Genesee Fire Protection District

Minutes of September 18, 2024

Board of Directors’ Meeting 

Call to Order

18:02 by Director Mefford

Attendance

Board Members in Attendance: Scott Mefford, Nancy Balter (by Zoom), Susan Eagle, Patti Harris, JP Brewer

Also Attending: Christina Jantzef (by Zoom), Max Herte, Joe Auster, Kris Kleiner, Kim Marklund, Matthew Solano, Diane Davies, Michelle Woodruff, Gary Anderson (by Zoom)

Minutes of Prior Meetings

• A motion was made, seconded and approved unanimously to accept the minutes of the August 21 and 27, 2024 Board meetings.

Public Comment & Announcements

• Matthew Solano introduced himself and raised some questions about the Emergency Access Route project, including asking for a copy of GFR’s five year plan.  Director Mefford will get this to him.

Financial Reports

• Review of July Financials
  • The August 2024 financial report was presented by Christina Jantzef
  • Director Mefford asked for more detail on the computer expenses, which Christina will send to the Board.
  • A motion was made, seconded and approved unanimously to accept the year-to-date financials as presented. 
• 2025 Budget
  • Director Harris is working on the budget.  A draft will be sent to the Board before the next meeting.

Reports of Officers, Committees, Professional Consultants

• Wildland Specialist Captain Dorie Dalton’s Report (by Max Herte)
  • Brian Maillett offered training on using the chipper to 6 firefighters.
  • The paperwork for reimbursement for the chipper has been turned in.
  • FireAside assessments continue.
  • Station cleaning services have been contracted for 2x/month.
  • Dorie will have a table at the Open House with information about home assessments.  The Rotary Wildfire Ready educational truck will be at the Open House.  Max will be demonstrating Knox Boxes as part of a push to encourage residents to get them. 
  • WiRē has received the CO-Lab Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research – Pathfinding Partnerships Award.  The awardee is asked to host a site visit; WiRē has asked Dorie and GFR to host the site visit.
    • Dorie and Nancy met with the WiRē and CO-Lab people by Zoom and came up with a plan.  Attendees will be asked to drive through the northern part of the District to see the mitigation work that has been done at exit 256 on Forest Hills Metro District property (benefiting GFPD), the roadside mitigation along Genesee Ridge Road and the mitigation done in Chimney Creek.
    • WiRē is interested in a presentation that has a story format.  The stories will be
      • The benefit Dorie had by starting her job at the same time WiRē began its project, and the benefits of her continuing relationship with the Practitioners group (including getting the Outstanding Practitioner last year).
      • The challenges of working with different HOAs, with different modes of communication, budgets and interest in mitigation.
      • The District’s decision to provide the opportunity to build a secondary access route if voters approve the bond issue.
      • We have the opportunity to invite people to the site visit – politicians, administrators, etc.
      • Nancy will encourage WiRē and CO-Labs to get press coverage. 
• Administrator/Training Coordinator Max Herte’s Report
  • The state grant to fund purchase of wildland and extrication gear was not funded.  There is a combination gear that could serve both purposes.  Budget and grant opportunities will be searched out.
  • Academy is going well with 2 recruits.
  • Mutual trainings occur frequently with the latest being an elevator rescue.
  • Nine GFR volunteers did the 9/11 stair climb at Red Rocks.  Approximately $3000 was raised for the Fallen Fire Fighter Fund. 
• Deputy Chief Joe Auster’s Report
  • Calls are ahead of last year.  Response continues to be good.  The relationship with Foothills Fire has been excellent. Joe did a wildland weekend training in Nebraska.  
  • Apparatus Coordinator - Planned and budgeted tire replacement on the engine taken OOD
  • Recruiting Coordinator – There will likely be one additional recruit (a legacy whose parents were both GFR fire fighters) starting in January.   
  • Facilities Coordinator - getting ready for the Open House
  • Medical Coordinator
    • Trainings continue and are occurring much more regularly than before we had a medical coordinator
  •  Wildland Coordinator
    • We sent an engine and a 3-person crew to the Pearl Fire in northern Colorado. A volunteer from FFR filled the 4th seat.
    • Dorie joined an Evergreen engine going to the Pearl Fire. 
  •  Branding Coordinator (K Kleiner)
    • Several types of clothing with the new branding have been ordered. 
  • Mental Health Coordinator
    • Continue to inform members of events coming up. 
  • Auxiliary
    • Preparing for the Open House this Saturday 
  • Community Liaison (Kim Marklund)
    • Continued requests for autism trainings.  Boulder has rolled out a program for  decals for autos identifying that there could be someone on the spectrum in the car.  Kim contacted the chief with congratulations and, as a result, has more trainings scheduled!
    • A new training is being developed for emergency responders to support colleagues who are on the spectrum. As of now, it will be offered to GFR, Golden Fire, Golden Police and Fairmont. 

Old Business

• Emergency Access Route Update
  • A motion was made and seconded to hold a regular ballot election on May 6, 2025 to request a mill levy increase to fund building the emergency access road. Details of the exact language to be determined by March, 2025.
    • A commitment to putting the matter before voters was considered necessary in order to ask governmental entities for supplemental funding to offset the amount our voters would be asked to approve.  Similarly, the chances for finding supplemental funding was considered appropriate only after the project was shovel-ready, which included the investment by GFPD of approximately $100,000 for final engineering studies.
    • Director Mefford outlined his concerns about GFPD taking on this amount of debt, its potential impact on future needs of GFR, and his belief that Genesee Foundation take on more of the debt.  These matters were discussed by the Board.
  • The motion was approved by a vote of 4 to 1.     
• Chief Search Update
  • We had a total of 24 applicants and have identified 3 top tier applicants.
  • Director Mefford is putting together an expert panel for interviews.
  • Director Balter suggested that the GFR panel consistent of the two paid employees and the 3 individuals chosen by their peers to talk with CPS HR Consulting about what they were looking for in a chief. 

New Business

• HR Needs
  • Director Eagle said this should be discussed in executive session. 
  •  

The meeting was suspended at 20:33to go into Executive Session pursuant to 24-6-402(4)(f), C.R.S., to discuss personnel matters related to the hiring of the new Chief.  The Executive Session ended at 21:08. 

Meeting Adjournment

There being no further business, the board meeting was adjourned at 21:09.