I pledge allegiance.

And to the republic for which it stands.

One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

Madam Clerk, may I have a roll call, please?

Vice Chair Herman.

I am here.

Chair Hill is absent.

Commissioner Clark is absent.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Andreola.

Present.

Fire Chief Richard Edwards.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gustavson.

Present.

And I'm Yvonne Strickland, Deputy Clerk.

You have a quorum.

And now we are on to public comment.

All right.

Item three is public comment.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the Board of Fire Commissioners agenda.

However, action may not be taken on any manner raised during this public comment period until the matter is specifically listed on an agenda as an action item.

The board will also hear public comment during individual action items with comment limited to three minutes per person.

Comments are to be made to the Board of Fire Commissioners as a whole.

We have nobody signed in.

Okay.

Um thank you.

Um and now we will have Commissioners and Fire Chiefs announcements.

Request for information and topics for future agendas.

This is a non-action item.

No discussion among commissioners will take place on this item.

Um there any announcements that you'd like to make.

Madam Chair, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of the uh team at TM for the incredible outreach they did for the communities with the parades that were conducted throughout the region.

Um I got so many positive comments and feedback from members in the district that I represent, and um just having that um holiday spirit, the the presence and you know, I think more than anything, knowing that public safety is our number one priority, and um you can't always just talk business without adding sometimes some Christmas cheers.

So I think it really just makes um our fire agency more uh relatable, uh more accessible, and more trusted.

So thank you for that effort.

I know it's a lot of uh extra work on on top of everything that you already juggle and manage, but I do think it was an important part of the community outreach that we try to achieve.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Andreola.

Thank you.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I too would like to uh just piggyback off of the comments that Commissioner Garcia just made.

I had a great time writing for two plus hours and in the fire truck with Santa and seeing everyone in in the district, and um I also really want to recognize Chief Edwards for my understanding why I was in the two hours.

I asked some questions and found out from Santa that you actually came up with the idea.

So kudos to you for coming up with the idea, but I really also want to echo the big thanks to the team that decorated everything, like and to the community partners, the sheriff's office and others who participated, and the spirit was just echoed throughout the entire trip and coming back and having hot chocolate and and seeing the presence and it just makes you realize how um this could expand every year, and I also would just add I kept on thinking because that parade was long in terms of all of the folks participating, and um when I got home, I could actually um hum because I heard how a fire truck sounds so I was telling I kept in here for and I thought wow the neighbors must be going, what the heck is going on?

You know, like to see and to have them come out and probably think it was one thing, but it was Santa.

So I really think it was amazing.

Thank you for a great idea.

Thanks to the team for just going over the top with your idea, and I look forward to next year.

And um, I'm sure you have too received a lot of feedback, and I think it does send a message that we are part of the community and we recognize everyone in terms of the holiday spirit that we're all bringing and the joy and kindness that we all deserve.

Thank you.

And Chief, would you like to give some information to us?

I sure would.

Yes, thank you.

I appreciate those very kind comments.

And you know, a big thank you to Engineers Shiro and Firefighter Door for making this a reality.

We had an idea a couple of weeks before with the toy drive coming up.

Um and they really took that and ran with it, and they knocked it out of the park.

They did an incredible job for the community and five nights of Santa parades to different neighborhoods.

Uh they collected a ton of toys for several never different nonprofits here in the area.

Um and we look forward to building upon that in the coming years as well.

But a great way to get out and and interact with our community and bring them into our firehouses as well and give them an opportunity to meet their local firefighters, and I think that had tremendous value.

Um, and we look forward to doing that next year as well.

Madam Chairman's chief uh question if you could.

Would you be so kind to share with everyone?

It's just because the parade is over, doesn't mean that the donations still can't come in.

And the Trucking Meadows Fire Um Fires Foundation is a place where people can still donate, and I thought it might be important to share that with everyone.

Yes, thank you for that.

Um, yeah, they can still go to the the Trucky Meadows Firefighters Foundation website.

There's information on there on how to donate.

Um, and I believe the toy drive ends today uh for bringing the uh their toys or unwrapped toys to a local firehouse or toy administration uh building.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

And um now we will have public comment.

I mean, pardon me.

Consent items chair, I don't do this.

Just for the record, Commissioner Clark arrived at 9 06.

Yes.

So we will have consent items now.

Is there any public comment?

Uh there's nobody signed in.

Okay.

So do we have a motion to approve?

Madam Chair, I move to approve consent as presented.

All second.

Thank you very much.

And uh now we will take a vote.

We have the agenda has been moved and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

So I guess we're in sync.

Thank you.

Um, the next item here was number six.

We have the International Association of Firefighters.

Good morning, good morning.

Uh, Vice President Jamie Rivera, local 2487.

Um, pretty much gonna start with.

I know we've had a heavy week for the last two weeks, um, going through some stuff basically with the family.

I'm not gonna touch too much, but I really want to thank uh the administration for helping out.

Um, everybody pretty much jumped on board and took care of what we need to take care of, and then from now on, pretty much we're gonna be healing all together.

I do want to mention like the Honor Guard.

