Notes on the Gold Hill Fire Protection District Board Meeting, June 21, 2012

By Gretchen Diefenderfer

Next board meeting is Thursday, July 19, 2012

Present were President Donal Maloney, Treasurer Gary Siemer, Rick Geesaman, Adriana Galue, and Chief Chris Finn as well as visitors, Debra Yeager, John Sand, and Gretchen Diefenderfer.

Donal called roll and Gary agreed to take minutes in Dave Sturtz’s absence.

Donal said that the focus of this first meeting as a new board is organizational.  The Fire conditions are critical – some of the worst this early in the year.  The board’s job is to facilitate the effective and safe response to this in conjunction with the chief.

Last month, the department, in conjunction with Sunshine and AMR, saved a life – the first one in his 10 years -.   He is very proud that past boards have instilled the ability to respond to an emergency of this kind.

Regarding the cistern easement issue, it’s really close to being finalized, per Chris.  Donal hasn’t been able to get in touch with Sue and Paul, but he will.

Minutes of the last meeting were passed around and approved.

OLD BUSINESS

Donal reported that all the legal notices, etc., that Dave Steinmann reported were necessary at the last meeting are up to date for the transition to the new board.  The transparency notice has been filed with the state and is up on the website.  It was suggested that it have its own menu tab and Adriana will do that.  Official notices have been submitted to the County Clerk’s office.

Website Update – Adriana reported that she completely redid the website and added links that she got from different rural departments that would be useful to us, posted the transparency notice, contact links, will put up some pictures that Chris will send to her, and re-did the mailing system (the announce list).  She changed the hosting, as the one we had used previously was not secure.  It is easy to move things around on the site.   Chris will be put as the contact for joining the department.  Adriana said that having a website can be very handy, especially in case of a disaster as well as establishing relationships with other departments, etc.

Donal reported that we have to be careful about how we make decisions – there are conditions concerning paying board members.  We need a detailed invoice and should have gotten bids.  Adriana will submit a detailed invoice for 24 hours of work at $35.00 an hour (she also donated more hours of research).  She suggested that they could get a quote from Angela Bowman who set up the Town website and from Boulder Digital Arts for due diligence.  Another cost was for Blue Host to host the site – they are one of the best and cheapest.  She paid for 3 years.

NEW BUSINESS

Regarding meeting procedures, Donal suggested that they should be better organized and gave out a 2-page version of Robert’s Rules of Order for consideration.  He asked the board members to look them over and maybe vote on adopting them at the next meeting as well as posting them on the website.  The goal is to effectively and courteously conduct meetings so they don’t fall apart.

As far as provisions for public input, the opinion from the lawyer to Dave Steinmann last fall is that public participation at the board’s business meeting is at the board’s discretion.  It’s the republican form of government where elected officials make the decisions,.  Donal suggested that quarterly at least ½ of the meeting be dedicated to public input.  He suggested that the first one be at the August meeting.  For now he wants to emphasize getting organized.

If people want an issue put on the agenda of a regular board meeting, they should submit it 2-4 weeks before the meeting, and it will be decided if it needs to be put on the agenda.  It wasn’t clear if they would allow the person to talk. The point of contact would be any board member who would then submit it to Donal.  The agenda is not set in stone, but Donal would like to send out the possible agenda to the rest of the board 2 weeks before the meeting, get input from the other board members and then post the agenda the required 24 hours before the meeting.    The Sunshine law says that they cannot have a meeting online – that only 2 people can talk so he suggest they should not reply all.

Rick suggested making the agenda process simpler – Donal can make the decision to put whatever on the agenda.

Donal said again that public participation is not automatically allowed.  He then suggested putting a separate tab on the website for the agenda and any board member can add to it.  Than he will post it 24 hours ahead.  This issue will be Old Business for the next meeting when Dave Sturtz is back.

Board Planning Horizons – One question is which board members have 2 year terms and which have 4 year terms.  No one was sure.  However, Donal said that since they are all going to work together for at least 2 years, he would like to see them put together 2, 4, and 10 year plans & outlooks – to develop strategic plans,

Adriana added that they should look at what can be realistically done to improve the department within the next year.  It has already been suggested that new SCBA and Red Cards for qualified firefighters are needed.

Budget matters – Donal asked how would they be paying for the website as far as the approved budget goes.  For instance, as of May $547 has been spent on legal fees and the budget for the year is $1000.  Chris said that last year the board ok’d the Board President to call the lawyer whenever needed.  Chris reported that the budget was approved by the board in October of 2011, but basically things can be moved around and there is always money in the emergency fund.    Donal said that this a learning curve for all – watching what they spend and how they spend it.  Chris will send out the budget for 2012 to all the board members.  The budget is developed yearly by Chris.  He submits it to the board and after it is ok’d it is submitted to the CPA for the legal accounting that he does.

Donal stated that to formally delineate Board vs. Chief responsibilities, the Chief is responsible for operations. The Board makes the decisions on funding and the Chief carries this out tactically.  Donal wants to clear up the issues around the training room of the fire station and Community Center – the scheduling and use of the building, and who approves the use.  The original agreement approved by the lawyer says specific uses are approved by the board.  Donal would like to change this to the Chief.  According to a 2010 letter from the dept. lawyer, the FPD is liable for the use of the building and should notify the insurance company and check on the general liability insurance.

It was decided that the building is part of operations and the daily scheduling of the building should revert to the Chief. He will get liability waivers signed and post meetings on the calendar in the Community Center.  It was suggested that the calendar could be put on the website, but Chris stated he was not going to go online to post the schedule because of the extra time it would take.  He wanted to emphasize that the GHFPD has precedence over any use of the building.  For the next meeting they will work out the wording of the use agreement, submit it to the lawyer and vote on it at the next meeting.

The last thing Donal wanted to bring up is the Healthy Forest Initiative Memorandum of Understanding.  He wonders if there is a fiscal commitment.  He will ask the lawyer’s opinion.  Kris Gibson would like to be on the agenda to talk about this.  Donal would like a written presentation.  Chris pointed out that this department doesn’t put out money for mitigation work.

Chief’s Report – Chris reported that the third bay concrete apron is erupting and needs to be fixed.  He has calls into several people for bids.  He got a bid from Arturo for $1800 for a 10” thick apron.  He said the board had also been discussing paving the parking lot.  Estimates are that it would cost $8000 for road base recycled asphalt, $21,000 for asphalt, and $27,000 for concrete.  It is required by law that 20% of the budget has to be allocated to the emergency fund.

There is a total Fire Ban – no shooting, no fires.  He requested that if anyone is calling in a smoke report, it would help if they would figure out the direction.  Always call 9-1-1, if there is any question that it might be fire.  The Sheriff has written $500 tickets for illegal fires and the Fire Department puts them out.

Rick has been thinking about our water supply and generic ideas for improving it.  He suggested that the ranch swimming pool, although damaged, could be fixed and also, there was formerly a pond on Gold Run across from Gail’s that he thinks could be an incredibly cheap fix with flexible, thick plastic sheeting.  He also wondered about Chinaman’s ditch, but others thought that it’s allocated by water rights and is also discontinuous.

It was moved to adjourn and the motion passed.