MONROE — As the search for a new fire chief to lead the Monroe Department drags on, a city council committee eying potential changes to the department is preparing to survey its present and past membership.
The idea for the survey came out of the Feb. 6 meeting of an ad-hoc committee that’s weighing options for changing the department’s “operations and structure” in ways potentially small and significant. Once the questions are identified, the survey will go out to all current or past members of the Monroe Fire Dept. and Monroe Rural Fire.
The committee, created by the larger city council, includes Mayor Donna Douglas, and alders Mary Jane Grenzow, Heidi Treuthardt, Chris Schindler, and Tom Miller.
The survey will take a few weeks to prepare and send out, officials said, but is an important thing to do with the fire service here — vital to life safety — at somewhat of a crossroads.
“Some of these things take a while,” said Grenzow, who is working with Treuthardt on the specific survey questions and their wording. “We want to keep this rolling without big delays …”
They will work separately as the city’s Police and Fire Commission is continuing to the search for a new chief. Hiring for the chief’s job is actually the role of the police and fire commission, and some officials have complained about the pace of their effort; and the cost to find a replacement chief, which is financed by the city.
“I believe they are in a holding pattern,” with regard to the chief’s search, said Ald. Chris Schindler.
Following a long search, Monroe’s most recent chief, William Erb of Iowa, abruptly resigned from his new post on Monday, April 11 — just 3 months and 1 day after taking the job. Once a new chief is hired, it will be the seventh person in charge of the department over the past seven years.
To open up the dialogue the committee agreed to contact the PFC for a possible joint meeting in the future. They may also decide to meet with current and or past officers of the department.
“It’s their decision when it comes to hiring,” said City Attorney Dan Bartholf. “It’s up to them but that conversation will open up dialogue between the two groups.”
The goal, according to Treuthardt is for the committee to make an informed decision to the larger Monroe Common Council about the fire department’s direction. And that in turn will impact the chief’s job leading that department in the future, they said.
Potential changes could make the department into a fire district involving other communities, contracting or partnering with communities for fire service, combining fire and EMS into one department; or switching to a full-time fire department. Either way, officials acknowledge they will have to find more people interested in serving as a Monroe Firefighter or first responders to make it work.
“It’s really important to clearly define our purpose and stay on task,” said Treuthardt. “We need to know what we’re dealing with before we think about something else.”