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Boardmember Pearson commented that this process does not leave any chance for <br />advancement or incentive to work for the Chief's position. It takes the challenge away <br />from being more aggressive. <br /> <br />Ms. McAloney stated she is concerned that if the City chooses to make no change at this <br />time, if we have term limits and we are challenged, we cannot be defended in court; we <br />have been told this by League Attorneys. The problem with Veteran's Preference, if you <br />take away the title, it is looked upon as a demotion. This law came into effect in 1990 and <br />cities are being challenged regarding hiring, demotions, etc. <br /> <br />Councilmember Beyer stated she could see this an being as issue for a full-time fire <br />department, not a part-time one. She added that if this is such a pressing issue, she would <br />have received something about it at the City of Lexington. She agreed that this takes away <br />any incentive also. <br /> <br />Ms. McAloney stated that there has been a lot of information received from the League <br />regarding this Veteran's Preference issue, from the annual Loss Control Workshops Cities <br />Bulletin and the League of Minnesota Cities Magazine. <br /> <br />Boardmember Simpson stated that one of the things he is uncomfortable with is the no-term <br />limit. He inquired how often a performance evaluation is done. <br /> <br />Mr. Schroeder stated that an evaluation would be done at six months for the probationary <br />period and should be done yearly after that. <br /> <br />Ms. McAloney stated the evaluation would be done in six months, then six months again, <br />and then at least annually after that. <br /> <br />Boardmember Simpson inquired how it would be handled with regard to the Fire <br />Department. <br /> <br />Mr. Schroeder stated that the Department wants input and he would request it through <br />either a random sampling or from the whole department. <br /> <br />Boardmember Simpson inquired what if the new Fire Chief is "dropping the ball", how <br />would Mr. Schroeder know. <br /> <br />Mr. Schroeder stated that he would hope that someone from the Department would say <br />something to him, or to Ms. McAloney, or to the Fire Board. <br /> <br />Fire Fighter Sharp cautioned that Mr. Schroeder could get a biased report and stated that an <br />evaluation, could not be based on one comment. <br /> <br />Ms. McAloney stated it would probably be comments from the entire department. <br /> <br />Boardmember Simpson stated he would like to see the evaluation based on comments from <br />the whole department every time. <br /> <br />Mayor Gilbertson inquired if the Department would be comfortable sitting with the Council <br />or the City Administrator and saying what they think. He added that even with having <br />input during the hiring process, they could always express their concerns or unhappiness <br />with the Chief at a later time. He suggested maybe the Department could do a six-month <br />review of the Chief and bring it to the Fire Board. He suggested that would be a fair way <br />of doing it; however, he reminded the Board that the Chief would be in a learning process <br /> <br />Fire Board/August 17, 1994 <br /> Page 5 of 9 <br /> <br /> <br />