MENDON FIRE DISTRICT SPECIAL MEETING
PRELIMINARY MINUTES
NOVEMBER 21st, 2022
ROLL CALL ( meeting called to order 17:32 hrs. on 11/21/2022 by A. Morrell )
| PRESENCE | NAME | CAPACITY | NOTES |
| No | Baumer, Heidi | Treasurer | |
| Yes | Considine, Dan | Commissioner | |
| Yes | Fletcher, William | General Counsel | |
| No | McGinnis, John | Secretary | |
| Yes | Morrell, Art | Commissioner (Chair) | |
| Yes | Shipe, John | Commissioner | Late Arrival |
| Yes | Shuler, Steve | Commissioner | |
| Yes | Wilsey, Ryan | Commissioner | |
| Yes | Sellman, Tom | Deputy Secretary |
OTHER ATTENDEES NOTED
| NAME | CAPACITY | NOTES |
| Arman, Mike | MFD President – MFD Board of Directors | |
| Dr. Jeremy Cushman | Medical Director for the MonroeLivingston Region , Medical Director for Mendon Fire Dept. | Mendon, NY resident |
| Greg Francesco | MFD | |
| Steve Tschiderer | MFD Captain and Training Officer |
ROLLOUT OF OFFICER QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
D. Considine led the discussion topic indicating that in his view, when the proposed Officer Qualification Requirements were accepted from Chief Kester at the August 11th District meeting, it had been the intention of the commissioners to have a 2 to 3 year rollout period – not to immediately enforce this year (due to the increase in course requirements). S. Shuler and Dan expressed the same sentiment that there should be a grace period that would allow current officers to ‘come-up-to-speed’ given availability issues with some courses.
In the course of discussion with respect to a grace-period, it became apparent that requirements as accepted in August never made it into an official version of the District Rules and Regulations.
In response, S. Tschiderer provided copies (to all present) of the new requirements (see Appendix A) that he received in his capacity as Chair of the Nominating Committee for the Department (for reference as Department elections are scheduled for December 8th). Steve expressed his interpretation that as written, an individual could run for re-election at the same rank without the need for any additional training (due to the grace-period) – but to move upwards in the hierarchy, he/she would need to meet the new requirements.
Discussion Points:
Art Morrell: Felt a 2 year time frame was sufficient for an individual to catch up to requirements for their given rank.
Ryan Wilsey: Expressed concern (as it relates to moving up in rank ) in the interpretation of a 2-clear clock and if/when it would reset and the potential burden in realistically being able to complete the courses required.
Steve Tschiderer: Only a couple classes have limited availability, and when reviewing – the majority of folks are currently qualified for their positions in context of the new requirements. Only one individual (G. Francesco) found to be ineligible on initial examination – missing RTB and Safety Survival, and not currently a Captain.
[Editor note: Discussion put on hold at 17:47 with arrival of Dr. Cushman for Medical Director Discussion below]
MEDICAL DIRECTOR COVERAGE FOR THE DISTRICT
D. Considine introduced this discussion point indicating the board (1) has been remiss in keeping good continuity/communication with Dr. Cushman (2) seeks to remedy this, making sure Dr. Cushman knows the board fully supports his role and desires to strengthen the relationship.
Dan sited several issues of concern:
(1) It was identified that there has been a relationship and communication issue between the District Chief and Dr. Cushman, but that the Chief has indicated he’ll be working to correct that.
(2) The District had a faulty working assumption/impression was that Dr. Cushman was fully in support of the Zoll Autopulse CPR device when in fact he was not.
(3) There has been a disconnect with respect to what the Chief has indicated as the obligation to respond to all EMS calls as opposed to a selected subset.
In the discussion regarding issue 3:
J. Shipe commented that the board was told by the Chief that based on advice by Dr. Cushman, ‘C’ level calls (‘mayday-type’) and below could not be dropped.
Dr. Cushman indicated the Chief did involve him in the email communications with Fire Coordinator Schalabba when notifying him of the Chief’s intent to use Fishers Fire Department for mutual-aid EMS calls. Dr. Cushman communicated to the Chief that he’d be willing to sit-down and review call-types as there are no two districts in the county that run the same response configurations and it’s absolutely the prerogative of the district to decide (within the parameters of the must-respond types as defined by the Medical Director : e.g. cardiac arrest, those rare, but strong firematic contexts [electrocution], drownings) the types of calls in which to respond. This has been done in volunteer districts with resource issues where response frequency burn-out can be problematic.
