MINUTES
Board of Directors Meeting
Jasper County Emergency Services
April 5th, 2022
Vice Chairman Wilson called the meeting to order at 12:06 p.m. Meeting was held at the Board office, 13870 Dispatch Lane, Carthage, MO as per public notice. Present in addition to Vice Chairman Wilson, Carl Francis, Greg Dagnan and James Harrison via conference call. Representing staff was Executive Director (ED Ford) April Ford and Office Support Clerk Amber Madison.
Representing Public in attendance was Bryan Harper (NROUTE), Tony Kosiba, Denise Gibbs with Motorola, and Allan Talkington with TUSA via conference call.
Consent Agenda
Director Dagnan motioned to approve agenda and to proceed with the meeting. Director Francis seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Review and Action of Meeting Minutes
Open and closed meeting minutes were reviewed for the Board of Director’s Meetings held on
March 1st, 2022.
Director Harrison motioned to approve the open and closed meeting minutes for March 1st, 2022. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Public Comment and Correspondence
No public comment
Financial Report and Payment of Bills
The sales tax deposit for February was received on March 7th, 2022, in the amount of $332,661.34. We have not received the sales tax check for March or April.
Total bills submitted for approval today $129,510.89.
Checkbook balance after payment of bills will be $7,069.20.
Accounts receivable balance: $3,016.67 (METS dispatching fee).
The Money Market account balance is $1,745,334.03.
Director Harrison motioned to approve the financial report and payment of bills. Director Francis seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Executive Director Report
See Attached Report
ED Ford advised the Board that we are still waiting for contracts to be renewed with AT&T, and we still have 3 accounts with disputes that AT&T has not taken care of yet. ED Ford advised the Board that she spoke to our Attorney Frank Foster, and he stated that we could use the architect for our parking lot project and that there isn’t a need for a written form of proposal (RFP). ED Ford advised the Board that the Jasper County Sheriff Randee Kaiser is going to try and use grant funds for the radio project. ED Ford advised the Board that we had the light on the tower replaced and it has gone out again. April advised them that the board is probably going out and causing the light to go out. We will be having more expense with the tower light and will report back to the Board on repairs. ED Ford advised the Board that the Jasper County Health Department came back out and tested our water again and our tests were fine. April explained that the line to the water softener was not hooked up correctly, causing the water softener to not be operating correctly. ED Ford advised the Board that she has been asked to testify for the house bill that would change 9-1-1 Dispatchers to First Responders. ED Ford reminded the Board that Director Harrison, Director Hawkins, and Director Brewer will need to be sworn in and that everyone needs to file their financial disclosures. ED Ford advised the Board that the neighbors dogs came over to the Center again and we had to have the Jasper County Sheriffs Office come out and speak to the neighbors. While Deputy Neidert was here the dogs attacked him as well, Deputy Neidert used his pepper spray during the attack.
Unfinished Business
Countywide Public Safety Radio System-Needs Assessment
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that she has been having conversations with Joplin about the possibility of combining the radio project with Joplin and being on the same system with additional infrastructure. April has spoken to Andy Nimmo with the Joplin Fire Department about Joplin joining JASCO radio project for their Fire Station Alerting system needs to get better pricing. April advised the Board that Motorola requested a meeting with JASCO, Joplin and Springfield-Greene County tomorrow to discuss MOSWIN. Allen Talkington advised the Board that TUSA has an RFP draft ready, and hopefully tomorrow they will get more information from Joplin and know what direction Joplin is wanting to go. Allen stated that TUSA is ready to present and move forward with the project as soon as JASCO is ready.
Fire West
April advised the Board that they turned in the complaint and are working with Scott Bigham. He is trying to figure out why we are having interference with Fire West. April advised that Carl Junction Fire Department is using the Joplin fire tower for now and Duenweg Fire Department is working on a plan. Tri-Cities Fire is using Fire West and Fire Central as a backup. Allen suggested that the interreference might be SCADA, Tony also advised the Board that he has had a problem with electric and welders interfering with radio systems before.
Building Maintenance/Expansion/Parking Lot Update
Executive Director Ford advised that our toilets are still having problems. We have been having plumbers out multiple times. It might be a lateral line problem, the toilets are also 27 years old and we might need to replace them. ED Ford advised the Board that the RFP for the parking lot was sent out via email to the Board members. We will discuss the bid specifics in closed session.
Overtime Compensation
Office Support Clerk Madison advised the Board that everyone is still appreciative of the overtime compensation, she advised the Board that there hasn’t been an abuse of the agreement and she went over the 4-week payroll report with the Board. April advised the Board that we had a lot of overtime this month due to covering consoles at Joplin for funerals.
