General Information

Government Type

Special Service District

Entity

Cedar Mountain Service District

Public Body

Board of Trustees

Notice Information

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Notice Title

September Meeting Minutes

Notice Tags

Administrative Services

Notice Type(s)

Meeting

Event Start Date & Time

September 10, 2016 09:00 AM

Event End Date & Time

September 10, 2016 02:00 PM

Description/Agenda

Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Minutes September 10, 2016 3620 Mammoth Creek Road, Duck Creek Village, UT. 84762 Board Members Present: Mike Petullo, Chairman Frank Gagliardi, District Clerk Brad Robbins, Treasurer Chuck Brechler, Member-absent Jay Wilhelm, Member - Absent Robert Shackleford, Member absent Diane Adams, Member It is September 10, 2016 at 10:02 am. The September meeting of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Board of Trustees monthly meeting is now in session. Invocation Pledge of Allegiance Agenda: Swearing in of Board Member: Diane Adams is sworn in by District Clerk Gagliardi as a board member and has taken her seat on the board, and we now have a quorum for the meeting. Chairman Petullo reminded Diane Adams to take the board member training course. Once during your term this training is required, but every year the open meeting law is required to show the auditors every year that we are in compliance. Chairman's Comments: Chairman Petullo stated the tokens are in for the sign up for Zions Bank checking account. Chairman Petullo and Treasurer Robbins are already signed up and Chairman Petullo stated they only have until September 15 to get signed up. If you do not register by the 15th you are locked out of the account for 7 days. Treasurer Robbins needs someone else to get on the system so we can start trying it out. District Clerk Gagliardi said he would get signed up today after the meeting. Minutes: District Clerk Gagliardi made the motion to approve the July minutes. Treasurer Robbins seconded the motion. Motion Carried. District Clerk Gagliardi made the motion to approve the Emergency Board Minutes from August 23, 2016. Treasurer Robbins seconded the motion. Motion carried. Treasures Report: July Report: Treasurer Robbin reported. To open a new checking account at Zions $200,000.00 had to be moved. Zions Fire Checking $200,000.00 Capitol Improvement 151,888.18 Fire Funds Checking 38,023.87 Fire Funds Savings 103,593.01 Fund Raising Savings 7,276.05 Mountain America 3,004.25 Snow Emergency Fund 3,005.81 Snow Removal Funds 51,044.50 Wells Fargo 237,619.77 Total Checking/Savings $1,011,853.22 Chairman Petullo interrupted stating that he forgot to mention our meetings are conducted under Roberts Rules of Order, so as we go through the various items on the agenda the sponsor's name is next to that item so they can present first, then we will allow the board to discuss and then comments from the public. August Report: Treasurer Robbins reported: Zions Fire Checking $199,955.83 Capital Improvements 151,926.88 Fire Funds Checking 39,504.71 Fire Funds Savings 78,688.04 Fund Raising Savings 7,276.05 Mountain America 3,004.64 Snow Emergency Fund 10,335.15 Snow Removal Funds 51,055.34 Wells Fargo 237,630.22 Zions 224,977.04 Total Checking/Savings $1,004,353.90 $50.00 set up fee for Zions and the check scanner. We did deposit two checks into the snow checking account without any problems by means of the scanner instead of making so many trips down the mountain to do our banking. Motion was made to approve both July and August Treasurer Report by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motion was seconded by Board Member Adams. Motion was carried. Treasurer Robbins said we need to raise the credit on our State Bank Credit Card. The limit is $5000.00 now and due to the Fire Dept. only having one credit card the limit should be raise to $15000.00. The board agreed to raise the limit to $15000.00. District Clerk Gagliardi stated $15000.00 was what we had between the two credit cards before and that is fine with him. Treasurer Robbins also stated that the Treasurer's function is being run differently now. Now with Board member Adam's background in banking and she is willingly to take over the job of reconciling the banks statements. The State states that the Treasurer should not be reconciling the statements as the Treasurer writes the checks with the District Clerks approval. Board Member Adams will take over that function probably next month. District Clerk's Report: District Clerk Gagliardi reported that for the last two months were relatively normal, relatively consistent. 940 and 941 taxes came through. So there were a little additional expenses for those. One voided check for $892.50 voided check was written to Bradshaw Chevrolet due to sales tax being charged. Total expenditures between each month were between $20,000.00 and $25,000.00 which is on our average. Budget wise, we are pretty much on track with the exception of a couple of line items that District Clerk Gagliardi will adjust, that were over expended right now. Just in the specific line number not on the category. Surety Bond was increased due to the legislature passing the bill that all Board Members have to be bonded, so that increased our Surety Bond expenses from $900.00 a year to $3000.00 a year which is mandated by law. Only $900.00 was budgeted. We are over on that line. Budget as a total we are sitting at 60% of total budgeted expenses, which is right in the ballpark for where we ought to be. Any questions? No Snow side. The first 2016-2017 season snow checks will be written prior to October 15 per contract, then we will have snow expenses through June 2017. We had a family come in and stated they had no snow assessment on their tax bill and there should have been. They had just bought the place and were curious. In researching this it was found that a lot of parcels have not been getting assessed for snow removal. District Clerk Gagliardi called the County Treasurer on August 17, 2016 and he is still researching why that is and what they can do about fixing it. District Secretary Tuttle identified about 20 parcels which is right off Lake Road, but there are other parcels in other subdivision as well. The County is the controlling factor in that. They have all the records through the recorder's office. So they are researching to see what the fix is or is there an exemption for those parcels we are not aware of. No answer back yet, and with the tax bills going out in a month we probably won't hear back prior to this tax bill season. The Chief is working on an employee handbook along with Mark Bednarik from Salt Lake for our full time employees. At the last meeting we passed out the Chief's list of priorities. Nothing new on that yet, the new budget for 2017 is consistent with those priorities. District Clerk Gagliardi would like to get the Board's approval on the priorities once everyone get a chance to look them over and incorporate them in the long range plan so we will have the published list of priorities that everyone is aware of what is most important to the district from a financial stand point. Treasurer Robbins said he supports these priorities and thanks the District Clerk for his hard work. Chief's Report: Response: Since there was no Board Meeting in August, they have responded to77 calls for service. 