With the impending retirement of Chelsea Area Fire Authority (CAFA) Chief Jim Payeur, the CAFA board formed a two-person committee to begin discussing a process for finding a new chief.
At the CAFA Board meeting on June 21, Board Chairman Tom Osborne and newly elected board Secretary Peter Feeney agreed to meet tonight, June 22, to begin the discussion.
Although Payeur’s retirement date is in November, when asked, he told the board he has three months of paid time-off, but he is willing to help in the transition.
Feeney, who was a member of the committee that chose a new Chelsea District Library director last year, said he’d like to see the community have a similar level of input in the hiring process for a new chief.
Here’s a link to all the steps the library took in its search for a new director.
“We need some healing,” he said, referring to concerns from the community about CAFA operations, “with a [chief search] process that is open and that includes the community as part of it.”
In other business, new Lyndon Township Board Member Shauna Mote attended her first meeting. She replaces long-time board member Linda Reilly.
Payeur told the board that due to Headlee rollbacks, the millage amount that CAFA would collect this year would be less than 1.8 mills, instead it would be 1.7877 mills.
Osborne also clarified what had taken place regarding discussions with the Dexter Area Fire Department (DAFD) regarding a possible merger or sharing of a fire chief.
“We are not in any formal talks with Dexter,” Osborne said, adding that the idea was “something, perhaps, that we should look into.”
Discussed were: possibly sharing a chief and having an assistant chief in Chelsea, combining departments or sharing resources. The two departments currently have a number of agreements in place.
“I was there (at the DAFD meeting) on my own and asked them if they would be interested in talking and they said ‘yes,’” he told the board.
If further steps are taken in the future, there are a number of factors involved, including approval of the City Council and Township Boards of all the municipalities involved in CAFA – the City of Chelsea, Lima, Lyndon and Sylvan townships. Plus, there were a myriad of other details such as the firefighters belonging to different unions and other logistical problems that would need to be worked out as well.
“We currently have an excellent working relationship with Dexter; let’s have the committee mull this idea and either put it on the good or the bad idea pile,” said Lima Township representative Craig Maier.
Among the other topics discussed were the possible implementation of an enhanced Freedom of Information process due to a large number of requests over the last few years, legal issues facing CAFA, which have cost twice as much as the CAFA board had budgeted.
During public comment, several residents expressed their concerns about CAFA to the board and Suzanne Vanden Bosch read a lengthy list of questions that she’d like to see answered by the board.
