At its regular meeting on Thursday, Sept. 21, the Herald Fire Protection District (HFPD) Board of Directors approved three revised policies, district objectives and goals revisions, and a response to a Sacramento County Grand Jury report, along with handling other monthly business items. Reporting on the response to the grand jury report is in blue.
Board members voted 4-0, Director George Vander Dussen was absent, to approve revisions to policies 2135, Firefighter Cell Phone Use; 2141, Use of Tobacco Products; and Policy 2200, Heat Illness Protection Program. Although no significant changes were made on the three policies, according to Director Heidi Braziel who sits on the Policy Committee, the three revised policies have updated terminology, such as changing “cell phone” to “mobile device”.
“Instead of just being cell phones, people have watches, tablets and all sorts of other communication [devices], so it’s really just cleaning it up and making it more clear,” Braziel said during the meeting.
Other minor changes included changing “firefighter” to “district personnel” to encompass all those serving in the district.
Directors also approved a response to the 2016-2017 Sacramento Grand Jury Report issued in July of this year.
The 2016 Grand Jury members decided to do a follow-up report on the initial report issued in 2014, where that grand jury found the district out of compliance in several areas and issued recommendations.
In the new report, Grand Jury members acknowledged that the district has made improvements, but still had a few recommendations for the current board.
“Many of the issues identified by the grand jury stemmed from the constant turnover of key personnel,” the report said. “Factions and infighting within the board and in the community at large were the root causes of several of these issues. In the intervening years, there has continued to be turnover but, slowly, things have changed and the district seems to be on the right track. The current board of directors has done much to restore community confidence in the governance of the district.”
The Grand Jury did issue three “findings” and therefore three “recommendations” directed to the district, and one finding and one recommendation for LAFCo, mainly admonishing LAFCo to complete a Municipal Service Review of the district that the original Grand Jury recommended and has yet to take place.
For HFPD, Finding 1 acknowledged the progress the district has made in improving safety of its volunteers and recommended the district maintain those efforts.
Finding 2 addressed the outstanding annual audits that needed to be completed and recommended that the district expedite that process.
Finding 3 stated “additional work needs to be done to address the district’s financial vulnerabilities, especially in paying funds owed to CalPERS.” The Grand Jury recommended that the district should have a specific fund to pay any outstanding debts, especially those funds owed to CalPERS, which the district severed ties with in January 2017.
HFPD Chairperson Lindsey Liebig, along with district personnel, drafted the response to the Grand Jury.
In the response, Liebig reported that Richardson & Company, the district’s independent auditing company, began the audit for FY 2010-2011 and FY 2011-2012.
“We expect those to be finalized in October 2017,” the response said. “District staff has begun preparations for the remaining audits of FY 2012-2013 through FY 2015-2016 with a goal to begin those in the spring of 2018. The completion of these remaining audits will remain a top priority of the district, and we will continue to strive to meet our internal completion deadline of Dec. 31, 2018. With each audit costing approximately $7,000, these audits are also subject to budgetary restrictions.”
Addressing Recommendation 3, that the district should set aside specific funds to pay outstanding debts, the response clarifies that the district currently only has one outstanding debt, that of the recent purchase of a new command vehicle, where a lease payment is due in 2018.
“All outstanding debts that were found by district staff or auditors have been paid, including all payments requested thus far from CalPERS,” the response said.
The response addressed the CalPERS situation further, stating that after the final dissolution with the retirement program January 2017, CalPERS indicated that they would provide the district with a final potential unfunded liability or surplus within 4-6 weeks.
“The district did not receive any contact from CalPERS regarding this matter until Aug. 28,” the response stated.
However, that correspondence did not provide a final number.
“To date, the district has still not received a final valuation on the potential unfunded liability or surplus from CalPERS. In each written communication the district has received from CalPERS, they have indicated that there could be a potential unfunded liability or a potential surplus of funds. Therefore, the district has chosen to budget neutrally for CalPERS until we receive the final valuation.”
The response indicated that the district found it important to equip personnel and apparatus with appropriate safety equipment, ensuring compliance with OSHA, at an expense of approximately $20,000 per volunteer. With an influx of much needed volunteers, the district chose to spend a large sum of its contingency budget on those expenses.
“We chose to prioritize the safety of our volunteers and community members, over setting aside those funds to address our contract dissolution with CalPERS,” the response said.
Indicating that the district’s budget is $665,000, the response said directors had to make tough choices.
“This slim budget provides for the basic needs of the district, and the board chose at this time not to delegate funds away from volunteer pay, training and education, fire apparatus maintenance, and other areas of safety concern, in order to create a fund for CalPERS, when we had no indication when that might be provided,” the response said.
The response also reported that, as soon as the district receives a final valuation, it will “realign” the budget “to balance the needs of the district and our community members, along with settling any unfunded liability with CalPERS. It has not been our intent to ignore our ongoing contract termination in any way; rather, it has been a conscious effort to utilize our limited resources where it is most needed, and that is protecting the safety of our volunteers and community, which we were commended for in Finding #1.”
Directors approved the response 4-0.
September 27, 2017
The Galt Herald
By Bonnie Rodriguez
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