The meeting was called to order at 10:03 a.m. In attendance were Chairman George Beasley, Commissioner Richard Ubl, Commissioner Samantha Dailey, Fire Chief Bill Riddle, Police Chief Don Thomas, and City Attorney Keith Foster.

A motion to approve the agenda was made by Commissioner Ubl and seconded by Commissioner Dailey.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

A motion to approve the minutes from the open session of the May 10, 2004 meeting, as written, was made by Commissioner Ubl and seconded by Commissioner Dailey.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

A motion to approve the minutes from the closed session of the May 10, 2004 meeting, as written, was made by Commissioner Dailey and seconded by Commissioner Ubl.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

Chairman Beasley reported that he had previously approved for payment an invoice for $45 for the Firefighters job ad that appeared on the Govtjobs.com website.

• Fire and Police Commission Annual Report to the City Council

Commissioner Ubl asked Chairman Beasley if the City Council had any questions or comments when he presented the Commission’s Annual Report to them at their May 17, 2004 meeting. Chairman Beasley reported that the Council members approved the report without any question.

OLD BUSINESS

 

Chief Riddle reported that Firefighter James Ward is in training at the Fire Academy in Arlington Heights and that he is doing very well. Candidate Scott Flatter had just completed and passed his physical exam. Chairman Beasley said that the Commissioners would be interviewing Candidate Flatter immediately after their meeting this morning. The status of candidate Wendy Sleezer would be discussed in closed session.

• Status on the Process to Establish a New Eligibility List for Entry-level Firefighters

Chief Riddle said that a question came up concerning whether or not the POCs who participate in the college intern program are eligible to sit for the entry-level firefighters’ examination, since they are under the age of 21. He said that the interns gave him a copy of the Illinois Municipal Code, 65 ILCS 5, section f, which states that applicants who are age 18 and have successfully completed 2 years of study in fire techniques (4 high school credits) within the cadet program of a municipality may be considered for appointment to active duty with the Fire Department of any municipality. Chief Riddle said that the interns wondered if this applied to the college program and, if so, if the age 21 restriction could be waived in their case. City Attorney Foster said that he would look into it to make sure that this section of the Code was being presented in the correct context. Commissioner Ubl asked Chief Riddle if he knew of any municipalities that were allowing this. Chief Riddle said that he believes that there are some communities under Home Rule that allow people to test and be appointed at age 18. However, he believes that the majority of them do require the applicants to be 21 years of age. Commissioner Dailey asked Chief Riddle to clarify if he wants candidates to be able to take the test if they are under age 21 or if he wants them to be able to be appointed if they are under the age of 21. He answered that he would like the candidates to be able to take the test if they are under the age of 21, but believes that they should be age 21 when appointed. He asked the Commissioners for their guidance on this issue. Commissioner Ubl said that, since the eligibility list is good for two years, a candidate should really be 19 years of age to insure that they will be hired before a list expires. Chairman Beasley asked Chief Riddle if many high schools actually did offer this type of program. He answered that they do. He said that communities that are having problems recruiting minority or female candidates are beginning to look to the schools to start vocational programs, similar to the one that the Sycamore Fire Department is involved in through the KEC, that then allow the participants to test early. He said that Home Rule communities can pretty much set whatever qualifications they want. Chief Riddle said that he currently has three interns that would like to take the test – one is age 21 and plans to take the test, but two are under age 21. Chairman Beasley wondered if it mattered, since candidates are now required to be certified paramedics. Chief Riddle said that they are currently enrolled in classes to earn their Paramedic certification. Chief Riddle said that one of the interns would be obtaining his certification during the life of the next list; the other two interns could possibly not be certified before the list expired. Commissioner Ubl said that he thought candidates had to be certified before they took the test. Chief Riddle explained that they need to be certified at the time of appointment. Commissioner Dailey asked Chief Riddle who brought this issue to him. He said that it was the college interns themselves. Chief Riddle said that his main reason for bringing the issue to the Commissioners was because he really does not want to lose them; he would hate to see them train with us and then go to work for a different department. Chairman Beasley asked City Attorney Foster to research this issue and report back to the Commissioners on it. Chief Riddle said that he would let the interns know what was being done to resolve this issue.

Chairman Beasley inquired as to whether we had received many responses to our hiring announcement. Recording Secretary Tritle reported that we had not received as many as she had thought we would. To date, only approximately two dozen applications had been received. Commissioner Dailey asked how many applications are typically received during this process. Recording Secretary Tritle said that, based on past experience, she expected to receive around sixty. Commissioner Ubl asked about the deadline date for application. Recording Secretary Tritle said that it was June 18^th. She also reported that she has had phone requests for most of the applications that she has given out; there have not been many candidates who have come into the office to pick up an application. Chairman Beasley said that he wondered if people are under the same impression as he and Commissioner Ubl were in that they had to have their certifications at the time of application. Recording Secretary Tritle answered that the ad states they need to have their certifications at the time of hire. Commissioner Ubl thought that this would still lead to some confusion for those who were interested in submitting their application. Chief Riddle thought that we would see an increase in the number of applications closer to the deadline date, as candidates typically wait until the last minute to submit their applications.

