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Home My WebLink About2023 02_08 Lansing Fire Board MinutesPlease contact Board Secretary, Michelle Greko if you cannot attend the meeting or, need special accommodations. 517-483-7659 or email michelle.greko@lansingmi.gov Lansing Fire Department 120 E. Shiawassee, Lansing MI 48933 1 CITY OF LANSING BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS 120 E. SHIAWASSEE ST., LANSING MI 48933 (517) 483-4200 |LANSINGMI.GOV/FIRE 1. Call to Order – Establish Quorum - 5:33 p.m. 1.1. Present: Charles Willis, Steve Purchase, Kris Singh, Barbara Lawrence, Gina Nelson, Jerrod LaRue, Kathleen Tobe 1.2. Absent: Rodney Singleton 2. Additions to Agenda: 2.1. None 3. Approval of Minutes: 3.1. January 11, 2023 - A motion was made and supported to approve the minutes as written. Motion was carried by unanimous vote 4. Public Comment – Agenda Items (Time Limit: 3 Minutes): 4.1. None 5. Review Communications 5.1. Thank you letter from the Bird family for our assistance in helping their family with Christmas. 5.2. Thank you letter from Karl and Ann Johnson thanking the crews the crews for helping her husband. 6. Comments from Chair Steve Purchase 6.1. Chair Purchase thanked the commissioners who were able to participate in the strategic planning session. 6.2. Next month we will be meeting at Station 4s and hope we can and hope we have more updated information for the budget so we can move forward on that. 7. Presentation 7.1. Captain Natalia Litkewycz introduced herself and her crew and thanked the Chief and the board for their support. 8. Fire Administration Report – Brian Sturdivant, Chief 8.1. Chief thanked everyone for that attended the strategic planning meeting. He said the company that we did the presentation is based out of Washington DC. The company is the Center for Public Safety Excellence. They are, within the fire service, the standard bears for modern, smart, and best practice within Fire and EMS Services. I have worked with them in several organizations in my past, so when I received the approval from the mayor to move forward it was not hard to decide on who we would be contracting out for this. It was important to the mayor and I that we get feedback from the community on what they envision for their fire department, what they like to see and bring some background information on where we have been and provide us with some feedback and some think tank perspective on what we need to focus on. We had a lunch meeting with some community stakeholders that some of you were present at. Then we had 3 days of discussions with our internal REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2023, | 5:30 PM | LFD STATION #2| 2114 N GRAND RIVER AVE. | LANSING MI Meeting ID: 868 3440 9851 One tap mobile +13126266799,,86834409851# US (Chicago) +16468769923,,86834409851# US (New York) HTTPS://US02WEB.ZOOM.US/J/86834409851 MEETING ID: 868 3440 9851 ONE TAP MOBILE +13126266799,,86834409851# US (CHICAGO) +16468769923,,86834409851# US (NEW YORK) Fire Commissioners 1st Ward Barbara Lawrence – Vice-Chair 2nd Ward Jarrod LaRue 3rd Ward Kathleen Tobe 4th Ward Gina Nelson At-Large Steve Purchase –Chair At-Large Rodney Singleton At-Large Charles Willis At-Large Kris Singh Brian Sturdivant, Fire Chief Please contact Board Secretary, Michelle Greko if you cannot attend the meeting or, need special accommodations. 517-483-7659 or email michelle.greko@lansingmi.gov Lansing Fire Department 120 E. Shiawassee, Lansing MI 48933 2 stakeholders. We have a good cross of experience from all ranks, stations, and divisions. All the work that was done last week is in the hands of the Center for Public Safety Excellence right now and they will be getting us a rough draft hoping by the end of the week if not next week. Once we receive the draft, we will reconvene the internal stakeholders committee and we will start going through edits, did they miss anything, did they pull something out, did we miss anything. That process will take a few weeks because we will send it back to them and they will format it and send it back to us. So, it will take some time to get the final fine-tuned product completed. We anticipate that we will receive the final product by the end of March. It will be sent out to the community and the department. 8.2. Chief asked Chair Purchase what his thoughts were about it since he attended as a community stakeholder? Chair Purchase stated that the right questions were being asked and half the battle is getting people to show up. So, it was good to see so many that did show up. I am excited to see the final product. Chief stated that as soon as he sees the draft, he will be reaching out to Chair Purchase to have a dialog with him about it. 8.3. Commissioner Nelson asked how the community got involved? Chief stated that he reached out to a multitude of places to get the interest out there. Commissioner Nelson asked about how many letters were sent out? Chief stated approximately 5,500. 