PFC Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Police & Fire Commission meeting held on Monday, September 21, 2009 pursuant to notice duly given.

1. Meeting called to order by President Olson at 6:00 p.m.
2. Roll call: Dick Olson, Gene Berth, Ron Hayes, Tim Longsine and Steve Gering. Mayor Nerenhausen, Chief Carper and Linda Belongia, Administrator and as recording secretary also present.
3. Moved by Hayes seconded by Gering to approve of the agenda as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes
4. Moved by Gering seconded by Berth to accept as typed and place on file the minutes from the 8/20, 8/31 and 9/3/09 meetings.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes
5. Public input/correspondence:
a. Anonymous taxpayer concern, placed on file.
b. Thank you from the Muscular Dystrophy Association placed on file.
c. Email from Andrew Hoppe regarding Harvest Festival request. Hayes stated that Carol Westphal is not a member of Harvest Fest, which is a Chamber of Commerce event; Hayes stated he supports Belongia’s action to deny Westphal’s request regarding the smoke simulation house trailer agrees it’s too late to do this as the event is 10/3…and the Chamber is not interested…besides the expense it would be to the fire dept to get the trailer here and back;
d. Belongia provided PFC members with a copy of letter from Resource Management notifying us they will begin the study of the police & fire departments 9/28; will be here for 3 days and then return for a couple of days in Oct not yet set; report will then follow on their study;
e. Chief Carper stated he received notification on the federal money coming through for the equipment grant, which will be used for the radio upgrading;
6. President Olson stated the commission may vote to convene into Closed Session pursuant to notice duly given and as allowed by Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(e) for review of public funds on contracting for an Interim Fire Chief.
Moved by Berth seconded by Hayes to convene into Closed Session at 6:08 p.m.
Motion carried upon verbal roll call vote. 5 ayes

Also included in the Closed Session: Mayor Nerenhausen and Chief Carper.

Closed Session

7. Moved by Hayes seconded by Longsine to reconvene into Open Session at 6:12 p.m.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

8. Moved by Berth seconded by Gering to approve of the employment contract between the City of Oconto and Donald Phillips as the Interim Fire Chief.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

9. Discussion/action/update on:
a. Employee access to police & fire departments; Olson stated draft policy notice was provided for commission review; back entrances to the departments are off limits to visitors; safety issue; all visitors to come to front window, and sign in with reason for the visit;
Moved by Longsine seconded by Berth to adopt the following policy and enforce: Effective immediately: Only full and part-time police and fire personnel are allowed access through the back entrances. All visitors must use the front door and will be required to sign in at the window stating reason for access to Police or Fire Departments.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

b. Letter from Town of Lt River regarding invoice for fire call on 7/16/09 for
$623.92; Tn Lt River stated they do not feel they are responsible for these
charges as county dispatch should not have called our dept out; and this fire call should have been handled under the Mutual Aid agreement; John Reed and Ryan Pecha present stated when dispatch was notified because of the description given by the caller reporting the fire, the county dispatched our fire dept, when it really was under the jurisdiction of the Tn of Lt River; Reed brought in Jack Mlnarik who was on duty for this call; Mlnarik confirmed what had been said, and seeing as we were already there our dept put out the grass fire; Mlnarik stated as a courtesy he called the Tn of Lt River and informed them; Commissioners verbally agreed to waive this invoice, hoping that if we need a return favor in the future, the Tn of Lt River responds the same;
Moved by Gering seconded by Hayes to waive Inv# 24593 for $623.92 billed to the Town of Lt River for the 7/16/09 fire call.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

c. Park benches on Main Street referred from the Park & Rec committee. Hayes stated we have a terrible problem, kids hanging around on the park benches; tree being damaged; referenced incident Julie Galik encountered with kid climbing a tree, then the mother coming into city hall verbally attacking Julie for telling her child to stop climbing the tree; flowers destroyed in front of Flowers shop; things going on behind the businesses on Main Street; Carper stated he issued a citation to someone on the park benches…since that incident has not heard anything; discussion on enforcing the ordinances; Carper stated it’s a fine line on loitering…talked to kids tonight in front of the pharmacy; Mayor stated dog walkers stopping to sit on the benches cannot be perceived as loitering; Verbally commission instructed Carper to make everyone in his department aware of these problems; we will not pull the park benches…police will step up enforcement…more police presence;

d. Training information from the full and part time fire fighters. Belongia she has received documentation from the employees regarding their training. Commission asked that this be provided to Chief Phillips for him to evaluate and report to the commission as to the level of training the fire fighters for the next meeting.

e. Request from Andrew Hoppe on fire protection and safety grant.
Moved by Hayes seconded by Gering to refer the grant application to Chief Phillips to meet with staff and come up with a proposal for what the grant could be applied for.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

f. Moved by Hayes seconded by Longsine to recommend the budgets be presented to the finance committee as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

10. Review of the Police dept report. Comment on police assisting on 19 lock outs;
Moved by Hayes seconded by Berth to accept the police report and place on file.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

11. Moved by Berth seconded by Hayes to accept the listing of accts payables for $4,238.78 and financial reports and place on file.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

12. Moved by Hayes seconded by Gering to accept and place on file the expense and revenue reports as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 5 ayes

13. No report on meetings or conferences attended.

Hayes stated with the new segment of hwy 41 ribbon cutting on 10/17 asked Carper for police presence; Mayor asked Carper to contact the State Police and County Sheriffs dept for assistance during the ribbon cutting with traffic;

14. Moved by Hayes seconded by Berth to adjourn. M/C
Meeting adjourned at 7:03 p.m.


Minutes submitted by
Linda M. Belongia,
Administrator