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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSP February 9, 1995 r' I i .._,-Jf\-rrýO\JW ;¡{a.1[~5 "~""""""'" '".' >. i/>\ CITY of ANDOVER '\,1- j ,~ ~o,"ow, 00"'''''0 ,w. . "DO"'. """DOA """ . ''''I ,~"OO '," SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING - FEBRUARY 9, 1995 MINUTES A Special Meeting of the Andover City Council was called to order by Mayor Jack McKelvey on February 9, 1995, 7:0S p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota, to conduct interviews of applicants for the position of Fire Chief. Councilmembers present: Dehn, Jacobson, Knight, Kunza Councilmembers absent: None ,;~ Also present: City Admjuistrator, Richard Fursman , INTERVIEW CANDIDATES FOR FIRE CHIEF The City Council interviewed the following applicants for the position of Fire Chief: Charles Lindstrom Joel Hewitt Dale Mashuga Daniel Winkel The Council conducted separate interviews of the applicants, alternately asking them to describe their work and educational experience relating to the Fire Chief position, their opinion on the most important role of the Fire Chief, why they would like to be the Fire Chief in Andover, their professional goals, their direct supervisory experience, their experience in the development of a Fire Department budget, their approach to a hypothetical sexual harassment situation, how they would deal with the various factions within the Department, any work-related error in judgement that they are aware of, their supervisory style, whether there is anything in their background that would prohibit them from fulfilling all aspects of the job, why each felt they should be chosen for the position, whether there is an objection to contacting their immediate supervisors, what they know about Andover and the three objectives they view as priorities for the Fire Department. Charles Lindstrom - retired from the Maple Grove Fire Department as Assistant Chief and Training Officer; is currently the Operations Supervisor North Memorial Transportation monitoring the day-to-day operations of the ambulance service; does extensive teaching across a two-state operational area primarily in hazardous materials; sat on the committee that wrote the standards for EMS response to hazardous materials incidents; is the OSHA Program Supervisor and is familiar with the OSHA regulations with regard to emergency responses; has an extensive background in fire service and has received a certificate for courses taken specifically for fire service; completed the two-year hazardous material specialist program; has an extensive background in setting up initial inspection programs and initial pre-plan programs with Fire Departments as well as acted as a fire investigator. Felt the ~~ck ?"/;tihs mry --- ~- --~- - -~~.- - -- ,n) ~ Special Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - February 9, 1995 Page 2 (Interview, Charles Lindstrom, Continued) Chief has to primarily function as a coordinator and intermediatory representative of the City to both the Fire Department and to the City. Has loved both EMS and the fire service, has been involved extensively in EMS since 1967, misses the fire service and now feels this would be a good time for a career change to get back into fire service on a full- time basis. Professional goals include working toward a degree in management and administration, currently enrolled at Metropolitan State University in that program, and to stay in the management area. Has been a direct supervisor as Assistant Fire Chief for nine of the last 12 years directly responsible for up to 20 people. Was extensively involved in the budgeting process with Maple Grove, including the bond issue in 1984, feeling strongly the Department must stay within the budget. Must abide in the sexual harassment laws, noting if action is not taken one can be just as liable for the results as the person causing the problem. Deals with volunteers in his present job, feeling volunteers have to be treated in a special way in one sense but also as normal City employees in that they have the same responsibilities as full-time fire fighters; would follow specific disciplinary process beginning with counseling and ending with termination if the problem continues and affects Department personnel and operations. Is not aware of a work-related error in judgement, though not all decisions may be right given the need to make snap judgements; the key is to accept responsibility for one's actions. Specific goals and objectives should be set up for the Department; and if groups of people or clicks do not disrupt the path to accomplish those goals, he is not too concerned with it; will meet with groups if there is a problem to establish cooperation as ultimately everyone is trying to accomplish the same thing. Is people oriented and does not get too excited about things or "dumb" mistakes, does not tend to take things personally, but finds "stupid" mistakes unexcusable and will deal with the situation accordingly; feels people come to talk to him without being intimidated by him or his position and know they will be treated fairly. Has no objection to contacting his supervisor who is covering for him tonight. Felt the reason he should be selected is he likes to work with people, he gets along well with people, he would be a good intermediary between the Council and the Fire Department, he would be able to get everyone working in the same direction and has experience in the potential growth the City and Department will be facing. Felt Andover will be going through what Maple Grove and Plymouth went through with their growth and its potential; thought Andover is a beautiful residential area. Felt personnel, maintenance, training and installing a high level of professionalism in the Staff and public relations are the top priorities of a Fire Department. Joel