32 EMS calls of which 1 was an ATV accident where we used Classic Air Ambulance. 11 fire calls of which one was a two day operation to assist State and Federal fire crews. 25 fire pit inspections. 9 public assist calls. Calls were from assisting a person back into their cabin after a doctor's visit to a smoke detector that needed battery replacements. Fleet: Vehicle Maintenance: Weekly rig and equipment checks were performed. Training: One of our members has completed the National Registry EMR testing and received her certification. Due to a problem with finger printing, not everyone has gotten to take the National Registry EMR test. Four of our members are taking an AEMT class this semester at the Charleston Campus of the College of Southern Nevada. Dispatching of CMFPD A misunderstanding occurred between Kane County Ambulance Manager, Kane County Dispatch and CMFPD. For approximately one month, we were not being dispatched to EMS calls on the mountain. Alton was still responding, but we were not being dispatched. CMFPD met with representatives from all the agencies including Commissioners to rectify the problem. At this time CMFPD is responding at the first aid level for EMS responses. Fire is ok, but for EMS they are only for the first aid level. The Chief is in the process of getting his vehicle, Rescue 70, Engine 71, as Quick Response Units that will allow us to operate at the level of QRU as designated. Our plan is to start at EMR and to progress up to the AEMT designation. Quick Response Designation We are getting the required documentation together for the Utah Bureau of Emergency Medical Service (BEMS). This will allow CMFPD to respond to medical emergencies at the level the Quick Response Designation holds, EMR, EMT, AEMT. CMFPD units will respond to begin assessment and treatment of the patient, transferring patient care to a transport agency such as Kane County Ambulance or an air ambulance. Four things we are waiting on: We are waiting for a letter from the dispatch center stating they will support the QRU. We are waiting for a letter from Kane County Hospital stating they will support the QRU. We are waiting for a letter from Dr. Ott stating he will provide our medical oversight. We are waiting for a letter from our board stating that they will cover the financial responsibilities associated with operating a QRU. Grants: We got a state grant for $15000.00. We were not awarded the 2015 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (Engine and Extrication Equipment). We have not heard on the Safer Grant for the paid position of the firefighters. They notify every Friday and so far we have not been on the list. Full Firefighter Positions Since our last board meeting the two fulltime firefighter have come on board. Originally the firefighters were on duty from 0900-1900 Friday through Monday but the shift days have changed to 0900-1900 Thursday through Sunday to allow for an AEMT class that the two fulltime fire fighters are enrolled in. There are four members of our fire department that are enrolled in the class. Chief Tuttle tried to get a class in Southern Utah, but all the classes were full. They are taking the class in Southern Nevada. Due to the classes being on Monday, clinical on Tuesday and Wednesday, they are leaving on Sunday night after the guys are off work, and coming back Thursday morning. We are going to be a little shorthanded Sunday night through Wednesday night until the end of December when the class is over. They are still working the four tens. Response times have been enhanced greatly with having firefighters on duty. Likewise, the station and vehicle maintenance has vastly improved. That was to be expected but what the Chief did not expect was the amount of people that come in for minor stuff. They do not want an ambulance, they just want to get checked out or even for directions. Several medical calls have come in right at 7:00 p.m. so these guys are being held over and are getting overtime. There was one fire call they had to go out on. In the Chief's mind this is proof that we need 24/7 coverage. Once the guys leave he does not know who will be here. They have spent the night a couple of times here at the station. It is easier to do when they have early morning things to do. One firefighter lives in Zion View. They have had calls as late as 10:30 at night. People will come by here seeking help. People are use to a fire department being open 24/7 so they will come to the fire station for minor stuff, twisted ankle, cut finger, they will splint them, bandage them and people will be on their way. This is a real need that has become apparent now that we have people here. Pancake Breakfast 2016 We had one of our volunteers injured in a K-9 demonstration during the Pancake Breakfast. We are having an issue going on with workman's comp, but it will be worked out. Chief Tuttle just wanted everyone to know. Brag Badge Brag Badge is a system that gets the school children out in the public. We have had 14 children visit the fire station for a station tour. This is part of the Kane County Unplugged Program offered where children participate in activities to earn a Brag Badge. The Fire Station is the only one in Duck Creek participating in this program. We hope to have more participants next year. Treasurer Robbins made the comment that he was partially involved in this and what Kane County did to us was absolutely wrong, wrong to the public that we serve. Here the Chief is thinking that we are going on medical calls out there, yet Kane County was not dispatching us to go on those calls. The sad part is that Kane County did not tell us we had to find out through other means. Treasurer Robbins is glad that this is gotten resolved, but he does not know how they operate down there, but evidentially the hospital administrators have the power to do this type of stuff and it is wrong. Again, we are back in service again, but this should not have happened and he blames this on the hospital and their administrative