Meeting Minutes from GCVFA Meeting
April 12, 2010 @ Fadette Vol. FD
The April 2010 meeting of the GCVFA was called to order by President Robert Herring @ 19:05 (7:05 pm) hours.
The Financial Report for March 22-April 12, 2010 had been printed & distributed for the members to read. A motion made by Kenneth Ball of Slocomb FD, seconded by Roy Williams of Samson FD. Poll taken, motion to accept Financial Report as read/printed was unanimously carried.
Meeting Minutes from the February 8, 2010 meeting, and the March 22, 2010 “Emergency Chiefs’ Meeting” at the 911 Center were both printed & distributed for reading by the members as well. A motion to accept the minutes of both meetings as read/printed was made by Kenneth Ball of Slocomb FD, and seconded by Ed Moore, Jr. of Fadette FD. Poll was taken, the motion to accept the minutes as read/printed was carried unanimously.
The Floor was opened up to Slocomb Mayor Rob Hinson who is a Republican candidate for District 87 House of Rep. seat that serves both Geneva Co. & part of Houston Co. Mr. Hinson expressed appreciation & support for all of the volunteer fire departments in Geneva Co. & also expressed awareness & support for the Fire District bill that is currently in the State House of Rep. Mr. Hinson stated that he is aware of the need for this bill to pass, & the need to fund the volunteer fire depts. In order to keep the communities protected. Mr. Hinson stated that he will be happy to talk with anyone about any concerns they may have as he is running for office, & if he would be elected.
Old & New Bus mixed according to President Herring, will go by his agenda & address as many matters as possible tonight. Issue of lack of SOP’s for Suspicious/Arson fires in Geneva Co. Fadette Vol. FD had a very suspicious fire & requested for Law Enforcement/State Fire Marshall to come to the scene, & was told no one was available; Assistant State Fire Marshall for Geneva Co. area Jeff Lowery stated he was never notified at the time of the fire; Fadette Chief Robert Herring went to 34 Central (Dispatch) the next morning & listened to the taped radio traffic to find that the radio transmission by Fadette VFD firefighters asking for either Law Enforcement or the State Fire Marshall to come to the scene HAD been recorded!! The deputy on call? refused to come out in the middle of the night. President Herring stated that Assist. State Fire Marshall Jeff Lowery is supposed to be working with his office & come up with SOP’s on calling for the State Fire Marshall/Law Enforcement to come to the fire scene in a suspicious fire, arson,, or fire involving injury/death to a civilian/firefighter, or a large mercantile/monetary loss in order to preserve the scene/protect the chain of custody. Since the FD left the scene after staying as long as possible, & unable to obtain Law Enforcement/State Fire Marshall, the chain of evidence custody had been broken, & it will be almost impossible to prove the fire was arson-which it in fact was!! President Herring adamantly suggest to all FD’s when encountering a suspicious/questionable/arson fire, etc. & needing to obtain Law Enforcement/State Fire Marshall, to use FD radio & contact 34 Central over the air to request them, so there is a voice recording of the request, plus the dept. heeds to document whether or not they were able to obtain Law Enforcement/State Fire Marshall to cover that dept’s liability. Asst. State Fire Marshall Jeff Lowery was absent from the meeting, so there was no update information on the SOP’s.
The Resource Manuals for each of the Geneva Co. Volunteer Fire Depts. was brought up, they ARE a necessary tool due to no one person in the county knows exactly what each FD has/does not have; especially in a county wide emergency, or for equipment funding/procurement issues. Also, having a Resource Manual detailing the demographics & available equipment/lack of equipment among the member FDs of the Geneva Co. Vol. Firefighters’ Association is a NIMS AND NATIONAL HOMELAND SECURITY REQUIREMENT FOR PRESIDENT HERRING & EVERY FIRE CHIEF!!
On the Cascade System Bottle Fill Burst Chamber aka “Boom Box,” Chief Jeff Lowery is absent, but e-mailed the information to Robert Herring who forwarded it to Sec. Linda Moore; it was saved to a file, printed & distributed it to the members for this meeting, will reprint & attach to these meeting minutes as well. The lowest price was from Sunbelt who gave prices for a 1 bottle, & 2 bottle fill chamber. This led right into the next matter to be discussed.