Hewitt - started as a carpenter in high school, which gives him a basis of building construction when approaching a fire scene; is self- _ taught in the insurance business and has operated his own insurance agency in New Brighton for the last 13 years; has worked in the fire service in all positions in Roseville since 1976. Important aspects of the Fire Chief include being the supporter of the membership, giving them the abilities, education and equipment to do the job; to support the City Staff's ideals to protect the community; to be a stimulator of ~t Special Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - February 9, 1995 Page 3 (Interview, Joel Hewitt, Continued) the fire fighters, Council and Staff to attain their goals. Has not yet graduated from Lakewood Community College. Is the best candidate because he is a good people person; is able to stimulate fire fighters, Council and Staff to achieve their goals, which is what is needed in a Fire Chief and which is what he has accomplished at Roseville; is honest, fair and compassionate; is a stable person being in business for ' 13 years, on the Roseville Department for 19 years and lived in the City for 40 years. Expects a high standard of the fire fighters because they reflect the City and the Department both as individuals and as a group. Supervises the 79 members of the Roseville Fire Department, directly supervising the Chief's Staff of four Deputy Chiefs, three District Chiefs, two Department Safety Captains, two Department Training Captains and a part-time secretary. Was Acting Chief in Roseville for two months, then elected as Chief when the former one left. Is directly responsible for developing the Fire Department budget, having those in specific areas develop their own budget to submit to him; then meets with all involved to stay within the parameters by developing priorities; then meets with the City Manager; has gone three to ten percent over the budget only on payroll due to the increased number of calls; was involved in developing a fire apparatus replacement program for the Department. Felt developing a fire service plan to stay ahead of the growing community, personnel and equipment, and maintaining response times would be his top priorities. Is not familiar with the Andover Fire Department but is intrigued that the Department is well trained and has a large challenge ahead as the community grows to maintain that high quality of fire service; felt his stability factor would be positive for the Department. Felt the most important aspect in a sexual harassment situation is to listen and understand what is , perpetrating the act, determine how this is affecting that person, try to rectify the situation by confronting the accused; needs to stimulate internal personnel to want to come to the Department and to serve. Is not aware of anything that would prevent him from preforming his obligations. Has clicks of people in the Roseville Department; sees that legitimate concerns are aired and dealt with at the monthly business meetings; tries to determine whether those causing dissention are a part of the team or are wanting to sabotage the efforts of others; would ask that the fire fighters either be a part of the team or to leave; tries to install a sense of "family" even though there are three separate fire stations. Takes something from each type of management style; started being a hands-on Chief and backed off as the other officers were educated and capable of taking some of the responsibilities; strongly promotes his fire fighters; does things by consensus or takes input from everyone and then makes a decision often using portions of ideas from the others; has seen the fruit of his efforts in Roseville and would like to try it in Andover. Fire service is his first love and would like to pursue his abilities as a Fire Chief in a full-time, stable position; would like to see the Fire Department ~ become the finest one possible with the backing of the City. Related an incident in October where he felt the best procedure was to have everyone get together to discuss the problem, which turned out to be the wrong thing to do; felt he should have talked to those involved ' individually instead; the problem did get resolved without him having to :~ì ~ Special Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - February 9, 1995 Page 4 (Interview, Joel Hewitt, Continued) be a mediator. would transfer his insurance business to his brother if he got this job. Is currently working on an Associates Degree, guesses it will take a good year to obtain. Felt his weakness is he puts so much into the Fire Department that he takes criticism of the Department personally. Does not have a problem with Andover contacting his supervisors. The Council recessed at 8:00; reconvened at 8:07 p.m. Dale Mashuga - has been the part-time Fire Chief of the Department; works for Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 as the Fire Training Coordinator at Anoka Technical College which does fire training for all Fire Departments in the county and a good share of the state; has had ' extensive fire training through State school and the National Fire Academy; has taken many leadership courses; has taken classes through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for arson investigation; has currently completed about three-fourth of the work to obtain a degree in Fire Science. Making a Fire Department run smoothly is the most important role of the Chief; personnel is a problem and one that needs to be solved; make sure the Department is running right by getting the proper people under him that will do the job they are supposed to do; needs to delegate authority. would resign his position at Anoka Tee if appointed Fire Chief; would continue to teach on weekends and at section schools as he has done over the past 15 years. Each person is an individual