The Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD) Board of Directors called three special meetings during the week of August 30, 2021, to discuss options for staffing and bringing the department back up to full strength.

At the August 30 meeting the board discussed a new pay structure that is based on experience and certifications to bring clarity and a path for improvement for staff. The board passed a motion unanimously to adopt the structure after a review of this year’s budget and next year’s budget. That new pay structure also makes the department more competitive for finding new staff. The department has had an opening for a shift officer position for almost a year and one of the reasons that there have been no applicants has been the pay being offered. The board hopes that this will improve that situation.

The board also discussed staff medical benefits for next year and making the benefits more equitable. The board passed a motion to provide employee benefits and partial family benefits to all full-time staff.

There was a discussion about changing the open shift officer post requirements and reducing the entry level requirements. The department has offered paramedic level coverage for several years and discussed if they could reduce that level to EMT, which is how the shift officer positions started, for the open position. The outcome of the discussion and the adoption of the new pay structure led the board to the conclusion that they should repost the opening with the new pay structure to see if that created a better applicant pool with the option to reduce the requirements if the post remained unfilled.

Board Chair, Iain Irwin-Powell, commented that the search for an interim chief had been fruitless so far and suggested an option that may work for one candidate who was interested but was not able to leave their current position for what may turn out to be an interim post. The suggestion was to offer the interim post for a fixed term of 12 months with a review at six months where the board could decide to either make the interim chief permanent or start a full search. This would allow for some stabilization in the department and the opportunity to move forward. The board agreed this was acceptable. However, in discussions with the district’s attorney it was noted that this may not meet the legal requirements for appointing either the interim or fulltime chief under state statute.

In the meeting on September 1, the board decided to move forward with an external search process and engage CPS HR to manage the process. The interim chief role will be offered internally to fill the post until the new chief is appointed.

The board also approved vehicle repairs and updated the department COVID response policy in line with CDC and state guidance and the increasing numbers of cases of the Delta variant in the county.

As part of the process of starting the search process the board held a meeting in special executive session on September 3rd to discuss negotiating parameters for both the acting chief and full-time chief roles. The topics discussed were rates of pay, benefits, vacation time and options if the candidate had special requirements for teaching or speaking engagements.

Meeting notices are posted on the district’s website, https://nfpd.org.