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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-04-16 FIRE Open Session Min. ApprovedCOUNTY OF KAUAI Minutes of Meeting OPEN SESSION Board /Committee: Kauai Fire Commission Meeting Date I April 4, 2016 Location Mo'ikeha Building — Meeting Room 2A/B Start of Meeting: 2:01 p.m. End of Meeting: 3:00 p.m. Present Vice -Chair Thomas Nizo; Members: Michael Martinez, Clifton "Jimmy" Miranda and Mari Yokoi Also present: Board & Commissions Office Staff: Support Clerk Mercedes Omo; Administrator Jay Furfaro; Deputy County Attorney Teresa Tumbaga; Human Resource Director Janine Rapozo Excused Chair Bradley Maruyama and Commissioner Dan Brown Absent SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Call To Order Vice Chair Nizo called the meeting to order at 2:01 p.m. with four (4) Commissioners present, constituting a quorum. Approval of Regular Open Session Minutes of February 1, 2016. Commissioner Miranda moved to approve Minutes the minutes as circulated. Commissioner Martinez seconded the motion. Motion carried 4:0 KFC 2016 -01 Discussion on evaluating the performance of the Fire Chief based on the criteria found in the Kauai County Charter and the Fire Commission's Rules of Administrative Practice and Procedure. Human Resources Director Janine Rapozo gave a briefing on the Performance Evaluation Guidelines for Appointees. Ms. Rapozo stated that the Human Resource Department along with the taskforce created a new a Performance Evaluation Form that contains specific questions on leadership, management, goals, communication and collaboration, which has not been implement yet. But a year or two ago, the Planning Commission has an opportunity to use the new form to see whether or not it would be something that could work and the results were favorable. And now the taskforce is working Kauai Fire Commission Open Session Meeting Minutes of April 4, 2016 Page 2 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION towards finalizing the form which will be used to train all of the various boards and commissions. Ms. Rapozo shared that she reviewed a copy of the Police Chief's performance evaluation form and found similar categories so they decided to incorporate certain ones into the new evaluation form; the only difference is it now includes input from the mayor as well as the peers, which is similar to a 360 evaluation. Ms. Rapozo added that from what she understands the Fire Commission is looking for more substance because the current evaluation form did not meet the needs of the Commission in terms of what to evaluate the Fire Chief on. Ms. Rapozo stated that if the Commissioners wants to have training on how to do the evaluation her staff will be available to conduct the training for them. Commissioner Martinez asked Ms. Rapozo if she could provide more input on selection of the peers and how to identify them. Ms. Rapozo stated that process requires the appointing authority to obtain input from multiple sources whether it's a department head or agencies outside of the County whom the Fire Chief has a working relationship with and is able to provide feedback in terms of how the Fire Chief is doing in his job. Ms. Rapozo indicated that relative to identifying the peers, the Commission should work in conjunction with the Fire Chief to identify the different organizations or people he works with that could give input on whether or not he is doing his job appropriately. Commissioner Martinez stated that the reason he brought the matter up was because of a comment that was made by an evaluator about not having enough interaction with Fire Chief Westerman to do a complete evaluation. Ms. Rapozo stated that perhaps the Commission could work with Chief Kauai Fire Commission Open Session Meeting Minutes of April 4, 2016 Page 3 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Westerman to figure out who his peers are and in doing so, the Commission could give the Chief some ideas as to what other community organizations the Commission would like to see the Chief work closely with such as the American Red Cross. Vice Chair Nizo asked if it was possible to add a section on community relations so the Commission could evaluate the Chief on his relationship with the community. Ms. Rapozo explained that the new performance evaluation form has a section that specifically relates to communication, customer service and public relations along with a description on what the section means. Commissioner Martinez asked during the process of developing the new performance evaluation form if input was sought from Chief Westerman to see what area (s) he felt that he should be evaluated on. Ms. Rapozo stated that when the project first started that question was presented to the department heads and some of the comments that came back was either negative or positive. She added that they may decide to seek more input from the department heads before they launch the new performance evaluation form. Commissioner Martinez stated that he thinks it's a good idea because there may be some things in new the evaluation form that may not be relevant to what the Chief is doing or there may be some things the Chief would like the Commission to see that relates directly to the Fire Department. Ms. Rapozo stated that they tried to make the categories as general as possible, and even included a section on goals to see if the department head is sufficiently progressing towards adequately meeting those goals for that particular year. Vice Chair Nizo asked when is the new performance evaluation form supposed to be launched. Ms. Rapozo stated hopefully by June. Fire Chief Westerman stated that the question now remains is whether or not the Kauai Fire Commission Open Session Meeting Minutes of April 4, 2016 Page 4 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Commission wants to look at creating a new form or use the new performance evaluation form. Ms. Rapozo noted that because the Planning Commission had already used the new form to evaluate the Planning Director she would leave the forms with Mercedes for the Commission to review. Fire Chief Westerman stated that in regard to a comment that was made about not being able to evaluate him in a certain capacity; as an evaluator (himself) he made the same comment when evaluating one of his peers because he didn't have any details as to what he or she did in a particular area so, by adding a general comment section it would help the commissions otherwise, it would be very difficult to create a performance evaluation form that covers all of the different job descriptions. Vice Chair Nizo asked if the Commissioners if they had more questions for Ms. Rapozo? Hearing none, Vice Chair moved unto the Chief's monthly reports. Ms. Rapozo left the meeting at 2:18 p.m. Chiefs Monthly Chief Westerman provided an overview of his monthly reports for the months of Commissioner Miranda moved to accept Reports for January and February. Vice Chair Nizo called for a motion to receive the the Chief's monthly reports. January and Chief's monthly reports. Commissioner Yokoi seconded the February motion. The motion carried 4:0 KFC 2015 -14 General discussion on the Fire Department's FY 2016 -2017 Budget. Fire Chief Westerman stated that earlier this morning he along with members of his senior staff went before the County Council to present the Budget, which he believes went pretty well. (A copy of the budget was distributed to the Commissioners prior to the meeting). KFC 2016 -05 Discussion on Amendment to Article YJl of the Charter, Fire Department. Kauai Fire Commission Open Session Meeting Minutes of April 4, 2016 Page 5 SUBJECT DISCUSSION ACTION Fire Chief Westerman stated that the final draft was reviewed by Administration and submitted to the Charter Review Commission for possible approval. With no further comments or questions, Vice Chair Nizo moved unto the announcements. Announcements Vice Chair Nizo announced the next meeting is scheduled for May 2, 2016, at 2:00 p.m., at Mo'ikeha Building, Meeting Room 2A /2B. Adjournment Vice Chair Nizo called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Miranda moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Martinez seconded the motion. The motion carried 4:0 At 3:00 p.m. the meeting adjourned. Submitted by: Mercedes Omo, Staff Support Clerk (X) Approved as circulated on May 2, 2016 ( ) Approved as amended. See minutes of meeting. Reviewed and Approved by: Thomas Nizo, Vice -Chair