Meeting Minutes

1. CALL TO ORDER
   Chairman Gallitto called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
   The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

3. OPEN PUBLIC SESSION
   Chairman Gallitto opened public session at 7:01 p.m.

   Daniel Penney, 1101 Chamberlain Hill Road
   Mr. Penney began by stating that he is having difficulty tracking sections of the financial reports. He referred to line item #7603 Replacements/Callbacks. He noted that at last month's meeting the report stated that that line item was at $23,788 for the month of July. He went on to say that during the Chief's report, the Chief stated that that total included $6000 or $7000 from the previous month. The current amount for July and August shows a total of $29,194.01. He is confused as to how that number was calculated as he sees no amended reports. Mr. Penney went on to say he feels if the totals are off by $6000 or $7000 then this is loose reporting and wants to know why it wasn't mentioned in the meeting minutes. He said this leads to a question of trust as to what is being reported to the public. He concluded by saying that we should be looking at having an independent audit of the district.

4. CLOSE PUBLIC SESSION
   Chairman Gallitto closed public session at 7:09 p.m.

5. MINUTES TO BE APPROVED
   A. REGULAR MEETING OF AUGUST 10, 2009
   MOTION to approve minutes of August 10, 2009 Regular Meeting by Comm. Roberts/ Comm. Gregorio. Approved. Commissioner Russo-Driska abstained.

6. TAX COLLECTOR'S REPORT
   The Commission reviewed the Tax Collector's Report submitted by Tax Collector Cindy Gotta. Mrs. Gotta answered questions of the Commission members. Items discussed included back interest and grants.

   MOTION to approve Tax Collector's Report by Comm. Gregorio/Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

   Mrs. Gotta brought forth two similar taxpayer issues regarding refunding interest paid due to the district not receiving property transfer information. Each issue reflected a refund of $43.00. Two separate motions were made.

   MOTION to refund the interest to mentioned Taxpayer by Comm. Russo-Driska/ Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

   MOTION to refund interest to mentioned Taxpayer by Comm. Russo-Driska/ Comm. Gregorio. Unanimously approved.

   Commissioner Russo-Driska added that the new land records system allows an updated owner transfer list to be printed at any time so Mrs. Gotta will be able to update her own list without relying on banks, attorneys or the Assessor's office.

   Mrs. Gotta advised the Commission that a Tax Sale was held at the firehouse today and one parcel of land was sold.

   A. TAX REBATES
   MOTION to approve tax rebates in the amount of $895.92 by Comm. Gregorio/Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

7. MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORTS
   The Commission reviewed the reports submitted by Financial Advisor Sharon Maloney. Chief Badamo answered questions of the Commission members.

   Chief Badamo clarified a question for Commissioner Roberts regarding the difference between a couple of professional organizations of which we are members. Also discussed were items regarding activity expense, purchase of water and air conditioner replacement.

   Commissioner Roberts asked Chief Badamo about the apparent discrepancy in overtime. Chief Badamo responded by saying he would need to talk to the District's Financial Advisor, Sharon Maloney as she has overall control of the numbers. He did however, refer to the monthly summary of overtime and stated that last year at this time were at 2157.25 hours of overtime compared to this year to date, we are at 720.5 hours.

   Chief Badamo went on to say that he is not exactly sure how Ms. Maloney applies the figures. He did say that she was supposed to subtract the money in question and add it to last year. He said that what happens is with the way the week ends, the overtime that is worked in the previous week doesn't get paid until the next week so it ended up on this year's budget due to when it was paid. If Mrs. Maloney didn't move it now the auditor would move it later.

   Chairman Gallitto requested that Mrs. Maloney be present at the next meeting to explain this directly.

   Commissioner Sarcia asked Chief Badamo how the three new firefighters are doing to help with the overtime situation. Chief Badamo responded by saying that overtime is currently at 1/3 of where it was this time last year.

