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11/14/2023 Regular MeetingKodiak Island Borough Fire Protection Area No. 1 Service Area Board Regular Meeting November 14, 2023 A regular meeting of the Fire Protection Area No. 1 Service Area Board was held on November 14, 2023, in the Bayside Fire Hall. 1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chair Richard Carstens called the meeting to order at 6:03 pm. 2. ROLL CALL Staff Brian Price conducted a roll call. Members present were Chairman Richard Carstens, Mike Dolph, Scott Arndt, and John Parker. A Quorum was established. Also present was Fire Chief Scott Ellis. 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA ARNDT MOVED to approve the agenda with moving the Election Of Chair And Vice Chair to New Business. PARKER seconded. VOICE VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 4. APROVAL OF MINUTES ARNDT MOVED to approve the minutes of the 9.12.2023. DOLPH Seconded. VOICE VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 5. ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF FINANCIAL REPORT ARNDT MOVED to acknowledge the Financial Report dated 11.6.2023. DOLPH seconded. VOICE VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 6. CITIZENS' COMMENTS (Limited to Three Minutes per Speaker) Brian Price - Welcome Mayor Arndt. Glad to have you here. 7. FIRE CHIEF'S REPORT Chief Ellis gave his report. Chief Ellis first expressed his gratitude to the hard work and patience of both Bayside personnel and Borough Staff as he settled into his position the past few months. 4 newer members were acknowledged. New incident reporting sheets had been created to help with the Alaska National Fire Incident Reporting Kodiak Island Borough Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board Meeting November 14, 2023 Minutes I L System or ANFIRS. He noted the changes and new additions to the form after he passed copies to the board. Chief Ellis described another addition of support personnel to the form. 2 support personnel currently help with axillary work for the Fire Station such as general upkeep and care. Chief Ellis mentioned that this was put into motion by former Bayside Fire Chief Finlayson. The goal is to expand the program and increase the number of support personnel up to 5. This will assist to offload axillary work that On -Call Personnel do in the facility, encouraging more effective use of personnel time. Chief Ellis then began to explain the forward outlook for getting probationary firefighters trained and up to their minimum required volunteer firefighters. The national and state firefighters standard for hours requirements is 200 hours regardless of position, experience, or area population. Chief Ellis continued to explain new integrations to training. He hopes to attain accreditation for new recruits to absolve liability. The State Fire Marshal's Office has been contacted to approve Bayside Fire Department's ability to certify credible persons. Chief Ellis hopes to maintain the current ISO rating of 4 and ultimately aims to reduce the number to 3. Womens Bay Fire Department was mentioned to provide scale reference of scoring. The remainder of trainings for Ice/Water Rescue are set for new recruits and will be done in conjunction with other entities that work alongside Bayside. Chief Ellis also reported on a recent call that Bayside responded to in tandem with City Fire. He mentioned that the work performed that day by both entities in tandem with one another was seamless. Chief Ellis reported on other outreach efforts. He urged the board and the public to help the Salvation Army in any way possible to help with their holiday demand and understaffing. Chief Ellis updated the board on the his efforts to transition Bayside Fire Department to fully -digital records management systems. Trainings, incidents, and reporting have all been successfully transitioned to digital. Chief Ellis also made mention of a new portal that will make this information readily available, noting also that this ease of accessing information has lead to payroll being greatly expedited. Chief Ellis added that he anticipates the availability of this information will help with state -level grant applications. The portal dashboard was explained to the board. John Parker asked if this resource would be available to the public. Chief Ellis responded that it will not, however regular postings of Bayside Fire's statistics will be provided through Facebook. Chief Ellis had also worked to change the organizational level of Bayside Fire Department to resemble a company level of organization. Qualified drivers were assigned to vehicles to breed accountability and keep the assigned individuals accountable for maintenance also. Chief Ellis passed out an updated Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) list to the board. He shared his ideas behind condensing and changing the SOP. The personnel manual had also been updated to reflect the Borough Staff personnel manual. The idea was to create consistency between manuals since Bayside's personnel could be construed as Borough employees in a legalistic sense. Chief Ellis noted that the updates had been vetted and approved by the Borough and its consultants. 8. CHAIR PERSONS' REPORT Kodiak Island Borough November 14, 2023 Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board Meeting Minutes r Chair Richard Carstens attempted to amend the agenda once more to move the next citizens comments to after "Old Business", but was discussed between the board that the agenda approval with the initial amendment had already been moved and passed. Staff Brian Price was instructed to note the correction and maintain format of previous meetings. Chair Richard Carstens gave his report. He began with welcoming Scott Arndt back to the board. Craig Walton was thanked for his time and service to the board. 