Quincy Fire Protection District

Board of Directors

Meeting January 12, 2024

Feather Publishing Co. Board Room

287 Lawrence St. Quincy, CA 95971

I.       Call to Order:

   a)      Interim Chairman Johnny Mansell, called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. with Treasurer Ryback, Fire Chief Frank Cary, and Administrative Secretary Karrie White present. Mike Taborski attended as a member of the public.

II.      Discussion and Possible Actions regarding appointing a commissioner to fill the vacancy on the board of the Quincy Fire Protection District:

   a)   Interim Chairman Mansell asked Karrie if there were any applications or nominations, nothing was received during the two-week vacancy period. Ryback nominated Mike Taborski with Commissioner Mansell seconded the nomination to fill the open vacancy.

III.        Election of Board Officers:

   a)    Interim Chairman Mansell opened the floor for discussion on the election process of the Board Officers beginning with the Chairman; Ryback made a motion to nominate  Mike Taborski with Mansell seconding the motion, the motion was approved. Position for Vice-Chairman; Ryback made a  motion to nominate  John Mansell with Taborski seconding the motion, motion was approved. Treasurer Position  Mansell made a motion to nominate Andrew Ryback with Taborski seconding the motion, the motion was approved. The Interim Chairman Mansell hands the meeting over to newly elected Chairman Taborski.

 Public Comment:  

•   None

IV.          Approval of December 14, 2023, Meeting Minutes:

   a)    Chairman Taborski asked if the minutes were reviewed by the board members with Ryback making a motion to approve the December 14, 2023, minutes with Vice-Chairman Mansell seconding the motion.

V.          Financial Committee Report:

   a)   Ryback: Karrie has provided a lot of financials on each of the accounts, he noted the Money Market account had an increase of $488k which represented the FEMA grant monies received. Ryback asked about the Greenhorn Fire Department portion of the grant funding and how the District would get reimbursed. Chief Carey informed Ryback the District received all grant money, the District purchased all of the SCBA gear including what was allocated for the  Greenhorn Fire Department, and they in turn pay their 5% portion of the $24k district's contribution.

b)  Taborski made a motion to transfer $50k into the checking account for operational expenses, Mansell seconded, and the motion approved. Upon receiving the last invoice from L.N. Curtis's final bill for the SCBA gear at the end of this month, Ryback made a motion to approve the transfer of the FEMA Grant amount of $488,019.80 into the checking account. Mansell seconded, motion approved by the following vote, to wit:

AYES: Board Members: Taborski, Mansell, Ryback

NOES: None

ABSENT: None

ABSTAIN: None

c)  No claims were presented.

IV.  Committee Business, Discussion, and Actions:

   1)   Discussion and actions on a proposal for the sale of the newer ladder truck; Fire Chief Carey:

     a)  I have been in contact with Justin Hill at a fire department in Texas who is presenting the information for the possible purchase of the ladder truck to his board members and Chief at their next meeting. I should hear back from him later today. The board members discussed the option of lowering the truck’s price to expedite the process if necessary. Mansell made a motion to give Chief Carey the flexibility to negotiate the price to no less than $25K if necessary to secure a sale. Ryback seconded the motion, motion approved.

    2)   Discussion and action on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Civil Rights Evaluation Tool Policies; Karrie White

     a) Taborski opened the floor for discussion on five policies for the Civil Rights Evaluation Tool requirements to satisfy the FEMA funding we received through the DHS. He wanted the record to reflect that Karrie has done a great job in researching and putting these policies together. He added that the Chief has reviewed each one, as has Taborski.

Ryback asked Karrie about the Limited English Plan (LEP) and if the District can provide materials in Spanish along with the ability to have a sign language interpreter. She explained the district’s website (qfd.ca.gov) can now translate all documents into any language. Chief Carey is getting the High School Spanish Teacher to work with us to implement a telephone voicemail greeting in English and Spanish. On the District's Accessibility page, there are videos in American Sign Language along with other information useful for those with disabilities.

Ryback asked Karrie about two policies, the ADA Discrimination Policy and the Discrimination Grievance Policy quoting the paragraphs dealing with the timely complaint process noting a difference.  The ADA is 60 days, and the Discrimination Grievance is 180 Days asking why there is such a difference in the reporting days? Karrie explained that the laws are not the same one is for the Disability Act and the other is a regular grievance procedure. She said she will research the websites and get a better answer to that question.

The board of Directors voted to APPROVE, AND ADOPT the five Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Policy requirements for being a recipient of a FEMA Grant monies noting that the policies are subject to change as the requirements change by the following vote, to wit:

AYES: Board members; Taborski, Mansell, Ryback

NOES:  None

ABSENT: None

ABSTAIN: None

  3)  Discussion and possible actions on the Policy and Procedure Manual

     a) Taborski said at our last board meeting we discussed using ChatGPT as a resource if possible rather than expend district funds to outsource the creation of a District Policy and Procedure, Karrie and I will work on the Policy and Procedure Manual together and hope to have a draft available for the board by the next board meeting on Feb. 8, 2024. Ryback if the ChatGPT source turns out not to be useful for this project then we have Lexipol as a backup. Discussion is tabled to the next board meeting.