   MOTION to approve Monthly Financial Reports by Comm. Gregorio /Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

8. CHIEF'S REPORT
   Chief Badamo reviewed his report and answered questions of the Commission members.

   Our newest Firefighter has begun work, is currently at the Fire Academy and will graduate in December. That will bring us to full compliment.

   Chief Badamo gave the Commission an update on work on the Buckeye and Algonquin Pipelines. The Algonquin Pipeline runs down River Road. Work started at the end and is working its way up to the plant. The Buckeye work is being done on both ends towards the middle.

   Meetings have been held with the owners of United Cleaning and Restoration who are partnering with us for the Open House. Thanks to them we will have a sprinkler demonstration this year. We are the first fire department in the state to have one.

   In addition to his report Chief Badamo advised the Commission that we have been having dispatch and paging issues. The company that had provided us with our paging system has been bought up by a larger company and are no longer servicing or maintaining their software that we use for paging. If there were ever a problem with the paging system there would be no support. Nextel has shut down their TAP line which has raised a number of issues as far as paging and notification. The only thing that is affected here is paging for overtime. We now send our pages through our email system to the firefighters' cell phones. We believe we have solved the problem.

   Discussion ensued in regards to the paging system.

   MOTION to approve Chief Edward Badamo's Report by Comm. Gregorio /Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

9. DEPUTY CHIEF/FIRE MARSHAL'S REPORT
   Deputy Chief Krol reviewed his report and answered questions of the Commission members.

   Deputy Chief Krol gave an update on plans for the Open House to be held on October 3 from 11 - 3. United Cleaning and Restoration who is partnering with us this year will be printing up color flyers for the schools and will be printing up color posters to promote the Open House.

   A blasting permit was recently issued to Vet's Explosives for rock hammering work in the Farm Road area. They will follow the same notification process to local residents that Maine Drilling and Blasting followed.

   MOTION to approve Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal Steven Krol's report by Comm. Gregorio /Comm. Sarcia. Unanimously approved.

10. DEPUTY CHIEF OF OPERATIONS REPORT
    Deputy Chief of Operations Marc Fongemie reviewed his report and answered questions of the Commission members.

    Training for the month of August included "Line Tending Skills" taught by Lt. Gamache, Hazardous Material Operational level refresher training and the completion of the Forest/ Wildland Firefighting class.

    Deputy Chief Fongemie also advised the Commission that we have an opportunity for training at a residence on Hillside Avenue. Training will include moving hose lines, search and rescue and forcible entry.

    MOTION to approve Deputy Chief of Operations Marc Fongemie's report by Comm. Gregorio/Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

11. COMMISSIONER REPORTS

    Commissioner Roberts reported that he attended last month's Public Safety meeting at which a number of Wilcox Road residents showed up wanting to put closure to the ongoing bridge project. He feels it's crucial that's due to its elevation, that bridge needs to be open for public access.

    Chief Badamo said he is not aware of any follow up from that meeting.

    Commissioner Roberts also advised that he attended the Telecommunications meeting at which concerns were discussed with regards to the CAD system. The two main concerns are calls being lost while being transferred and issues with computer data falling into "black holes".

    Commissioner Roberts went on to say that whatever the Common Council recommends to solve the problem it will be the best and simplest system available for Public Safety. All departments involved will have to address their issues to the system.

    Chief Badamo stated that a panel is being established to travel to specific dispatch centers to see various systems. Chief Badamo gave up his seat on the panel to allow Chief Ouellette to go and see the systems but he will still be involved here on the local level with the choosing and review of the system. He went on to say that one of the problems with the previous system is that we were not allowed to see it or be involved in the process. When meetings were set up with the vendor we were told it did not pertain to us. The system was built more around the requests of the Police Department not the Fire Department.

    Further discussion ensued.

    Chairman Gallitto advised that acting Police Chief McMahon was going to be in attendance at tonight's meeting but was out of state and will attend next month's meeting.

    Commissioner Gregorio stated he was not able to attend the Public Safety meeting last month and there was no meeting of the Cost Savings Committee.

