Minutes for January 17, 2011

BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS BUSINESS MEETING

CALL TO ORDER

The Board of Fire Commissioners of Spokane Fire Protection District No. 13 met on January 17, 2011 at Station No. 1, 10236 N. West Newman Lake Drive, Newman Lake, Washington.  Chairman Robert Neu called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM and the flag salute was given.

ROLL CALL

Present:  Chairperson Commissioner Robert Neu, Commissioner Eileen Weyrauch and Commissioner Andersen.

Others Present: Chief Keith Yamane, Deputy Chief Kathie Neu, Deputy Chief Toni Halloran, Janni Hills, Lynn and Byron Woehrle, Jim and Sharon Ball, Kathy and Dick Small.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

1. Chair:  Commissioner Neu moved that Commissioner Weyrauch be Chairperson of the Board for 2011, Commissioner Andersen seconded.  Chairperson Neu called for the vote:  2 yes, 1 abstain.  Motion passed.
2. Vice Chair:  Commissioner Neu moved that Commissioner Andersen be Vice Chair of the Board for 2011.  Chairperson Weyrauch seconded and called for the vote which passed unanimously.
3. Board of Volunteer Firefighter (BVFF) Representative:  Chairperson Weyrauch moved that Commissioner Neu be the BVFF representative for 2011, Commissioner Andersen seconded.  Chairperson Weyrauch called for the vote which passed unanimously.

CONSENT AGENDA 

Commissioner Andersen moved to accept the consent agenda which consisted of the minutes of the December 20, 2010 meeting, Finance Officer’s Report, Chief’s Report and Approval of warrants #5578 -5587 in the amount of $1,991.61for 2010 and warrants #5588 – 5617 in the amount of $52,136.27 for 2011, as well as an EFT for Payroll Taxes in the amount of $3,445.98.  Commissioner Robert Neu seconded but recused himself from warrant 5589.  Chairperson Weyrauch called for the vote, which passed unanimously. 

AUXILIARY REPORT

No Report

CORRESPONDENCE

1. WFCA 2011 Legislative Report:  There is a Commissioner and Chief workshop with lunch scheduled for February 2, 2011.
2. Response Survey:  We received one survey this month and it was favorable.
3. WFCA Saturday Seminars:  There is a seminar scheduled for March 5^th which is the day after the Portland Leadership Conference ends.  The Chelan Conference was brought up and it was decided to wait and see what the topics are before making a decision on that conference.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

a.       Review of Resolution 2009-02 Compensation for Commissioner Services:  Keith and Janni will revise the Per Diem forms.  The Per Diem forms will be completed and ready for your signatures at the next meeting for the Portland Conference. 

b.      New Fire Station Construction Update:  The Request for SOQs were sent out to the 52 architects on the MRSC list.  We received requests from 32 additional firms asking for the Request for SOQs.  The closing for accepting Statement of Qualifications was Friday, January 14, 2011.  Thirteen (13) statements were turned in on time.  One came in on Monday, January 17 but was not open.  All of the building committee members have received an email with the SOQs and Keith has put them on a disk for review.  A meeting date will be set after the committee has time to review the thirteen (13) statements.

c.       Volunteer Fire Fighter Recruitment Program Committee Update:  Brian Snure has recommended keeping the fire department and the committee participation separate.  Keith will be in Olympia on Tuesday, January 18 for a meeting.  The Public Service Announcement that Keith did is airing now on the west side of the state and should be airing in our area soon.

d.      Audit Exit Conference Meeting:  The exit interview has been set up for January 24, 2011 at 10:00 AM, Station 1.  The Commissioners are invited to attend, but if more than one (1) Commissioner attends we need to set up a Special Meeting.  From the conversations with the auditor the Safety and Service Dinner seems to be the hot item.  A phone interview can be set up for this meeting in place of a face-to-face interview.  Commissioner Andersen moved to set up the phone exit interview, Commissioner Neu seconded. Chairperson Weyrauch called for the vote which passed unanimously.  Commissioner Andersen then amended his motion to have the Chair sit in on the exit interview.  Commissioner Neu seconded.  Chairperson Weyrauch called for the vote which passed unanimously.

e.       Email Archiving:    Keith investigated two (2) options for email archiving.  One was Barracuda Messaging Archiver, this company was very expensive with $2,498 for the hardware needed and $499 per year after that.  The second is Erado who would host, archive and store the emails for seven (7) years.  This is $15 per month per District member.  Keith also talked to District 9 about what they do regarding emails.  They do not monitor emails.  The nlvfd-cc account that we already have was discussed.  Rae set this up when Rosa was here for the specific purpose of monitoring all district emails.  At that time a decision was made that anytime we are sending district related emails that a copy is sent to the nlvfd-cc@comcast.net address.  This account is backed up monthly.  We will continue with this practice.

f.       Yard & Garden Burning:    There will not be a county wide yard & garden burning system because District 3 will not support the program.  Each district can work out an agreement with Spokane Regional Clear Air.  Newman Lake has been included in the “no burn” area of the county.  If we decide to issue permits then we are responsible for enforcement of illegal burning and we do not want to do that.  At this time the Outdoor Burn Rules are posted on our website and if we respond to a fire where illegal materials are being burned we report it to Spokane County Regional Clean Air Authority.  We will continue with this practice.

g.       NW Leadership Conference:    The conference is March 2 – 4, 2011 in Portland.  All Commissioners and Chiefs are slated to attend.  This is a valuable experience for networking.  Many Districts bring a large group for that reason.  Commissioner Neu is concerned that if all the Commissioners, Chief and DC’s leave the district who is left to respond.  Discussion took place with the community members in attendance thinking that it is hard to justify spending $1200 per person to send 6 people to a conference when we are trying to build a new station.  Suggestion to send one (1) Commissioner, the Chief and one (1) Deputy Chief.  Commissioner Neu moved that the Chief attend the conference with two (2) people of his choice.  This motion died.  Chairperson Weyrauch moved that the Chief attend with two (2) additional people.  This motion died.  Keith would like to see one (1) Board member attend.  Commissioner Andersen moved that Commissioner Neu attend with the Chief plus one (1) more person for a total of 3 in attendance.  Chairperson Weyrauch seconded.  Discussion – Commissioner Neu will attend, who is the third person?  It could be one of the DC’s, a second Board member or possibly a volunteer that may benefit from attending.  Chairperson Weyrauch called for the vote which passed unanimously.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Ambulance Service Agreement Amendment:  The agreement went into effect on July 1, 2010 and is has been determined that there was a need for the amendment, see page 1, #6 of the amendment.  Commissioner Andersen moved to accept the amendment with Commissioner Neu seconding.  Chairperson Weyrauch called for the vote which passed unanimously.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Community member Kathy Small wanted to comment on the bill on Residential Sprinkler System that is currently in the works.   She stated that water purveyors are not in favor of this bill because of the water rights needed to make it work.  Spokane County purveyors cannot get more water rights and the infrastructure needed to meet the fire flow for the sprinkler systems is a financial burden to the water districts. 

GOOD OF THE ORDER

FYI – Warrant 5609 in this month expenditures is the final payment for the boat.

ADJOURNMENT