In the matter of available money, & CPA Bobby Fuller, President Herring & Sec.-Treasurer.. Linda Moore are unable to determine with the information they have been given exactly HOW much GCVFA has in the “big” Tobacco Tax Account; they are unsure what each dept has, or if the totals they are given is from all ten county FDs combined. Both Robert & Linda have made repeated efforts to contact Bobby Fuller to no avail. Linda stated that she has to literally demand that whoever she speaks with takes her name, phone numbers, & a message asking for a return phone call> Robert & Linda have given in writing that was faxed, & Linda has given over the phone & in person twice more all her contact information including mailing address, physical address, home, cell, & fax phone numbers as well as her e-mail address!! This lack of information & the impact it is currently having on the Association as far as the ability to upgrade the cascade system at Hartford and/or Samson to meet NFPA REQUIREMENTS, as well as Samson FD needing to be reimbursed the $1.020.25 bill that was submitted for payment, AND the impact on the Association officers’ ability to perform their jobs, especially if Linda is unavailable, or incapacitated- the president & vice president would have a difficult time with the Association’s finances with the exception of the Petty Cash checking account. In light of all the problems with Bobby Fuller, it was mentioned by Michael Hawthorne of Black FD, that about a year or so ago, we had problems with Bobby Fuller, & were checking around for other CPA’s to do our accounting. Mark Shehee of Bellwood FD recalled that other CPA’s at the time were charging $700=800/month, & Bobby Fuller was willing to “only charge us $400/month,” & “that things improved for a while,’ but he has reverted back to his present ways of doing business with us.” This includes some chiefs being able to get up with him, & most others not able to. A motion was going to be made by President Robert Herring to confront Bobby Fuller on his dealings with us, & if he is not more forthcoming with GCVFA, for the Association to seek out another CPA, preferably in Geneva Co. Fire Chief Michael Hawthorne reminded President Herring that the President cannot make a motion; the motion as stated above was made by Ed Moore, Jr. of Fadette FD, and seconded by Michael Hawthorne of Black Fd. A poll was taken, & the motion was carried unanimously with no opposition. Also, Vice President Van Johnston stated that since he is off work on Monday April 19, that he would go & pay Bobby Fuller a visit at his office to get answers to our questions on his lack of communication, & methods of accounting. Ed Moore from Fadette FD also suggested that if possible, an audit be done before the account is turned over to any other CPA, there was a brief discussion on how much that would cost, & who would be paying for the audit, & where the funds would come from, since the Association members & officers have no idea if we are solvent or not. With the appointment/visit from Van, we are giving Bobby Fuller “a one last round” as quoted by President Robert Herring, to redeem himself & be retained as CPA for the GCVFA.
Update on Thermal Imaging Camera grant that just opened up; Chief Andy Hovey of Hartford Fire & Rescue is overseeing that item, & is absent, so we are unable to get an update, & that discussion will be tabled until the next Association meeting.
Update on the Fire District Bill that is currently in the House of Representatives, Among the 5 amendments brought back to us is that the commercial buildings shall not apply to churches, schools, buildings housing fire & emergency services, senior citizens centers, public utilities, transmission lines of public utilities, their substation, cellular towers, agricultural buildings used for gain ie barns poultry houses, or homes on the farmer’s property that he provides for the employee(s) to live in. That is one of the main sticking points that the Farmers’ Federation fears, & if we insist on counting these as commercial buildings, they will fight to kill the bill; also if it is “watered down with any more than the 5 present amendments,” there is a chance the bill may not pass, AND there is no guarantee that if we leave it in its present form it will be passed. President Herring to monitor Legislative website to monitor progress on bill & keep the rest of the Association informed on the bill’s progress. He also states that the other departments need to be added to the ballot advertising in the paper if they are in favor of the bill; he has not heard from Coffee Springs, Samson, & Geneva said they probably wouldn’t do it, & Hartford is “seesawing” back & forth from one day to the next; we need to find out for sure who is “in, & who is against the fire protection districts.