staff for at least not telling us to not respond. Chief Tuttle said for public information when a call did come over he would tell his guys to go and respond. He found out this was breaking the law for responding to things we were not dispatched to and that was wrong. Chief Tuttle said 2 1/2 years ago he was trying to get our QRU on the Rescue and Kane County Hospital told the Chief don't worry about that, just use the umbrella that covers us and you can respond. So, it worked out, they gave us equipment and we were responding, but once they told dispatch not to dispatch us part of the reason they gave us was that we were not a licensed response agency, which is confusing since they told us not to worry about that to begin with. So we are going to be legally a QUR. We had to have a meeting and prove that to the hospital and to the sheriff's department, which we did, and we were successful, however we are limited to our scope of practice. We are limited to first aid and CPR. By January we will get our QRU for EMR and rapidly after that we will get our EMT. So if anyone needs us, call 911 and we will still respond, we will be there for first aid, which is for controlling bleeding, etc., but cannot administer oxygen. Chairman Petullo stated he has learned more about EMS services in the last two months than he has learned in his entire life and he has been doing emergency management for over 20 year. It is a process, but we will get there. Public comment: Ed Wells stated it was unnerving to get a message that the people you expect to respond will not respond any longer. Chief Tuttle agreed. Cheryl Case wanted to thank Chief Tuttle for all his efforts and hard work. Old Business Townsite Act (County Bill) Mike/ Frank discussion; The Townsite Act: The County wants to buy some land around the station, including the land we sit on from the Forestry Service. This process is called the Townsite Act. It is a code of Federal Regulations that allows the Forestry Service to sell off federal land. Early on in the process the county sent to the interested parties, us included, an inquiry form asking if we were interested, how much land we are interested in and so on. Chairman Petullo filled out the form and we presented it at a meeting that we were interested and we needed to know the price per acre and how much land was being allocated for CMFPD. We sent that back to the Commissioner and we have a copy on file here. Recently on two different occasions there have been surveyors out here around the station and in the woods behind us where the lagoon is, surveying the land. It seems like this process is moving forward, but we are not being informed of price per acre, when this is going to happen and so forth. Chairman Petullo is not sure how the county is doing this, but in order for us to purchase the land it has to come before the board. The board has to approve it whatever the price per acre is and so forth. There has to be a budget item for it, which we don't have because no one is telling us anything. District Clerk Gagliardi got some information back in July from the Water Conversancy. District Clerk Gagliardi stated in July the Water Conversancy District had a board meeting here and at that time Commissioner Clayson, who is the Chairman of County Commission right now and also sits on the board for the Water Conversancy District, had a brief discussion about their involvement in this. They are involved in this as they are the primary users of this land once the transfer of ownership takes place. They are the ones driving the train basically. There are percolation ponds behind us and they want those ponds and want to develop a sewer system of sorts. It's a lot cheaper for them to use ponds that are already built rather than starting from scratch. We have a real interest in this because we own this building, but we don't own the land it sits on. This is forest land. Our lease expires in two years, and we have been trying to work with the forest service for a least the last year. To see what their intent is on how they are going to handle our lease renewal. We have gotten nowhere on it. We have sent letters to Senator Mike Lee and we gotten no response back from him. District Clerk Gagliardi will send another letter to him reminding that we are hear. We sit on, in our lease, almost five acres. A lot of the dirt parking lot is not included in the five acres. It is not as much room as it looks like here. So we are looking at eight to ten acres range. Commissioner Clayson commented that the price per acre will probably be somewhere in the $12000.00 to $20,000.00 range per acre. That is only part of the cost. There are survey expenses, Chairman Petullo mentioned they are already doing the survey. At the meeting Commissioner Clayson mentioned that they are just going to split it up and send the bill out to all the parties that have expressed an interest in the land. So we may see a bill for about $7000.00. We will have to deal with that when we see it as we have had no input into who is doing the surveying, what surveying gets done, what is the cost, how is the cost going to be split up, none of those things. We are taking some issues with how all this is being handled. That is what happened at the water conversancy meeting. Chairman Petullo said the reason this is being brought up, we will probably get an unauthorized bill for $7000.00 You would think all the agencies that are involved in this project would be having meetings bringing the agencies up to date as to what is going on, so we can come back and fix the budget appropriately for the expenses. Comment from the public by Theresa Zellhoefer: Are we anticipating getting the boot out of here? What are we forecasting? Chairman Petullo stated personally he does not think they are going to boot us out of here. We are interested in the land and the main station should be here. There was agreement from the public. If they do boot us out of here we do not have another plan. Commissioner Smith said they have never booted anyone out. At one of the Water Conversancy meeting someone commented that if one of the interest parties backs out of this process, then in addition to us, there is Western Kane County Garbage Disposal that is involved. At one time the hospital was involved, the sheriff's department was involved and a couple of other agencies were involved. If one agency backs out then they have to back to the drawing board and the whole process starts over again. District Clerk Gagliardi stated that last summer the CMFPD looked at every parcel to see if we could buy one of the parcels in the event that this was just not a good option for us. The challenge for us was the cost of