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Government Type

Special Service District

Entity

Cedar Mountain Service District

Public Body

Board of Trustees

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Notice Title

March 2018 Meeting Minutes Final

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Administrative Services

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Notice

Event Start Date & Time

March 10, 2018 10:00 AM

Event End Date & Time

March 10, 2018 12:00 PM

Description/Agenda

Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Minutes March 10, 2018 3620 Mammoth Creek Road, Duck Creek Village, UT. 84762 Board Members Present: Mike Petullo, Chairman Diane Adams, District Clerk Brad Robbins, Treasurer - Absent Bob Shackleford, Member Charles Hightower, Member It is March 10, 2018 at 10:03 AM. This is the March meeting of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Governing Board. We have a quorum and we are now in session. Chairman Comments: Chairman Petullo- Another reminder, LeGrand Bitter's training is scheduled for April the 18th at 5pm. That is the Board Member Training. The public is welcome to attend if they want. I took the training online because I'm going to be in Pennsylvania that week. I have been kind of lax on this, but it was brought to my attention that the ladies when they are trying to transcribe from the recorder to the written minutes, there is a lot of chattering going on in the background. So, as a reminder to all of us myself included, we basically run the meeting under Roberts Rules of Order. As we go from one agenda item to the next, the person whose name is beside that agenda item has the floor first. Wait until they are done talking. If you have a comment, raise your hand or look at me or something so I know and then when you are acknowledged then you can speak. That way there aren't two people speaking at once. As far as the public goes, according to the commissioners, we don't really need to let the public speak until the close of the meeting where public comments are. I've always thought that was silly, but we'll take the public comments after each item when the Board Members are done giving their comments so there is some kind of structure. So maybe the two ladies will be able to follow it better. And don't forget if you are making a comment from the public, say who you are. For the Board, a reminder about the procedures, in our Charter, Article VII, the Chair Position is responsible for the general governance of the District. And the Chairperson is the one that is assigned to sign all the documents, so it's the reason why the Chair Position contacts outside agencies first. If the Board doesn't like it, bring up a motion to change the Charter. That's the way it has always been. It's the way the Charter was written, so that is why we do it like that. The 4th and 5th of May will be our general audit. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes as presented by District Clerk Adams. Motion seconded by Member Hightower. Motion Carries. Treasurer's Report: Our Treasurer is not here again this month so Chairman Petullo goes over the account balances. Mountain American $455,295.55 Snow Emergency Fund $246,188.54 Snow Removal Funds $220,639.63 Zions Fire Checking $667,285.92 Zions $255,493.32 Total Checking/Savings $1,844,902.96 Motion to approve the Treasurer's Report by District Clerk Adams. Motion was seconded by Member Shackleford. Motion Carries. District Clerk's Report: District Clerk Adams- Two-twelfths of the year has been expired and we're in very good condition. The only thing of any particular note, there are a few budget lines that are over a hundred percent such as EMS Training. It has gone up, but we're serving our community better. The overall general ledger for Training is way below the allotted amount, so we don't believe that that is going to be a problem by any means. Other than that, a learning curve for your District Clerk who reads absolutely everything that is put in front of her to approve. Betty is always very prepared and we run through everything together and probably after a couple more months I might pretty much be able to do this on my own. I don't see anything of any great concern to the District. Chief's Report: Chief Tuttle- Response: Since our last board meeting we have responded to 5 calls for service: 4 Medical calls 1 MVA Fleet: Vehicle Maintenance: Weekly rig and equipment checks were performed. The trailer pulled behind Support 78 that houses SQ-71 was involved in an accident on February 14, 2018. The equipment was on loan to the Kane County Fire Warden Spencer Rollo for fuels mitigation work. Spencer was working with Josh Sommers and upon completing their burning operations Josh Sommers pulled up to the fuel pump to fill up Support 78. When he finished he pulled forward striking the structure that covers the fuel pumps with the top driver's side front of the cargo trailer being pulled by Support 78. Damage to the structure as well as the trailer was received. I was notified that evening and the Tod's Junction DOT Supervisor, Jason Sorenson was notified the following day. I had Josh Sommers come to the station and fill out a statement as well as the proper paperwork documenting the incident. When Jason Sorensen inspected the damage, he cancelled a meeting with myself and the Fire Warden stating that there was already damage done to the structure and he was going to address it in the spring. We have not made a claim on the incident and are planning to repair the damage to the trailer ourselves in the spring as well. We will wait until spring and see if