Boyceville fire board will use position description and interviews to find new fire chief
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Community Fire District Board has decided to develop a position description for a fire chief and to advertise for applicants to fill the position.
Karl Hackbarth, representative from the Town of Stanton who was appointed as chair of the Boyceville fire board at the October 17 meeting, noted at the special meeting held October 24 that he had received another complaint about the fire department.
Hackbarth said the complaint was on his smart phone, but that he did not know how to print out something from his phone.
And while Hackbarth said he had talked with the originator of the complaint, because complaints were not listed on the agenda for the October 24 meeting, it would be addressed at a later date.
“It will come out, but right now we have bigger fish to fry,” he said.
Over the last five days, Hackbarth told the other fire board members he had received quite a bit of information about issues involving the fire department.
The firefighters held a meeting on the Monday before the fire board meeting, and Hackbarth said he had attended the firefighters’ meeting.
“It was a good meeting,” he said.
Fire chief
At the beginning of the meeting, Hackbarth had handed out copies of the Boyceville fire district’s by-laws.
Several board members asked who was responsible for choosing the fire chief.
According to the by-laws, all of the fire department officers are appointed by the fire chief, and the fire chief is appointed by the fire district board, Hackbarth said.
Hackbarth told the board members he had talked with the Black River Falls fire department, the Spring Valley fire department and the Eagle Point fire department in Chippewa County.
All three of those fire districts go through a process of posting for the position of fire chief and then interviewing the applicants, he said.
Those fire districts publish a notice seeking a fire chief, and then they choose an interviewing team, Hackbarth said, noting that they use firefighters in the interviewing process.
After the process is followed, then the fire district selects a fire chief, he said.
If the fire district board wanted him to, Hackbarth said he could talk to additional fire departments to find out about their procedures for hiring a fire chief.
District differences
Black River Falls is larger than the Boyceville fire district, and the Spring Valley fire department is owned by the village, but two of the townships that are covered each have large dairies, so those townships end up paying 49 percent of the assessment for the fire district, Hackbarth said.
The Eagle Point fire department is owned by the township. It is a long and narrow district, and that district is going through some of the same issues as Boyceville, he said.
When the Eagle Point fire chief was fired, the fire department went overnight from 20 on the roster down to seven, Hackbarth said.
The Eagle Point fire district ended up asking adjoining districts for coverage until the roster could be built up again, he said.
Apparently, where there are volunteers, there are problems, Hackbarth said.
Hackbarth asked for a motion to follow the procedure of posting a job position for fire chief, interviewing candidates and then appointing a fire chief based on the interviews.
The position would be posted internally at the Boyceville fire department and externally, he said.
A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved by the Boyceville Community Fire District representatives to follow the procedure Hackbarth had outlined.
The Boyceville fire district includes the villages of Boyceville and Wheeler and the Towns of Hay River, New Haven, Stanton, Sherman and Tiffany.
Position description
Hackbarth said he had conducted a Google search for examples of position listings but had only turned up a couple of examples.
To make sure that Boyceville is on the right track, Hackbarth said he could reach out to the retired fire chief in Black River Falls.
The fire board must determine the criteria needed to assess applicants, such as prior experience, and should also be cautious about not over-stating or under-stating the qualifications, he said.
“Our first step is getting this right,” Hackbarth said.
Several fire board members said they had remembered going through the process before of listing qualifications for a fire chief.
Michelle Drury, representative for the Town of Hay River, asked if the fire chief qualifications might be included in the by-laws.
There should also be a code of conduct somewhere, Hackbarth said, adding that he also had the by-laws of the Spring Valley Fire Association.
Urgency
There is a sense of urgency for working on the process to select a fire chief because the current fire chief, Matt Lunderville, is resigning as of December 1, Hackbarth said.
By the time the fire board compiles a list of job qualifications, and then the notice is published in the newspaper for two weeks, the candidates are reviewed and the interviews are conducted, the Boyceville fire district might have a fire chief on board by around January 1, he said.
The fire board should go back to the firefighters for an interim fire chief, Hackbarth, noting that the interim fire chief could apply for the fire chief position and could end up as the fire chief, if he wants to apply.
The Boyceville fire board must be able to assess candidates on qualifications and to say that this person has this qualification but needs more for this qualification, Hackbarth said.
Several representatives suggested fire board members take some time to digest the discussion at the October 24 meeting and then come back to work on the position description.
The Boyceville fire board scheduled another special meeting for October 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Boyceville fire station.
Comments
While there were about a dozen people in attendance at the Boyceville fire board meeting, some of whom were presumably firefighters, none of them wanted to make any comments to the board.
Hackbarth took the opportunity to address the audience.
Part of the firefighters’ meeting was a venting process, and that “was good,” he said.
Hackbarth said he was looking forward to attending the firefighters’ monthly meetings in order to open communications.
Firefighters have called and they have e-mailed, and “I will try to follow up on all comments,” he said.
The first priority is to appoint a new fire chief, and then the issues can be followed up and addressed, Hackbarth said.
It is important for the fire department to have good interactions in the community. The fire department needs a chief that “everyone will follow,” he said.
“The community deserves more, and the firefighters need more,” Hackbarth said.
The fire district’s by-laws and the code of conduct should be on a clipboard and available at the fire station, he said.
The fire board and the firefighters have to take steps to “curb the hostile environment and move on,” Hackbarth said, adding that he was glad people were contacting him about the fire department.