They did a great job, you know, bringing one of our brothers back home with his family.

Um, I want to thank Shiro and Door and the Foundation.

They've been helping out with the family, pretty much taking care of everything and anything, as well as to doing the toy drive and stuff.

So, pretty much a lot of people here helping out and just maximizing pretty much how much time or less time they have with their families.

I do want to thank our regional partners uh to help out with the procession and also took care of our stations, you know, Rena Fire, Sparks, Carson, Incline, East Fork, Story, NHP, Sheriff, RPD.

They're all been a great help at the end of the day.

When anything like this ever happens, we all stand together and take care of each other.

And that's it.

So thanks for seeing you.

Happy holidays.

Thank you.

And now we have the fire chiefs report.

Yes, thank you.

Um, so this this month we did receive two new brush uh engines, type five engines, and those are currently being outfitted uh with equipment and radios, and hopefully those will be ready in time for fire season this upcoming year.

Um I did want to give a quick update on our green waste recycling.

It was a huge success.

Um, we had 894 loads of material brought in, almost 4200 cubic yards, um, which is tremendous for reducing uh the fuels uh around their properties and so forth, so really reducing uh those fire risk as well.

Um, I do want to give a big shout out to waste management for their partnership and really appreciate that.

Uh they donated 16 dumpsters uh for those events, um so it was very helpful for us to offload a lot of that material that we couldn't ship and recycle.

So it was very helpful for us to offload a lot of that material that we couldn't ship and recycle.

Shifting gears here a little bit.

And then our counterparts over at Reno and Sparks as well.

We have adopted three standard operating guidelines over the last couple of months.

Those include guidelines for incident command, personnel accountability, and then common terminology.

And this is really the first step to really integrating our operations amongst all three agencies so that we can become more seamless on the fire ground for operations.

So I'm super appreciative of everyone that's been able to do this.

And then overall, some of our run statistics for October and November.

In October, we had 1,689 incidents.

861 of those were EMS, 22 of those were fires.

And then in November, those dropped off a little bit, where we're down to 1,657 incidents.

837 were EMS, and our fires dropped down to 17.

So as the weather changes, gets colder and wetter, those fires decrease as well.

And that uh concludes my report.

Thank you very much.

That's very good.

Um Chief, would you um tell us about item eight, please?

It's very exciting.

Absolutely, thank you.

Uh, item eight is a recommendation to accept a grant from the William and Pennington Foundation in the amount of three million two hundred and thirteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven dollars with a grant match component of one million three hundred and seventy-seven thousand three hundred and eleven dollars for the priority needs capital equipment and apparatus project that includes the purchase of three new type one fire engines and corresponding loose equipment, mobile data computers, parts for the district wide mobile computer upgrades, VHF portable and mobile radio replacement, and self-contained breathing apparatus or SCBA upgrades and replacements, and if accepted, authorize the fire chief to execute all necessary documents to accept the grant.

That's wonderful.

Um this is for possible action.

Is there any um public comment on this item?

We have nobody signed in.

Okay, thank you.

Um we have a motion on this.

I'll move to approve as presented and great job.

Oh manager, sorry about that, madam chair.

I'll second with um also um giving our thanks and gratitude to the William and Pennington Foundation for coming through with such a generous gift.

I know that they've been a critical partner throughout the region with a lot of different agencies, and um, I just wanted to put that on the record as I make my second.

Okay, consent agenda.

Oh, sorry, this item has been uh moved and seconded.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

And you're on it's on your board.

Okay, so we passed four to zero.

Okay, but thank you.

All right, number nine.

Um chief, would you read that?

Absolutely.

Item nine is a recommendation to accept Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District's audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025 as presented.

Approve the reappropriation of 28,112 in the general fund, 2,747,497 in the capital projects fund, and $8,632 in the EMS fund for purchase order encumbrances committed in fiscal year 2425, and authorize the district to proceed with the distribution of the financial statements for public record as required by law.

And we have our CFO, Cindy Vance, to give us a presentation.

Good morning, commissioners.

Okay, I'm gonna um keep the presentation brief and then answer any questions if if you want more detail.

So also included in the package is a governance letter.

It is a letter from our audit team, um, Ide Bailey, which uh Kurt Schlicker is here with I'd Bailey for any questions, also.

And the governance letter does tell describe how the audit went and any any issues.

So I'm proud to say there weren't any issues.

There are some past adjustments, but no audit findings.

Okay.

Um of course in the package is a full set of the financial statements.

Um the presentation and when general funds, a little bit more detail on the revenues, and our revenues were just under budget by 716,000.

As you can see, everything's very close to budget, um, which is about 1.4 percent.

So it is a just slightly under budget.

And our expenditures were just over $2 million under budget, which is 4.2 percent.

So that did give us a higher ending fund balance than anticipated.

Much of that under budget is due to employee vacancy savings.

So we'll see that in salaries and benefits.

Um our ending fund balance is seven million for the general fund, and that equivalent is about 2.6 months of expenditures.

And we are, as you know, um, in the prior months uh presentations, we're doing efforts to increase that fund balance so that it represents more months of savings and can carry us further into the next fiscal year, including with our our fund balance policy that we adopted in November.

