Minutes of the PFC meeting

Minutes of the Police & Fire Commission meeting held on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at city hall pursuant to notice duly given.

1. Meeting called to order at 3:30 p.m. by President Dick Olson.
2. Roll call: Dick Olson, Ron Hayes, Steve Gering, Gene Berth and Tim Longsine. Also present Atty. James Kalny and Linda Belongia, Administrator and as recording secretary.
3. Moved by Longsine seconded by Gering to approve of the agenda as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes
4. Moved by Gering seconded by Hayes to accept and place on file as typed the minutes from the 7/6/09 and 7/13/09 meetings.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes
5. Public Appearances/correspondence: John Reed stated the firefighters have a letter they’d like to present to the commission; Olson stated they
should wait till later on the agenda.
6. Olson state the commission may vote to convene into Closed Session pursuant to notice duly given and as allowed by Wis. Stats. 19.85(1) (c),
(e) and (g) for discussion with legal counsel for the following:

a. Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body
has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility.

b. Competitive bargaining reasons to review and evaluate bids received on an audit of the Police and Fire Departments.

c. Collective bargaining issues regarding upcoming contract negotiations.

Moved by Longsine seconded by Berth to convene into Closed Session at 3:32 p.m.
Motion carried upon verbal roll call vote. 5 ayes

Closed Session

7. Moved by Gering seconded by Longsine to reconvene into Open Session at 4:30 p.m.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

8. Moved by Longsine seconded by Hayes to recommend to Finance approval of the proposal from Resources Management from Tinley Park, IL. for $11,600 for an audit of the Police & Fire Department. Belongia stated Council approved $10,000 and the additional $1,600 can be charged to the ambulance fund.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

9. Discussion/action/updates on:
a. ISO and COM 30; Ladwig stated ISO representative came and did a measurement of the dept…size of the facility; Ladwig anticipates ISO will come back and do more of their evaluation; from last one we were marked for our sleeping hours…Ladwig will work with ISO on how we can correct that mark; Ladwig stated COM 30…State Commerce Commission…requests to do hose, ladder and engine testing and pre fire incident reports; ratings came in and we have to comply; Ladwig stated he has the engine pump testing scheduled before the end of the month; ladder testing also scheduled to be done before the end of the month; Ladwig stated they have already tested over 9,000 ft of hose; working on sheriff’s dept paging…trying to work on coverage during night time hours…how it can be done without activating the whole dept; Ladwig stated he will contact ISO on the sleepover hours;
Moved by Hayes seconded by Gering to authorize Ladwig to do the complete the testing as he outlined.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

b. Town of Oconto dry fire hydrant; Andrew Hoppe stated he received another extension from the DNR to 9/15/09; Belongia stated Hoppe has met with Bob Mommaerts on getting this scheduled; Council approved of an Intergovernmental Agreement at the August council meeting; Opinion from Atty. Mraz is that the work must be done by the public works employees, not fire dept personnel…this grant was awarded in spring of 2008; public works equipment will not reach out far enough to dig the trench; Mommaerts met with Pat Scanlan from hwy dept., they have a new piece of equipment that could be used; Hoppe stated he received some estimates and he was planning on laying the PVC pipe in the trench; Belongia reiterated opinion from Atty. Mraz; Hoppe stated Carl Liegeois has put in this type of hydrant for the Town of Pensaukee;
Moved by Hayes seconded by Berth to refer this to the BPW to see if they can put the dry fire hydrant in for the Town of Oconto.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

c. Carper stated the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Oconto and the County for the Spillman Software agreement was approved at the August Council meeting.

d. Carper reported that National Night out was very successful already had discussions with Randy Van Hulle on planning for next year’s event; Carper stated only problem was Van Hulle injured his back moving the picnic tables at the end of the night; Olson stated this is a very good public relations event.

e. Carper stated the State wide radio interoperability has been touched on at previous meetings; wants to keep this item on the agenda…will happen in 2013… when decision is made to reprogram the radios to a new system…all radio’s in county will have to be done…keep topic alive…so funds are available to do this; if only reprogramming Carper estimates it will costs $35 per radio from BayCom…worst case scenario; Olson stated keep this in mind for budget purposes;

