Personnel Board - Regular Meeting

Right. The uh personnel board meeting for January 27th, 2026 is now in order. Uh in attendance we have Chief Hawk, Matt Shipley, Eric Fiser, Nick uh Georgetti, Rita Martin, Brian Snder, Joe Wall, Amy Wesban, Michael Witherall, and and Eric. I did say Eric Fischer, didn't I? I didn't miss you, right? Yeah. I don't know if you got Joe. I got Joe Wall in there. Yep. Okay. So, uh do we have any public uh comments on the agenda items? Do we have any any public in the meeting?

No public in attendance, Matt. Online or in person? All right, we'll go into the next uh next agenda item, approval of previous meetings minutes. Hey, Matt, before we do that, could we um add Trish Cloon to the list of attendees at that November 25th meeting? Yeah, I think uh Joe Sven did uh excuse me, John Sven did that. Okay. I didn't see it on the agenda that I was Let me see. So, I I talked to him and he said he was going to take care of that. Okay. I guess he didn't. Uh June, did they did you add uh Trish to that those meeting minutes? No, I didn't. No.

Okay. Could you uh do that, please? Sure. Sure. And with that addition, I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. I'll second that. All in favor? I I opposed. Nay. The eyes have it. And the motion carries. So then we're on to uh new business, which is reorganization. I'm sorry to interrupt, Matt. Before we do that, I don't know that Nick knows everyone and vice versa. Should we just go around and No. Is that useful? I don't know. Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I know twothirds of the folks here, but Okay.

Well, Nick and I know each other. We shoveled some guy's car out the other day. We did. So, Nick, who do you not know? Matt, I don't think we've ever met. Amy, I don't think we've ever met. And I know everyone else. Okay. All right. Well, then uh so I'm Matt Shipley and and uh and Amy and that's Amy Wispan. What What else do you want to know? Seriously, I mean, what's that? Your favorite food? Favorite food?

You know, I've always been uh I've always been a person who uh eats to live, not live to eat. So, I I don't really have a favorite food. Okay. Five Bellow. Go ahead, June. Write that one down in the minutes. Valent. All right, Nick. You good? Yes. Um, tell me what you guys love about Macanas. How about that?

Well, I'll tell you what I loved about McCandless. I've been here 25 years, and when I came, uh, it was a very, very, uh, well-run city. It did not um it it spent tax dollars very efficiently. It didn't it wasn't crazy and anything physically conservative. I I really enjoyed just kind of the the idealic type scene and the physical conservancy of of Macanas. We do live in a very well managed and run town for sure. Yep.

I like the access to uh all the public facilities. Everything's nearby. In fact, my son had a sledding accident on Sunday. He's fine. But I was like, well, I live 5 minutes from Passan. How lucky am I? You know, it's just access to great educational institutions and stores and schools and libraries and all of that. That's what I like. Absolutely. Absolutely. I hope that your son is healing up. He's fine. He hurt his hip which took him out of the rotation for shoveling. So that's my biggest complaint. Coincidence, right?

Ditto on all of that. It is a very lovely community. Yes, it is. Looking forward to getting to work with you and know all of you on this both in town hall and on my laptop better. Mhm. Okay. Anybody else?

Oh, um, I'll go. Um, I mean, we I grew up in Shayaylor. My wife's North Alagany grad. Um, we moved here for the schools and, uh, echoing Matt's thoughts, um, you know, our neighborhood's great, great people. um you know the schools have been great for our kids and uh you know echo the convenience factor and the you know I don't think you know I think a good uh representation of the town is what went on in the last what's it been 48 hours or so maybe a little more than that since the snow started falling uh incredible communication through Facebook and social media and the plow guys were going at it and um you just all around good. There's no drama. It's just get stuff done.

