Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay.
Okay.
Welcome, everyone.
We'll call our meeting for Monday, May 11th,
2026 to order.
Roll call.
Ed and Joe are absent and excused.
Jill Sarah and myself are present.
I only have one comment for the chairman's comments this month
and it's recognizing National Police Week this week.
It's important to recognize those that keep our city and state
and federal areas safe.
And it's also a good opportunity to honor those that gave the
ultimate sacrifice for us.
So we thank them and recognize them.
Next on the agenda is the review of a previous meeting minutes
and those are from April 13th.
And commissioners, is there any corrections or additions we
need to make to those?
Hearing none, is there a motion to accept those?
And a second.
Okay.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
Okay.
Motion passes.
So this month we're recognizing anniversaries for in the police
department officer Anthony Becker with nine years of service.
And over the fire department, deputy chief Brandon Betcher with one
year.
Firefighter Jason Borchardt with one year.
Firefighter Adam Lonsert, 20 years of service.
And EMT Bill Lundgren with one year of service.
And PFC does thank them for their service to our community.
So with that, we can move along now to the police department.
And the first item is discussion in review of the April bills.
Anyone have any questions for the chief or comments?
Okay.
Hearing none, then let's move along to municipal court statement.
And this is now January through March.
It looks like.
Any questions there?
Okay.
Next is the calls for service.
And 1317 calls for the month of April.
Any questions or comments there?
Any questions there?
Pretty simple.
Okay.
So hearing none there, let's then move along to the police chief's
report.
Do you think us?
Yeah.
I guess the only thing I want to add is under the incident based
reporting, you see our fraud offenses are up.
And we've really been getting hit with a lot of those.
And a lot of, I guess,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say,
you could say serious fraud offenses,
which take a lot of time to investigate,
getting search warrants and such like that for bank accounts
and whatnot.
So,
I guess I just wanted to point that out
that,
yeah.
Okay.
advice you could give or any situations to avoid?
Be careful online and know who you're sending money to
or giving access to.
Sure.
I guess, I mean, that's not every case, but yeah.
And some of this fishing is becoming very professional.
Very professional is correct.
Correct.
Yeah.
And unfortunately, for the victims, a lot of these cases
end up overseas and there's really nothing we can do.
Yeah.
And then one other thing I wanted to point out,
and I don't know where this program is going,
but is the propane program.
Right now, I don't have the exact amount,
but I believe we're paying something like
between $1.40 and $1.60, a gallon for propane,
and you see where gas is at.
But I don't know whether that program will continue or not.
Okay.
Sorry, do we have a propane, what do you mean
by the propane program?
Well, by the program, all our mark squads
run on propane or gas.
And so what that program, I guess, includes is
we also have the fill station, which we own.
And all that cost money as well to maintain.
And when we get new squads, they have to be outfitted
to run on propane.
And money was not approved for a new propane station,
and it's nearing the end of life.
Okay.
So I guess that's something
that would have to be decided.
Do we know how much more time that propane station has?
No, no, it's, I mean, we just know what's at, you know,
like when they tell you your refrigerators at the end of life,
based on years of service, you know,
you don't know for sure.
Yeah.
One day it doesn't work.
With the, with the,
propane's a lot less expensive is what you're kind of saying
versus the gas right now.
Correct.
But all new vehicles are still being outfitted for both.
We're just not getting freaked out.
So what we have now, but we didn't get any new vehicles
for this year.
And so I guess going into 20, 27, our plan at this point
is to not outfit.
Not outfit.
Okay.
Whatever vehicles we get.
Sorry.
Um, and let's see, then also I guess wanted to bring up
in regards to National Police Week on Wednesday night,
May 13th at 11.55 p.m. at Coldock Park.
They will have the Midnight Piper
to honor the law enforcement officers
that have given the ultimate sacrifice.
And they've been here for,
I don't know how many years, quite a few,
but it usually has a pretty good crowd that shows up.
Even last year it was pretty darn cold out there.
But it was good attendance.
And then I guess the last thing I wanted to let everybody know
is that effective the 15th of next month I am retiring.
So I'm looking, I've have an offer in the private sector
that I have accepted, job in the private sector
that I've accepted.
And I really enjoyed working for the city of Port Washington
and the police department.
And I'm very proud of the department
and the officers we have.
We're second to none in Ozaki County.
And it's all because of the people that we have there.
And also the support from the city
and the police and fire commission.
And also I have to add to the citizens.
They're supportive and willing to help us out
and be part of the problem solving.
Well, Chief, when you called me to tell me
that you were retiring, I was shocked.
I didn't expect it coming.
And as I mentioned to you on the phone
or when we met that you've got a lot to be proud
of here in Port Washington,
the department's been running very smoothly
for a number of years.
And I think you mentioned that you've been a police officer
or chief in Port for 42 years.
