GREENWOOD TWP- The Greenwood Town Board, Tuesday, approved a set of new policies and job descriptions for the township fire department. The policies also set up written hiring policies and establishes a committee to review and approve promotions within the department.
“The township didn’t have hiring policies for the fire department,” Erik Jankila told the board. “Standard operating guidelines and policies were outdated and not following the law.”
Jankila said the policies set expectations and responsibilities for department members and eliminates ambiguity. Jankila, who serves as Hibbing Fire Chief, was hired by the town board and has been working with an ad-hoc committee to develop the new policies. The township has not had updated policies for several years, and efforts by the previous fire chief stalled when the board repeatedly tabled action on proposed changes.
“This committee was very engaged,” Jankila said. “There was no dissent.”
One big change is a shift from monthly stipends to an hourly pay rate for department officers, and it also creates a simpler pay scale for department members.
“Volunteerism doesn’t exist how it did 20 years ago,” Jankila said.
The new policy sets a pay rate of $31 per hour for the chief, $29 for assistant chief, $27 for the fire and EMS captains, $25 for EMRs, $25 for firefighters, and $27 for the administrative assistant. If the administrative assistant is already a department member, they would qualify for $2 per hour above their base rate. These rates are comparable to other area departments, he told the board. He also said he didn’t think these changes would alter the department’s current payroll costs.
Department members who respond to a call would be paid for a minimum of one hour, but callouts between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. and all legal holidays would receive a minimum of two hours pay. This would encourage responses during these hours, when turnout is normally lower, he said.
“The chief would need to put in 24 hours a month to match the current stipend,” Jankila said. “If the officers do less, they are paid less. This puts accountability on the payroll.”
The simpler pay scale for members would make payroll easier for the township. Right now, firefighters qualify for three different pay rates, one for calls, one for training, and one for maintenance time. The fire chief would be responsible for overseeing members’ time sheets. Jankila said he would provide the township with a spreadsheet they can use to easily track time spent on the job.
The policy also sets a social media and photography policy, vehicle operations, cell phone/electronics usage when on the job, drug and alcohol testing, and required physicals.
The board made a couple of changes to the new policy.
The board increased the geographic area for membership, to those living within 25 minutes, up from 20 minutes, of the township boundary. They noted that at least one current member lives this far away, but this person spends a lot of time in the township.
The board, after discussion with some department members in the audience, set the expectation that department members respond to at least 20 percent of the calls in each half of the year, down from the current 25 percent, but the policy notes the chief can grant exceptions due to a member’s work situation, for example. Members are still required to participate in at least 50 percent of training meetings. Members not meeting these goals are subject to review and might not qualify for that time period’s PERA payment. This policy is the same for fire and EMR members, even though the number of medical calls is far higher than the number of fire-related calls.
Jankila said it was an intentional decision to keep the requirement the same for all department members since it creates a simpler set of policies.
The board also discussed some of the job description requirements, specifically whether-or-not the fire chief needs to also be an emergency responder, and if they should be required to complete a set of leadership classes.
Jankila said the chief does not need to be a “subject matter expert.”
“The chief owns the decisions, but others can help them make good decisions,” he said. “This would be preferred, but not necessary.”
As for requiring the National Fire Academy leadership training, Jankila said this is preferred, but he didn’t recommend making it required, since these classes are much harder to find since COVID. He also noted the federal government had just shut down funding for the national fire academy, which is part of FEMA.
The motion to approve the new policy was 4-0, with supervisor Craig Gilbert abstaining since he is a member of the department.
In related action, the board voted to post the fire chief position, with an application deadline of July 3. Once a chief is hired, the township will set up a process for filling the other officer positions. Jankila noted the township is not required to fill all the officer positions in the policy.
Current EMS captain David DeJoode spoke during the public comment period, and said he was disappointed that the board was considering not automatically keeping him on in his current position, which is not an interim position, like the current interim fire chief. DeJoode complimented interim chief Brian Trancheff on his work, saying “he is doing the job, he is learning, he is working his butt off.” But DeJoode said he felt the board was not doing a good job of communicating with fire department staff. He said the board needs to make sure the new policies fix the internal problems in the department.
The board appointed residents Julie Horihan and Karen Saarela to the promotions committee, which will also consist of the members of the board’s personnel committee and the fire chief, once one is hired.
Last month, the board voted to hire a medical director to oversee the emergency medical responders on the department, which was the first priority of the ad-hoc committee. Now that the policies are in place, the committee’s next step is to update the standard operating guidelines for the department, which is basically the “playbook” of how to handle fire calls. Jankila said the new medical director will help set the department’s policy for handling medical calls.
Former fire department member Jet Galonski asked the board to get input on the chief hiring from department members, since he said members needed to trust each other and their leader.
The rest of the township meeting will be reported on in next week’s paper.