the land, plus the cost to replace this building, you are looking at 1.2 or 1.3 million range to replace as it and like Chairman Petullo said it is not adequate any more. This building was built twenty years ago for a different need than we have today. We have seen some possibilities of parcels, and have had someone wanting to donate some land in Swains Creek, but the owner has been hard to get a hold of to find out which parcels. Real Property in Swains; Unfortunately the person that was going to donate the land in Swains Creek is now deceased. Chairman Petullo would like this taken off the agenda. Removed from the agenda. Swains Creek Barn/ Metal Building Chairman Petullo said we have had discussion here on that and also at length emailing back and forth with Janelle Pearce who is the HOA president. Janelle contacted Shannon McBride at the County Land Authority. Shannon McBride talked with the Kane County Attorney and it was suggested that they would have to do a spot zone change in order for us to purchase the metal building that is at the end of the runway on Grassy Drive. Right now it is zoned residential so this spot change would have to happen for it to become commercial. The CMFPD would have to do an application at least three week before the Commissioner meeting the land use or planning committee whatever they are called. It is $250.00 to file the application. A hearing would be required for the people that reside within 500 feet of the property . There is a $10.00 fee for each notification which we would have to pay. The Land Use Commission would actually send the notices out. Shannon recommended a conditional use permit be issued which is approved in Shannon McBride's office. For an extra layer of protection she suggested that the current owner put a deed restriction on the sale, which would be recorded with the title to insure that the property is for public safety use only, so down the road if we decide to sell they cannot put a Walmart there or something. This is where we are at. The whole idea was to put an engine out there so it would reduce the ISO rating. It would take while to do that. The Chief would have to send documentation to the ISO people. It would be very beneficial to everyone out there and in some incidents people have had their insurance lowered a $100 dollars. The metal building sits on 1 acre and is 2400 sq. feet. In order to purchase this the Board would have to go into a closed session for land acquisition. We are allowed to do that by state law. We have not been inside the building, but we know it has a dirt floor. We would need a cement floor, heat, insulation, plumbing, septic or a portable unit out there with a wash stand as CMFPD would not be out there all the time. Three contractors submitted estimates. These are tentative as we are not able to gain access. Cedar Mountain Builders broke it down to what we would need and it is around $60,000.00 dollars for septic, floor, insulation, plumbing includes vanity, toilet and includes driveways. Chief Tuttle stated that what he sent out was an estimate on floors, septic, insulation and did talk about the drive way. The other two contractors are Wild Bill's and Brandon Harris. Chief Tuttle is not sure what is included in their proposals. So Chief Tuttle said that the cost is somewhere between $30,000.00 and $60,000.00 for the additions to the existing barn. Real value of the property is $65,000.00 market value. Chief Tuttle said he had a conversation with the owner he is open to sale or lease the property. The owner towards the end of the conservation was very agreeable. He did state some concerns legalities that have already been addressed. Chief Tuttle still likes the metal building idea the best. He has volunteers in Swains Creek that right now. They have to drive past some of the accidents on the highway to get hear to the equipment and then go back. Chief Tuttle wants everyone to come to the station, get their equipment and go to the scene. If he had a station in Swains Creek he has least two responders from that station. He has tentatively planned for Engine 77, that holds three people, to be housed out there. It will beneficial to the owners in Swains Creek as it will bring down there ISO rating, people will have a station there, all the houses are within a 1000 feet of hydrants so they will be classified as a Class 5. It will help us with response time because people will have equipment ready to go whether it is in Swains or somewhere else. MOU Swains Creek use of barn Chairman Petullo and the Chief have had numerous discussions about this existing barn. Chairman Petullo stated that he does not believe that particular barn is big enough to house the engine. It would hinder what Bill Roderick, Manager of Swains, has to do in his job. We had talked about a lease agreement two or three meetings ago with the attorney present, Lowery Snow of Snow, Jensen and Reece. Mr. Snow took the lease and will put the lawyer language in it. He has not come back with that yet. In the meantime we have had discussions and he believes it is better to focus on the metal building and remove from agenda the barn. Discussion continued as a board member was confused on the metal building and the barn. Chief Tuttle explained the ISO rating system again to a Swains Creek owner. Comments from the public: Gina Chapman stated that Farmers Insurance uses the ISO rating. She wants to clarify that having an unmanned station in Swains Creek will indeed be considered. Chief Tuttle replied yes. Chairman Petullo stated he lives in Elk Ridge and it is an unmanned station and they get a reduction because they are within five miles of the station. Chairman Petullo also stated that the insurance company uses a PPC (Public Protection Classification) rating 1-10 and not an ISO rating. Insurance companies use different term knowledge. Alan Zellhoefer stated that he looks at this different. If you put an unmanned station in Swains, he doesn't worry about his insurance rates, he looks at CMFPD as having the protection equipment available to use. Having the manpower and equipment available to him is the most important thing. Chairman Petullo stated he had gotten an email from Chuck Costa basically stating the same thing. Bill Roderick, Manager of Swains Creek, stated that since Barbara Christensen has passed away her daughter Joyce is running J. D. Investment Company and has for a number of years. Mr. Roderick said Joyce may be a little easier to work with. Barbara was quite a business lady. Joyce might be a little more forth coming with property. The sales office up by the tennis courts would be a better location. This might be worth contacting Joyce about. Gina