There is a sign out procedure for the cards we have for out of district assignments and other uses. b. Administration Report Tina Dillahunty gave the Administration Report. We are still in the process of the Audit and both audits are almost complete. We still have to wait for Public Safety Retirement to get the actuarial report to me so I can get it to Alex. I have been working on projections that we have in your packets tonight. We will be doing further work on the projections. I will have the balance of the Fort Valley Budget combined with the Summit Budget in next month’s Board Report. The November Board Report will have the combined budgeted amount. c. Auxiliary Report The Auxiliary Report was given by Tina Dillahunty. The Auxiliary is going to help 6 families this year. They will help 3 for Thanksgiving and 3 for Christmas. Michelle Corning who owns Novakinetics will donate live cut trees to the families. On a sad note, the mother of one of the families that we are helping for Christmas recently passed away due to complications from the Swine Flu. The Legends of Country Music Concert is on Friday, December 4th at 7:30 at the Orpheum Theater. This is a fundraiser that the Auxiliary is co-sponsoring with the United Flagstaff Firefighters Local 1505. Tickets are still available and are just $15 each. The Santa’s Run is coming up Saturday, December 5th. Deputy Chief Whitted will be Santa in the Fort Valley area and Steve Weedman will be Santa in the Doney Park area. We are filling 225 bags this year so candy donations would be greatly appreciated. d. Local 1505 Report The Local 1505 Report was given by Bill Dunlap. Bill stated that they are meeting tonight. There is nothing to report. The Local 1505 appreciates the hard work the Board puts in. Bill stated that it helps us as a Union and as a department. 6. CALL TO THE PUBLIC There was no answer to the call to the public. 7. PURCHASE REQUESTS There were no purchase requests 8. CHIEF’S REPORT a. Run Report. The Run Report was given by Chief Howard. There were 78 calls to service for the month of October. Captain Keith Klassen showed a video of a call at Padre Canyon. Keith stated that this was a vehicle accident involving 7 people. Five of them walked out and two were trapped in the truck. Only one had serious injuries. Keith discussed the call. Dan Atkinson stated that he likes to hear the run reports because it lets the Board know what they do. The video and pictures are great. Dan asked who was on the call. Keith stated that along with himself Garret Hall and Roger Grinnell were on scene. They did a great job. Garrett was the medic and Roger had just taken an extrication class at fire school. Don discussed a working fire that we had in November. Don stated that the call came in at 2:33 in the afternoon in Hutchinson Acers. Rick Parker came by the scene. Don stated that the mother left the home at 2:04. She knew the time because of a call she made on her cell phone. Don stated that in a ½ hour the fire was burning significantly. A passerby who saw the flames called it in. Battalion Chief Tim Steffen made the second call to dispatch. Don stated that we had a concern with a long dispatch time. The location and situation was identified in the first ten seconds but it took a full two minutes before the dispatcher got off the phone and started the dispatch. Dan Atkinson discussed that a delay of two minutes is a long time. Don discussed how the call was dispatched. Rick Parker asked if she was dispatching police on another frequency. Don stated that he did not know. This was her first structure fire. Don stated that he asked for a full recall and instead she called for a second alarm. Battalion Chief Mike Boehm called Joann and she did a full recall for us. Don discussed the vaulted ceiling. Don stated that we flowed 3300 gallons of water and lost a pump with people on interior fire attack. It was a learning experience. Don discussed some of the things that they learned. Don discussed the After Action Review we are doing with all the shifts and all the stations. Don stated that getting comments is valuable. There was discussion of the compressor that went down and what caused the problem. Rick Parker asked if they used the CAFS unit. Don stated that they did use CAFS. They used 600 gallons of water to knock down the fire on the front. Dan Atkinson asked Mike Apodaca if he had to repair the hose on the truck in front of the Maintenance shop. Keith stated that they did because they can’t raise the cab in the bay. b. Arizona Fire District Association Conference (AFDA) The AFDA Conference is January 15th, 16th and 17th in Laughlin. Joann is making room reservations. Please let Joann know if you plan to attend no later than December 15th. Don stated that it is a tremendous thing to go to the conference for many reasons. You can interact with people from other fire districts and compare to what they are doing. It is great to go for the classes both formal and informal. c. Firefighter of the Year Chief Howard stated Martin Johns was selected as the Mason’s Firefighter of the year for Summit. Don stated that Jim Harvel makes