and needs to be treated differently; volunteer Departments are the hardest to run and it is hard to get a happy mix. Would do something about a sexual harassment issue even if asked not to do anything about it; did have that situation recently and first talked to the accuser, talked to others to get all the information he could, then talked to the accused; action would depend on the situation but the severity of the action needs to be determined; by law one must take disciplinary action if the actions do not stop. Worked on the last three Department budgets; have been very close to budget the last two years, going over only because of an increased number of calls; believes one should stay within the budget. Felt good personnel, good standards for the personnel to operate in, and good leadership to run the department are his top priorities for the Department. Management style is to listen to both sides to gather information, then make a decision; managing a volunteer Fire Department is one of the toughest things to do with discipline being the most difficult; current policies are difficult to work within and SOPs, the By-Laws, and Ordinance all need to be aligned with one another; the fire fighters need an unbiased place to go if they see there is a problem in the Department or with him, as the process now is not right; suggested a Fire Board be established which _ consists of two fire fighters, two Councilmembers and two people from the community where fire fighters can have their concerns heard with the Board, then making recommendations to the Chief or City Administrator; felt that would stop many of the calls the Council is getting. In response to the question of whether he felt he handled the disciplinary problems in the Department properly, Mr. Mashuga stated in some 'I ~ Special Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - February 9, 1995 Page 5 (Interview, Dale Mashuga, Continued) instances yes, but he would make some changes in the way he did it. Has made mistakes in the Department and in some of the policies; sometimes changes policies too much; is not afraid to change policy if something is not working. Not much can be done with the various groups in the Department other than to listen to what they are saying and to their suggestions; it isn't really much of a problem other than the big problem three years ago, then it was quiet for two years, and now it is back; all that can be done is to listen, try to bring them back together, do things socially, try to get them to work together; finds that everyone does work together on the fire scene. Professional goal is to become Chief of this Fire Department, having worked toward that for over 17 years now; got interested in the administrative side and enjoys seeing the changes he can make; feels he has had a hand in the betterment of the Department, using the analogy of comparing Andover's Department with others is like comparing diamonds to coal. Didn't think there is anything that would prevent him from fulfilling all the obligations of the job. Mr. Mashuga then addressed the Council stating he knew they had received many calls. He has been Chief for three years in which more changes have been made than in all the years past, pointing out the increase in personnel, change from one to three stations, changing to station responses, etc. With change comes discontented people. He felt some of the calls and comments the Council received have lessened his chances of getting the job because they might be swayed thinking there is a lot of turmoil in the Department. He thought the Council knew they cannot make everyone happy, that there will always be problems and people will complain. For the most part, he thought the Department is doing very well and the people they are hearing from are probably a minority. Last week he spent three hours with the OSHA inspector, who found no OSHA violations and said it appears someone has a personal vendetta. Mayor McKelvey stated the inspector has called him back since and stated there were several definite violations in the way things are written in the Constitution and By-Laws, so the case is not being closed. Mr. Mashuga stated he knew that as well. He asked the Council to put themselves in his position and put all the other candidates in his position and see what they would do in those same circumstances, then make a decision. Daniel Winkel - has been the Fire Chief of Lake Johanna for the last ten years; has been a member of the Department for 17 years holding every position there is; attended Bemidji State University; worked for Arden Hills in 1978; have been the Public Works Superintendent since 1989 dealing with all issues of public works; over 1600 hours of fire service training in various levels; proud of the fact that the Department has supported him and allowed him to get all of that training. Thinks the Fire Chief serves as a coordinator for the Department; is important to have a good understanding of the needs of the community and how to represent the Department to the community and the Council; requires the Chief to be very active and understand what makes the fire fighters "tick"; to always promote the pride of the membership and to support them. Hasn't yet had an opportunity to join the Andover Fire Department. Top priorities are to look at the morale of the people and ~t "~ Special Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - February 9, 1995 Page 6 (Interview, Daniel Winkel, Continued) to understand what makes them operate as a unit, promote them so they go home knowing they did the best they could do and that they are well supported; to provide the best budget document to the Council and to monitor that situation and to work with Staff; watch over the equipment and fire prevention activities and education in the community. Has been involved in the development of a Fire