Chapman hopes the Board will move forward with the metal building. There are 500 lots in Swains and 300 cabins. They have discussed this at many meetings and volunteers from Swains would help in any way with the work on the metal building, just let them know. From a medical point they all seem to want an engine or two out there. Chairman stated he had only heard one negative comment about the building and it was asked if it could be painted another color. Ed and Kerry are residents of Swains Creek and are not on the Board at Swains Creek and want to state they are in full support of the metal building being another station. District Clerk Gagliardi stated that he hoped they take away from this meeting that we are on their side and that is why so much time and effort has been spent on this project. What we want to do is make the smartest discussion we can and that metal building may be it. There are some drawbacks to the building also. It is a ways down in Swains, think about the winter time, getting out of the building, going up that hill to the runway. We have been addressing this for longer than a year and a half trying to find the best solution down there that doesn't cost us an arm and a leg. If we go with bare land and we have to put a building on it that is going to be a half a million dollars just to put the building on it. Is that the way to go? District Clerk Gagliardi just doesn't know. He does think the metal building is a great alternative . He hasn't been in it so he does not know what it is structurally inside, but assuming it is structurally sound this may be the way to go if we can get it at a reasonable price within the money we have to work with. District Clerk Gagliardi would also like everyone to realize that Station 1 is inadequate now. It was built 20 years ago. We need to look at expanding this building. We vehicles parked outside in the winter time that we just don't have space for. We have a lot of financial issues that are facing us and we are sure you, the public, want us to be a smart as we can be with your money. Encourage other folks to come to the meetings so they can see what goes on here. It is not a secret and you can see what we care about and it should reflect what you want us to care about. Our goal is to do want the community wants us to do for them. Swains Creek Debris Removal Chief Tuttle stated that the home owner was generous enough to wave the coast of debris removal. She did want us to burn the building down, but the weather is not cooperating. The volunteers are training on it and are doing a lot of the firefighter survival stuff, rescue drills, and he has been putting in small fires that they can manage. They have been using the piercing nozzle and getting training with the thermal imaging camera. He has done a lot of overhaul in the area. They have been using the cabin and will use it again today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day to use it as the contractor will have it demolished. There will not be a cost to us. Everyone is invited over to watch the volunteers. New Business: Board Member Resignation: Resignation from Jay Wilhelm: 'Please accept my resignation from the board effective immediately. Once again I am unable to make a meeting.' Jay had scheduled an emergency meeting here a couple of weeks ago. It was his meeting and then he did not come to the meeting due to work issues. The reason this is being brought up the attorney informed us when a board member resigns the resignation has to be accepted by the board. He is still a board member until he is replaced. Motion made by Treasurer Robbins to accept the resignation of Jay Wilhelm. Motion was seconded by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motion Carries. EMS Response This is in regards to the license for the response vehicle to make it a quick response unit (QRU) and the hospitals' action in us responding. The public received that message about stopping response, Chairman Petullo was the one that sent it out. He wanted to let the people know why CMFPD was not responding. Comment from the public, it was good to know, glad we got the notification. There are a couple of things that Chairman Petullo does not want to go into as the attorneys are involved in. The hospital is under the impression that they are the sole authority for Emergency Medical Services in Kane County. In the meeting that the Chief referred to earlier we presented to the Hospital Administrator, the EMS Coordinator and the County Commissioners, and the Sheriff the ordinance from 2004 that gave CMFPD the authority to provide EMS Response. That is how we got to the agreement we are at now. The hospital is still under the impression that they have overall control of all the EMRS, the Emergency Medical Responders, The EMTS and the EMT Advance folks of which we have four that along with the Chief are in class. There are some individuals that are a part of our EMS group that wanted to be apart of the Kane County Hospital Employee group and not necessarily assigned to CMFPD. There are issues regarding insurance, liability insurance, workmen's comp, whom is paying them, when they are employees of ours and when they are employees down there. This is a volunteer fire department, but they are paid volunteers when they go out on a response. CMFPD is paying them while they are on a response. It is a graded pay scale so the more certifications they have, the more they make. It is an incentive program for the volunteers and that is how the Chief has maintained the cadre that we have. With any organization people volunteer, but after a while they go away. We have maintained pretty much the entire cadre that the Chief has recruited. All that being said; the individuals that wanted to be part of the Kane County EMS group have requested a leave of absences and that was granted. We hope they are not wearing the CMFPD garb. Again it goes back to the liability and all that stuff. The Chief is working for the QRU. There are two licenses, a license to transport and a license for quick response. The hospital's license is to transport. It has nothing to do with owning the EMS cadre, our guys. That is part of the negotiations. Employee Evaluations The paid employees are evaluated ever year. The policy read states that a least one Board Member conducts the review of the hourly wage folks, basically Betty and Cheryl, when that is completed the documents are given to the Chairman, then they are discussed and the scoring is done. The two new guys will not be evaluated at this time as they just started. They are usually done after three month. We need another Board Member to evaluate the Chief. Treasurer Robbins asked how this was