sure that Fire Service and Law Enforcement is recognized. The selection is made by members of the department. We are happy for Martin. d. Service for Mark McNeal Chief Howard stated that the funeral service for Mark McNeal was held on Friday, November 13th. Rick Parker and Jim Doskocil were there. Mark was a retired member of Flagstaff Fire Dept. Don stated that when we get together it helps to realize we really are a family and some of the differences aren’t important. Mark was a volunteer with the Doney Park Fire Department many years ago. Don stated that we had a total of 13 people at the service. Don stated that he called Chief Wheeler and Chief Walton to express his admiration of their comments at the service. Flag Fire did an outstanding job. e. Appreciation Dinner The Appreciation Dinner will be January 30th. We still need to decide on the location. It will probably be at Station 32. In the past we tried to do it at Christmas but it is such a busy time especially for families. f. CAFS upgrade Chief Howard stated that the CAFS upgrade for Engine 317 has been postponed until the first week in March. Keith Klassen explained that the class date has been changed but the cost to the department will still be the same. g. Other Chief Howard showed the Board the new sign that Mario made for Station 36. Don stated that we will put the sign on a post near the corner and he hopes the folks out there like it. We received a letter from Hopi High School thanking us for supporting two students on career date. One of the students was able to do a ride along and they both shadowed the firefighters. Chief Howard stated that he would like to talk about health care and what we are doing. We are not ready to move forward. Blue Cross/Blue Shield raised our rates by 30%. It got our attention. Don stated that in our discussions with a vendor he stated that of 28 organizations the smallest increase was 22% and the highest was 39%. We have had conversations with Ed from Benefit Logic. We requested information on how many people met the deductable and what the total amounts of claims were. They initially said they could not provide that information but Ed said he had a friend at Blue Cross he would try to get the information. The information was that eight people’s totals made up 41% of our claims. There are a number of our folks that did not use any of the healthcare. We called the County to see if we could be part of the Northern Arizona Trust. Eight years ago they turned us down. Once we received their premium figures we chose not to submit. Our premium has gone from $299.88 to $388 per employee. The Northern Arizona Trust was at $488. We went back to Benefit Logic and asked for a quote from Starmark. This required us to provide a medical census from every employee. They gave a quote but it will be revised once they receive the medical census. Don discussed how he believes the increase in premiums is across the industry and certainly across Flagstaff. Gary Selig stated that his insurance increased 50%. Don stated that we are looking at our insurance cost up to around $240,000. Don stated that we are looking at alternatives. Don stated that he has talked to the Union leadership. There are various options we are trying to look at. We might have to call a special meeting on this issue when we get the quote back from Starmark. Don stated that we are trying to move forward with the Training Site. Don showed the Board the designs and explained that we would like to build it ourselves. It is made from Conex boxes. It is very cost effective to do it that way. Don explained what we are looking to do. Don discussed the cost if we had a vendor build it for us. Don stated that we would design it ourselves with a structural engineer hired though Dick Reese. Gary Selig asked how long the boxes would last. Don stated that he did not know. There are structures around for 15 plus years and still being used. Sam Whitted stated that because they are modular in design you could replace one module at a time. The structure can grow as necessary. Don stated that they are trying to be cost effective and that the reason we want an engineer’s stamp on it is to provide for the safety of our crews. It is difficult to take engine companies into the City for training. This would allow us to have life fire, a roof prop and attic use and use a piercing nozzle or cut vent on a roof. Don stated that it is very valuable. Rick Parker stated that the Chief should talk to the City about using their staircase at Station 3. Don stated that he will give them a call. Jim Doskocil discussed the people in the City that helped design their training towers. Jim stated that there are some things they would do different and we should talk to them. 9. