HIGHLAND RESCUE TEAM AMBULANCE DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES
Highland Station – 317 South Lookout Mountain Road
February 10, 2014, 4pm
CALL TO ORDER- at 4:07
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Jim Espy presided, Ed Daniels, Steve Carpenter and Wendy
Henke.
OTHERS PRESENT: Chief Sharon Jones, Barbara DeBoer, Christina Shea, Ron Quaife, and
Alan Feldman.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Alan Feldman- 5K Fundraiser for Lauren Coe.
Lauren’s family and friends are putting together a 5K race on August 31, 2014. They are
looking for sponsors. Highland has been asked to offer first aide for the race participants.
We are just looking for a few volunteers and use of the QRV. We do have approval from
Littleton Fire. We would not be doing any transports. Dr. Beckman has given his full
support on the medical side. We will not be asking for any money.
Ed Daniels- Sharon what is your take on this?
Chief Jones- I am in full support of this. I think it will be a great community outreach.
Ed Daniels- Does the Board need to take any action?
Chief Jones- I just wanted the Board to be made aware of it because it is outside the
District.
Jim Espy- The Board has been advised and commends the effort.
Chief Jones- The Highland Open House is set for August 24th, so there is no conflict.
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING were approved as written.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Billing Report- written report by Jill Ridenhour, presented by Barbara DeBoer.
January Billings were $17,681, cash received was $18,124, Contractual Allowances were
$9,957 and Bad Debt Write offs were $23,170. The Bad Debt Write offs were so high
because Jill combined 3 months together to be sent to Collections. While this number will
fluctuate, I have requested that she send her accounts to Collections on a more consistent
schedule. That way the numbers will be more meaning full.
Ed Daniels- It would be a good idea.
Christina Shea- The bad debt write offs have a contra account on the income statement
where we take care of bad debt in a monthly bad debt provision. At the audit every year
we take a close look at the accounts receivable and look at trends and make needed
adjustments to this figure.
Financials– written report given by Christina Shea.
There is no tax revenue yet so our revenue is under budget. Our expenses are on track
except for gas and propane which are running high, but that is partially seasonal.
Chief Jones- We have recently changed to a more reliable propane supplier. We have also
doubled our tank capacity. We have been educating the members about keeping the
temperatures lower.
Ed Daniels- Would it make sense to go to natural gas?
Ron Quaife- We have looked into it and the cost was prohibitive.
Christina Shea- I think it was $5000 or more.
Ed Daniels- With a $10,000 annual propane budget we should have someone take an hour
and look into it.
Chief Jones – We will do that.
CHIEF’S REPORT- Written report given by Chief Jones
February has been slow so far.
Current Active Staffing- 4 paid Paramedics, 10 volunteer paramedics; I volunteer
Intermediate, 32 EMT’s and 2 First Responders.
Grants: We will get partial repayment for the EKG class that Ron taught in the fall and half
of the EMSAC costs. We have requested 45K of grant money for 2014.
Annual Party: We had great attendance, approx. 100 people attend. Lots of good
feedback.
Active shooter training- The fire District is still working at getting something together for it.
Deputy Chief Candidate
As Chief, I come to the Board to recommend Ron Quaife for Deputy Chief. I have talked to
the Officers and they are 100% behind Ron. I would like the Board to approve of this
tonight and then it will be published in the Weekly Broadcast for 3 weeks for the members.
Ed Daniels- I can’t think of a better candidate.
Wendy Henke – What will the time line be?
Chief Jones- The timeline has changed because I did not have a candidate in place in August.
He would start immediately as Deputy Chief once the Board approves and then become
Chief August 2015 which was the plan. I would like the present board to approve Ron since
they have the advantage of knowing Ron. I also would like to have help.
Ed Daniels - Robb Gair is also fully behind this decision.
Jim Espy made a motion to approve Ron Quaife as Deputy Chief, Ed Daniels seconded it
and the Board approved unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
Amend Budget line item limits, Section 9.3.3 Rules and Regulations
Chief Jones- The 10% limit can sometimes be difficult to work with. I tried to make it a
dollar amount to make it work better because with smaller lines items like postage, 10% is
too restrictive.
Jim Espy- Most of my experience is with overseas and with most of them we stuck with
10%. In many situations people still found ways to go over the budget. No matter what you
do, you will run into these situations. I would prefer to just stick with the 10% and live with
it. It is there to make you stop and think and keep things under budget.
Steve Carpenter- I personally don’t have any problem setting a dollar amount with a cap.
Wendy Henke- I suggested that you could change a line item, but you would be limited to
the amount you could do it.
Chief Jones- Wasn’t this a dollar amount previously?
Steve Carpenter- Why was it changed?
Barb DeBoer- A past Chief was a bit creative and moved quite a bit of money around in the
budget and the Board President wanted it changed.
Wendy Henke-I think it should be an amount.
Ed Daniels- What we are discussing is the District Chief can exceed a line item up to $2000.
Any line item that is exceeded by any amount will be brought before the Board at the next
Board Meeting as it is now in the Financials. I am opposed to voting for this now. I would
like it to drafted first and have time to consider it.
Wendy Henke- Let’s just vote on it and move on.
Jim Espy– I prefer we vote on it next time and have time to think about it.
NEW BUSINESS:
Ed Daniels- I talked to Sheri Gerou about getting a better return on our LOSAP funds. She
reached out to me about a law currently being considered that would make murder or
assault of an EMS person an elevated charge similar to a law officer or firefighter.
We are currently getting less than a 1%. The door is now open to talk to her about a
legislative remedy.
Wendy Henke – What would the time line be and what could she do?
Steve Carpenter - What we need is a legislator to introduce a bill.
Jim Espy- Legislators are limited to the number of bills they can introduce.
We are also in contact with Tim Neville who is running for senate. We have been told to
write a one page brief to give him. Robb took a stab at it and both myself and John Zima
have edited it and it is ready to go.
Ed Daniels- I could send her a copy of your brief. Please send me it electronically and I will
do it tomorrow.
ADJOURN 5:20
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