Department budget for the last 15 years by being directly involved with their Board of Directors; current operating budget is $650,000 annually; felt it is critical to plan and is proud of the fact that they have a 10-year plan which is updated each year; also prepares annual budgets for the entire Public Works Department. Has a management style of teamwork approach; is not real strict but expects every member to understand the rules of the organization; felt fairness is very important to managing people; manages six full-time employees on a day-to-day basis; believes in talking about issues that come up, get the details, make a decision and move on. Currently have 74 members in the Department. Wants any complaints or problems with factions of fire fighters to go through the normal channels at the station; feels it is important to give the Captains and District Chiefs an opportunity to deal with that; if it is not working, it will eventually come to him; has been fortunate that the problems have been limited; tries to jump on any problems quickly before they get out of hand; believes most problems can be resolved by , discussing them. Made decisions over the last several years to pursue his professional goal of getting into the fire service full-time; has worked hard over the years to get the education and training to get to that level; is also honored to be President of the Minnesota State Fire Association. Weakness is his tendency to let things pile up on his desk; also has a tendency to get involved in a lot of different issues, sometimes spreading himself thin between the three cities their Fire Department serves, attends Planning Commission meetings and other meetings because they like to see the Chief and get that input. Appreciated this opportunity, feeling he would bring to the City of Andover and its Fire Department a unique package; has a strong background in city government; has a network of communications for fire service issues which he believes is second to none; is kept updated daily on current issues with his position as President of the Minnesota State Fire Association, feeling it is important for a Department to keep current. Can't overlook any sexual harassment situation; will do something about it as a Department head even if asked not to because it is his duty and obligation; would gather all the facts, determine how severe it is, would notify the administrator within the day; appreciates the fact that the individual may not want it made public but knows it is not something that" should be happening in the work place and should be eliminated as quickly as possible. Has no problem contacting his , superiors for a reference, as they are very supportive, though they do have a new administrator since he submitted his application. Felt whether a fire fighter is a volunteer or does it for a living, they are professionals; they train hard, they are dedicated to the profession, they expect to be treated as professionals and in turn he expects their behavior to be of the highest level; a personnel policy would indicate what is expected of the members; need to look at ethics policies, potential conflicts, conflicts of interest that would prohibit or ,....---~ '_._1 Special Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - February 9, 1995 Page 7 , (Interview, Daniel Winkel, Continued) influence decisions as a fire fighter, that everyone be treated fairly. Had a work-related error in judgement today relating to a utility bill sent to a resident; he had made an error and rectified the situation after a phone call with the person; allowed some fire fighters to take a vehicle thinking it would be beneficial to the Fire Department, though they had a personal reason for using it, learning the hard way to do more investigating; he has to ultimately accept responsibility for it. Related his knowledge of the Andover Fire Department, monitoring all the activities due to their work; looking forward to having the opportunity to lead that group for a long time if chosen as Chief. Moved to Andover as a financial decision; is a truly nice community. Doesn't know of anything that would prevent him from fulfilling all the obligations of the job. Mr. Winkel asked several questions of the Council regarding what they feel the Fire Department's function is in the community, whether there would be any budget constraints that would prevent their aspirations for the Department from being fulfilled, and the goals for the Department. He also noted that in the 1980's they doubled their Department from two to four stations and increased from 45 to almost 80 members. It was a , big challenge. SELECT FIRE CHIEF The Councilmembers shared their opinions of the candidates, most narrowing the choice between Dale Mashuga and Daniel Winkel. Councilmember Kunza did not feel he could make a decision in good conscience this evening and asked why the decision had to be made right now. He preferred to table the item for several days to get some references. After a lengthy discussion, the other Councilmembers agreed to table the item. Because a consensus could not be reached on a day or meeting place for a special meeting the week of February 13, it was then agreed to carry the item over to the regular meeting on February 21. MOTION by Jacobson, Seconded by Kunza, move to select the Chief to the next regular Council meeting. DISCUSSION: Mr. Fursman was asked to contact Mr. Lindstrom and Mr. Hewitt to inform them they were no longer being considered for the position, and to inform Mr. Mashuga and Mr. Winkel that they are still being considered but that the decision will not be made until February 21. Motion carried on a 4-Yes, I-No (MCKelvey as he felt it should be decided tonight) vote. , MOTION by Kunza, Seconded by Jacobson, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ~~=CA~~ Marcella A. Peach, Recording Secretary