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Projections Chief Howard stated that he and Tina have spent a lot of hours working on these projections. Don stated that we can go over the basics of what we have done on this. All we are trying to do is come up with some figures so we can have some idea of where we can head with the finances. We have kept the revenue close to the same amount for the tax levy so the tax payers would pay about the same amount. Don went over the Out of District for State Forestry. In the past we had $350,000 that was a standard figure. This year we lowered it to $200,000 because of concerns with a slow fire season. We increased it in these projections to $300,000 because this is the driest year on record in Arizona. Don went over the assessed valuation projections and other revenue items. Rick Parker asked if there is a contingency plan that would be cut in some area. Don stated that there are some unknowns that we had to put figures in such as the Fire Chief salary. Don stated that he put in a change in administration for the projections. Tina Dillahunty is identified as an Administrative Chief rather than Office Manager and is at a Battalion Chief Level. Don stated that she works at that level. Don stated that also included is the ½ time person in the office we would look to make that a full time position. The rest of the items are standard. The pension and payroll benefits tie into salaries. The Medical insurance increase is 30% with an added 15% for the following year. Dispatch services are a little higher. We put in 3% cost of living increases for 2011/2012. We increased auto parts because of the building of the Maintenance Facility. The Medical Equipment amount drops because the Zoll defibrillators are paid off next year. We are looking to replace four sets of turnout gear next year. The lodging for various trainings has been identified. Don went over travel projections. Don stated that one of the things we would like to do is buy a sedan next year. It will help with the mileage costs. Right now we are paying enough mileage for personal use for department training that we could make a payment on a vehicle. Rick Parker asked how often you would have people going in different directions. Don stated that it does happen but we would keep the Suburban. The new engine on the Suburban has about 40,000 miles on it. One of the things we at Summit Fire Dept. emphasize is training and we consider it money well spent. Don stated that the Travel Misc is for flights. Don went over the registration fees, pub ed and public safety. Don stated in sponsorships we will need an Open House/BBQ on both sides of the mountain. Don went over the new capital items. Tina Dillahunty explained that in these projections there are no Grants or Capital Carry Forward. The only items listed are income and expense. Don stated that the projection for spending for 2010/2011 is the expenses exceed income by $70,546 and for 20/11/2012 expenses exceed income by $277,033. Don stated that we will end up going into Capital Carry Forward to get through these times. We had a 1.2 million dollar Capital Carry Forward into this fiscal year. Gary Selig asked the Chief what is the minimum he wants to see carried into the next fiscal year. Don Stated that we like to have at least $800,000 to get us through the first 4 months of the year. Don discussed the number of challenges to the assessed valuations there were at the County. Gary Selig asked what percentages of the challenges were changed at the County. Don did not know but stated that he would find out. Rick Parker stated that one thing we don’t know is how bad the repossessed houses will affect us if County does comparisons based on the sale of properties in the neighborhoods. If they include the repo houses the effect could be considerably worse than we anticipate. Don stated that the assessed values have dropped in Flagstaff 22% from their peak and are continuing a downward trend. The County submits information to the Department of Revenue and they make the computations. Maricopa County is 40% down from their peak. Don stated that is why we went with a 10% decrease in our assessed valuations next year. Don stated that Tony Cullum is meeting with people who want to build a sub division at milepost 232, 8 miles past our fire district. There are 60 acres to develop. The Assessed Valuations come out by February 10th. Jim Doskocil stated that we need to prioritize what we should cut if we need to. Don stated that we can do that in the work session. Don stated that we have positioned ourselves in an enviable position. Rick Parker stated that it might be helpful if Mike Apodaca and Keith Klassen can make estimates on maintenance and major repairs. There was a discussion of vehicle repairs. Jerry Loynachan stated that at the last meeting we talked about a wish list for the Maintenance Facility. There was a discussion of the Spartan purchased nine years ago. Don stated that we paid off the Spartans over ten years at 30,000 per year plus interest. Don stated that for every year we keep the Spartans in service we save about 40,000 in principal and interest payments per year. That is one of the many reasons why the maintenance program is so valuable. It extends the life of the engines. Look at what we were able to do with those two Pierce Arrows we purchased from the City of Mesa. Mike Apodaca did the maintenance on those two engines. One is a 1989 and one is a 1993. Gary Selig stated that we need a rough idea of what it costs. Mike Apodaca stated that we now have a good history of the vehicles and can get a cost and projections on the vehicles. Now it is all the little stuff. There was further discussion of the maintenance and repairs of the apparatus. There was a discussion that the guys feel the vehicles are very safe now. When Mike does repairs the cost is less and the down time is less. Dan stated that it is a good program but we need a better building. Dan stated that he has spoken to many of the guys and Mike has received a lot of compliments. They have a lot of confidence in Mike and Dan stated that he appreciates his hard work. b. Loyalty Oath for Jim Doskocil Chief Howard administered the Loyalty Oath to Jim Doskocil for the position of Board Member. 