Mr. Sorenson feels there is more for us to do about the structure that covers the fuel pumps. E-71 is out of service. The U-Joint for the drive shaft that powers the transfer case failed. When it failed it fragmented causing extensive damage to other components including the inside rear dual tire. Baird diesel will be in on Tuesday to assess the damage and give us a bid for the repair. He will begin the work on T-71 & T-72 as well, the batteries still need to be replaced and a battery switch installed in each vehicle. Bunkbeds: I ordered the bunkbeds and mattresses. The mattresses came in. The bunkbeds haven't been built yet. I used a company in Cedar City. They should be ready either this week or maybe the next. This should be done by the next Board meeting. Training: I attended a 6-day class at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. The class is titled R0614 Wildland Urban Interface: Fire Adapted Communities. It was a very good class and I will be teaching components of the class to our firefighters and eventually the POA boards and property owners. I am currently developing the class I will be instructing. I attended an EMS conference in St. George designed to recertify as an EMS Instructor/EMS Training Officer/Course Coordinator on February 23rd. Three of our members attended the EMS Instructors class held in St. George on February 22nd. Grants: I am looking into grant opportunities that may help with fuel mitigation in our subdivisions. Combination Fire Department: We hired our eighth ever career firefighter who will fill the vacant position on C-Shift. Kurtis Madsen will start on C-Shift March 12th, 2018. We now are fully staffed with six career firefighters, two on each shift. We have been maintaining our staffing with our volunteer paid on call firefighters filling in on the vacant position as well as covering the shifts when the career members are on administrative leave for training. Snow Liaison Report: Member Shackleford- With the snow season more than half over, we have had approximately 4 feet of snow, which is well below the first-tier snow level category of 'less than 9 feet'. I have not received any calls or complaints as of this date. The Snow Removal Contract for 2018-2021 snow seasons has been drafted and submitted to the attorney and the CMFPD Board Chairman for comments. Once finalized, the contract will go out for bid and a bidder's informational meeting is tentatively scheduled for Friday, March 23 at 6 pm at the fire station where interested bidders can get information on preparing and submitting their bids. Old Business: Townsite Act: Chairman Petullo- For this month there is nothing to report. Swains Land: Chief Tuttle- The last conversation I had was a phone conversation with Joyce Barney and at that point she was asking us if she could get a copy of our Deed for Elk Ridge so she would know how to do the Deed. Before I had a chance to get back to her she text me back and said she had got it off the County website. Member Hightower- I did send you an email with some questions about information that I think we need from her. Chief Tuttle- She hasn't responded to that. I will get back with her and see where we are with that. Forestry Cooperative Agreement: Chairman Petullo- We received a letter that our cooperative agreement with Forestry was null and void because they are dealing with the County now. There were questions raised from Board Members. So, everybody knows Spencer Rollo. He's the Kane County Fire Warden and he knows everything there is to know about cooperative agreements, CWPP, and all that good stuff. Spencer Rollo- One of the questions that was brought up is why we are not signing a new cooperative agreement with Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District and it is because you guys now are falling under the umbrella of the county. This Special District and also East Zion Special District are now going to fall under the county cooperative agreement. What CMFPD is going to continue to do is follow the guidelines in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Forestry, Fire and State Lands and just go back to business as usual. If there are any questions that I can answer I am more than happy to. Chief Tuttle- We'll still maintain our training, still maintaining our equipment and still doing initial fire attack and we still have the ability to call in for resources and then once you guys get here then we can turn the incident over to you. Spencer Rollo- Correct. Everything goes right back to the way we've been doing business for as long as I've been here which is 13 years. There's not going to be any cost associated with Cedar Mountain. The county's covering a lot of the cost with the new cooperative agreement with Forestry, Fire and State Lands. Chief Tuttle- So just to add to that, we help the county with their cost by getting credit for training; any time we painted our FEPP equipment the cost of the paint and man hours to paint them goes towards the county. When we had to replace the pump on Engine 74 that $2,500 went towards the county's cost sharing. We do what we have to do and then that goes towards the county's cost sharing. District Clerk Adams- Chief, if I may, to clarify that those would be considered our contribution to the overall expense that the county is burdened on that? Spencer Rollo- Yes. District Clerk Adams- Not in addition to or paid by them? We absorb it, we pay it; but it goes into the mass members of monies spent by the county. Spencer Rollo- Correct. Chief Tuttle- I send Spencer all the information that we have spent this amount, this is the man hours this is the dollars