Tri-District Planning Group

 

Draft Work Statement

An organization that maximizes the service delivery, while maintaining community connection and support.  Build a team whose members are effective, empowered, and enthusiastic in their service.

The Tri-District Planning Group was called to order at 1805 hours, at Benton County Fire District #4, 2604 Bombing Range Road, West Richland, Washington, on March 26, 2007. The Fire Chiefs from Benton County Fire District #1, #2, and #4 lead the meeting.

Introductions and Sign In

The meeting started with introductions and a sign-in sheet was distributed. Those in attendance were:

Ron Bush, Career Representative, Benton #1

Bill Cherwien, Chief Officer Liaison, Benton #2

Jenn Daugherty, Volunteer Association Representative Alternate, Benton #4

Ron Duncan, Fire Chief, Benton #2

Bob Gear, Fire Chief, Benton #1

AJ Hill, Commissioner, Benton #4

Bill Houchin, Commissioner, Benton #1

Larry Howell, Commissioner, Benton #2

Nathan Isaacs, Tri-City Herald

Kye Lorenzen, Volunteer Association Representative, Benton #4

Ryan Nicholls, Career Representative Alternate, Benton #1

Barry Orth, Volunteer Representative, Benton #2

Darrin Pettis, Career Representative, Benton #2

Arliss Redekopp, Administrative Representative, Benton #1

Phil Rosenkranz, Volunteer Representative, Benton #1

Steve Rouse, Commissioner, Benton #2

Mike Spring, Fire Chief, Benton #4

Joe Tea, Career Representative, Benton #4

Absent were:

Ken Dobbin, West Richland Council Liaison

Ray Newton, Career Representative Alternate, Benton #4

DeWayne Smith, Commissioner, Benton #2

Bob Trainor, Volunteer Representative Alternate, Benton #1

Benton City Council Liaison

Minutes of February 15, 2007, Meeting

Chief Duncan made a motion to approve the February 15 minutes as submitted.  Commissioner Hill seconded the motion and the motion passed with everyone in favor.

Direction from the Joint Commissioner Board

Commissioner Hill reviewed what took place at the Joint Board of Commissioner meeting.  Much of the meeting was used to determine how this board will function.  This board will meet the third Saturday of each month at 0900 hours.  The meeting place will rotate with the calendar year quarters; with the first quarter’s meetings at Benton County Fire District #4, the second quarter at Benton 1 and the third quarter at Benton 2.  During the first meeting of the Joint Board, the commissioners gave direction to the planning group to develop a list of activities that could be completed in the short term (immediate to one year), intermediate activities (within five years), and long-term activities (over five years).

The Fire Chiefs discussed how they went about reviewing the minutes from the last planning group meeting and placing the brainstormed activities into the ICS functional areas.  The Joint Board plans to discuss the joint activities list at their next meeting.  Items on the joint activities list are categorized under administration, operations, logistics, planning, or under finance.  Now the direction from the Joint Board and chiefs is to take the items on the activities list and state what can be accomplished in the short, intermediate and long term. 

 Every individual reading the activities list will have a different concept of what the activities mean.  An example used was boundary adjustments.  Some will look at this as meaning individual station adjustments; others will look at this as meaning fire district or county-wide adjustments. 

 The group decided the best way to progress is to break into sub or mini groups based on the ICS functional areas.  The group discussed deliverables and guidelines for the sub groups.

 Each sub group should have a minimum of one member from Fire District 1, 2 and 4.  If the sub group cannot find a member from one of the Fire Districts, the sub group needs to contact that District’s fire chief and get help finding a member or get approval to continue without a member from that agency.

 The sub groups are to review what is listed in the section assigned to them and decide if there needs to be deletions or additions.  The next step will be to create a short definition of the activity so there is universal understanding of what the sub group’s interpretation is on a listed activity.   Another step is to assign a timeline to the activity--short term (immediate to one year), intermediate (within five years), or long-term (over five years).

 After discussion, it was decided the sub groups should be prepared to give a report of their activities to the planning group at the next planning group meeting and at the Joint Board of Commissioner meeting on May 19. 

 The next step was to create the sub groups.  The following assignments were decided on:

 

 Each of the leads agreed they would get the members of their functional area together and start working on additions/deletions, definitions, and timelines.