The Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service Board has begun what looks to be a measured process of deciding whether or not the Fire Chief
should be a full-time employee of the department.
Last year, an organizational report by an independent consultant recommended, among other things, that the Chief’s job be made full-time. It was the third time that recommendation has been made to the NAFRS board in seven years.
Glenn Castor, who chairs the Personnel & Hiring Committee, said the board is wrestling with two fundamental questions.
“There are two big questions. [The first is} ‘Is there enough work for a full-time chief?’ There have been some organizational changes within the department, and there will probably be some expanded activities related to fire prevention and community education. [The second is] it’s probably around $150,000-$200,000 increase to the budget.”
With the retirement of long time chief Gerry Franek in January, Tom Nelson was named Interim Chief. Among the changes he has made within the department are the designation of two Assistant Chiefs and four Captains, many of whom have been in that position for some time but have now been delegated more responsibilities. Nelson said he has divided issues and responsibilities from an organizational standpoint into four categories: things the department is doing, things the department must do, things the department should be doing and things the department would like to do. By delegating many of the things that must be done, and the things the department is already doing responsibilities to the rest of the command team, it takes some pressure off of the chief’s position. However, within the NAFRS service area the fire chief is also the fire inspector, which can be a significant time commitment as well. Nelson said the re-interpretation of the job has removed many of the more mundane tasks from his desk, but by no means is the position any less demanding.
“[The position] isn’t going to pull back anything that’s been delegated to other command staff. It’s going to hopefully build on what the Fire Chief/Fire Code Official should be doing. There are a lot of strategic things that are on my ‘This is What We Should or Must Be Doing’ list. There aren’t enough hours in the day when you have another job that you go to.”
Castor said the biggest decision the Hiring Committee has made is that the posting will be done internally first. After consulting with several other fire departments, the committee determined that hiring from within is the best model for a paid, on-call department
They have also put a schedule together for how to proceed. The job description and compensation package for both a full-time and a part-time position will be worked out by mid-August. The decision on full-time vs. part-time will be made by October, he said. The position will be posted in late October, with applications taken through mid-November, and the decision on who to hire will be made by mid-December.
The new permanent fire chief will start on January 16 of next year.
Nakasian proud of her work for the city
Northfield City Councilor Suzie Nakasian said, with twenty years serving City Commissions and the City Council, she has seen some of the fruits of her labor, and she is proud of the work that she has done.
Nakasian gave her resignation to the council last week. She said she is unsure of what her plans are next, but she hopes she will be able to use the experience she has gained in the next chapter of her life.
“I have learned so much about local government and community building, and I’ve enjoyed the creativity of it. Hopefully I will find something that makes use of those skills.”
Nakasian first joined the Environmental Quality Commission, and then was on the Planning Commission before being elected to the City Council in 2010. She said some of the most rewarding work she has done with the city was with her involvement in putting together the Comprehensive Plan twenty years ago.
“I was asked to help organize the process and get the word out to the community,” she said. “That first meeting we set out 15 chairs and 150 people showed up.”
Nakasian said she greatly enjoyed working with a group of people to decide what kind of community they wanted to live in, and two decades later, she can see the plan still at work.
“I have to say in the 20 years I’ve served, I have watched that plan become a reality. And it’s really inspiring to me, in the age of democratic divisiveness, We stuck to what the community said it wanted to get done.”
In recent years she has put a great deal of effort into restoring the passenger rail line that would connect Northfield, and a few other cities in the I-35 corridor, to the Twin Cities. She said she is very disappointed with the state legislature for their lack of action on the matter – along with just about everything else – in this session but is still optimistic the line can be restored.
City Administrator Ben Martig, meanwhile, said the Council decided on the process to find an interim councilor for the rest of the term, which expires at the end of the year, and he took the time to praise Nakasian for the way she goes about her work.
“She’s a unique person. She has this kind of ‘executive function’ personality where she can go from visionary/understanding the big picture, like what she was just talking about with the rail, but then jump into a tactical level of things and move things into action. And that’s a unique skill set.”
Nakasian’s resignation becomes official on June 30th.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
