John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors discussed hiring a human resources consultant during a regular, online meeting on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, at 7 p.m. and then scheduled a meeting for Wednesday, August 12, to take action on the item. The Board also discussed recent activity in town with the investigation and detonation of bombs in Big Springs and approved several policy changes.

Board Chair Iain Irwin-Powell said the department spent a lot of time on Aspen Drive. Ten days is unprecedented for a small department, but they had the commitment of the volunteers and Fire Chief Rick Dirr, who spent 10 days on the job. Chief Dirr said they have received the biggest number of calls in a single period, including the days at Alpine and three or four significant calls such as a dog rescue, a tractor roll-over, sick people and combative people.

Since an explosion on July 3, a multi-agency team has been investigating a property in the Big Springs area, according to Mayor Kristopher Larsen. This team includes the Nederland Police Department, Nederland Fire Department and the Boulder County Regional Bomb Squad.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and other federal agencies and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office also assisted in the investigation. During the investigation, law enforcement officials discovered homemade explosives and incendiary devices. Some of these explosives were deemed too dangerous to transport and were detonated on location. 

“The Nederland Town Marshall, Town Administrator and Mayor wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to the dedicated first responders who have worked long and difficult hours to keep Nederland safe. All involved agencies have been forthcoming with information with town staff, but until this point in time we have been unable to share these details with our community.”

Board Member Patrick Richardson introduced a proposal to hire CPS, a human services consulting company. In April, the Board wanted to do some research and figure out a contract with human resource consulting and contact providers. 

They have pared down applicants from a group of five to two that provide both consulting and administrator services and would build a handbook. Two would provide a call-when-needed administrator. One is Piera, and the other is CPS in Littleton, which has been recommended and has worked with several fire districts. 

They proposed a monthly retainer of $1450 for consulting by phone or in person, and other items could be included in future years. They could build a handbook, do policy development and an organizational assessment and training for current and future members. 

CPS has the background and was less expensive. Richardson recommended that CPS complete a benefit package review and an organizational assessment and include one onsite training session before the end of the year, so they can start correcting issues and help us set goals.

Starting next year, they could work on an employee handbook and three sessions covering policies and procedures to set the rules of the road for new members. Rates are based on $70 per hour. 

Irwin-Powell said since they are local, they can come to the department and that’s very useful. He has spent time on human resources issues that may have been hidden but are serious. The department is not equipped to deal with legal and employment compliance issues. An organizational assessment is absolutely required, because they have too much internal strife. They are too close to it, so it would be helpful to have an independent, third party come in and make suggestions without bias or history, and do it as soon as possible. I believe a lot of problems will come to a head if we don’t start to resolve them. 

Board members said they didn’t get the proposal or got it late. They were okay with another meeting on the next Wednesday, August 12, to take action on hiring the firm.

Under new business, Richardson said for the budget next year, they would like to sit down and build a budget using the business case for the human resources consultant as an example, and include justification for why they are spending money. 

They will attach an account number to items so they know which budget that is coming from and provide an estimate of anticipated expenses through 2024. If they were to buy a new ladder, they would fill out a business case, because they will have to test it and eventually replace it. 

If they have a business case for wildland deployment, they will know where it would be coming from and how to track revenues coming in. Richardson said they will write a business case for 2021. 

It’s not meant to be set in stone, and estimated expenditures are only that, Richardson said. “We have to write a new budget every year.” 

They would write a business case for starting new programs and asking for grant matching funds. “We put our account number to it and we know exactly what we spent.”

This gives the Department an overview of planning even if they don’t execute all of it next year. It provides an historical perspective about what they were doing, especially when they change over boards, so the new Board can get a better idea of what direction they need to go.

Irwin-Powell said they will start using this for the 2021 budget. They will discuss this at the next Officers’ Meeting and start writing the budget this month.

Irwin-Powell introduced a policy change for Board members on a call. He said he participated in two calls this past week so he had questions about Board members being on calls, because it’s complicated. 

Who’s the boss? “I have skills to offer when we’re low on volunteers like today with three people out in the wildland fire, so I wanted to draft a policy that makes sense,” Irwin-Powell said. He is proposing an amendment to turn the Board member into a reserve member, and the Chief may bring Board members back in an emergency with appropriate training and may return to provide service. 

The Board member must be in an active role, provide current certification for the type of incident they are covering and must meet minimal training for active volunteers. The Board member holds no rank other than fire fighter, has no command role and must follow chain of command without ignoring chain of command. 

Any dispute would be dealt with after the event. The dispute would end with the Chief and then come to the Board. The board member with the dispute would recuse themselves.

The amendment includes a revision date of three months so the Board can come back and see if its relevant and needs to review this. The Board approved the amendment.

Irwin-Powell said the bomb incident last week was a fine example regarding the need for policies for what they do, and they are simple to fix. Richardson suggested having a policy signoff for members, so as they have new members, the department has a record they have seen it and signed it. 

Irwin-Powell said this is a work in progress, and he would like to expand this into a full manual, so this is the policy and the department agrees on it. He suggested a pharmaceutical replacement policy and rules around what they do when they have medications that are short and can decide on when an expired medication is okay. The Board adopted the policy. 

Irwin-Powell introduced a policy for advanced providers in EMS and how a nurse can work within the EMS system. EMS technicians work under a medical director, who delegates to the provider, who is a registered nurse. 

The policy states that the department maintains written documentation for EMS personnel and keeps that on file to prevent liabilities and know who can help at what time. The Board approved the policy. 

Regarding e-mail confidentiality, Irwin-Powell said email can be used as a business tool and can be subpoenaed. An employee has no expectation of privacy, but a person’s email can only be reviewed by the fire chief together with at least one board member. When terminated, emails become the property of the employer. 

A recipient can’t send the message or show it to someone else not already on the recipient list. The sender needs to be aware if they sent the same email to a group of other people, and blind copying should never be used. 

If it is confidential, put that in the first line of the message but the message is confidential regardless. Dirr said if it’s not confidential, add: “Feel free to distribute.” The Board approved the policy.

The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors met on August 12, 2020. The next meeting will be on September 2, 2020. For more information, go to http://www.nfpd.org/.

(Originally published in the August 20, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)