Ladwig stated the fire department will be needing some new pagers…$432 for dual pagers…Ladwig stated he will work with Belongia to see if we could get one or two out of this years budget; Hayes suggested checking for some outside funding source with all the stimulus funding that’s out there; Ladwig stated they will need to have dual frequency capability;

f. Municipal court addressing fines due to impact of provisions of State’s budget bill; Belongia stated under the state budget they increased the state portion on citations, council approved of this at the August meeting, none of the additional fee will be kept by the local, all will go to the state;

g. Request from firefighters on training opportunities; John Reed introduced Chad from the Green Bay fire dept; Reed stated the firemen are just about done with the hazmat training…not all have training that’s required to keep the fire fighter level 2; Mlnarik, Henry and Hoppe have it the rest need to get to that level; Reed addressed other training opportunities; Gering stated in order to establish a good training budget, we need to know from each full time and part-time officer what training you took, when and where you took the training, who was the instructor so we can establish something so we can get the ones to level 2; requests this from each one individually…all full time and part-time…get this information to the Fire Chief so he can report back to the Commission;

Moved by Gering seconded by Longsine that all training information, what was the training, when it was taken, and where was the training taken is requested from all full time and part-time employees to be given to Chief Ladwig within fourteen days so the Chief can report to the commission at the next meeting.

Olson stated concern on lack of training since 1992; Discussion…how come this is all coming forth now; Hoppe requested to be allowed to take some training coming up; Mlnarik also stated he wants to attend this same training; will trade shifts…donate their hours…only costs will be overtime if necessary;
Hayes stated we should follow with motion, get information on what training the employees have before any training is allowed;
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

Ladwig in cooperation with the hospital they have invited the fire dept to participate on a decontamination training on 9/9/09 will be a 2hr orientation…EMS related at the Bond Center and all EMS personnel are invited; Gering is this something we need? Reed stated that’s not the issue, need to know; Gering questioned when was the last time we needed this type of training? Discussion; Ladwig stated the two full time on duty could go and share the information; Reed questioned the donated time they give for training…are they covered for workers compensation…why then wouldn’t Hoppe be able to put the dry hydrant in; Atty. Kalny stated he will check into costs etc; Hoppe questioned can he take the training? Mlnarik also stated he wants to attend this same training; will trade shifts…donate their hours…only costs will be overtime if necessary;
Atty. Kalny stated the request for training should go to the Chief who then would make a recommendation to the commission on the request. Hayes stated we will wait to get the information on what training everyone has at this point; Olson stated hopefully at the next meeting we will have all the information; Reed stated the fireman have a letter they’d like to present…upset with article in paper; Atty. Kalny stated that is not on the commission’s agenda, can not be addressed;

10. Review of Police, Fire and Ambulance dept reports. Hayes questioned the police report on lock outs…referenced a year or two ago this was discussed by the commission and because of the potential damage to property doing the lock outs the commission didn’t want this done; Carper stated it provides a service…they don’t charge for it, and if we did charge we’d bear the liability for any damage; Hayes stated we’ve had 20 lockouts; Carper stated lockouts go in streaks; Hayes stated the lockouts are twice as much as speeding tickets…have we had any damage? Carper stated he can’t recall any damage reports; Gering agreed it is a good community service, but we should have a release form; Hayes agreed the service is fine, but should have a waiver;
Belongia will work with Atty. Mraz on developing a form for the next meeting that will have information such as the plate number, date and time of assistance on the lockout;
Moved by Berth seconded by Gering to authorize that a release form be drafted and brought back to the next meeting.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

11. Moved by Hayes seconded by Longsine to approve of the listing of accounts payables for $6,440.84 and the financial reports as presented and place on file.
Discussion on expense report.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

12. Report on meetings/conferences and seminars attended; Carper stated he attended a meeting for 4th Class Chief’s…received a $500 breath tester…didn’t attend the rest of the convention; Carper stated he discussed with Hayes the new by pass and will try to coordinate some emergency training…will do in conjunction with the fire dept;

13. Moved by Berth seconded by Gering to adjourn. M/C
Meeting adjourned at 5:31 p.m.


Minutes submitted by
Linda M. Belongia,
Administrator