Yes.
It's a long time.
It is.
Yeah.
It's seen a lot.
But what I appreciate most about the chief
is his ability to explain all sides of matters.
So we can, you know, when you say,
how about this idea?
Well, it's good, accept this.
Or there's more to it than that.
And I really appreciated that from you.
And as I mentioned, you have a lot to be proud of here.
So thank you for your service.
Yeah, thank you very much for all that service.
I miss you.
I mean, as a kid, we remember you coming in
with the DARE program when we were little kids.
So I have grown up with you here.
Well, thank you, sir, for making me feel really old.
Yeah, you're all good.
LAUGHTER
But it's true.
I mean, you've been such a pivotal part of the community.
So I'm sorry, but we're all older.
42 years is a long time to serve.
So thank you very much for all that.
I was 10.
I was the youngest officer ever hired here.
LAUGHTER
Yeah, and I have to add too that
the new building, people say, really, you're going now
with the new building coming.
And I just feel that the time is right.
And this other job offer wouldn't be around forever.
And I just wish the building would have been built five years
ago so that I could have enjoyed it.
But I'm really happy and excited for, especially
the younger officers that get to have that for most of their
or all of their career.
It is quite the awesome building.
Thank you.
I think we'll have you at one more PFC meeting next month,
correct, on June 8th.
Or I could be here.
It could be OK.
We all get sucked in for one more.
LAUGHTER
Thank you for your years of dedication and service.
Thank you.
Anything else to add, Chief?
No, that's it.
OK, good.
Well, then let's turn our attention
to the fire department and a review of the EMS invoices.
Oh, Chief, there was one more thing there
about on the agenda about the motorcycle.
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.
I missed that.
Yeah, we have it was a 2007 Harley motorcycle.
And basically, the last time that we had it serviced and updated
again was in 2021 and then being so short staffed
and the fact that, basically, there's just not that many really
right now, there's no young officers
that want to ride the motorcycle.
We made the decision to get rid of it
and eliminate that program.
So we sold it to Harley-Davidson in Teensville.
And I think we got a decent price for it.
And he advised us that we were the last police motorcycle
in Ozaki County.
Everybody else had already gotten rid of theirs.
Sounds like a collector's item.
It was low miles in in really good shape.
Yeah, great.
OK.
OK, thank you.
OK, so again, turn our attention to EMS invoices for April
and commissioners, any questions there or chief,
anything that jumps out at you?
Pretty late month for invoices.
See that.
Yeah.
Any questions?
No.
OK, then let's take a look at fire invoices for April.
Only thing on the fire invoices, you'll
see a hotel for FDIC, myself and a couple of the members
of the command staff went down to the fire department
instructors conference in Indianapolis last month
to take a look at both some new ideas for the engine
that we have coming as well as ambulances, which are currently
planned for 28 and 29.
It's not a lot of times where you can see all essentially 10
ambulance manufacturers in one place.
Because we have an engine on order,
we are able to get free admission
to the instructor's conference from there.
So that's what the hotel is there, OK?
Rather than that, there's really nothing there,
except for miscellaneous repair stuff.
OK, then let's turn to EMS calls for the month of April.
I want a little bit and number of calls,
but our response times continue to look great,
especially within the city, this month,
we're at five minutes, 43 seconds for an average ambulance
response.
Mm-hmm.
Very good.
A number of calls to Belgium, so we're still
being requested to a Belgium chief?
We are, until we're not.
As we mentioned at the previous meetings,
we've reached out to them.
It sounds like there may be some movement on that,
but they had not made any notification
all to the dispatch center until last month, which
will take them multiple months to update
the geolocations in their dispatching software, so.
OK.
They are still paying the fee that they were assessed
previously until that has been situated.
And we keep answering the call.
We keep the page that goes off.
We go.
OK.
Any questions there, commissioners?
OK.
OK.
And fire calls for the month of April?
That looks like a busy month.
We had 25, so not high in number,
but we had two significant fires kind of back-to-back
almost, so we'll talk about one of them in a little bit.
The other one was a shed fire in the township,
which was a complete loss.
It was a complete loss before we got there, so.
OK.
And we can back up a little bit the mutual aid
for ambulance calls here.
That's just one, and again, you'll
see that's a third ambulance request.
We don't have three ambulances, so it's hard to send the third.
So we're able to get somebody there at least to first respond,
and we appreciate Ozaki Central helping us out
with those calls when we're overwhelmed and don't
have a vehicle to respond.
Right.
All right.
OK.
Any questions there, commissioners?
Oh.
OK, then there's an item here for consideration
and possible action regarding a revision
to the current multi-jurisdictional paramedic intercept
agreement related to blood product administration.
I was trying to see how many long words I had in one state.
Yeah, you did a great job.
Yeah, it's a lot of tongue twisters in there, too.