I love that it's as close to the city as I can be conveniently compared to the South Hills. I can zip into town for whatever I want to do there for the symphonies and the theater and yet come back to this idyllic little place that I call home. That's one of my favorite things. Absolutely. Eric, did you want to add anything to that? I mean, you guys have said it all. I mean,

all right, then we'll carry on uh with the new business of reorganization. Okay. Uh, this is my first reorganization meeting and I'm not sure if I'm stepping on anybody's toes, but unless there's an issue, I would like to nominate Matt Shipley again for another term as chair. Actually, you have to go through there's procedural thing that you have to go through. Mr. Wall actually runs the meeting. Sorry.

Sorry. you you you can do that if you want if you want to be real uh formal, but if not, the only thing I would do would be to to get the nomination done for chair and then turn it over to to the chair. So, we're already there. If there there's a nomination, if there aren't any other nominations, nominations are closed and you can vote on it. I'll second that nomination for Matt. Any other nominations? If not, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Let's turn back over to the chairman then.

Right. Thank you, Mr. With all the, um, with all the, uh, nominations for co-chair or excuse me, um, vice chair. Um, I would like to nominate for a second uh or a second time of my time here, uh, Amy Worbspan for a another go around as co-chair. Second that. All in favor? I Wait, wait, wait, wait. Before before he votes, I'm happy to do that if no one else is interested. I'm also happy to give someone else a turn to take that co-chair role. So, is anyone else interested in doing that?

You're stuck with it. I think we're good. Aim Eric Brian. No, me Amy don't want to do it. That's one thing. If you're just being humble, that's another thing. I'm not just being humble. I'm I meant what I said. I'm happy to pass the torch on to someone to uh be Matt's successor. I I mean I' I'd be more than happy to step up, but you know, Amy being more senior, I thought it was more appropriate. But um you know, I'm I'm happy to help if I need to be. Um so I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Eric, where do you stand? I mean, I I'm not interested in it at this point. Um, you know, I'll let you and uh Brian arm wrestle for it. It's hard to do on Zoom. Like rock, paper, scissors, shoot or so. I mean, if you guys want to talk amongst yourselves and figure out who wants to do it or if uh you want to step down, Brian, if you want to do it, I'm fine either way. I'll leave it up to Amy because it's uh her chair at Well, it was so she can make that decision. I'm good either way.

Oh, that's that's a tough call. I mean, it the easiest answer is leave things as is, but that's not necessarily the right answer. Um, I don't know. As chair, Matt, do you have a preference for status quo or giving someone else an opportunity? Uh, you know, it doesn't really bother me one way or another. You've served very well. you've been the U chairman of this board and uh and so the u you know if you want to step down and and turn over to Brian or whomever else you know that's fine with me or if you want to continue on that's fine with me too. I guess my preference would be to give someone else an opportunity. So, Brian, if you're interested, that's Let's

I'm I'm certainly willing to uh to to um step up and help out. Brian, I think Amy, you just decline the nomination and then we can vote. Okay. What does someone else have to nominate Brian and second that? Yeah, somebody have to somebody would have to nominate Brian. But, I mean, if you want to decline the nomination, that makes it, you know, the minutes clear then. Okay, I decline then I'll nominate Brian Snyder to be vice chair. I will gladly do that. Thank you, Eric. Do you have a second? Second.

All right, Amy. Sec. Is there any other nominations that anybody else wants to make at this point? Just to double check. All right. All in favor of of Brian being the vice chair? I I I I nay or um opposed. Nay. All right. The eyes carry the motion. Thank you. And since we don't have any uh public comments, does anybody else want to make any comments or any other um

I'd like to hear a little from the chief. I I feel like it's been a long time since we met, since we didn't meet in December. What's going on with staffing? Do we have any new officers? Do we have any retirements coming up? Any promotions?