we spent and he uses that to deduct from the overall expense. Spencer Rollo- Are there any other questions? Member Hightower- Yah, I took the cooperative agreement and compared it with the MOU that you signed back on June 15, 2017 and compared it with the MOU that you signed Mike on the 23rd of that same month. Just for background, basically what the cooperative agreement said with the responsibility of the Cedar Mountain Fire Department is that we respond for initial attack, extended attack, then the other thing: firefighting training, and there was a whole lot of things below that. Equipment used; a lot of constraints on communication equipment; fire engines; and that sort of thing. And then the thing that it had mentioned is that we were going to pay our fair share of any fire suppression costs out of the District. That fair share was based on some kind of an algorithm, but based on the last 10 year costs by this District minus the highest expensive year and the most expensive year. I guess somebody had to come up with something. That brings me to my question Chief, or concern, is that it looks like now the way the MOU is that you mentioned the county now will pay the fair share. We're not responsible for the fair share anymore. Chief Tuttle- Actually, it used to be the county paid the fair share but when we signed the MOU, we had a contract with them. Now that that's gone away basically it goes back to the way it used to be. Spencer Rollo- Any kind of initial attack fires, the county's responsible for, not the fire protection district. There is NO COST associated with it! Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District can help with the overall cost; the participation contribution for the county with equipment; paint the equipment; things like that, just helping out. It's not a burden to you guys it's just you guys are helping out with some of that stuff. They are taking the actual cost of the fires that have been up here and deducting the high 10 year average and the low 10-year average and that's where they are coming up with this magic number for participation. Chief Tuttle- So, Brian Head signed a contract and then they had the Brian Head Fire. That's going to be in their 10-year average. They didn't have to pay for that because after 10 years then they'll average it out and then they are going to charge Garfield County for those costs. That is a bad thing for them for their average. Spencer Rollo- We can go back to the Shingle Fire. That's obviously a high for Kane County. We had a lot of costs associated with that, personnel, unincorporated cabin that was burned up in that, so there were some costs to us in that. That puts that in the 10-year average. That's actually one of our highs in the cost, but they take that out because they take that 10-year high out and they take the low out. Spencer Rollo and Chief Tuttle continue to explain at great length this Agenda item to Member Hightower and answer his questions. Frank Gagliardi- Can I make one comment? Bringing up Engine 71 a recommendation might be for the Board to authorize the Chief whatever costs that are associated with that now so that he doesn't have to come back to you and delay getting that Engine repaired. I think it's going to be over $1000. That's over his emergency repairs. District Clerk Adams- Is it an appropriate time Mr. Chairman to make a motion? Chairman Petullo- Well, it is part of the Forestry Agreement, so sure. District Clerk Adams- Chief, do you have any outside guestimate? Chief Tuttle- It would purely be a guestimate. Well, no I actually don't because I don't know how much damage was done to the tank. Whatever was damaged caused the tank to leak out. We're going to need the inside rear dual, two U-joints and a line replaced. I was thinking more like $2,500 to $3,000. District Clerk Adams- On the very sage advice from our previous Clerk, I'd like to make a motion that we authorize the Chief to expend whatever is necessary to bring Engine 71 into operational compliance. Motion to authorize the Chief to make repairs on Engine 71 with the Chief being fiscally responsible by District Clerk Adams. Motion seconded by Member Shackleford. Member Hightower- I really think that we ought to modify your motion so that there would be some kind of upper bound on that. An upper bound of $10,000, $5,000 I mean would you consider doing something like that? District Clerk Adams- I'll make a friendly amendment to my motion to authorize the Chief to spend up to $5,000 to bring Engine 71 into compliance and operational efficiency. Chairman Petullo- Okay, first state that you're withdrawing your original motion. District Clerk Adams- I withdraw my original motion. I'm making a new motion for the Chief to spend up to $5,000 to initiate repairs on Engine 71 to bring it back into service. Motion to allow the Chief to spend up to $5,000 to initiate repairs on Engine 71 to bring it back into service by District Clerk Adams. Motion seconded by Member Hightower. Motion Carries. New Business: Notary: District Clerk Adams- There has been multiple occasions recently where my signature needed to be notarized for documents for Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District and the mountain is sorely lacking in that particular service. We only have one in Panguitch, and they were out for a vacation day. I finally found one at a title company. I was wondering if the Board feels that this might be something of a service that we would want to offer to ourselves and other people on the mountain. I apologize; I don't know the exact fee of what it would cost to train a notary. I know Betty I believe has