    Commissioner Russo-Driska spoke regarding the insurance issue that was discussed at last month's meeting at which she was unable to attend. She stated she is deeply disturbed and concerned. She read outloud a few sentences from the minutes which included a statement from Commissioner Sarcia who said "he felt this is not good ethics and is glad it all fell through. These kinds of issues need to come to the Commission first before the Union and Firefighters and let them digest it." Commissioner Russo-Driska stated that she wants to make it clear that the Commission instructed Sharon Maloney and the Chief to look into cost savings possibilities for the district.

    She continued by saying what was presented to the Commission in Executive Session, which she feels Commissioner Sarcia violated, was that we could save $40,000 if we looked into a possible HRA plan.

    She explained to Union members present that the Commission was only trying to present the concerns that they were trying to improve and the savings that they were trying to bring forward to the district.

    Commissioner Russo-Driska stated that for Commissioner Sarcia to contact the insurance company and go behind the Commission's back and then bring false accusations in public and accuse Sharon Maloney and Chief Badamo of improper ethics and insurance fraud, makes the Commission liable.

    She would like to see a few things done.

    She would like Chief Badamo to come forward with a standard of ethical conduct and regulations for this district that all Commissioners would need to abide by.

    The next thing is to authorize the Chairman of the Commission to work with attorney Summa to recover any and all documents and correspondence related to this insurance issue and bring them forward to the Commission.

    Lastly, Commissioner Russo-Driska requested that a public apology be given to Sharon Maloney and Chief Badamo for the "tirade" that took place at last month's meeting.

    Additional discussion ensued.

12. OLD BUSINESS
    Chairman Gallitto asked if the issue of numbering the pages of the meeting materials on the website was resolved. Administrative Assistant Cheryl Creem said it was. With permission of the Chairman to speak, Daniel Penney stated an excellent job is being done on the website.

13. NEW BUSINESS
    Commissioner Gregorio stated that as far as meeting minutes go, they are a summary of what goes on, not word for word and just wants to make sure that is clear and that what Cheryl is doing is correct.

    MOTION to charge the Chief with composing a draft of standards of ethical conduct for the South Fire District by Comm. Russo-Driska/Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

    The Commission would like the draft completed in 90 days and would include all employees of the district.

    MOTION through the Chairman that the Commission requests any and all documentation and correspondence pertaining to the HRA insurance issue to include MEHIP and Anthem and all parties involved. Motion to include formal requests be given to all companies and parties involved to request any documentation they may have by Comm. Russo-Driska/Comm. Gregorio. Unanimously approved.

    Commissioner Sarcia stated that if the Commission is going to discuss the issue in Executive Session he will be more than happy to lay out all of his documentation and then they can all compare notes. Commissioner Roberts added that since Commissioner Russo-Driska just made a public motion regarding the issue, it must now stay public.

14. EXECUTIVE SESSION
    MOTION to go into Executive Session at 8:10 p.m. by Comm. Gregorio/ Comm. Roberts for a personnel issue, pursuant to Statutes Section 1-200(6)(A) and Section 1-225(a) of the Connecticut General Statutes, as amended. Unanimously approved.

    In attendance at Executive Session were Commissioners Gallitto, Russo-Driska, Roberts, Gregorio and Sarcia and Chief Badamo.

    Executive Session was over at 8:26 p.m. .

15. CALL BACK TO ORDER
    Chairman Gallitto called the meeting back to order at 8:27 p.m.

    MOTION for a Memorandum of Understanding be drafted by the Chairman in regards to the Tax Collector position. The MOU would include a benefit of 4 vacation days at 28 hours and 4 sick days at the same amount of time by Comm. Roberts/Comm. Russo- Driska. Unanimously approved.

    MOTION to remove the probationary status of Firefighters Finch, Heiden and Rudolewicz by Comm. Russo-Driska/Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

16. ADJOURNMENT
    MOTION to adjourn by Comm. Russo-Driska /Comm. Roberts. Unanimously approved.

    Meeting was adjourned at 8:29 p.m.
    

Respectfully Submitted,

Cheryl H. Creem
Recording Secretary