done in the past and Chairman Petullo explained it to him. District Clerk Gagliardi volunteered to evaluate Betty and Cheryl. Treasurer Robbins volunteered to evaluate the Chief. Assets Acquisition Wish List Chairman Petullo said this had been talked a little about earlier. Motion was made to adopt the Assets Acquisition Wish List and incorporate into the long range plan by Treasurer Robbins. Motion was seconded by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motion was carried. Resolution 16-01 This has to do with Roberts Rule of Order. District Clerk Gagliardi stated that the legislature in this past session determined local districts, which we are, are required to publish rules of order for the meetings. The Board conducts themselves in accordance to Roberts Rule of Order and we have adopted that formally, but we need to have a formal set of rules that addresses the public or anyone that attends the meetings how to conduct themselves at the meetings. In years past some of the meetings have gotten fairly contentious. That has not occurred in the past few years as there has been an effort not to allow that. Chairman Petullo has done a tremendous job of not letting that happen. The statue also requires that the rules be published and available to anyone who attends the meetings. So we are planning to adopt these. They are pretty basic. Basically it says be considerate, be professional, don't yell and scream, things like that. District Clerk Gagliardi made the motion to adopt this Resolution NO. 16-01 with the attached rules for meetings. Member Adams seconded the motion. Motion carried. 2017 Tentative Budget. Chairman Petullo stated we have to approve the budget tentatively for 2017. Then there is a public hearing, and then it goes on the agenda for the next board meeting, then we vote to approve it. This is just tentative. District Clerk Gagliardi stated our budget year is a calendar year. We are working on the 2017 fiscal year budget for 2017. So any numbers in red are higher than the 2016 budget. Any numbers in the blue are lower than the 2016 budget. The black numbers are the same. Line 14 our anticipated revenue, revenue from each assessment for each taxable parcel, is forecast to stay the same. There have been issues in the County Treasurer's office this last year that have made it difficult for us to get an exact number of taxable parcels. They have not been able to update that for the District Clerk and they have a new Treasurer. Prior Treasurer's term expired early. Typically the number of taxable parcels does not change dramatically year after year. It has been going down lately as people have been joining more than one lot and if you own two or three adjacent lots and join them that becomes one taxable parcel. That effects our revenue to the negative. On Line 12 carry over from the prior year, we do not know how much is going to be available as this is only September, that is what we are anticipating. We have ear marked $80,000.00 of that to handle all of the payroll expenses for the two full time firefighters. Includes pay, benefits, taxes, insurance, retirement, everything associated with having full time employees. Fire: Line 21 Grant Income. There is a substantial number $342,000.00 those are grants we have already applied for and some are grants the Chief anticipates applying for. Hoping we get approved for next year. Bottom line on Line 31, total income $883,587.00 includes $342,000.00 of anticipated grant income. We may or may not get that, if we do get the grant money it goes to specific line items in the budget. If we don't get the money then those line numbers don't get the money. Snow revenue by law and Fire are two totally separate funds. They cannot be commingled. Line 11, $150,000.00 in carryover, this year's snow will have to be paid out of two different fiscal budgets. District Clerk Gagliardi anticipates after the October, November, and December snow contract bills, There will still be about $150,000.00 left over. That is a good thing, the contracts are three years long and we are into year two. The contracts are graduated, so the more snow we get, the more the contractors are paid. The snow fee of $115.00 per taxable parcel will cover us up to an average snow fall. If we get more than an average snow fall we need additional monies to pay the contractor that additional amount, having a carryover every year we have a little cushion and we can still pay them to plow the roads. Line 17 and 18 are the assessment we expect to receive. There are fewer snow parcels than fire parcels. Some subdivisions do not get plowed for snow, example Zion. Our budget for the past few years has been around $450,000.00 to $500,000.00 for snow. This budget is right in the same ballpark. It looks higher because $342,000.00 is anticipated grants, plus we have the carryover of $120,000.00 it looks like a higher budget. It is a little higher because there are additional things the Chief needs that we have not funded in years past, plus we have the building in Swains potential that has to be funded, plus the buying the land here. We know we are not going to be able to sit on it for free for too much longer, plus expansion here. The Chief's vehicle is 20 years old and needs to be replaced. There are no grants for the chief's vehicle. We can get engines and things, but not the chief's vehicle through grants. We have a lot of Capital Improvements coming up and this budget, if the Board approves it, includes some of those things. District Clerk Gagliardi stated we would like to put $82,000.00 aside for Capital Improvements specifically going to primarily to building and land. One of those buildings would be Swains. We have some money in Capital Improvements right now. We, the Board, have decided we are putting some money in Capital Improvements every year. It hurts a little bit every year instead of hurting a lot all at one time and putting some money towards the vehicles as well. EMS equipment, in order for our rigs to be certified to the quick response level they have to have a certain amount of equipment on them. We do not own all that equipment now and we need to purchase that, and that is about $12,000.00. PPE, we are in pretty good shape, but this stuff is expensive. The turnout gear, bunker gear that the firefighters wear is expensive. We have been purchasing some each year and we need to keep doing that so about $20,000.00 is allocated towards that. The Surety Bond and malpractice insurance are an increase. The heavier we get into medical issues the more advisable it becomes to have malpractice insurance for all of the EMS folks. Payroll: The law changed again this year and to avoid paying overtime