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The city of Edwardsville is getting closer to making a decision regarding the administrative structure of its police and fire departments.

After the regular city council meeting Monday night, council members had a work session and heard from Police Chief and interim Fire Chief Mark Mathies regarding his proposal for getting the help he says his departments needs and staying within the city’s financial means.

“I think it’s very exciting,” Mathies said about the possibilities his idea brings.

Mathies’ proposal focuses more on the fire department but does include him staying on as the overall public safety chief of both the fire and police departments. It also includes the hiring of an assistant chief for the police department.

In the fire department, Mathies suggested restructuring the chain of command by creating two deputy chief positions, which would be filled by promoting from within the department’s current employees. The two positions would be named deputy chief of operations and deputy chief of administration. Both would have some overlapping responsibilities but the operations deputy would focus on firefighter training and inspection and code enforcement, while the administration deputy would focus on the emergency management services side of the department.

The promotion of two fire employees would then allow the department to use the recently awarded SAFER grant to hire on two more firefighters to the department, replacing two positions that were cut in 2010. The two new positions will be funded 80 percent by the grant.

Mathies said the two deputy chiefs would work four, 10-hours days with one overlapping day where they would work together. This would enhance the department’s current structure, which divides the department into three crews, by having more people on the scene of the fire. This would in turn make the job safer for everyone, he said.

Another benefit of the proposal, Mathies said, regarded department morale.

“We have not had a promotion since 2001,” Mathies said.

He said the new structure would allow people to move into different roles and see a future for themselves in the department. He said this could lead to an “organization rejuvenation.”

The majority of the council seemed in favor of the idea with Chuck Adams, Doug Danner and John Eickhoff giving their preliminary support.

“I’m kind of excited about this. What we’ve got here is the ability to have the city create unity in the public service department,” Adams said, referring to the idea of having one public safety chief in charge of both departments. “When we operate in silos, it’s just a cancer in a city to operate like that, especially in a small city. We all live together and all work together. These two departments need to be more interactive with each other.”

Council members Craig Crider and Mark Bishop, however, expressed concern about having a training police chief over the fire chief. They questioned if the fire department would be getting enough leadership.

“I think promoting from within is great and promoting two deputies is a good idea. I still think you need someone in charge of them. I’m not slamming you (Mathies), but I’m just saying the fire department needs a leader and the police department needs a leader. That’s just the way it works,” said Bishop, who works for the Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department.

The city will move forward with the hiring of an assistant police chief, but Crider asked that the city staff give the council more time to mull over the proposal.

At the regular meeting, the council:

• Heard from Edwardsville resident Gary Carpenter during the public comments section of the meeting. Carpenter said he was embarrassed and angry about the behavior of Mayor John “Tiny” McTaggart at the Aug. 9 meeting.

Carpenter was referring to an incident where McTaggart cut off two people, including Carpenter, while they were giving their public comments. At the time, McTaggart told the two speakers that they had reached their three-minute limit.

Carpenter said his complaint comes from the way McTaggart yelled and banged his gavel.

“After the last meeting I am both embarrassed and quite angry,” Carpenter said. “No city official has the right to treat the citizens the way our mayor did. His outburst and pounding was outrageous and unprofessional. Why would you run for mayor if you’re going to treat people like this and not give people enough time to talk and express themselves?”

• Tabled, 5-0, ordinances for adopting the 2010 Standard Traffic Ordinance and the 2010 Uniform Public Offense Code. Council members had concerns about wording in both ordinances and asked they be reviewed by the city staff and the city attorney further. Both ordinances will be on the Sept. 13 city council agenda.

• Approved, 5-0, the Planning Commission’s recommendation regarding accessory building setbacks in the Residential Developed District – No Sewer. The city passed a similar ordinance in July in the Agricultural/Residential District and the Rural Residential District. The changes to the city’s zoning ordinance for accessory buildings adjusts the side yard setbacks for accessory buildings to 10 percent of the front lot width with a minimum of 10 feet.

• Approved, 5-0, minutes from the Aug. 9 meeting.

• Approved, 5-0, payment of bills totaling $136,720.22.

Comments

1. 

   hmm (anonymous) says…

   It's obvious to me that Mathies is big on self promotion. He already has the shirt that says chief of police and fire so he really needs to be chief over both department. Plus it will look really good on his resume once he's milked our community for all he can. How big of a pay increase is he looking at with this? Chief can barely lead the PD how can he lead the FD and the PD? Why not just hire one fire chief and keep Mathies as the police chief? Why hire 2 new positions? Even if promoting from withing, will the new deputy chiefs just get additional duties along with their regular duties? Or will this end up costing even more money because the deputy chiefs will be to busy with new duties to perform old duties?

   My opinoin is that Mathies is just looking out for #1 not the city/public.

   August 26, 2010 at 1:57 p.m.

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