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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Fire Restrictions, Audits, Board Member Absences

Anita Weston, Reporter
Rich Civic Times
 

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  June 20, 2013, Garden City Fire Board Meeting.  Currently there are no fire restrictions.  However, because it has been really hot with lots of wind, the local fire district feels some action needs to be taken.  They also think that everyone should be in agreement on what fire restrictions should be put in place.  Last year, individuals staying at the state parks could build fires while everywhere else, fires were banned.  It caused a lot of confusion and misunderstandings. 

Chief Kurek said he had contacted the state officials, the County Commissioners, and invited any of the local fire board members to come to a meeting where they can work out any issues and come up with a plan for the summer.  If all of the agencies involved will work together, inconsistencies shouldn’t be a problem this year. 

It was suggested that all of the volunteer fire fighters be given the EMT training through at least the first level.  The disaster exercises that were held this past month with the National Guard, helicopters, and so forth were very beneficial.  However, it became evident that everyone needed to have a better understanding of medical issues. 

Starting this next year, the state will use new audit procedures.  In addition to the financial audit, an audit of policies, procedures, and resolutions will also be carried out.  

Approval of all major purchases or expenses will be verified. Tiffany Wahlberg, CPA, requested Chief Kurek write the month on any large purchases or expenditure so that it will be easy to go back to the minutes of that month to make sure the item had board approval prior to the transaction.   

When bids are let for projects, there should be up to three, depending on the money amount involved.  This is to make sure that one contractor is not always hired, and that everyone has an equal chance of obtaining the job depending on their bid. 

There are restrictions on certain fund balances.  When they go over that amount, it doesn’t mean that the money needs to be spent.  Those funds can be transferred through motion by the board to a capital expenditure account. 

Since the fire department here is small there may be more than one family member involved.  In these cases, care should be taken to make sure that one family member is not supervising another family member.  Currently Mike Wahlberg should supervise TomWahlberg.  However, since they are brothers, Chief Kurek supervises both of these individuals.  As long as it is mentioned in the minutes and that procedure followed, this show there is no nepotism in this situation.

The records officer must have his training completed before December of this year.  There is a class available on the computer.  Also, all board members must also have taken their training.  These courses can be found at sao.utah.gov.  The auditors will check training carefully.

The budget needs to be adjusted to account for any grants or unusual activities that have taken place.  This can be done by motion of the Board.  Also adjustments where areas are over or under budget can also be handled by motion of the Board.  It can be done any time during the year.  A board member requested that some of the work be done at the next meeting.  Because the public may want to attend that meeting, the agenda must be posted seven days prior to the meeting and those items be listed as part of the agenda.

Insurance expenses and retirement fund changes need to be made.  Currently training costs are quite high and may need to be adjusted.

It was suggested that the board members read through the policies and procedures as well as the resolutions to make sure that everything is being followed that are in that manual.  As an example, one policy states that an individual will be dropped from the board if they miss more than five meetings in a year.  The current number of absences by board members was discussed making each individual aware of their attendance this year, (two have missed four meetings this year so far).

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