So maybe I'll let you explain it.
All right, sounds like a plan.
So if you guys will recall, in December-ish,
we approved a new paramedic intercept agreement
for Ozaki County EMS agencies.
Since that time, the Ozaki Central Fire Department
has started a blood administration program.
It's something that we're working on getting spun up,
but you can imagine the complexities
with getting blood from a blood bank,
those type of things, and the whole process
and equipment associated with that.
So as we're getting that spun up,
Ozaki Central has offered to provide it almost kind
of as an intercept or a specialty response request.
But in order to fulfill that, we
need to update the paramedic intercept agreement
because there's some kind of intricacies along with that.
Who's maintaining control of the patient?
What happens if there's a complication
strictly related to the blood product
that's being administered and some of the financial things
that go along with it?
So instead of going back to the drawing board,
rewriting another 20-page agreement
about something that is largely going to be temporary,
we were able to come up with an appendix
that has been reviewed by the city administrator
or sorry, the city attorney who has no concerns.
So I'm looking for approval from the police and fire
commission to take this to GGF.
Question for you.
Absolutely.
I mean, I know the process in the hospital of giving blood.
And it's not always very quick.
Is it not just faster to transfer onto the ER?
What kind of circumstances is this happening in?
This will be administered in patients
with severe hemorrhagic related trauma.
So anything you can think of from that standpoint,
significant GI bleeds or postpartum hemorrhage,
will be carrying uncrossed pachra blood cells
so they can spin that up pretty fast.
It doesn't have to come down from the blood bank
that's carried in a cooler in the rigs.
So that goes- How long is the blood good for?
Two weeks and then it's returned and exchanged.
What if they have antibodies?
So uncrossed and it's pachra blood cells.
So the likelihood of complication from that
is relatively low.
Okay, this is interesting.
Yeah, it's a relatively new thing in EMS.
There's about 480 agencies around the United States
doing this.
It's something that we've been working with Ascension on
for quite a while, but obviously there's a lot of hurdles
to get that up in the field.
But there's a lot of data showing that,
obviously quicker administration of blood products
is better for the patient,
especially as I'm sure you know,
the delay sometimes that it takes
when you're dealing with a blood bank in the hospital
to get things when you need them quickly.
So this gets them to them even quicker than that.
So.
Okay, any further questions there?
So I guess the chief is looking for a motion
to accept this agreement.
Would someone like to make that motion?
Is there a second?
Oh, second.
All right.
All in favor?
All right, opposed?
Okay, motion passes.
Okay, and then I think
we are ready for the chief's report.
Yeah, so the first thing on the chief's report,
just a quick budget update.
Now it says quarter one, but this is actually as a 430.
So we're actually doing pretty well from that perspective.
We're under most line items.
There's a couple of things with life insurance
and that kind of stuff.
Unfortunately, we're a little bit blinded
to how that process works.
Those are handled downtown for the most part.
So the finance director kind of takes care
and keeps tabs on those type of things.
Computer services is an old account
that has some holdover from last year,
that some stuff that was bought in December.
So it kind of bleeds over into 26.
So that's the one that you see there in GL5700.
But that going forward, that account won't exist.
But other than that, I'm happy to report.
Budgetarily, I think we're doing pretty well.
Numbers look very good.
Okay, any questions there, commissioners?
No, okay, please continue.
All right, the next thing on my list,
I did send out a fair number of administrative policies
in draft format for your review and feedback.
I did receive some feedback from some of the commissioners.
Barring any additional, those revisions will be made
and then it will be sent to the city attorney for review.
I wanted you guys to take the first shot at it
instead of having Matt review everything
and then you guys have corrections
and I'm apt to review it again.
So once the city attorney has some time to put eyes on it,
it'll come back to this body for formal approval.
This is the first phase of the year.
The first of many, many, many phases.
So next will likely be work rules followed by job descriptions,
then we'll start breaking down operational policies
and then response policies.
So trying to go every month or every other month
with the reading,
because I know it's a fair bit of homework for you guys.
It's a very complete report up to this point.
Any questions on the administrator policies?
No, okay.
Next on my list, we did accept the resignation
of two full-time firefighter paramedics,
both Dylan Dodson and McKenna Krem.
Those were effective immediately.
So that kind of bleeds into the next one.
We'd like to begin the hiring process
to fill those two current full-time vacancies.
I've been in contact with Robin at City Hall.
She has no qualms with us proceeding immediately.
My current plan with your approval
is to start getting those posted next week
with a closing date of the 31st followed by interviews
in the first or second week of June.
So what does the market like these days, Joe?
Is it easier or difficult to find firefighter paramedics?
Compared to 20 years ago, it is quite difficult.
That said, we've worked a lot with City Hall
to try to take some things that we noticed
as shortcoming from a wage perspective and a step program
to make sure we're attracting people with vacancies
or with experience,
as well as potentially hiring lateral transfers.