to a salaried employee. You have to pay a salaried employee at least $47,495.00, this is as of January 2017. We haven't given the Chief a pay raise yet and we will probably do that as it is cheaper than paying overtime. That drives all the payroll numbers, social security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, federal and state retirement benefits, all those things are a percentage of pay. So when you increase pay all these other payroll items go up as well. So our payroll is going up dramatically. If the grant for the full time fire fighter is approved that will give us two years of salary for the full time fire fighters, after that we have to pick the salaries up. If we don't pick up the cost then we have to pay the government back for the grant they gave us. Treasurer Robbins made notice that there was no increase in the budget for the clerical staff. Wouldn't we normally give them a Col (cost of living) raise. Right now in Utah is it about 1.45% per year. District Clerk Gagliardi stated that is open to the board. Treasurer Robbins and District Clerk Gagliardi came to the conclusion after a brief discussion to increase line 166 and line 167 by a $1000.00 each. Chief Tuttle would like all the vehicles registered as QRU's and that will increase each license to $180.00 per vehicle. On line 308 the $35,000.00 is a grant the Chief has applied for and if we get it that grant, we can apply that money as he see fit towards recruitment and retention. If we don't get the grant it is an unfunded line. The one concern District Clerk Gagliardi has over this budget is line 312, Fund Balance Reserves. This only gives us $18,000.00 in reserves. If we approve this budget, or something very similar to it, the assessment to make this budget work would have to go to $123.37 from $85.00. District Clerk Gagliardi is asking every Board Member and the Chief to take a hard look at the Budget to see where we can trim on the budget so we won't have to increase fees and have a little more in the Fund Balance instead of the $17,775.00 now proposed. Snow is self explanatory. You know how much is coming in and line 187 and 189 are the anticipated expenditures for snow removal. District Clerk Gagliardi put in the amount for 14-19 feet of snow. We got 13 feet of snow last winter. $975.00 for legal fees for snow and that leaves us with a good reserve, if we don't get a heavy snow fall, of around $130,000.00 remaining at the end of next year. If we do get a heavy snow then we have money in reserves to pay for whatever the continuing cost of snow removal is that will handle us up to 30 ft. Question from the audience: Why Kane County does not help CMFPD? They are making us pay for land, and building and they don't help financially in anyway. Why is that? Kane County does not have a fire department up here, but yet they are not supporting CMFPD. Discussion followed and no real answer was found. Again District Clerk Gagliardi reminded the Board Members and the Chief to take a hard look at the budget as he would like to present the budget at the October meeting and have a Public Hearing in October. Chairman Petullo stated in the past there were work meetings on the budget and though he does not like them, one needs to be done before the October Board Meeting. Work meeting is scheduled for the 26th of September at 1:00 p.m. Board Member Compensation-Mike Chairman Petullo was glad the gentleman in the back brought up all the time the Board Members come in and they are not compensated. Background, two or three weeks ago the County Clerk called District Secretary Moore asking for current Board Member names, their term of office etc. In the conservation District Secretary Moore had with the County Clerk she was pointing out the various things the board members were doing and the County Clerk said they were earning their money and District Secretary Moore informed her they were not getting paid. As it so happened, that same day Chairman Petullo called the State Auditor office regarding how to compel Board Members to show up for the meetings. Their first suggestion from the auditor was to withhold their pay for that meeting. Chairman Petullo told the Auditors office we do not have paid members. The next suggestion was to send the Sheriff to the person's home and being them to the meeting. Chairman Petullo said that was a little extreme we don't want to do that. Chairman Petullo stated after thinking about it, and the Board members know nothing about this, he is doing this on his own, he came up with this compensation idea. Board Members in the state of Utah according to 17B Chapter 15307, are allowed to receive $5000.00 per year as a Board Member. Out of that $5000.00 there is a group insurance plan that covers Board Members and he does not think this has ever been done in the past, periderm for travel expenses up to twelve meetings a year, is not covered under the $5000.00 per year. Since the CMFPD Board was founded in1994 all members were appointed board members until 2009 when the Board became elected officials, this is not slighting anyone because a lot of those boards had good ideas at times, but it fell by the wayside. It is part of the reason this district is in the situation we are in. All the things we need, new building, new vehicles, and equipment, we are still charging the same rate we were charging back then, we don't have enough revenue to do that. Chairman Petullo stated that if receiving compensation for what they do, you may get a better quality of people here on the board, and that is not slightly any person here. Sometimes people get elected and don't show up or they are not doing any work. Maybe folks would take into consideration who is running and what kind of work previously done. If you want to run the District the right way, or if you want people just to come here and sit for 4 hours once a month and vote on things, then you may get what you pay for. These are some examples of various Special District around the state. The Ash Creek Special District has six trustees and those trustees are paid a total of $16,858.00. The website does not give the break down on insurance etc. Magma Water District receives $16000.00 and change with 3 trustees. Mid Valley Improvement District with 3 trustees receives $14154.00. Mid Way Sanitation with 3 trustees receives $15846.00. Price Water with 5 trustees receives $31,021.00 which this may include other perks. He has eleven examples they all get paid. Out of the eleven the average number of trustees per board is 5.27 and the average salary for the 5.27 is $20,442.00. That is within the $5000.00 category. So he came up with this payment structure for the board. Obviously the