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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025 05-14 Fire Merit Commission Meeting Minutes - Final MAY 14, 2025 4 I. REGULAR MEETING The Fire Merit Commission met at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 with Commissioners John Pinter, Dan Jones, and Kenneth Marks present. Also, Fire Chief Carl Buchanon, Assistant City Attorney Adam Taylor, Assistant City Attorney Kylie Connell and Commission Clerk Theresa Heffner were present. The meeting was held at the Central Fire Station, 1222 Michigan St., Classroom #1, South Bend, Indiana and virtually via Microsoft Teams at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/FireMerit51425 Commission Attorney Connell asked if there were any additions or corrections to the agenda before turning it over the President Jones. A. ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS President Jones called roll and confirmed the presence of the Commissioners. B. APPROVE MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING John Pinter noted that his last name was misspelled a couple of times in the minutes, so they approved subject to his name being corrected in the minutes. Upon a motion by John Pinter, seconded by Kenneth Marks carried by roll call, the Board approved the Minutes of the April 2, 2025, regular meeting subject to the correction to the minutes. C. APPROVE ELECTRONIC MEETING RESOLUTION Upon a motion by Kenneth Marks, seconded by John Pinter carried by roll call, the Board approved the electronic meeting resolution. D. PROPOSED BYLAWS John Pinter notes that the completion date would need to be changed to today’s date if they are going to approve the bylaws today. Attorney Connell confirmed that she would be changing May 2, 2024, on page 3 to May 14, 2025. Upon a motion by John Pinter, seconded by Kenneth Marks carried by roll call, the Board approved the electronic meeting resolution, subject to the correction in the date on page three (3). E. PUBLIC HEARING ON RULES Attorney Adam Taylor explained that the proposed rules were based on similar policies from other departments and aligned with statutory requirements, including the need for a public hearing. He mentioned that he wouldn’t go through each section unless the Commissioners requested it. However, he highlighted a key change in the promotional process since the initial proposal—specifically, adjustments to how components are weighted and how disciplinary records impact scores. Commissioner Pinter had previously raised concerns about the weights not totaling 100%. Taylor then deferred to Chief Buchanon to elaborate on discussions with the union regarding the weighting of the process. Chief Buchanon addressed issues with the promotion process, specifically that the previous formula used did not total 100%. He acknowledged this discrepancy and clarified that he revisited the process to align it with prior discussions with labor management. A new formula was developed, and Chief Buchanon provided further explanation about it. The hope is that the new documents now reflect the corrected process. He then turned it over to Assistant Chief Roark. Assistant Chief Roark noted that they caught another issue as well. They did not have the performance evaluations represented which is required by statute, so that is where he met with Union Vice President Buysse and went over the scoring those performance MAY 14, 2025 5 evaluations to put that into this plan as well. The performance evaluation insertion is the only other change that they’ve made to the rules that you were previously given. The question of reference of performance evaluation. These would be firefighter evaluations going up for the only promotable rank we have, which is the Captains. Kenneth Marks asked if this would be for everybody that person has been assigned to. Assistant Chief Roark explained that under the statute, evaluations are required every six months over a three-year period. However, due to past inconsistencies in conducting evaluations, the new rules will only consider evaluations starting from 2025 onward. Since the department urgently needs Captains, if the new promotion process is approved and implemented soon, only one evaluation set will be available for consideration initially. It will take three years before the full set of six evaluations can be factored into the process. Attorney Connell wanted to make it clear on the record that the proposed rules were published on the city’s website, posted in three locations at the county City building, posted at the fire department or available for review at the Fire Department, as well as with the clerk's office. The notice of today's public hearing was also published in a newspaper and a local Michiana Enterprise publication. She asked that anyone who wished to speak during the public portion of the hearing please state their name and their roles with the department. Seeing and hearing none, she opened it up for anyone else to have any public input in person on online. Seeing and hearing none, the public hearing was closed. Dan Jones asked the Commissioners, since it was the blessing of both the City and the Fire Department, he asked if they would like to approve the rules or wait until June. Attorney Connell advised that it would either be approved or moved to the June agenda. It doesn’t need a motion if it is not going to be approved. Kenneth Marks stated they should table it until June. John Pinter asked if delaying the approval would cause a hardship on the department. Assistant Chief Roark stated yes, because they are in dire need of captains. If it gets approved then that would allow them to start putting a timeline on the captains. He then deferred to Union Vice President Russ Buysse to discuss the process. Union Vice President Buysse stated the he would really encourage the passing of the rules, because another thirty (30) days doesn't sound like much, but in their world it pushes them back quite a bit. F. APPROVE RULES OR MOVE AGENDA ITEM TO JUNE MEETING Upon a motion by Kenneth Marks, seconded by John Pinter carried by roll call, the Board approved the Rules. G. PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR John Pinter thanked everyone for understanding his need to change the meeting date from the regularly scheduled first (1) Wednesday of the month to the second (2) Wednesday of the month due to him being out of town. He added that he would also need to change the June meeting date from June 4th to June 11th. He noted that the meeting date would not be an issue after June. Attorney Connell advised that because there are only three (3) Commissioners, all three of them have to be present to have quorum until they get two more Commissioners. Dan Jones asked if there has been any progress made on getting two (2) more Commissioners. Attorney Taylor explained that one appointment is made by the mayor, and the other is an elected position that allows for the appointment of someone. Political affiliation MAY 14, 2025 6 requirements apply. No election has been scheduled yet, as no requests have been received. Taylor has no update on the mayor’s appointee but will follow up. He suggested spreading the word in the meantime. Attorney Connell advised that Commissioners can forward potential candidate recommendations to the Mayor’s office. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Commission, upon a motion by Kenneth Marks, seconded by John Pinter, and carried by roll call, the meeting was adjourned at 2:19 p.m. FIRE MERIT COMMISSION Daniel Jones, President _________________________________ John Pinter, Secretary ______________________________ Kenneth Marks, Vice President ATTEST: ___________________________ Theresa Heffner, Commission Clerk