12-06-2016 Civil Service Minutes RICHFIELD CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION
MEETING #251
DECEMBER 6, 2016
MEMBERS PRESENT:
David Buzicky President/Commissioner
Francie Fletcher Vice President/Commissioner
Steven Hurvitz Secretary/Commissioner
OTHERS PRESENT:
Wayne Kewitsch Fire Chief
Mike Dobesh Assistant Fire Chief
Alex Crofford Firefighter
Chris Faint Firefighter
Josh Nelson Firefighter
John Huppertz Fire Captain
Mark Armstrong Fire Captain
Tim Haider Fire Lieutenant
Tom Fitzhenry City Councilmember
Steve Devich City Manager
Jesse Swenson Assistant Human Resources Manager
Kari Sinning Deputy City Clerk
I. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by President Buzicky at 8:02 a.m.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION
MEETING OF OCTOBER 4, 2016
M/Fletcher, S/Hurvitz to approve the minutes.
Motion carried 3-0.
III. UPDATE AND DISCUSSION OF FIRE CAPTAIN PROMOTIONAL PROCESS
Chief Kewitsch stated that at the Commission's previous meeting in October the Fire
Captain promotional process was approved. Since that time the simulation(s) of the
process have begun and recently the fire union board brought questions/concerns
regarding the process to the fire chiefs. This same process, approved by the
Commission, has been used for four years, twice for fire lieutenant and this is the
second time for fire captain. In addition Chief Kewitsch shared multiple
communications he has given all members of the department about the promotional
process over the past year. The concerns that were raised by the union board were
about the fire ground simulation portion of the process, which is based off of blue
card training. The issue is that candidates can participate in the simulation more
than once.
Firefighter Crofford spoke on behalf of the union board and union membership. FF
Crofford reiterated that the primary concern was that applicants can take the
simulation multiple times, which the union membership does not feel is reflective of
the real world. In addition, he noted it wasn't clear to the candidates how many
times the simulation could be taken. FF Crofford also noted that the process had an
issue with the application in which the candidates were limited to 500 characters for
a response to AIRI questions. The chiefs did notify everyone in the department that
a 7 day extension would be made so that candidates could write his/her ARI
response in a Word document instead. The union board and membership are
recommending to the Commission that the portion of the process related to the fire
ground simulation be altered and the process started over.
Commissioner Hurvitz stated that he is uncomfortable with a candidate's ability to re-
test in the same period for the simulation.
FF Crofford noted that the intent of the fire ground simulation to be taken multiple
times was to make it less stressful on the candidates. However, firefighting is a
stressful job and firefighters have to be able to function under stress. Moreover,
senior firefighters and officers testing for fire captain should have to be able to
perform under stress.
Chief Kewitsch noted that previous testing simulations prior to four years ago were
"gottchas" with no win situations. The blue card fire ground simulation is based on
real world firefighting with standard operational conditions to achieve a standard
outcome. He went on to note that all of the candidates have been re-certified in blue
card this year with eight hours of simulation training.
Commissioner Buzicky stated he did not believe simulations are that good of a
testing method. He posed the question that if all of the candidates have blue card
training and have passed the training, then why not have the simulation be pass or
fail.
Chief Kewitsch said he would be adamantly opposed to a pass/fail component in a
competitive promotional process, and that there needs to be a score to evaluate the
candidates as incident commanders.
Chief Kewitsch recommended three options to the Commissioners: 1) Move forward
with the current process; 2) Throw-out the current process and start over with a
change to the fire ground simulation portion; 3) Throw-out the current process and
create a new process. He went on to note that even if this 2016 process is delayed,
it would be his intent to bring the next 2018 fire captain promotional process to the
Commission at the same time (fall of 2018) to stay on schedule for testing
processes.
Commissioner Fletcher stated the Commission had approved this process for the
past four years, including just recently in October for fire captain and believes the
current process should move forward and continue with no changes.
M/Fletcher, S/Buzicky to continue the fire captain promotional process with no
changes.
A discussion followed. Commissioner Hurvitz noted he had a hard time having
candidates take the same simulation multiple times. Commissioner Buzicky stated
he did not think simulations were realistic.
Commissioner Hurvitz asked the members of the audience who were fire captain
candidates to state whether or not they believed the simulation should be pass or
fail. Fire Lieutenant Haider stated he would be adamantly opposed to having it pass
or fail. Firefighter Wood stated that she agreed with Fire Lieutenant Haider.
FF Crofford stated that the motion made by Commissioner Fletcher is not what the
union board or membership recommended, but that they will accept the decision
made by the Commission.
M/Hurvitz, to amend the previous motion that at the end of the process the
Commission be brought up to speed on the simulation portion for the next
promotional fire process.
Motion carried 3-0.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
None.
V. ADJOURNMENT
The Civil Service Commission Meeting was adjourned by unanimous consent at
8:50 a.m.
Submitted by:
Jesse Swenson
Assistant HR Manager
Date of Approval: February 6, 2017
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Francie Fletcher, Vice President
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