   4)   Review and Approve the Amended District Bylaws;

      a)  Treasurer Ryback said he had some recommendations and notes and handed out copies to the board members to review the changes. The board and staff reviewed, and discussed the changes and agreed to amend the Bylaws with the corrections striking Article V section 2 (Election Process) and correcting Article VII section 5 (Budget) Fire Chief to expend the funds on the items designated amount from $10k to $5K as had been previously approved by the board.

Ryback made a motion to approve the Bylaws with the amended discussed corrections, Mansell seconded the motion, motion was approved by the following vote; to wit:

AYES: Board Members: Taborski, Mansell, Ryback

NOES: None

ABSENT: None

ABSTAIN: None

VI.  Fire Chief Report: Frank Carey:

     a)  We had 45 EMS calls,7 fire calls, and 3 Hazmat calls for a total of 55 calls last month with an average firefighters attendance of 4.56. I am very excited about the improving attendance; Station 2 has at least 5-6 people showing up on Engine 8151.  He noted that Dale Ready has been on vacation and when he returns we should see a higher attendance rate.

Mansell asked Chief Carey if, due to the lack of available drivers, do we have the ability to send out volunteers for a driver training class. Chief said we have licensed drivers but most are located in the East Quincy District. Mansell noted that if the Fire Chief wanted to send out more volunteers for driver training the District is willing to make the funds available. Chief noted that we have two that have gone through driver training 1A and 1B pending the DMV test.

     b) Last Tuesday's drill we had cold water emergencies gearing up for our cold weather season. Our Fire-Rescue Drill on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, is about vitals and patient contact. We have quite a few new first responders so we want to teach them the basics of the A, B, and C’s (airway, breathing, circulation) so if they are first on scene they can give an accurate and valuable assessment to other emergency personnel responding. On Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, Bill Battegain will lead a discussion on solar panels and batteries, and how to deal with those fire-related issues.

V.   Fire Chief Inspection Report: Chief Carey:

     a)   I am working with Travis Goings, who is the new Safety Officer for Plumas County Facilities. We are testing courthouse fire alarms. Travis has an issue with the alarm decibels at the courthouse concerned about what is loud enough and what is not so we have been working on and will be testing the courthouse fire alarms this week.

     b)   Plumas County Library contacted me, I’ve inspected the fire alarm system along with doing a fire drill. I spoke with Travis at the County Facilities after inspecting the system to see if he could get some funding to replace the old fire alarm system from the 1960s with a new one.

c)   Plumas County Behavioral Health and Wellness Center contacted me to do their Annual Medical Funding inspections on the two facilities. Behavioral Health and a few issues to complete, reinspected and both facilities passed.

d)   I had a Defensible Space inspection request from Town & Country Realty on a home sold on Center Street. The inspection went well.

e)   Officers' Installation invitations are going out, the date is February 17, 2024, at 6 pm. All the Officers have their Class A uniforms.

f)   We have four new volunteer members. Two of our firefighters' sons have joined. David Schmid’s son Nathan Schmid and Jessie Lazzarino's stepson, Will Rich. Daniel Litchfield brings experience as a medic, and retired Greenhorn Fire Chief Tyson Rael is returning to our team.

VI.   Other District Business, Discussion, and Actions:

   1)  Fire Station 2 replacement:

      a)   No updates. The Board members had a detailed discussion regarding the types of apparatus that need to be stationed at Station 2. It was concluded that ideally, we consider at least three large bays and one small bay to house the support vehicle.

2)  Discussion, and possible action regarding Andy’s Way property:

     a)   Chief Carey has nothing new to report other than we are still in the process of cleaning up. We have removed debris and cleaned the area with just a few props still there and the gate is accessible to use on the other side The board discussed the school property in detail with the possibility of putting up a fence to define the property lines. They also discussed exploring the possibility of making a lot line adjustment to the one housing unit that is suitable for habitat with the intent for possible sale.

5)   Discussion, and possible action regarding the progress of the LaPorte facility project:

Mansell handed out an information packet regarding the parcel history along with supporting documents from Chief Cassou, and Tom Hunter noting in a letter dated March 12, 1991, that the developer was required to dedicate one-third of this site to the County for future public purpose (i.e., fire protection facility), I spoke with Tracy Ferguson, and she said she needs to speak with the County Counsel and have the Board of Supervisors deem it surplus property.  Once it is done they can sell it to any interested government agencies, special districts, and non-profits. Mansell has a meeting with Tracy on Friday, Jan. 19 at 9:30 am. The board tabled the topic until after Mansell’s meeting.

Taborski made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Ryback seconded the motion, motion was approved.

The Meeting was adjourned by Chairman Taborski at 8:58 a.m.     

                The Meeting was adjourned by Chairman Taborski at 8:58 a.m.

                                 Submitted:  Michael Taborski                                         2/8/24

                                               Chairman Taborski                                                   Date      

Please See the original PDF for the documented signature.