10. NEW BUSINESS a. Presentation by Squirt and Blaze John Wesbrock and Tara Paprocki gave a presentation to the Board on the Clown Program showing them a DVD. Chief Howard stated that Tara is Blaze and John is Squirt. They are the clowns that represent Summit. Last February they went to clown school and we are proud of them. Tara stated that as part of the public education team they were asked to put together a program so the Engine Companies can go work with the kids at Cromer School. This was the video they put together for a contest they sponsored. John stated that they promote fire prevention through education and promote families to learn. Tara stated they just got the posters the classes created back and they can be voted on at Station 32 next week. They guys had a lot of fun going to Cromer. Tara stated that they appreciate all the support from the Board. Dan Atkinson asked how often they go to Cromer. Tara stated that the last year they did a show in April or May. Next year they will tie in with Flag Fire during Fire Prevention Week and EMS Week. Tara discussed how other people on the department help out with public education. There was a discussion of the shows that they have put on. John discussed what they have done with the Clown Program. Dan Atkinson thanked them for their work with the program and stated that it is a great service they provide. 11. ACTION ITEMS a. Wells Fargo Escrow Account Tina Dillahunty stated that the lease purchase agreement with Wells Fargo does not allow for principal only payments so to pay the escrow account on the lease purchase agreement would only benefit the bank and not Summit. We would pay the same amount of interest on the loan. We have a payment on December 1st of $44,437.76. I was told that we can make the payment from the escrow account and have the balance sent to Summit. The balance would be $64,672.13. Tina stated that she believes that it would be the best way to go. We could then put those funds in the County Account and earn a better rate on the funds. There was a motion by Rick Parker to make the December 1st Payment from the Escrow Account and have the balance sent to Summit Fire District. There was a second by Gary Selig and the vote in favor was unanimous. b. Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for Maintenance Facility Chief Howard stated that we would like to move forward with the CUP for the Maintenance Facility. To acquire the CUP we must determine the size and location of the facility. We have gone back and listed the advantages and disadvantages of each sight. It seems like Station 33 would be a better location than Station 31. We would like to have a meeting with Keith, Mike, Don, Dick Reese and the design/builder to design the facility. Don stated that it could be a valuable thing to do. Rick Parker stated that he has looked at the sites and spoken to Mike. Rick stated that where the Station 33.5 currently exists might be a good place to locate the facility. Rick stated that the property directly east doesn’t belong to us and asked Don if he knows anything about it. Don stated that he does not know who owns it. Rick stated that Ed and Kathy Flores own the property where the old Tumbleweed Store is. If we could acquire that portion next to the station we could tie it into the existing facility. We would be able to use the existing restroom. Rick stated that he will find out if they might donation a portion of the land. Don stated that we need to see what the County will allow us to do there. We would need at least 200’ wide from west to east to give us the setbacks and put the building where we want it. There was a discussion that we might be able to do a trade. Don stated that we are tied in with the other property. It is our main catch basin from when we did the final addition in 2001to meet the County drainage requirements. There was further discussion of the property. Mike Apodaca stated that we can still utilize the current shop for other uses such as a fabrication shop. Jerry Loynachan stated that based on the current economic situation what was presented at the last meeting might be a little extravagant. There was a discussion of the cost of building 60 x 80 vs. 80 x 80. There was further discussion of the location. There was a discussion of the feasibility of utilizing the current shop. There was a discussion of the test pit. Rick