Dr. Cushman expressed a desire to work with the board of commissioners to determine the districts goals and pain-points as to what it can do with the resources it has. He continued by saying this also requires a solid relationship with the ambulance service provider and their mutual aid providers.
Dr. Cushman indicated his recognition that there is a percentage of ‘band-aid’ BLS calls that do result calls that are ‘quite real’ – about a 0.4 % cardiac arrest rate – which was deemed an acceptable risk.
He volunteered his assistance to work with the Board and Chief to develop a prioritized call-type list.
In response to an opinion by S. Shuler that the Board should move forward in developing a prioritized list of call-types, G. Francesco noted that he worked with Dr. Cushman to develop a preliminary prioritized list. He commented that it would drop somewhere between 25-30 calls looking back at the years-worth of EMS calls.
In response to D. Considine and J. Shipe asking Dr. Cushman if there issues going across counties for mutual-aid, Dr. Cushman confirmed that there are Dept. of Health Bureau / EMS issues such that the Bureau had reached out to the Chief in an attempt to discuss, but that he not been party to any conversations between the two. Cushman stated that there are differences in mutual-aid for the fire service as compared to an EMS context – notably with Fisher’s having an ALS agency with a certificate of need. He continued making the observation that it would not be as much of an issue if Fishers were a BLS agency.
Dr. Cushman indicated that he felt the Dept. of Health has an issue with using mutual-aid in conjunction with planned non-staffing.
R. Wilsey asked Dr. Cushman if there were issues with NY State (e.g. Ed Majors) and how to approach. S. Tschiderer (as a Fisher’s employee) made the observation that Mr. Majors had questions, but since the arrangements & scenarios have been in the context of a man-power issue, not specifically ALS, then it has not been problematic with the State and DOH.
With respect to the current set of run-cards, Dr. Cushman needs to have some request from a decisional authority from the District and Chief to assist with co-developing a new working-set of run-cards that would be put in place.
Lastly, D. Considine asked Dr. Cushman regarding his feelings/demands surrounding the Zoll Autopulse. Dr. Cushman summarized that automated CPR devices have significant value but he was conflicted with our purchase of the Zoll machine. Although he recognized that the District has spent significant funds in the Zoll acquisition, he thought he had made it clear (back during the evaluation phase of the Zoll and LUCAS devices) that he was to be consulted – and he was not. Dr. Cushman stated there is a regional policy that the medical director must be consulted prior to purchase, training and implementation. His primary concern is that there’s regional saturation with our neighbors having the LUCAS device and their unfamiliarity with the Zoll device. In addition, Dr. Cushman had concerns with the CPR process maintenance and minimizations of interruption in CPR with the Zoll device.
Dr. Cushman concluded that he could work with either, but stressed the need for training outreach to surrounding agencies (in addition to just Honeoye Falls and Mendon personnel)
Dr. Cushman stated that the evening (or next day) after finding out (at a mutual-aid drill night with Honeoye Falls) about the acquisition, when the Chief contacted him, Dr. Cushman expressed concerns and a desire to sit-down to address them. This was never followed-up on.
Art Morrell asked if the Zoll device should it be taken out of service until Dr. Cushman is satisfied that sufficient training has been given to neighboring partners. Dr. Cushman’s response was it could stay in service as it’s an FDA approved device, and noted that since the # of cardiac arrests is so low, it is crucial to build training proficiency – we need to train a lot.
Dr. Cushman summarized that the district needs to (1) develop a plan for confirming training to our neighboring partners and (2) build a regular review of both LUCAS and Zoll devices into the training calendar.
D. Considine and R. Wilsey confirmed that the District needs to get back to Dr. Cushman by the end of January 2023 the training items above and any adaptations to the run-cards that the District and Chief see as sufficient.
[Editor note: Discussion with Dr. Cushman ended at 18:21 with a resumption of the ROLLOUT OF OFFICER QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS ]
ROLLOUT OF OFFICER QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS (cont.)
S. Shuler made restarted the discussion stating the goal is to make more members eligible and moving forward. He added that the addition of the new rules if enforced immediately adds a burden into that forward movement.