three officers do most of the work, as probably what happens in the HOA's, Chairman $80.00 a week and that comes to $4000.00 a year. He has made a total of 10 hours in phone calls this week alone. In addition to the phone calls he has emails, agenda, calls to and from office, calls to the chief, posting stuff on the websites, training up here. Over 20 hours this week alone. District Clerk is here all the time, Treasurer setting up Zions Bank, traveling back and forth. There is no charging for fuel and under the statue they could, they just don't. So with compensation for the District Clerk, Treasurer, Snow Liaison and Diana Adams doing the reconciling of the banks, and then the other Board Members, it comes to $11,000.00 which is almost half of the other Districts pay. Some people are highly against it and are absent today, but the argument is they are a volunteer board. Well, this is no longer a volunteer board, it is an elected board. To do this, Board Member approval is needed. Open for discussion yea or nay feelings. Treasurer Robbins stated that after reviewing the budget and District Clerk Gagliardi wanting Board Members to cut the budget where possible not a good idea. Treasure Robbin said he came on the board as a volunteer and he considers himself as a volunteer. He however, did not expect to spend so much money on gas. There should be, to him, at least mileage reimbursement. He does not know about this whole structure, but there should be mileage reimbursement. Treasure Robbins stated that no one expected to be out of pocket, but does not expect to get paid. Chairman Petullo stated there is a form in our policy, to get reimbursed for mileage, but we never have used it. Again, he thinks they have evolved in the last 2 1/2 years going on 3 from what previous boards did. The board is doing more now than they did when the Chairman was on the board in 2010 and 2011. District Clerk Gagliardi stated that if we had volunteer fire fighters that we were not paying, why should we pay the board members? It made no sense to him. We now pay the volunteers, nowhere like we should, but we pay them only for actual time on an emergency call. District Clerk would like to open this up to the public for discussion. One member of the audience stated he thinks reimbursement for out of pocket expense is good. The pay for Board members he certainly sympathizes. He has been in the same position as all the board members, but not as busy as CMFPD Board Members are because CMFPD is year round and their board is seasonal. Could you put out an advisory vote on the next ballot to see what the general impute from the general public would be on this since there will be a ballot going out, he presumes? Yes or no. Do you think the Board Members should get compensation? Instead of the Board voting just for their own salaries, that would look as self serving, a vote from the members of the public would be better. The Board voting on their own salaries, would look as an insider job. But if the voters would back you on this, he thinks this would be a much stronger hand to come from. It may take a little longer to get done, but basically your covered. You will have the ability to say the general public voted on this. It helps when the public feel involved. Chairman Petullo stated that we do not create the ballots for voting. In fact this is an off year none of the positions are up for re-election. The county does us the favor of creating the ballots for us on the election years. Roger Adams Color Country, I think it is difficult to equate an HOA with CMFPD. You are dealing with literally life and property. HOA's make tick someone off cause they can't build a garage as they want, but your budgets and things affects their lives, or their cabins burning down. To say well, HOA people volunteer and they spend a lot of time, but it is not equal comparison. Chairman Petullo said that was a good point, but not to demean the HOA's but there is a difference in the responsibilities. Gina Chapman agreed that reimbursement for travel is a good idea, but being paid right now is awful. If you are asking the lot owners to increase their taxes to support fire fighters and the new station and on the same hand you are asking for board compensation, she feel the timing is bad. She thinks the public would look at that and say, oh, you just asked for an increase on our assessment to pay for this. The people we deal with, even though we are an HOA, the mentality that we deal with, even though you put it out there in black and white, they will see it differently and that is pretty much asking for trouble. Another gentleman from the public said he held a similar position and the taxes ate him up. From the tax stand point it was not worth it. He is happy to be an unpaid volunteer on both the boards he is on now. Question, if you put in a voucher for compensation for mileage or whatever else, instead of a salary even though you are getting your insurance paid or are you taxed on that income even though you present a bill. Chairman Petullo stated the periderm is not taxed. Would you be better off putting in a periderm bill than getting paid a compensation for working on the board? Chairman Petullo said sure. It is just more paperwork. Treasurer Robbins said we have bigger issues right now, put in some money for mileage. Again Diana Adams agreed with Treasurer Robbins. Comments from the Public: Thank you for your efforts and all that the Board does. Closed Session: No Motion to adjourn was made by District Clerk Gagliardi and seconded by Treasurer Robbins. It is 12:45 on September the 10th 2016 this is the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Board of Trustees monthly meeting is now adjourned. Minutes Approved by __________________________________ _ Mike Petullo, CEM, Chairman Date: 10/8/2016

Notice of Special Accommodations (ADA)

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals needing special accommodations (including auxiliary communicative aids and services) during this meeting should notify Michael Petullo at 435-682-3225.

Notice of Electronic or Telephone Participation

One or more members of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District may participate electronically or telephonically.

Meeting Information

Meeting Location

3620 Mammoth Creek Rd
Duck Creek Village Utah, 84762
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Contact Name

Suzy Polnisch

Contact Email

suzy.polnisch@cedarmountainservicedistrict.gov

Contact Phone

(435)682-3225

Notice Posting Details

Notice Posted On

October 20, 2016 04:33 PM

Notice Last Edited On

October 20, 2016 04:33 PM

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