Van mentioned that several departments are missing too many meetings, & now that we’re only meeting every other month, they can only miss one meeting in a year, or risk losing their share of the Geneva Co. Tobacco Tax funding for that year. Questions arose from Kenneth Ball among others about the by-laws, & following a length discussion, Robert said he has the most recent copy of the by-laws, & we sill table that discussion until the next meeting, then go over the by-laws, & according to the by-laws update/amen them to fit the current needs & structure of the Association. Robert mentioned that any FD member can represent their dept. at an Association meeting, that it does NOT need to be the fire chief specifically.
On the Mims Hill fire district mapping, Forestry Chief Bobby Light said that the latest mapping has been completed, & he will pass out the new wall maps for each dept. after the meeting.
President Herring also stated that the warm weather/severe weather season has arrived, & that all FDs need to perform a “self check” on their procedures for responding to severe weather incidents, so no one gets hurt on a run.
Mark Shehee from Bellwood FD has an update on the Communication Grant, the GCVFA was awarded $258,000 for the P-25 VHF radios, repeaters, etc.,. & that 4 department that got onboard the grant process were Bellwood, Flat Creek, Hartford, & Malvern. A meeting will be set up to get other fire depts. onboard the grant petition, & work out all of the details that need addressing.
Kenneth Ball spoke of the smoke & carbon monoxide detector & requested that any paperwork that has been filled out, be turned into him so he can graph it into the grant’s data base. He also mentioned we had money left due to the smoke & CO alarms not costing quite as much as requested, a “Sparky” the dog character & transporting trailer has been ordered & is due to arrive for use in interacting with Kindergarten, & younger age children. Robert Herring related about smoke detector saving the homeowners’ lives during a recent fire in the early morning.
Robert Herring also spoke of sending our FD’s petition for the fire protection district to Montgomery to the head of the State Forestry Commission as well as the president of the Alabama Association of Volunteer Fire Depts., & both agencies read the petition draft, & stated they found no legal problems or other issues in it. Robert said that the other 9 FDs in Geneva Co. are welcome to use the draft & edit it to fit their particular needs, or use it as a template to develop their own individual draft. Robert stated that on Tues April 13th he will send the draft to Probate Judge Fred Hamic to have him check it, & sign off on the draft as being a good petition, ready to go without problems.
The EMA Director/Homeland Security & radio narrow-banding issue was readdressed, & President Herring asked Sec. Linda Moore how many depts. have complied with his request for information on their existing radios. He stated that if the information was not turned in when needed, that the depts. that need assistance with the re-banding & had failed to turn in the requested data would be on their own financially due to their refusal to comply with the set deadline. The deadline for re-banding radios is 2013. The fact was also brought up that the grant is only for $25,000, & that amount is probably not sufficient to cover the expense of re-banding or replacing the radios.
The last item of business is the 3,000gal.tank with the dump valve that Samson FD had & did not need any longer has been donated to Eufaula FD to use in their training center.
At the end of the meeting we had guest Steven Smith speak to us regarding his candidacy for Republican District Judge of Geneva Co. He expressed support for the Geneva Co. volunteer fire depts. & that we as citizens have the right to know what is going on within the criminal justice system, as well as the accused having their rights; & that he will be available to us any time we need him now as a candidate, & after he would get elected. If elected in June, he will be elected & not need to run in November.
Michael Hawthorne of Black FD stated that their annual Fish Fry fundraiser will be Saturday May 1st. & invited all to attend.
A motion was made by Kenneth Ball of Slocomb FD, & seconded by Oscar Alford of Geneva to adjourn the meeting, a poll was taken, all were in favor & the meeting was adjourned at 20:25 (8:25 pm) hours.
Next regular Association meeting will be held on Monday, June14, 2010 at Flat Creek Vol. Fire Dept., time 7 pm (19:00 hours).
Respectfully submitted by Linda C. Moore, Sec.-Treas. GCVFA