stated that he would check into the property and make a call to Ed and Kathy Flores. c. Communication System Chief Howard stated that included in the packets is what was sent out for a request for proposals. It was sent to five vendors. Don stated that we typically like to do things locally. We only received one proposal back and that was from Niles Radio. We put in the budget $140,000 and they came back with $122, 868. Their proposal shows coverage of all areas. They gave a presentation to Don Howard, Sam Whitted and Martin Johns. Don stated that they were very impressed. Don discussed that years ago we stepped away from Niles Radio and discussed the reasons. Don stated that John Lindsey has done this for thirty years and he is the main person we will be dealing with. Sam Whitted stated that Niles Radio has been in business a long time. This is difficult country to cover. They are technically competent and it shows in their written proposal. Gary Selig asked how it compares with working with Sedona. Don stated that in terms of coverage about the same. Don discussed the differences including the technology utilized. Jerry Loynachan asked if each agency has their own repeaters. Sam stated that everyone has their own repeaters and system for their own needs. Sometimes different agencies use the same vendors. Dan Atkinson asked what this vendor would provide. Don stated that they would provide the hardware that will be installed at five sites. This is state of the art hardware. We would upgrade with software. Dan asked about the repeaters we are using now and Don discussed the repeaters we are currently using. There was a discussion of frequencies. Sam stated that it takes 60 to 120 days to get new frequencies. Don discussed how Central Yavapai and Prescott had the same receive frequencies and the transmit frequencies for Doney Park and Timberline and when they went to a microwave system they walked all over us. Ed Robbie is leasing us frequencies. Creative Communications has done some work with Hopi Health Services and they are sending data that keys the radios unless we have the squelch turned up. In the Fort Valley area we don’t have good coverage. We have asked that they provide coverage for our entire area with potential of expansion into the Twin Arrows area. We need to be able to talk to each other. Don stated that he recommends we go with Niles Radio. The estimate should not exceed $130,000. There was further discussion of the proposal and the frequencies. There was a discussion of maintenance of the sites. Don stated that we could have them maintain the sites if we choose to. There was a discussion of the mobile units. Jerry Loynachan made a motion to accept the proposal of Niles Radio not to exceed the budget amount of $140,000 contingent on a review with Martin Johns. There was a second by Rick Parker and the vote in favor was unanimous. d. Request to go into Executive Session There was a request to go into Executive Session to deal with a personnel issue pursuant to ARS 38-431.03(A)(1). There was a motion to go into executive session by Gary Selig and a second by Rick Parker. The vote in favor was unanimous. The regular meeting adjourned to executive session at 9:30 p.m. The regular meeting was reconvened at 11:10 pm. e. Chief Howard’s Contract. Jim Doskocil went over the Fire Chief’s Contract. Jim stated that they made some changes on the contract. They changed the effective dates. Jim stated that November will not work and they changed it to January. There was a discussion of the Chief’s Contract. Chief Howard stated that he would like to get a contract settled. Since 1992 he has never asked for a dollar figure but the prior Summit Board felt he needed to submit a figure. Don stated that he struggled whether he should be paid the market value of the job. Don stated that he feels he will be happy with whatever they put in. Don stated that overall he feels that over all of his years he has been treated fairly. Rick Parker stated that he feels Don is a great Chief but he doesn’t let personalities get involved in his thinking. No matter how this comes out he feels Don is a great Chief. Jerry Loynachan stated that we should let Don have the copy of the altered contract so he can go over the changes. There was a discussion of the changes in the contract. Rick Parker discussed the retirement health insurance and stated it was removed because some day we might not have the same program as today. There was a discussion of the termination clause. Jim Doskocil stated that they decided to give a 5% increase in salary and changed the evaluation to October. They added the 40 hour per work to the contract for the work week. There was further discussion. They will evaluate the contract and bring it back next month for further discussion. 12. CALL TO THE PUBLIC There was no answer to the call to the public. 13. ADJOURNMENT There was a motion to adjourn by Gary Selig and a second by Rick Parker. The vote was unanimous and the meeting adjourned at 11:28 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Tina Dillahunty |
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