Draft Minutes Board of Directors Meeting 12/16/03


The General Board Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by President Mr. Stonebraker. Present were Directors Mr. Stonebraker, Mr. Schloss, Mr. Bettag, Chief Svetanics, Mrs. Vincent, Firefighters Lt. Michalski and Pvts. Jegel and Schwenk, and a Citizen from the District.

Pledge of allegiance was led by Pvt. Schwenk.

Mr. Stonebraker made a motion to add an executive session to the agenda following the general session in preparation of contract discussions with Local 267 pursuant to RSMo 610.021(9), 2nd by Mr. Bettag. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to accept the agenda, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to accept the minutes from the closed executive session of November 4, 2003, and the minutes from the general sessions of November 18, 2003, and November 25, 2003, 2nd by Mr. Bettag. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Mr. Bettag gave the treasurer’s report for the month ending November 30, 2003. Mr. Bettag stated that we are looking at being over budget in the general fund approximately $94,000 for 2003 due to extensive building remodeling and maintenance of systems and two legal judgments awarded over this year, plus the matching funds for the grant we received. The ambulance fund will be coming in close to budget. State Auditor Claire McCaskill’s Office made an error in the District’s tax assessment, which they have now corrected. The tax revenues are finally starting to come in after getting a late start.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to accept the treasurer’s report, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Chief’s Report: Chief Svetanics reported that requests are still being taken for free smoke detectors and that we have installed over 300 alarms and given out countless batteries since the beginning of October.

Chief Svetanics stated that Pvt. Ron Harder is attending the National Fire Academy in Maryland for two weeks at no cost to the District. Pvt. Harder is the District’s Public Information Officer and was awarded the honor of attending the Nation’s most prestigious academy.

Chief Svetanics attended the monthly meeting at South County Fire Alarm and stated that the fees will be going up because the employees are getting a 3% pay raise, their hospitalization rose 27%, and Shady Valley is leaving the service, which means that Lemay will have to share the costs along with the remaining districts to cover the loss in revenue. Chief Svetanics estimated that these extra costs would be in the range of $2,500 per year.

Chief Svetanics reported that the District offered flu shots to the members and their families to cut down on overtime spent to cover sick days. At a cost of approximately $400 for the shots and three consecutive visits from the nurse to cover all three shifts, it is still less than what one-day of overtime would cost for that 24 hour period. The Chief stated it is money well spent.

Chief Svetanics stated that there were articles in area newspapers regarding our Christmas Tree as being the safest tree in St. Louis County. The tree with lights was donated and we decorated it with smoke detectors. The Chief stated this is the first time the District has ever decorated for the Holidays

Chief Svetanics reported that the Scouting for Food Drive was held in November with our District being a collection point for this area. Boy Scouts drop off canned goods collected from area homes and are boxed up and packed onto a tractor-trailer and then collected by the Army Reserve. Our collection point receives the largest amount of food in the County. We received a thank you letter from the Greater St. Louis Area Council of Boy Scouts of America stating that they collected a record 2.15 million cans of food to feed those in need throughout our communities.

Monthly reports presented on training by each crew member, 40 hour education schedule for training, maintenance report, fire incident report and summary, ambulance statistics, Gateway monthly credit report, overtime report, public relations report, minutes from South County Fire Alarm Association, and St. Louis Metro Fire District Alliance Minutes.

Mr. Bettag reported that he, Jerry Schloss and Pat Vincent met with our accountant, Joe Schnieders, to finalize the 2004 Budget. Mr. Bettag stated that regarding the General Fund, if we can hold to the budget in 2004 we will be okay. The other funds are never a problem. The Ambulance Fund we rely on heavily in order to maintain the ambulance and pay the wages to provide an ambulance service to the residents. As for the Medical Benefit Fund, we have not raised the rates in three years. The Pension Fund is always governed by the tax revenue.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to accept the proposed Budget for 2004 as presented, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote all ayes. The 2004 Budget is adopted as proposed.

Mr. Stonebraker asked Lt. Doug Michalski, the District Medical Officer, to report on the proposal he and Pvt. Jamie Schwenk were asked to prepare regarding ambulance fees. Lt. Michalski stated that we have had a steady decline in revenue from non-collection of ambulance fees while we have had an increase in the cost of healthcare and in ambulance maintenance. Medicare has had problems with their new paperless system and has increasingly been disputing the itemized charges we bill. We currently charge one of the lowest rates in the area. The request at this time is to change our billing to a flat fee as opposed to itemizing to make it easier to collect these fees. We will not be charging for medical supplies, but will have a mileage fee of $7 per mile. We are going to start charging a fee for D.O.A.’s of $250 and also charging for Treat with No Transport of $100. So far this year we have had 490 cases where we have treated patients at their homes and they refused to go to the hospital. While we need to increase the fees, we hope not to burden the public with large bills, but only to have a better return rate from the insurance companies.

Mr. Bettag stated that the Board would like to commend the work Lt. Michalski and Pvt. Schwenk did collecting information for this proposal.

Motion by Mr. Bettag to accept the proposed six changes in ambulance rates: (1) BLS: $575, (2) ALS 1: $600, ALS 2: $700, Treat with No Transport: $100, D.O.A.’s: $250, and Mileage: $7/mile, and to adopt these new changes in January of 2004, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote 3 ayes. Ambulance fees adopted as proposed for January 1, 2004.

Mr. Stonebraker reported that we received a letter from the E.E.O.C. as did 42 other districts about discrimination with respect to employment opportunities. Mr. Stonebraker stated that we have a strict non-discrimination clause in our Memorandum of Understanding for the District.

Mr. Stonebraker stated we also received notice from St. Louis County that they held a meeting to consider an exemption request for the property of Lemay Development Corporation at 9405 S. Broadway.

Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 21, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. The regular open meeting for bill discussion is scheduled for January 27, 2004 at 10:00 a.m.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to adjourn the public portion of meeting at 7:44 p.m., 2nd by Mr. Bettag. Roll call vote, all ayes.

There was a 5 minute adjournment before the executive session.

Respectfully submitted,



Jerry G. Schloss, Secretary

JGS/pgv