Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/19/2012 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, November 19. 2012 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Pishioneri, VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston and Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Intergovernmental Agreement for the Functional Consolidation of the Fire Departments for Springfield and Eugene. City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith and Fire Chief Randall Groves presented the staff report on this item. The cities of Springfield and Eugene had been working together to consolidate their fire departments and had drafted an IGA that outlined each city's responsibilities with regard to a fully consolidated fire department. Ms. Smith said this would be the full consolidation of the two fire departments. Springfield had worked closely with the City of Eugene in drafting the agreement and would go back to them for final review. It was important to bring this to the Council so they would be familiar with it and for staff to address any questions or concerns they might have about it. Ms. Smith said the idea was to follow the governance model the Council agreed to in the Spring. Each City would retain their own budget authority in this agreement. Any change that one city contemplated that would impact the service level of the fire department would need to confer with the other city first. She provided an example. The two cities had already been working on purchasing together and the agreement made that even clearer. If the department were to split it would need to be by mutual agreement or by one city giving notice to the other city. In the latter case, it would take two years to completely split. Operations had already taken a number of steps to consolidate and this agreement covered administrative consolidation that would occur beyond what had already happened. That included anything pertaining to an employee, such as payroll and worker's compensation. Those things would be divided between Eugene and Springfield. The two had been meeting and working on that to see which department was better able to handle each role. Consolidation plans would be made once the framework was determined and would include standard operating policies and procedures for purchasing, payroll and all of the other things that affected employees. The bargaining units were addressed in the agreement with a recommendation for joint bargaining. They felt it would make a more efficient process than the current process. Ms. Smith said they had incorporated all the previous agreements into one agreement that would be the one used for all purposes outlined. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 19, 2012 Page 2 Councilor Moore asked about liability and how each party was responsible for their own vehicles and equipment. She asked about the example of an employee from one city having an incident while using the other city's equipment. Ms. Smith said each situation would be looked at based on the facts. In that type of situation; each city would have some liability. The insurance was separate for employees and equipment, including health insurance. Springfield would offer the same level of benefits for their health insurance; but would not be joining Eugene insurance. Councilor Ralston asked about the transaction of an employee from one city moving to a position in the other city. Fire Chief Groves said they had some shifting in that direction already. When they started the functional consolidation, they had a Springfield employee serving as the Training Chief for both organizations. to order to get that employee some line experience, they moved a Battalion Chief with the same rank from Eugene into his position and vice versa. The cost balanced out on that move. The Springfield employee was reporting to Battalion 2 in west Eugene. Battalion Chiefs had been moved back and forth on a fairly regular basis to help with the acclamation process. Councilor VanGordon asked who would be paying for a Eugene Battalion Chief working in Springfield. Chief Groves said Eugene would pay for that employee. Councilor VanGordon clarified that once someone was a Springfield employee; they would remain a Springfield employee and same with Eugene employees. Chief Groves said that was correct under this agreement. Councilor VanGordon said in operations it sounded like people could be assigned in any way needed. He asked if they would have a check -in point to make sure they stayed balanced. Chief Groves said he had to do that now because he only had a certain amount of spending authority from each city. Councilor VanGordon said at some point that could be somewhat awkward. Chief Groves said it would be nice if they were one employee group, but they were not at that point at this time. He hoped they progressed to that point. Councilor VanGordon said this agreement was in place for awhile, they would likely find things that could be changed as far as process. He asked about Section 2.6.3 regarding ajoint hiring process and a vacancy. Ms. Smith said they tried to address that in the agreement by addressing that the Chief, currently a Eugene employee, had to report to both cities. They also tried to address the replacement of the Fire Chief when that time came. Language regarding that was on the next page of the agreement and included the two cities coordinating with each other in that process. Part of the process would City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 19, 2012 Page 3 determine where the funding would come from and which City they would work for. Springfield would be involved in that process. Chief Groves said this IGA gave Springfield more ability to manage his performance. Councilor VanGordon asked about the reference in the agreement about Springfield having authority to hire its own fire chief. Ms. Smith said if the two cities split the fire department, Springfield would need to replace the Fire Chief and would have authority to do so. That laneuage was in the event the merger was no longer in place. Councilor Ralston asked what would happen if firefighters from one city were dissatisfied with a contract agreement and the other was not. Ms. Smith said it would be up to the unions. Mr. Grimaldi said it worked best if the two unions agreed and that was the current goal of the unions. Ms. Smith said they had good cooperation with both bargaining units. Mayor Lundberg asked where Eugene was in terms of this agreement. Ms. Smith said they had worked closely with Eugene City legal on the IGA. They were at about the same level as Springfield. Mr. Grimaldi said this did not need to go to the Council in Eugene and he felt that was to our favor. Councilor Ralston asked about having a common name for the department as noted in the agreement. Mr. Grimaldi said it was important that both cities agreed to a name. It would not be a staff decision. It was important when creating something different to call it something different. Chief Groves said fire departments had very strong, cultural identities and it was important to have that identity. Law enforcement was the same way. It was important to celebrate the rich histories and traditions of both departments. but was also important as they moved forward as one. They shared the same values of serving and protecting our communities. He also noted that the Eugene Council had been supportive of this, but their Charter had less hands -on for the Council in regards to contracts. They had been involved and would see a copy of the agreement. Councilor Pishioneri said changing to a common name meant changing decals on equipment and patches on uniforms. That could be expensive and he asked about the costs. Chief Groves said he would propose changing the name on new apparatus as they were purchased. It was important for some standardization. The cost of t -shirts and sweat shirts. which was most of their working garments, was not cost prohibitive. He felt they could make it through this transition by starting with some of the garments. They were currently in the process of ordering six new ambulances, a new tower for Springfield and a new engine for Eugene. It would be an ideal time to make the name change so the new name could be put onto those pieces of equipment. They didn't City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 19, 2012 Page 4 need to instantly change everything at once. Other organizations that had joined together had generally not changed out everything all at one time. Councilor Woodrow said she liked Chief Groves approach and agreed it was important to establish an identity now. A lot of work and research had gone into this process and to not take that last step to make it unified, felt like it was not getting to the end. Councilor Ralston said the name should be Fire Med (Medical) since FireMed was started here. Mr. Grimaldi said Council would be involved in the decision on the name. A process would be created and brought to Council for input. Councilor Pishioneri asked if there was a timeline when they would be considering formation of a fire district. Chief Groves said if they changed the form'of governance. it would be out in the future. That could be the ultimate direction, but consideration of that would need input from both cities and Lane County. It was an option that had been discussed, but the final decision was down the road. Ms. Smith said there was nothing in this agreement that tied either City to any type of timeline towards any progress to a fire district. The agreement could continue indefinitely as it was written. Chief Groves said they had looked at each step to see how things worked, and they had met or exceeded everything that had been laid out. There would always be concern about taking steps into areas they had not gone before. They were trying to pace this in a way that made sense after careful evaluation of each step. They needed to be responsible and prove this was a better model. Mayor Lundberg thanked Ms. Smith and Chief Groves for their exemplary work ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 p.m Minutes Recorder —Amy Sowa Christine L. Lundberg Mavor Attest: sD7 Llli -- Amy So City Rec der