08/17/94 Special Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. McAloney stated that the position of Fire Chief is more than "just holding the hose". The Chief works on the budget, personnel issues, and capital improvements. She added that Mr. Schroeder doesn't go out and chase down people who speed, but he knows what the Police Department does and he knows what each Department Head does. He does not have to "do the job to do the appraisal". Fire Fighter Wilson stated that Mr. Schroeder should do the appraisal based on administrative workings and employee relations, etc. and maybe he could pick a group at random to fill out a survey the first year and to receive input on how things are going with the Chief in the Fire Department. He suggested asking about morale, etc. The questions wouldn't have to be specifically about the Fire Chief personally. Ms. McAloney expressed concern about people doing their supervisor's appraisal. Boardmember Simpson felt the Department should be doing the appraisal on how the Chief does on the fire site. "We want someone who is doing a good job out there as well as within the City and we are the ones who would be able to say how he's doing". Mr. Schroeder stated he does not have a problem solicitating information for the performance review. "I do not want to say every performance review I do will include that process, but certainly some will". Fire Fighter Sharp expressed concern that Mr. Schroeder would not know what makes a good Fire Chief. Councilmember Beyer declared it is difficult to get biases out of performance evaluations. Ms. McAloney inquired, if we were to use this process, what would number 5 of the list mean. Would it mean two fire fighters or would it mean two people from the Fire Board. She added that this would not be just for the interviewing part of it, she wants input for the questions, etc. Mayor Gilbertson suggested one person from the Fire Department and one from the Fire Board to which the Fire Fighters in attendance were in agreement. Chief Griffin stated that this does not have anything to do with the Assistant Fire Chief position at this time but has a concern regarding no term limit for the position of Assistant Fire Chiefi Ms. McAloney stated it would eliminate terms on the Assistant Chief as well. She added that this is part of the Veteran's Preference law, if there is a term limit on the Assistant Chief, it would be seen as a demotion if a veteran were to lose the position of his or her term. Fire Fighter Spence inquired how does any one who would like to be a Fire Chief move up from Assistant Chief. As far as Lieutenant, Captain, etc., he inquired who would be involved in the filling of these positions. Ms. McAloney stated that Council chooses Department Heads, the Department Head recommends the other positions. The Fire Chief makes recommendations on the Assistant Chief and those two together make a recommendation on all other Fire Department staff. Fire Board/August 17, 1994 Page 4 of 9