So that should help us break down some barriers,
but there's just not the applicant pool
that there used to be,
especially when we're looking
for firefighter paramedics ready to go.
So hopefully with a new public safety building,
some new apparatus on the way.
And again, some of those changes that we made with HR,
we can expand our applicant pool a little bit farther
than what we've seen in the past.
And I believe we do have some internal candidates
in a part-time status that may be interested as well.
That's great.
So for the time being, though,
you're kind of in a tough situation
trying to fill overtime positions.
Yeah, so I've been in contact with City Hall.
They know that we'll be going through a fair bit of overtime.
I'm very appreciative to our staff for kind of stepping up
and filling in those vacancies as soon as we had them.
So it's a little easier to sleep at night
when everything is staffed.
So you've got them all taken care of,
at least through that in a month.
Okay, I don't see any problem with moving forward on that.
And stay tuned to our social media sites
and gov jobs for those postings.
The next thing on my list,
I just wanted to do a quick discussion
of the fire on Jefferson Street.
I'm just gonna give lots more information on that real quick.
So as I'm sure you guys saw,
we had a significant structure fire on West Jefferson Street.
Chris is quite familiar with the area
because she came walking up to me about halfway through
and I was still a little sleepy.
I'm trying to kind of figure out what was going on.
So we received a call at about 5 a.m.,
actually five o'clock on the button on April 16th
for the report of a fire in a two-story residence.
Shortly after the dispatch,
we were advised of a confirmed trap victim
and the second floor of the residence
who was unable to evacuate
because of the smoke and fire conditions on the second floor.
The police officers bravely attempted to enter the home.
I did get to see the body cam footage
once they tried to make access to the second floor.
There was just too much smoke for them to make their way up
and made the correct decision to not get themselves
in any more trouble and came back out.
The first engine was on scene
within five minutes of the time of page
and three minutes after they got on scene,
they had successfully removed the victim
from the second floor window.
They transferred him to the awaiting ambulance
and he was transported to the hospital for care.
Ultimately transferred down to children's
and I am happy to report.
He has been recently discharged from the hospital
and doing well.
So after the crews rescued the victim,
they then kind of turned a fire attack,
went inside, put out the fire
and we had things largely under control
at about 5.20 in the morning.
So considering our page was at 5 a.m., that's pretty good.
Obviously we had some overhaul work to do
and some investigation work to do.
Given there was a significant injury associated
with the fire,
we did contact the state fire marshals office
to help us with the investigation.
So investigation is still ongoing.
Just a quick plug,
make sure that everyone has a smoke detector
working in the home and if they don't have one,
if you go to our website and go to pwfd.org
slash outreach,
we do have a smoke detector program
where we will come out and install one for you
if you do not have one.
So that's just a quick overview.
Again, this is one of those things
where without a referendum two years ago,
the story is likely different.
We had four people in the station
and that's how we got there from within five minutes.
It's kind of crazy to think that the crews
that pulled the victim out of the second floor window,
eight minutes prior, were all asleep in their bed.
So.
Job well done.
Very, very proud of our guys.
With that, I will answer any questions about that
if anybody has any questions.
No?
Great work.
All right, last thing on my list
is just a quick update on the public safety building project.
As you noticed,
it's looking more and more like a building
kind of getting to the end stages.
The last big exterior milestone are the garage doors,
which will be here in June, it sounds like.
There's a little bit of delay with those,
but nothing that's going to set back completion date-wise.
On the inside, it's progressing very quickly.
Floorings in, rooms are finished.
Getting to the point where it's starting to do
terminal cleaning on the police department side almost
after flooring finishes up.
Fire department sides may be just a little bit behind
just based on the phases of construction,
but I believe in the next week or two,
all the mechanicals will kind of get switched over
to the building system
and everything will get leveled out.
All the electronics will get turned on.
This is the fun part of getting screens installed,
giving me IT stuff installed.
So it's going to be kind of a whirlwind
for the next couple of months.
We should get keys the second or so week of June,
and then they'll start moving in furniture.
We hope to be in there,
at least from a fire department's perspective,
the end of July-ish.
So that's our goal as of right now,
and then we'll try to figure out
what we're doing with decommissioning of the current site.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, anything else to report, Chief?
That is all I have for this evening.
Okay.
I think that's pretty much our meeting tonight.
Looks like our next meeting will be Monday, June 8th.
And beyond that, we just need a motion
to go into closed session,
authorized as noted by Wisconsin State statute
for considering employment, promotion, compensation,
or performance, evaluation of a public employee,
Wisconsin State statute, 19.851C.
Is there, there's a motion to vote?
Okay, Jill, and Sarah seconds, and a roll call, vote.
Aye.
Aye.
So we'll be in closed session in a few minutes
in the back room.