Director Francis motioned to approve and continue the Overtime Compensation policy. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Staffing and Recruitment / Wage Scale / MCP
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that our staff is down 31% overall for the center. One of our Dispatchers will be going to Joplin Communications part time. We are also losing a Dispatcher to Carl Junction Police Department for the pay, insurance and less call volume. April advised the Board that we have had three more critical incidents. April also stated that other agencies can pay what our Dispatchers are getting paid with a lower call volume. We have had one applicant in the last 2 months. She advised that we have tried going to job fairs, posting we are hiring posters around town, and on social media. We will be posting on MSSU hire Lion page, and Pittsburg State University. We are going to start working on a commercial for hiring and advertise with the movies. We will be choosing the $1,000.00 option that was presented at the last Board meeting. ED Ford advised the Board that we will be having Chiefs meetings again. We are going to see if we can do the MDT training for the Departments. We are also going to ask the EMS/Fire Departments to start using their MDT more. Having the Departments change their status via MDT will cut out some work for the Dispatchers. ED Ford advised the Board that our call volume fluctuates and at sometimes we do not have enough employees in the comm room. April reminded the Board that our web developer designed an online reporting system during Covid that we could start using for non-emergency calls.
At 12:58 p.m. Denise Gibbs left the meeting.
The Board discussed telling the Departments that have their phone forwarded to us that they will have to take their non-emergency phone lines back. The Board discussed that we need to come up with solutions for when we are below minimum staffing. We have been at 3 during certain hours of the night when our minimum staffing standard is 4. April advised the Board again that other agencies like CJPD are paying employee insurance and starting out at a higher wage.
At 1:03 p.m. Bryan Harper left the meeting.
2021 Audit Draft
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that we have completed our 2021 audit. Everything went very smooth, and we just need to sign the paperwork for the audit draft to be accepted and finalize it to send it in to the State.
Director Dagnan motioned to accept the 2021 Audit Draft Report. Director Francis seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
New Business
National Telecommunicator Week 2022 – Resolution
Executive Director Ford stated that National Telecommunicators Week is April 10th – April 16th this year. April stated our theme this year is murder mystery. We will have activities and food days for the employees.
Director Harrison motioned to approve the Resolution for National Telecommunicators Week 2022 Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Vote: Wilson -In Favor
Francis -In Favor
Brewer -Absent
Dagnan -In Favor
Stanley -Absent
Harrison -In Favor
Budget Amendment – Advertising
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that we will need to do another budget amendment at the end of the year for our advertising budget, due to several RFP’s/election/hiring.
Budget Amendment – Upgrade CAD Servers and Interface
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that we will need a budget amendment because we were only able to get the quote below $20,000.00. We need amendment for CAD/EFD/EPD interface. We must upgrade CAD to sequel. We need EFD interface with CAD to help with training on call taking. We are hopeful that this will help save employees from quitting. April advised that we need $7,450.00 for the EFD interface and it will increase our annual maintenance.
Director Francis motioned to amend the GL budget 60912 and to approve $26,450.00 to be approved for CAD upgrade and EFD interface. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Budget Amendment – Avtec Radio Maintenance 2021
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that Avtec did not bill us for last year’s maintenance before the end of the year after she requested the invoice. Avtec has now sent us last year’s maintenance invoice this month. We will need a budget amendment to include last year’s maintenance and this year’s maintenance.
Director Harrison motioned to add an additional $34,207.74 to radio system repair and maintenance GL 61418. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Animal at the Center
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that we have been letting the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department dog Charlie come and hang out at the Center. It has helped employees a lot with the grieving process and overall morale when he shows up. Once we have staffing, April will start gathering information for having a dog at the Center. Our staff morale has been down and we are looking for ways to boost morale again with the increase in call volume, the lack of staffing and the critical incidents.
Building Maintenance
Executive Director Ford advised the Board previously about the maintenance issues.
Surplus
Executive Director Ford advised the Board that we have a fish tank/old phones/switches that are on the surplus list.
Director Francis motioned to surplus the items mentioned. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Jasper County Emergency Services Board announced to close for specifications for competitive bidding pursuant to Mo. Statute Section 610.021 (1) (11).
All representing public left the meeting, Alan Talkington with TUSA remained on the conference call.
Vote: Wilson – In Favor
Francis – In Favor
Harrison – In Favor
Dagnan – In Favor
1:36 p.m. Director Francis motioned to come out of closed session. Director Harrison seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Vote: Wilson – In Favor
Francis – In Favor
Harrison – In Favor
Dagnan – In Favor
Director Francis motion to send out the RFP for the parking lot. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Roll call vote completed: Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Vote: Wilson – In Favor
Francis – In Favor
Harrison – In Favor
Dagnan – In Favor
Roll call vote completed: Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Vote: Wilson – In Favor
Francis – In Favor
Harrison – In Favor
Dagnan – In Favor
Director Francis motioned to seek prosecution the individual that released information from our CAD system to the public, and to also call the EMS Bureau regarding licensing. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
At 1:38 p.m. Director Francis motioned adjourn. Director Dagnan seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
The next Board Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022, at 12:00 p.m.
On the________ day of ________________2022
I, Vice Chairman Wilson ___________________________certify these Jasper County Emergency Services Board Meeting Minutes for___________________________. They have been reviewed and are accurate.
On the ________day of_________________2022
I, Carl Francis, Director __________________________ attest the Jasper County Emergency Services Board Meeting Minutes for ___________________________. They have been reviewed and are accurate.