Commissioner Ubl said that he thought the DeKalb Fire Department was also going through the process of establishing a list at this time and he thought that they had the same certification requirements as Sycamore. Chief Riddle confirmed that they do. Chief Thomas said that last year, their application process for Police Officers also started out slow, but that they ended up with an excellent pool of candidates. He also said that making the hiring requirements high eliminates a lot of the untrained candidates who would have otherwise applied. Commissioner Ubl said that he thought the Police Officer applicants are different than those who apply to be Firefighters. Chief Thomas agreed, adding that he thought Police Officers were more itinerant and that they moved around departments more than Firefighters do. Commissioner Ubl agreed, adding that the requirements for a Police Officer candidate are not currently as rigid as those for a Firefighter candidate, in that all that is needed to apply for the job of Police Officer is a high school education and to be age 21 or older. Chief Thomas said that our Police Officers eventually receive the same amount of education as a Firefighter and that the only difference is that the Firefighter must have this education to be hired while the Police Officer will obtain it during the course of his or her career. He said this is why he believes that more applications are received for Police Officers than for Firefighters during the hiring process. Commissioner Ubl said he thought that there is also probably a lot of competition between Fire Departments for qualified candidates. Chief Riddle agreed, stating that the candidates who end up at the top of Sycamore’s eligibility list will probably also be on the list for other Fire Departments, especially with these prequalifications. Commissioner Dailey asked if it is typical for a candidate to apply to several different Fire Departments. Chief Riddle answered that a person will test wherever they can to get a job, since it is so hard to actually be hired into a Fire Department. A person can sit at the top of a Department’s eligibility list for two years and never be hired. Chairman Beasley asked if there has ever been an effort to establish a regional eligibility list. Chief Riddle said that some Departments do this; his son was actually hired from a list that was established by a consortium formed by three Fire Departments. Chairman Beasley wondered if there would be any advantage to the Commissioners trying to establish this type of list with other departments in our area, such as the Cities of DeKalb and Genoa. Chief Riddle said that Genoa does not have this type of testing process, but he thought it would be beneficial for the Commissioners in Sycamore and DeKalb to join together, as it would mean that candidates would only need to take one test. Chief Thomas said that he did not feel that this type of consortium would work for his Department. He said that, even when the consortiums are working at their best, the expenses incurred by each municipality in the hiring process are still the same. Also, he said that the City of DeKalb’s top salary for a Police Officer is about $10,000 higher than Sycamore’s, so candidates on the list would be more inclined to want to be hired by DeKalb than Sycamore. Commissioner Ubl asked if there is a large difference in the salary for an entry-level Police Officer in DeKalb as compared to Sycamore. Chief Thomas answered that DeKalb’s starting salary is about $5,000 higher than Sycamore’s. Chief Riddle said that that was also true of the salary scale for Firefighters in DeKalb as compared to Sycamore. Chief Thomas said that the difference in pay scales for Police Officers in Sycamore and St. Charles is about $22,000 when comparing the top salary in each department. Chief Riddle said that these pay differences are always brought up during contract negotiations.

Commissioner Ubl asked if there were any candidates remaining on the current eligibility list. Recording Secretary Tritle answered there are five or six candidates remaining. She said that the she did not think that the next candidate in line for hire on the list had the necessary qualifications. When she talked to him last month, he had indicated he had still not obtained his FF II or EMT certifications. She said the candidate after him is a certified paramedic. Chief Riddle added that, since we are deep into the list, there might be more disqualifiers of which we are not currently aware. He said that, to his knowledge, none of the remaining candidates are employed by other Fire Departments. Recording Secretary Tritle said that one of the remaining candidates is a volunteer Firefighter for the Hinckley Fire Department.

• Status on scheduling the promotional examination for Firefighter Shaun Penn

Recording Secretary Tritle reported that Firefighter Penn is scheduled to take both the written and oral Firefighter Promotional Exams on June 24, 2004. I/O Solutions will be coming to Sycamore to administer the exams.

NEW BUSINESS

No report.

Chief Thomas reported that Police Officer Marshall Flynn would be finishing his probationary year on June 10, 2004. He said that the Lieutenants and Sergeants have all evaluated Officer Flynn, and they have all given him the thumbs up. He asked the Commissioners to provisionally approve Officer Flynn as a non-probationary officer effective June 10^th. He said that, if something was to happen between now and that date, he would notify the Commissioners to hold off on their approval. He suggested that they approve Officer Flynn now, since the Commissioners are not scheduled to meet again until August. He said he would follow-up by sending the Commissioners a letter on June 10^th confirming that Officer Flynn completed his probationary period without incident; at that point, the Commissioners could then send Officer a Flynn a letter confirming that he successfully completed his probationary period. Chairman Beasley said that anytime he has seen Officer Flynn on duty he has acted very professionally and courteously with the public he is serving. Chief Thomas said that he has a second officer, Dan Wojcik, whose probationary period will end in July. He reported that he is also doing an excellent job. He said that he would like to have the Commissioners approve the end of his probationary period as well. Chief Thomas said he would send a letter to the Commissioners in July to report that Officer Wojcik has also completed his probationary period without incident. Chairman Beasley asked Chief Thomas if what he was asking the Commissioners for now was their approval for the official appointment of these two officers, since everything the Chief has observed about them has been positive. Chief Thomas confirmed this. Chairman Beasley asked Chief Thomas how the third officer who was hired in the lateral transfer process was doing. Chief Thomas reported that Officer Justin Kness was also doing an excellent job and that his probationary period would end in September. He said that he would talk to the Commissioners about Officer Kness’ official appointment at their meeting in August. He reiterated that all three of these officers have turned out to excellent employees and that they all like working for the Department.

A motion to approve the appointments of Officers Flynn and Wojcik, based upon the receipt of a satisfactory letter of recommendation at the appropriate time from the Police Chief recognizing the end of their probationary status, was made by Commissioner Ubl and seconded by Commissioner Dailey.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

A motion to go into closed session to discuss personnel issues was made by Commissioner Ubl and seconded by Commissioner Dailey.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

Closed Session began at 10:24 a.m.

A motion to return to open session was made by Commissioner Ubl and was seconded by Commissioner Dailey.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

Open session reconvened at 10:45 a.m.

Ayes: 3

Nays: 0

Abstain: 0

The meeting was adjourned at 10:46 a.m.