Sure, Amy. Uh if I haven't touched touched on it the last time, I probably did, but uh for several months now, we have two new officers that we hired. uh they are now on their own out of field training uh full-fledged you know on their own the camelless officers one came from Belleview another came from West Deer um so that uh was a fruitful hiring process this past uh summer uh in 2026 I see the need uh we did have two promotions too you folks might be aware we we made two new sergeants one filled build an immediate vacancy. Another one it will um is slotted in uh because of a uh a retirement that will probably be abrupt in the next several months of a sergeant, a current sergeant. Um we won't get into the weeds with why, but um and that will be one of two retirements we anticipate in 2026, one sergeant, one patrol officer uh later this uh year. So we will uh from our full complement that you know we currently have we'll be down to the 2026. So my uh records indicate around mid-March the current eligibility list will expire around the 16th. Uh and at which point you know whether we can advertise prior to that or not I don't know. And obviously that would be when we do it'll be with council's blessing and the managers. Um and uh then we can hopefully have another hiring process in 2026. Look forward to that so that we can replace those two anticipated retirements. Not anticipated, they both will happen in 2026.

So sorry, names of the new officers, Chief. Sure. Uh, we hired Connor Doansky from West Deer and we hired Alexander Edwards from Bel. I have a question about the new hires. I don't remember this part. Did we uh hire at a higher salary? Was that um something that we did for the new officers?

Yes. Uh the the the answer there, Rita, is that um council and management removed the lowest tier on the pay scale in order to make us more competitive with other surrounding uh agencies. So they came in at what? I'm sorry, Rita. What was the salary they came in at? I think it went from around these are very big numbers. Please don't hold me to them. Okay.

Yeah, we're we the starting salary is now around 80,000 whenever it had been around 57 or 60,000 and that is to be competitive with surrounding North Hills agencies. And you know what? I just I remember we talked about it but I I never heard the final result or I didn't remember and that was done with the approval of um the union right ask that again Rita I'm sorry was that done by with the approval of the union

yeah in working with the union to basically open the contract for that particular purpose and with council's blessing the manager made that change and as an example I believe Franklin Park is starting around 95 still. So even that move Yeah. Yeah. It was definitely necessary. Okay. I've lost you.

Well, I I uh I mentioned earlier when Nick asked what we all liked about the town, how well, you know, I complimented the um the the DPW and I I realized I did neglect uh Chief. I'm you I'm sure your guys had a lot of crazy calls and a lot of stress with the snow. So, uh, you know, compliments to all them. And I also think that's a good testament again to the how wellprepared the town is with the lead of council and John and everybody that we were able to pivot on something like that and raise the raise the pay scale and and get who who you wanted on uh on the team. So, you know, again, congrats all around there. Thank you, Brian. I'll pass that on to the troops.

Yes, sir. Chief, where uh where are we standing with the total numbers and how many we're uh delighted to have and how many we actually have? Full compliment right now, we're at it at 31 uh souls. 31 sworn uh including me. I'm I'm one of those that 31. Okay. So, and we're going to have two retirements in March, you said. Well, one one anticipated anywhere from now until May and another one more towards October, man. mid-Marchch. I mentioned that as when the current eligibility

when the current bid expires, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other uh issues on the horizon that you foresee or uh let's knock on wood. Uh I don't believe we'll need any promotions in 2026, but like I said, hopefully two hires with the blessing of council and management. Um, you don't foresee needing to backfill that sergeant role, Cho? Well, we we have with those two promotions, Amy, we already we already slotted the the one in to take the place of the one that will be retiring soon. Oh. Oh, okay.

So, there's there's kind of a um Yeah, it's a proactive approach, which I know we haven't always practiced here. you know, despite our best efforts, we've kind of usually been reactive, but this time, not not this time. This time, we're we're we're ahead of the game. At one point, we had an org chart. It's been a few years. Is that something you could draw up for us, June, or resurrect an old one and update it? I think it'd be helpful to see kind of who's where, especially for some of the newer members or Mike or Nick. Sure.

Yeah, we could definitely get one out. Probably pull one up we did a year or two ago and update it, fire it out. Everybody, any other questions for the PD or updates or anything beyond that? Yes. Is everybody uh any other questions? Nick, you have any comments? All good here. All right. Good. All right. With Can I get a motion to adjurnn then? I'll make a motion to adjourn our meeting. Second. Second.

All in favor? I I oppose. Nay. All right. The uh meeting is now adjourned. Stay warm. Thanks, guys. See you. Bye bye. Bye. All right. Thanks everybody.