Changes are afoot as the Estes Valley Fire Protection District evaluates its administrative staffing needs.
During a lengthy meeting Monday night, Interim Chief Warren Jones presented to the EVFPD board and requested the authority to rebuild the district’s administrative services.
After the resignation of four staff members in October, the district contracted with Community Resources Services, a special district management, finance and accounting, elections, and utility billings firm headquartered in Greenwood Village, to conduct an administrative audit.
The audit assessed current administrative roles and evaluated existing workflows and processes to identify gaps between prior, current, and best operational practices.
Two representatives from CRS interviewed the interim fire chief, the interim division chief of operations and training, the division chief of support services, the administrative assistant, and the board president.
The interview identified the essential administrative functions that the district needs for effective operations, including executive and board support; finance and accounting coordination; human resources liaison; operations and training administrative support; prevention and community risk reduction support; grants (pre-award and post-award); IT, systems, and data management; communications and a public information officer; and records management and compliance.
The audit outlined both existing structures and current gaps. The district lacks key executive and board support positions, including a recording secretary and a public information officer. While accounting and human resources are outsourced, payroll is still handled in-house. The district also lacks sufficient administrative support for operations, support services, and prevention programs.
The audit found role ambiguity and unclear reporting lines, an administrative workload that exceeds current job classifications, and operational bottlenecks. These bottlenecks stem from the hiring freeze, undefined boundaries for consultants, centralized control over credit cards, budgets, and system access, and a perceived overlap between governance and management responsibilities.
CRS provided the district with three staffing scenarios which include eliminating the Chief of Staff position. After discussion, and as part of a district reorganization, the board voted unanimously to give Interim Fire Chief Warren Jones the authority to hire two full-time administrative management positions that will report directly to the fire chief, and a part-time administrative positions to address special administrative projects and surges in administrative need. The board also authorized Jones to hire a temporary support person to assist the wildland fire educator and division chief.
The district will have two divisions, an Operations and Training Division and a risk reduction division, although the name of that division has not yet been formally chosen.. A training officer would report to the Operations Division and Training Chief, and in what will be a risk reduction division, the district would eliminate its mitigation crew and hire a fire prevention officer. This position has already been provided for in the Distirct’s budget.
The District will look to allocate 1A and grant funding to contract out fire mitigation work rather than to do this internally. A job description for a fire prevention officer will be brought to the board in February for approval.
Currently, the district has an interim Operations Division and Training Chief. The board authorized Jones to recruit and hire for this role as a permanent position. Jones indicated he would like this to be an internal promotion, rather than an external recruitment and hire. Jones detailed a three-step recruiting and interviewing process for applicants involving staff, volunteers, and community members. He said he would like to have the appointment made by mid-March.
Jones told the board that there are two staffing philosophies: “Are we going to build it or are we going to buy it?” and recommended that “we do everything we can to build internally, that we build the skills, we build that knowledge, we build the system knowledge.”
The district’s Policy 202 that addresses employment recruitment, selection, and responsibilities states that “candidates for job vacancies will be recruited both internally and externally. Consideration shall be given for promotion from within the Estes Valley Fire Protection District ranks, but not to the exclusion of qualified outside applicants.”
Jones asked the board to waive this policy requirement to allow for an internal recruitment process for the Operations Division and Training Chief at this time. If a suitable internal candidate cannot be identified, the District will then recruit externally.
The board approved a revision of the District’s bylaws to align them with state law and harmonize them with the District’s policy manual. The board will also develop a code of conduct for its board members. The board approved assigning a member to serve as the district’s secretary, and Jeff Robbins was selected for the role.
According to Sandi Smith, the board president, “The board now has a single governing document that contains all of the relevant and necessary provisions. The one area covered by the Board Policy Manual that was not added to the revised bylaws is the Board Conduct Policy as it is lengthy and much more suited for inclusion in a policy document than in bylaws. We intend to evaluate that conduct policy, make any necessary revisions and additions, and adopt it separately.”
The board approved the establishment of two standing committees, a budget and an audit committee, and approved a resolution regarding the indemnification of directors, officers, and employees of the district.
The public meeting was adjourned, and the board went into executive session to receive legal advice from the district’s legal counsel on questions relating to Jones’ service agreement and extension of services, and to discuss a potential personnel matter related to the chief’s status and engagement with the district and contract considerations.