done it previously and is willing to do it. I don't know if that falls within Betty's and Cheryl's purview of their responsibilities, but if we could talk about it a little bit and if it's something that we don't have an interest in doing I'll continue to track one down when I need one. But, there are other people that have needed things notarized and I get phone calls from time to time from folks on the mountain asking if we have a notary here. If you would like I'll do more research to find out what the cost is and the licensing and all that would involve. There may be a bonding requirement for notaries too. Medical Billing: Chairman Petullo- If you recall last month, we had JCI come and do a presentation. Basically, they do the billing for $36 flat rate for every bill and I think they quoted $7,200 for 200 calls a year was the most we would spend. We don't have 200 calls, so it would be less than that. The Chief was tasked with calling a couple of other agencies. Chief Tuttle- I called Gold Cross and they couldn't help us. They weren't interested. The other agency I called couldn't but they directed me to EMS Billing Services. So I got some information from EMS Billing Services, but they really can't help us either. I have an email from them; we just don't have enough call volume to make it worth their while. However, this disturbed me a little because when I first started talking to this gentleman, his name is Dave, he told me that he was under the impression that we couldn't bill as a quick response unit. I explained to him that the laws had changed and now we've got our information from the Bureau of EMS. So I gave him the Bureau of EMS's number and he actually called Tami Goodin and spoke with her then called me back. When he spoke with Tami, she informed him that yes Quick Response Units could now charge, and he corrected her. Basically explained it to her that they couldn't, so by the end of their conversation, according to him, I haven't talked to Tami yet, I haven't had a chance. He was right and she has been corrected. So I apologize, I just didn't get a chance to get a hold of Tami to find out her side of that conversation. But, he did send me a legislative bill, Senate Bill 273 and I have a copy of it here. This is how he justifies his position. When I'm reading this, what I got from this was that we can't do what the hospital is doing with their ambulance, have one charge for their transport fee. As a Quick Response Unit, we have to break it down, which is exactly what we want to do. I'm thinking he must have misunderstood me and my conversation. Chief Tuttle passes around a copy of Senate Bill 273 to the Board Members. Chief Tuttle- I don't believe he is correct and JCI gave us a bid already. So, they're on board and they already do that for other Quick Response Units as well as the ambulance service in Garfield. I don't think it applies to us from what I read from the Senate Bill but I just wanted to let the Board know that I got this information. District Clerk Adams- This is a 2011 Senate Bill. Chief Tuttle- Yes, I'm thinking it's an old one. Plus it just changed in 2016. District Clerk Adams- I think we need to compare this to the Bill in 2016. Chief Tuttle- What I'll do is get a hold of Tami and find out. Tabled until next month. 2018/2019; 2019/2020; 2020/2021 Snow Contract: Chairman Petullo- The attorney had the contract and I sent the Redline version and a clean version to everyone. Later in the evening last night the attorney sent out another one that is now formatted. It is same as the clean version that they sent out earlier except it's in Times New Roman 12-point font, which is the way we are supposed to be typing them. The Board Members discuss the Snow Contract in great length at this time, while editing it. Chairman Petullo- How about if I email out the copy of this cleaned up version? You guys look it over. I'll send a copy to the attorney with these comments about the time sensitive items and questions we have. When he answers me I will forward the answers to you so you're seeing it right from the horse's mouth, and I'm not changing what he is saying. We'll have to change the dates because it will be another month before we are back here again. There is more discussion among the Board Members. Chairman Petullo- I'll send this out to everybody after the meeting. I'll send it to our attorney and we'll go from there. Comments from the Public: Bobby Kinch- As of July I'm a fulltime resident, in Swains. I've been up there 3 years and I know we had the special assessment tax for the county. Virginia was my realtor and I just bought a cabin that she listed and she listed my old one. When I was trying to renew my cabin as of two weeks ago on the fire insurance that I've had for several years with this company, they said they're no longer insuring cabins in Swains Creek because the fire rating went up to like a 10X. I'm not sure about the numbers as I'm a retired cop so don't hold that against me. They said that they are no longer insuring and their two criteria was (1) it was a volunteer fire department and (2) it's going to be a long time before apparatuses arrive on scene. My question was from the assessment part of it. In July when I went to my very first homeowners meeting they said that they were talking about putting a place in Swains. I know there's like a 5-mile radius from a fire station. Does it have to be a manned substation is one of my questions, has it got to be manned fulltime? And 'B' do we have any recourse for the people in Swains because when I got a quote for the cabin I was buying, it literally doubled. Is there a point where there