8.4. Commissioner Singh stated that getting accreditation is important it will help to Improve ISO ratings. If the ISO ratings for the City improve it will lower the cost of insurance is there any change the fire department will receive some of those savings? Chief stated he doubts it because this is from a private sector insurance standpoint. 8.5. Chief stated that he met with HR today and we have a plan and a timeline in place for hiring. We will be having a continuous hiring notice posted. We will be looking for 3 levels certifications for hiring: firefighter trainee, firefighter/EMT status, and firefighter/medic status. We will be offering a $2,500.00 signing bonus if they have paramedic certification upon completion of training, just to provide some level of incentive. The process will be open within the next few weeks or by beginning of March. 8.6. Commissioner Nelson asked about the bond money. Chief stated that the work for the Fire Stations has been pushed down the list a bit. This is driven by a significant safety concern coming out of the court’s office. The judges do not feel safe at all right now. So, they will be jumping to the top of the list. Then there are the outdated concerns of the jail. Work on stations won’t begin into late in the year 2024. Commissioner asked if this is going to affect the funds established for fire? Chief stated no, the monies are guaranteed for Fire. Now there has been talk about upgrades to station 4 and 6 that was not part of the bond. Commissioner Singh state that the Fire Department was the sole poster child for this campaign. Commissioner Willis stated that this was brought up at another meeting about Fire always being pushed back, Chief I ask you to please keep pushing and advocating the need of how important Fire is to the community. A lengthy discussion took place about the concerns with monies being pulled that is for fire to be used in other areas of the complex. 8.7. Lexipol process is going well they are meeting twice a week. 8.8. Chair Purchase stated Parks Board is going through doing their capital improvement projects. Are there any special requests or considerations for capital improvement projects that fire can get. Chief stated that we are doing extensive research for improvement projects. Chief stated we need to replace our rescue boats and we are researching for those. 9. Old Business: 9.1. None 10. New Business: 10.1. Chair Purchase asked for a motion to go into closed session to get an update from the City Attorney’s Office on litigation matters, motion made by Commissioner Willis, seconded by Commissioner Lawrence. Roll call was carried by unanimous vote. Moved to close session at 6:45 p.m. Rose from closed session 7:05 p.m. 10.2. Commissioner Lawrence asked for go into closed session for status update on the Collective Bargaining Agreement, seconded by Commissioner Willis. Roll call was carried by unanimous vote. Moved to close session at 7:07 p.m. Rose from closed session 7:15 p.m. Please contact Board Secretary, Michelle Greko if you cannot attend the meeting or, need special accommodations. 517-483-7659 or email michelle.greko@lansingmi.gov Lansing Fire Department 120 E. Shiawassee, Lansing MI 48933 3 11. Request for Commissioners to be Excused 11.1. A motion was made by Commissioner Nelson and moved by Commissioner Willis to excuse Rodney Singleton from the February 8, 2023, meeting. Motion carried unanimously. 12. Commissioner Comments 12.1. Commissioner Nelson stated that she will not be at March’s meeting. 12.2. Commissioner Singh asked if the meeting notices can be displayed on the station TV’s. Chief stated we can investigate that. 12.3. Commissioner Singh introduced our Firefighter of the Year Quang Le. The exchange club honors first responders as well as other community members each year. 12.4. Commissioner Willis asked if we could get a copy of the running chart for the day of meetings on who is on shift the day of the Meetings. Board Secretary Greko stated she can see if that can be done and sent with the packet. 13.Public Comment – On any matter- speakers must state their name and address (Time Limit: 3 minutes): 13.1.None 14. General Order 14.1. None 15. Adjournment: 7:23 p Minutes submitted Wednesday, March 8, 2023, by: Michelle Greko Michelle Greko Lansing Fire Department – Administration 120 E. Shiawassee St. | Lansing, MI 48933 O: 517-483-4564 | E: michelle.greko@lansingmi.gov