9. NEW BUSINESS Election of Chair & Co -Chair Before making nominations, Chair Richard Carstens opened the floor to discussion. The board had different opinions on whether to proceed or postpone. There were concerns that holiday season could reasonably continue to limit board member attendance even if postponed. This concern lead members in favor of holding the election at the current meeting to opt for proceeding regardless of if the whole board is in attendance. Other members desired to postpone, thus providing another opportunity for the whole board to be present for participation in the election. ARNDT MOVED to postpone the election of Chair and Vice -Chair to the next regular meeting. PARKER SECONDED. ROLL CALL VOTE ON MOTION FAILED. 2 NO — 2 YES The result and outcomes of moving to postpone was discussed by the board. Scott Arndt voiced that the vote was split, 2 yes - 2 no, and displayed a lack of majority consensus to proceed with the election. Chair Carstens opposed and believed that the presence of the election on the approved, amended agenda should be followed as the will of the board. John Parker wished to change his vote but was reminded that a change of vote should occur immediately after the vote is cast, before discussion, and before the result is announced. John Parker referenced prior trainings provided specifically to service board members in which the Borough Attorney had stated "It is always better to ere on the side of caution." John Parker felt that advice alone was ample incentive to postpone. Chair Richard Carstens decided that the election would proceed and, if necessary, would be redone if deemed invalid by the Borough Parliamentarian. Chair Richard Carstens opened the floor to nominations for Board Chair. DOLPH nominated Richard Carstens for board Chair. ARNDT nominated Paul Vandyke. Ballots were dispensed to the board to write their vote, collected, and then announced by Staff Brian Price. Richard Carstens won the vote 3 to 1 and was named Chair of the Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board. Chair Richard Carstens opened the floor to nominations for Board Co -Chair. ARNDT nominated himself. CARSTENS nominated John Parker. Kodiak Island Borough November 14, 2023 Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board Meeting Minutes The same procedure was conducted by Brian Price for dispensing, collecting, and announcing ballots. John Parker won the vote 3 to 1 and was named Co -Chair of the Fire Protection Area No. 1. Board. 10. CITIZENS' COMMENTS There were no citizens comments. 11. OLD BUSINESS Review Of The Previous Fiscal 5-Year Plan Chair Richard Carstens began the review of the previous fiscal 5-year plan and invited Chief to share his thoughts on the plan from his perspective. Chief Ellis emphasized what aspects of planning were important to him at the start. Constant re-evaluation of community risk -reduction were foremost in mention, followed by ideas to create information that can be continually supported. Examples for information needed like data sets, appendices and other sources were mentioned. Chief Ellis believed that adequate strategic planning is critical to and reliant upon continuing to foster connections with other entities. Chief Ellis sees this planning as something that will continue to serve as a guide in the future even in the absence of members who conceive its contents. Scott Arndt felt that the board will need copies of Chief Ellis' updated Strategic Fiscal 5-year Plan once it becomes available. The board discussed apparatus procurement in the near future to replace Engine 10. Ideas of how to refine that procurement process budgetarily and procedurally were discussed. John Parker considered the Bayside Additions to the facility as the most pertinent aspect to consider. The board had made the repeated effort in the past to move forward in this project and have incurred greater cost than initially projected. John Parker felt that failing to move forward with that effort could result in a continued negative impact to the Fire Protection Area No. 1 Budget. Chief Ellis responded to John Parker's concerns by sharing the recent efforts put forth to correct and consider long term solutions for the facility. Examples such as creation of a personnel lounge area, office areas, and other ideas were shared. Chief Ellis noted that some of the new implementations have been short-term fixes but acknowledged that his considerations come from a forward -looking, wholistic view of the facility needs. Chair Carstens appreciated the difference in approach. Other considerations of facility needs were relayed to the board by Chief Ellis. 12. BOARD MEMBERS' COMMENTS There were no board member comments. 13. SET NEXT MEETING DATE The board briefly discussed scheduling of the next meeting. Scott Arndt felt that the next meeting should be a work session to allow further discussion of unresolved matters. The availability of board members was shared. John Parker felt that putting a Kodiak Island Borough Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board Meeting November 14, 2023 Minutes work session at the end of November would give the board an opportunity to hold another meeting in December if possible. It was determined by the board that Tuesday, November 28th, 2023 would be the most suitable day to schedule the work session. 14. ADJOURNMENT PARKER MOVED to adjourn the meeting. ARNDT seconded. ATTEST: Brian Price, Board Secretary KIB Engineering/Facilities Department KODIAK ISLAND BOROUGH Chair Richard Glarstens, Fire Protection Area No. 1 Approved on: ' 'i► �IV �D JAN 2 4 2024 BOROUGH CLERICS OFFICE KODAK, ALASKA Kodiak Island Borough Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board Meeting November 14, 2023 Minutes