S. Tschiderer further observed that everyone who expressed interest in remaining in their current line officer positions is covered by the new grace period. The only individual currently in question is G. Francesco’s eligibility to run for Captain due to a confusing period of a resignation.
S. Shuler initiated a discussion proposing that the board take out the newly (August 2022) adopted line officer requirement and research what the board really wants to establish given more thought.
He eventually made a motion to remove the new officer-requirement rules adopted in August and then have a period of time to review for a better fit to the department. There was no second to the motion, and therefore the motion failed.
During the course of discussion, several folks referenced that the bylaws state that one Captain is elected and that the Chief may later appoint another Captain.
[Editor’s note: ByLaws Revision Version 2022.9.1, Article 3, Section 3, Subsection D: Captains states the following: At least one(1) Firematic Captain will be elected at the annual meeting. There is no mention of any appointee.]
There was more discussion led by R. Wilsey proposing a change to the new Rules & Regulations defining the grace period for current officers.
R. Wilsey made a motion to amend the language of the Officer Qualification Requirements and was seconded by J. Shipe.
Change text from:
‘For those who currently hold an office, they will be given a grace period of up to two (2) years to complete all applicable training.’
To:
‘For those who currently hold or held an office within the last 10 years will be given a grace period of up to two (2) years to complete all applicable training.’
The motion passed 4 (Yes) to 1 (No) with the single objection from Art Morrell. His objection was based on the thought that the training for an officer and what was viewed as safe 10 years ago is no longer the case.
Secretary Sellman shall be placing the Qualification Requirements (with mods) into the District Rules and Regulations.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
D. Considine introduced the discussion topic outlining we have 4 potential Chiefs in our purview. He noted that the current Chief’s tenure was extended last year since the assistants felt they either needed additional seasoning or did not have any interest in moving up. Dan stated his opinion that the Chief is under pressure to stay on, but he wants to continue to lead and help. Dan continued posing the question as to what the district can do to help.
S. Shuler expressed the need for some fresh faces in the command roles. He continued saying that ‘given the evening’s discussion, the Chief hasn’t been in contact with our Medical Director for 6 months’. Steve noted that 3-4 years at the Chief position is too much and with no assistants looking to move up, the department’s in a bind.
Art Morrell expressed his thanks (specifically as an example to D. Friedlander) for the contributions to the department.
Dan redirected the conversation noting his impression that if the current chief doesn’t continue, the two assistants have indicated they will not continue either. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the state of communication between the Chief and both the board and Medical Director. Dan will speak with all three Chiefs regarding his concerns and report back to the board.
MEETING ADJOURNMENT
J. Shipe made a motion to adjourn at 19:15. This was seconded by R. Wilsey. The motion passed by unanimous consent.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED
Tom Sellman, Deputy Secretary, Mendon Fire District
APPENDIX A – Officer Qualification Requirements (with amendment as proposed)
Current Officers: For those who currently hold or held an office within the last 10 years will be given a grace period of up to two (2) years to complete all applicable training. If an individual wants to move up in the hierarchy, they MUST have requirements as listed in this document for the applicable office.
Chief:
- Meet all the qualifications for Assistant Chief
- Server two years as Assistant Chief
Assistant Chief:
- Meet all the qualifications of Captain
- Complete two years as a Captain
- ICS-300 (FEMA)
Captain:
- Meet all the qualifications of a Lieutenant
- Serve two years as a Lieutenant
- Vehicle Rescue: Operations Level (VROL)
- Conducting Live Fire NFPA 1403 Course (NYS)
- Principles of Instruction or Fire and Emergency Services Instructor 1 (NYS)
- Rescue Technician Basic (NYS)
Lieutenant:
- Interior Qualified Fire Fighter
- Cleared to drive ½ of the district apparatus not including Chiefs’ vehicles before the election
- Cleared on all district apparatus before the end of the first term.
- Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations (NYS)
- Fire Officer I (NYS)
- Firefighter Assist and Search Team (NYS)
- Firefighter Survival (NYS)
EMS Officer:
- Hold a current certification at the Emergency Medical Technician Level
- Principles of Instructions (NYS)
Safety Officer:
- Incident Safety Officer course (NYS)
- Past Chief Officer (within 10 years)
All Classes must be successfully completed prior to being elected to first term.