Issues surrounding who’s in charge at the seven fire departments in the regional district continues to raise alarms.
On Thursday during a 20-minute discussion, Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen board members heard a decision made last April to rescind a bylaw meant to streamline operations at the departments means the title of CAO can no longer be used.
Bill Newell, CAO for the RDOS, told directors as per the Local Government Act the title of CAO only applies if the position is the single employee of the board with all other employees reporting to the CAO.
“I think over time we will work this out, but it’s important we get the pieces of legislation required in place so they are clear,” Newell said. “Every high performing organization needs this understanding.”
Currently under working bylaws the fire chiefs who head up the seven departments (Tulameen, Keremeos, Okanagan Falls, Anarchist Mountain, Kaleden,Naramata and Willowbrook) are also direct employees of the board meaning the RDOS is currently working under an an eight person employee style opposed to one.
Related: Chiefs back in control of regional departments
Related: Regional fire departments lack support
The decision to change the reporting structure was made by the board last spring while work was underway on a new bylaw for the departments, as per the recommendation from a fire masterplan process. At that time several fire chiefs raised concerns that the departments would be negatively impacted by the new bylaw.
Several directors on Thursday alluded to not being in favour of what their predecessors had decided and wanted to go back to the one employee structure.
“The decision to move away from the CAO model was the direction of the previous board. Should we be having this discussion if this board wants to even go ahead with this?” Doug Homes, a director from Summerland questioned.
Julius Bloomfield, a director from Penticton, also questioned if the board should be moving ahead on changing titles or other structures if having the seven fire chiefs reporting to the board isn’t what the board wants.
“My sense is that this board of directors with all of the issues we’ve had with the fire departments, we would not be happy continuing on the status quo set in place with the previous board,” he said.
The Naramata fire chief was suspended in late November after at least one complaint was received about bullying and that the chief was not following the code of conduct at the RDOS. As a result the board suspended the fire chief while an outside consultant was hired to investigate the allegations. At the conclusion of the investigation, the board later reinstated the chief.
Related: Naramata fire chief could return to duties in January
Karla Kozakevich, chair of the RDOS and director for Naramata said the discussion on the CAO title was preliminary and that the chiefs were currently working on drafting a bylaw.
Ron Obirek, director for Area D (Skaha East and Okanagan Falls) said the chiefs were in the process of getting legal counsel, adding the board could decide to hire a fire commissioner and the seven chiefs could report to that person and that person report to CAO – meaning the title would stay.
A draft bylaw is expected to be before directors sometime in February.
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