City of Belleville Police & Fire Committee met July 10.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
Committee Chair Alderperson Johnnie Anthony called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
Committee Members Present:
Johnnie Anthony
Kara Osthoff
Scott Ferguson
Mary Stiehl
Dennis Weygandt
Carmen Duco
Excused:
Bryan Whitaker
Shelley Schaefer
Department Head/Staff:
Mayor, Patty Gregory
HR Director, William Clay
Police Chief Matt Eiskant
Interim Dep. Chief Jason Rumpf
Guest Alderperson:
Lillian Schneider
Phil Elmore
Guest:
Michael Hagberg
Joe Brock
John Eachus
Stephanie Mills
Public Comments:
Michael Hagberg asked how many citations for illegal fireworks were issued.
Minutes:
Alderperson Weygandt motioned to accept the minutes of the June 12, 2023, Executive Session Minutes of June 12, 2023 and the Special Meeting Minutes of June 22, 2023, and Executive Session Minutes of June 22, 2023 as presented, second by Alderperson Stiehl. All members present voted - Aye. Motion passed.
Staff Report:
Police Department:
Police Chief Eiskant: NVERS is the data that is supplied to the FBI every month. They categorize it as Crimes against Persons, Crimes against Property and Crimes against Society. The Crimes against Persons are your violent crimes, your robberies and your murders, rape, things of that nature. These are from January to June of last year to January to June of this year; Crimes against Persons were down 22.38%, Crimes against Property were down 19.93% and Crimes against Society 21.55%. Don't believe what you see on Facebook, this is the real data that we provide the FBI every single month, and crime is down again in every single category in Belleville. Fireworks was a big thing recently. 4th of July was on a Tuesday this year and with the cost of everything skyrocketing and we put a lot of information out about it is illegal. I personally thought there was a huge decline on what I heard. We did write some citations, they were in the squad summary for Fireworks Use, but nothing like we thought.
New Eligibility List: Seven people will be on the new list after we do the interviews, that is out of 50 applications, much less than we expected. Everyone is hurting for employees; we are no different. The seven that we have are pretty solid. There is an academy that is ending in August where we will have two new officers going to the streets that are graduating from the academy. If all seven of these are solid, we are going to put all seven in the Police Academy. I don't foresee that we are going to get all of them, hopefully five, that will help tremendously with our numbers. We are also looking at a new way in how we do our testing. We have always done it like every other department where you put out the applications then you wait four or five months until the test comes, Capt. Keilbach and Capt. Mattingly are exploring other ways to get these people tested right away after they get an application in. You will have to have a Power Card from the academy showing that you passed the physical fitness test.
Retirees and Staffing: We got up to 75 here recently, we are going to be at 69 August 1st. Lt. Rust is retiring; he is moving out of state, Lt. Hunter took a job in the Military, he is retiring, and Sgt. Ray went to the Attorney General's Office. Then we had a couple more from the last meeting that I talked about. Promotions will take place at the next Council Meeting if this goes through with the Board of Police & Fire Commissioners, Sgt. Fulkerson will be promoted to Lt., MSgt. Brown will be promoted to Lt. and two Detectives, Det. Green, and Det. Spargur will make Sgt. Rank.
Alderperson Weygandt made a motion second by Alderperson Ferguson to go into executive session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, (5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1)).
All members present voted aye.
Motion carries.
Executive Session Began: 6:11 p.m.
Regular Session Resumed: 6:52 p.m.
Chairperson Anthony: The Board has had a brief discussion and we have looked at some resumes and the Mayor wants to appoint a Fire Chief and a Deputy Chief. I will remind you that it is her pick, and she can make that appointment. We have two candidates here that the Mayor has chosen. They were interviewed along with the other candidate for Deputy Chief. One is Robert L. Wirtz Jr., previous Fire Chief in Aurora Fire Department, 26 years with the Aurora Fire Department. Seasoned Firefighter who came up through the ranks. Very well qualified for the position, that is the Mayor's pick for the Fire Chief position, since Chief Stinson did turn in his resignation. Candidate Brandon Burnett was previously a Captain with Pekin Fire Department. This guy is very well qualified, he has a Master's Degree in Public Safety, BA in Arts with a minor in Fire Service Administration, graduate of Western Illinois University up in Macomb. And a Master's Degree in Nursing from Bradley University. He is very well qualified. Going back to the Chief candidate, he was the Fire Chief in Aurora. He has Fire Service Office I & II, in short, both of these are very well qualified. I asked the Union to accept these guys and try and work and make this department work. It is hard, it is always hard bringing someone in from the outside, I understand. I understand how you all feel about it, the standards for education and State Statutes were set to ensure that Public Safety was above all, the main interest in these jobs. I understand that a lot of people are not going to be happy, but hopefully since these are municipal Firefighters, both of them, the department will try and work with these guys, both of them are ex-union Firefighters. I don't know exactly all that I can say to try to ensure to you all that these guys are in the department's best interest. They will have the department's best interests on hand when they come, sure there are going to be some changes, there are always changes when somebody new comes in. What I will stress is for the department to grasp the new training and do the succession training that is needed to move into these positions. These guys are not going to be there forever. I stress that those people in the department, especially those on top, need to try and get the education certifications to move into those positions. We hate like Hell; I fought like Hell to keep from going outside this department and bring in somebody. Being an ex-firefighter, I know how that feels. This time is coming, and this is something we are going to have to deal with. I just ask you as a department to try and work with them and embrace them, they both come off these engine companies in cities, it is nothing new to them.
Alderperson Ferguson made a motion second by Alderperson Duco to approve the recommendations presented by Mayor Gregory for Fire Chief and Deputy Fire Chief.
Members voting aye on roll call: Ferguson, Weygandt, Duco, Anthony, Stiehl, Osthoff.
Motion carries
Chairperson Anthony: I just hope we can all work together and make this thing work. These positions will go to the City Council at the next meeting for approval by the full Council.
New Business:
None.
Old Business:
None.
Adjournment:
Alderperson Stiehl made a motion second by Alderperson Weygandt to adjourn the meeting at 6:59 p.m.
All members present voted - Aye.
Motion carries.
https://www.belleville.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07102023-3043
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