The Seeley Fire District Board approved a 3% raise for its chief, approved its budget for next year, while call numbers for the agency are expected to surpass 2022 in the coming months.
For 2022, the rural fire department responded to 95 calls. For 2023, 91 calls have been placed so far, according to Fire Chief Dave Lane.
“It’s been picking up a bit,” Lane said.
The fire board unanimously approved Lane’s salary to $77,845. That is below the average fire chief pay in the state of Montana, according to board member Jon Kimble. The median pay for a fire chief in Montana is $84,161.
All paid staff at the department, which Lane said is two full time employees, one part time and himself, must all get at least a 2.5% pay increase under a new law passed by the Montana state Legislature this spring.
Lane, who got a 4% raise last year, asked for a 3% raise. Under new state law, all public “nonessential employees” require at least a 2.5% raise. Essential employees’ pay increases are “negotiable.”
“The board has been very generous in the past,” Lane said. “I don’t think my job performance has changed. However, I don’t want to impact the budget to that point to maintain the generosity that has been maintained in the past.”
Before that, there was some debate over some spending done by the fire department. Susan Monahan, a newly-elected board member, took issue with the high budget used for notaries in the department.
The budget for notaries was $13,000 in 2021 and 2022, according to Monahan. Lane said that was a clerical error. The current budget for 2023 is $500.
“Something was in the wrong spot there,” Lane said, adding that was the beginning of his tenure as fire chief. He took over in 2018. “We only spent $372 of that.”
Monahan argued that number still seemed high, as notaries last four years and are generally cheap. Lane countered that the cost of training secretaries authorized to notarize documents was a substantial part of the cost, as the department had high turnover with staff.
Monahan pointed out that there are other places in town that notorize, and the department could cut the service to save money.
Besides notaries, most of the discussion centered on increased cost for equipment, which represents a vast majority of cost increases. New tires on a vehicle and other broken down equipment will raise the maintenance budgets by a few thousand dollars over the next two years.
Other costs will drop in the next two years, Lane said, as the department won’t have to pay for volunteers to go to paramedic school. Revenue from the department is also increasing, as the cost for ambulance service was increased for this year.
The board also held officer elections. Gary Lewis is the chairman, Jon Kimble is the vice chair, and Rita Rossi is the secretary.
The fire board meets monthly on the third Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Fire Hall. The agenda and more information is available at seeleyfire.org
Reader Comments(0)