is going to be manned stations? Chairman Petullo- We don't change the rating, just so you know. Bobby Kinch, Chief Tuttle and the Board continue to address and discuss his concerns. Chief Tuttle- We get calls monthly from residents because insurance companies are working things out. We have to write letters to clarify information for the insurance companies. Charles Duvall- Just to make one point clear, the Insurance Rating did not go up as far as the rating itself in Swains Creek. I tried to put that out in an email. The rating didn't increase and I haven't had any increases from last year to this year. Chief Tuttle- We had a review about 2 years ago and in the old system Swains Creek was considered a 9 which was the highest the way they did it then. They redid their rating system so now we are a 5X which all that means is we would get the 5 if we were within 5 miles of a fire station and within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant. But, since we are not, we are the X which means we're the highest. I will give you a copy of our ISO rating letter after the meeting. District Clerk Adams- One thing if I might, the verbiage that we're a volunteer fire department, I think maybe we need to educate people that we have fulltime 24/7 staffing. Carol Gagliardi- To keep your March 23rd contract review date with your contractors, can you approve this contract provided the attorney makes those changes and approve your contract now? Chairman Petullo- That's what I was trying to get at. Member Hightower- I got it and I knew what Mike was trying to do. I really would like to read that thing before I approve it. District Clerk Adams- So for point of conversation to that Mr. Chairman, if we were to do an electronic vote let's say that Devin either defines why he's got what he's got and we agree with it or he makes a few modifications and we send that out to the Board. If we take an electronic vote, what is the notification requirement that we are doing such? Chairman Petullo- We have to notify the public that we're having an electronic meeting. Somebody has to be physically here for the electronic meeting. Everybody else can be where ever they are at. It's conducted like an open meeting. But you have to notify the public. To notify for a meeting it is 24 hours just like for the Agenda. We've never actually done an electronic vote that I know of. District Clerk Adams- I would like to revisit this particular item on our Agenda. Chairman Petullo- Okay. For the record right now, we are in a brief recess for one of the Board Members was excused. It is 12:08pm Saturday March 10, 2018. We're in a short recess. It's March 10, 2018 at 12:10pm. The Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District is now back in session. Closed Session: No reason for a closed session. District Clerk Adams- I have asked to have an Agenda item reopened. I am sorry. It is the 2018-2021 Snow Removal Contract. Chairman Petullo- Does the Board have any objections to going back to the contract item on the agenda? All Board Members- No. Chairman Petullo- There are none. District Clerk Adams- In an effort to keep our time line as proposed in the contract, I would like to make a suggestion that we modify the few things that we have discussed in today's meeting. Send it to our attorney. For the purpose of this meeting, can we approve the contract subject to the attorney's approval and then get it out and keep our dates? I will take away my comment regarding suspension up to termination. He put the legal term in there. We'll go with his suggestion. My verbiage on coal and coke is really immaterial. The only thing that I would say is that we change the verbiage in that last paragraph to what we believe it was meant to be said by use of discretion', not 'by abuse'. If the attorney agrees with that I see no reason why we couldn't approve the contract subject to that. Chairman Petullo- Put a note on attachment 10 something about the hydrants and what they need to perform. District Clerk Adams- Well I think in the discussion it was fairly well noted that people don't feel that adding a fee to that was of necessity. Chairman Petullo- Is there a motion to change the contract that we have in front of us now with the verbiage for coal vs. coke and 'by use of discretion standard'? Send it out to the attorney and if he's okay with it What's the motion? Motion that we approve the contract subject to a few minor edits that we will perform on it here after the meeting and the attorney subsequently approves it. The noted area of modification would really only be the verbiage in the last paragraph, page 42 of the contract where it currently says 'shall be an abuse of discretion standard' we believe it should be 'shall be by use of discretion standard' by District Clerk Adams. Motion was seconded by Member Shackleford. Motion Carries. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by District Clerk Adams. Motion was seconded by Member Hightower. It is March 10, 2018 at 12:16 pm. The Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Board of Trustees March meeting is now adjourned. Minutes Approved by _________________________________________Date_______________ Mike Petullo CEM, Chairman Signed copy on file at 3620 Mammoth Creek Road

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, 84762
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Contact Name

Suzy Polnisch

Contact Email

suzy.polnisch@cmfpd.com

Contact Phone

(435)682-3225

Notice Posting Details

Notice Posted On

April 16, 2018 04:37 PM

Notice Last Edited On

April 16, 2018 04:37 PM

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