2009-04-07 - Board of Fire and Police Commissioners - Minutes Board orCommission: ❑ Fire& Police commission
Document Type: ❑A e
g nda 0 Minutes
Meeting ate: 04/07/2009
Type of Meeting: ❑ Regular Meeting
VILLAGE OF BUFFALO GROVE
Board of Fire and Police Commissioners
Minutes of Regular Meeting April 7, 2009
CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL:
The meeting was called to order at 7:31 p.m. by Chairman Viehman in the Chiefs
Conference Room of the Village of Buffalo Grove Police Department. Commissioner
Karge called the roll and noted for the record that a quorum was present at the
meeting. Present were Chairman Viehman, Commissioners Loeb, Lukatsky, and
Karge. Not present was Commissioner Dibbern. Also, in attendance were Police
Chief Steve Balinski, Fire Chief Terry Vavra, Deputy Fire Chief Dan Pearson, and
HR Director Art Malinowski.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Commissioner Loeb made a motion to approve the minutes of the BFPO Regular
Meeting of March 3, 2009, seconded by Commissioner Lukatsky. The motion was
approved by a voice vote.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT:
Chairman Viehman reported in our packet we have information from the Illinois
Fire and Police Commission Association of the meeting scheduled in
Springfield on May 1, 2 and 3. If any one is available to attend, the Village of
Buffalo Grove is willing to support attendance at that particular session.
There will be another session in the fall and it would be to our advantage to
attend.
Thanks to the Police Department for the use of the training room for the Fire
Lieutenant Tactical Exercise Assessment on March 281h. Thanks also to Chief
Balinski for making the room available and the hospitality of his staff. A
reminder — Saturday, April 181h, we will be back in the same room at 8:00
a.m. until 12:00 noon for the Fire Lieutenant candidates written test.
COMMISSIONERS REPORTS
Commissioners had no news to report.
CHIEFS REPORTS
P®LICE DEPARTMENT
A. Chief Balinski and the men and women of the Police Department thank the
Fire and Police Commission for their flexibility and adaptability during the
recent orientation process with 513 applicants. Everything went very
smoothly. Todd Kupsak and his recruitment team did an outstanding job and
thanks to Art Malinowski for his support. It all worked out well.
The Chief reported that the following officers were each involved medically at this
point with issues: Millet, Tomaso, Montgomery, Halverson, Kohl, Horbus.
There are some challenges that lie ahead in terms of staffing issues.
Todd Kupsak shared the dates for the NIPSTA (Northeastern Illinois Public Safety
Training Academy). They have elected to add another date to the schedule.
Instead of testing candidates 45 per hour, they have increased to 55 per hour
and if that goes well they will go to 75. If they have to they will go up to 100
to accommodate all applicants. April 161h was added to the schedule.
FIRE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Vavra echoes Chief Balinski's praises to the Commission. He sat through all
the assessments of tacticals and having all the Commissioners in
attendance meant a lot to the guys.
Tom Wisniewski is back to work and is functioning fine. Brian Barna is on light
duty and is fine. Thursday several fire personnel will be attending a NIMS
(National Incident Management System) class.
There is a House Bill #1627 which originally started as a method to create a master
list of fire fighters. However, there are a lot of departments that cannot
physically handle the hiring process. After several meetings of the Associated
Fire Fighters of Illinois, the Illinois Fire Chiefs started to look at the hiring
criteria for fire districts for municipalities, home rule and non-home rule and
found there are several inconsistencies. The first purpose is to bring all under
the same hiring process. Chief Vavra handed out a fact sheet that was
prepared by the Illinois Fire Chief s lawyer explaining the intention. The
problem is part of the AFFI mission is to eliminate home rule. The Illinois
Fire Chiefs do not support this bill. The bill is moving forward. Chief Vavra is
going to Springfield April 22nd for a legislative day where he will be asking
our Representatives not to support this bill only because of the Home Rule
clause. If we eliminate the Home Rule it would defeat the purpose. There are
more things in this Bill that are more restrictive that we have done. Most
likely, this Bill has not passed the House since Representatives are on Spring
Break until April 21s' and nothing can happen until they return. If this Bill
should pass it could possibly affect the Police Department at a later date. Art
Malinowski reported he has received a document from the Illinois Municipal
League who is significantly opposed to the Bill. A letter was sent to House
Speaker Madigan opposing this Bill, and to our membership of approximately
300 Illinois Municipalities who are also opposing this Bill.
OLD BUSINESS:
Chairman Viehman sent a letter to Chief Balinski and Todd Kupsak to make sure
all the staff were apprised of our thanks and appreciation for their involvement in
the police Officer Candidate Orientation Process. We had a very successful turnout.
It was very well run. We had some very good questions from those that hung
around and some very nice comments about our organization and the delivery
process itself. We had a couple issues that came up such as special accommodations
for testing and one individual has a vision scenario. These issues will be addressed
when the time comes.
NEW BUSINESS:
Chief Vavra said that the Fire Lieutenant Candidate Tactical process went very
well on March 281h. A letter was sent to Chief Tom Allenspach (retired) of the
Illinois Fire Chiefs' Association to thank the Chiefs that were there for an
outstanding job. Scores were presented to the Commission along with a copy
of the actual projected posting. Commissioner Viehman called for a motion to
approve the tactical scores as presented. By voice vote the Commission
approved. The scores were to be posted at the three Fire Stations the
following day. Commissioner Viehman reminded the Commissioners that on
Saturday, April 181h, the Lieutenant written exam will be held in the Police
Department Training Room. On the day of the test Chief Vavra will be given
the test booklet to validate the questions prior to the posting of the scores.
Deputy Chief Dan Pearson presented to the Commission a packet from NIPSTA on
the "Firefighter Candidate Physical Ability Test" process for our review.
Chairman Viehman suggested the Commissioners review the material and
bring any questions regarding the process to the next meeting. Then the
Board will be able to make a motion to approve the process as an activity in
the next Fire Officer Candidate Recruiting process.
ADJOURNMENT:
A motion was made at 8:14 p.m. by Commissioner Lukatsky, seconded by
Commissioner Loeb, to adjourn the meeting. All Commissioners present voted in
favor of the motion and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectively submitted:
Ernest W. Karge, Acting Secretary
Board of Fire and Police Commissioners