MONROE — The search for a new fire chief is on hold for the foreseeable future while a city committee looks at potential changes to the operations and structure of Monroe’s Fire Department.
That’s the takeaway from a rare joint meeting last week between the city’s new ad-hoc committee on fire department structure and operations; and the police and fire commission, which is tasked with the years’ long search for a new fire chief.
City officials have complained about the pace of the effort to find a new chief, even as they question whether the organizational structure of Monroe’s volunteer fire department is the best fit for the city and its taxpayers. The department, like others in the region and nationally, is struggling to recruit and retain dedicated employees to serve.
“We need to sit down and work it all out,” said Monroe Mayor Donna Douglas, who has advocated for a potential change to how the fire department is structured.
But officials at the joint meeting conceded that there may not be much that the PFC and the city committee can do together, given their divergent mandates for serving the public.
“You have your track, we have our track,” said PFC Chair Jerry Guth, who also chairs the Green County Board of Supervisors. “We are apolitical — it was setup that way (under state law) we aren’t elected for a reason.”
Further, he added, close cooperation between the PFC and ad-hoc committee might not pass legal muster.
“Any information back and forth in my mind may be inappropriate,” he said.
Among other research activities, the committee is planning to survey its present and past fire department membership. The idea for the survey came out of the Feb. 6 meeting of the ad-hoc committee. Once specific questions are identified, the survey will go out to all current or past members of the Monroe Fire Dept. and Monroe Rural Fire.
The ad-hoc committee, created by the larger city council, includes Mayor Donna Douglas, and alders Mary Jane Grenzow, Heidi Treuthardt, Chris Schindler, and Tom Miller.
“I think we are all frustrated,” said Schindler. “I feel like our hands are tied and you (the PFC members) feel the same.”
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.
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 responder to make it work.
For his part, Guth said he would prefer the creation of some type of joint fire district for the region. In the meantime, officials said, the PFC is suspending the fire chief search until the committee comes up with its recommendations.
Still, city council members say there has to be a way to legally and productively coordinate their efforts with an eye on delivering better services and preventing costly duplication of services.
The city needs “a more transparent relationship when it comes to hiring,” said Alder Heidi Treuthardt, at the beginning of the joint session. “There seems to be a lot of questions of not knowing what’s going on in hiring.”
Officials though pointed out that Monroe is not alone in struggling with the balance between their police and fire commissions and local governments when it comes to emergency operations.
“The PFC is limited by state statute of what it can do and what it can’t do, said the PFC’s Chuck Koch. “I really don’t know how we can help you.”