Okay, the other funds included in our financial statement is the emergency fund, and that is under NRS can have up to 1.5 million dollars in deposits to be used for only for emergencies.

Now we have changed the way this fund is used.

We used to run all emergencies, even out of a district emergencies out of this out of this fund, but because of the cash flow needs, if we go to help a different assist at a different district, we actually use the general fund and keep these sources for in-districts so that we always have a good set of cash on hand for an in-district event.

And currently our revenues were for fiscal year 25 were just over 2.5 million, and our expenditures are 1.6.

So it did grow by about 988,000.

Much of that difference is due to the equipment policy that we suspended.

So we don't see any expenditures in the fund for our equipment use, but we get the revenues back for it.

The capital projects fund is about 12 million dollars in revenues and sources and 7.8 million dollars in expenditures, and that is station 35 and station 37.

The revenues are much larger because we received the proceeds from the debt issuance, but we haven't spent them all for 37.

Uh the stabilization fund can only be used if revenues drop at a certain percentage, and that just really has about 500, actually close to 600,000 in cash in it.

The revenues are just interest earnings, investment earnings, and there's some expenditures that are associated with that fund for the allocation of the investments.

Our sick and annual comp benefits fund.

This is a fund that we established to help build equity in so that when we do have payouts for terminations or other types of payouts, we have the money set aside, and it's not completely run through the general fund.

Um, it is now running pretty much net zeros.

Um we're spending everything we put into it.

So we did have resources, which is just a transfer of 832,000.

Our expenditures were about 904,000, so we use some of our fund balance for that for this year that came into the budget for 2026.

Our emergency medical services fund.

This is our one business type fund.

It is full accrual, so it is meant to pay for itself.

It does see all of its pension costs and OPEB costs put into this fund, but it also records all revenues regardless of the time of collection, where governmental funds you must collect within 60 days.

This one you'll see full accrual, so all of our ambulance billings net of what we don't expect to collect are recorded in this fund.

And as you can see, it is running a positive about a million dollars, which is good.

Um the workers' compensation fund is an internal service fund, and right now it just pays City of Reno, which is for the heart and lung claims only, related from when we did the transition back to TMS standing up.

So those any retiree that was considered a TM employee actually can come back and have a heart and lung workers' compensation claim.

So currently this we expect the it has a little over a million dollars in it.

Um we expect that to carry for several years, and the what we see as expenditures is just what we pay the city, and that can go up and down depending on the claims, but then it's also a claims adjustment.

So there's an actuary valuation that the city of Reno does, and a portion of that is allocated as a claims adjustment uh adjustment expense, and then it gets investment earnings.

So right now the investment earnings did were greater than the um claims expenses for fiscal 25.

Um and then our debt service fund, which the revenues are just transfers in equal to principal and interest, and during the budget, those were based on just the uh the three debt services, and then we issued an additional debt.

So we had an additional 153,000 dollars in payments over our resources.

So those are again just principal and interest payments.

Okay.

Um again, that was just a simple overview.

But if you have any questions for myself or for current, we can answer them.

Commissioner Clark, do you have any?

No, thank you.

Okay, and I think I saw you reaching out.

Madam Chair, I do have a question, um, if I may.

Um my notes from earlier this fall said that um we'd really like to see ourselves at the 16 percent funding balance 16 percent fund balance range.

You mentioned that we're currently sitting at 7 million dollars.

Um, what is that percentage that we're at?

Um make you do math on the spot.

No, actually, I wrote it down in the staff report, so I can just grab it easily.

Um it is 13.7.

Okay.

So we are hopefully thank you.

Okay, uh Commissioner Giorgio.

I just want to say thank you for um always being very succinct in the presentation.

I do have one question though, and it's specifically related to the um the city of Reno that you mentioned in that fund.

And I would imagine that obviously when that happened and um TM was stood up, I don't remember the exact dates, but um that was the cutoff.

So as um folks would be identified, hopefully no one, but if they uh are they can that can come up who knows when is there a projection of when you think it would be not not seeing any more uh new cases?

Um they can present at any time.

Okay, so there's about 30 a little over, I think it's about 32 retirees that are in that um shared city of Reno, Truckee Meadows fire.

So any time up until their passing, really um, and they didn't know how to ask that wasn't very Christmas like idea.

Yeah.

Um didn't really want to put it that way, but you know what I'm trying to ask.

I'm just curious.

Actually, what does that look like?

And do you know?

And if it's okay, if you don't have it, that's okay.

Maybe you can let us know at a direction.

I can let you know.

I do we do have the actual estimate in there.

Okay, so we'll wait till after Christmas and not talk about such things, but thank you.

Thank you very much for that.

Um is there public capital?

We have nobody signed in.

Okay.

Um do we have a motion to approve this?

I'll move as presented.

Okay, thank you.

Um this has been moved and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

It looks like we did a good job in the majority here.

More than a majority.

All right, number 10.

All right, number 10 is a financial presentation on the status of the fiscal year 2025-2026 general fund and capital projects funds as of November 30th, 2025.

This is a non-action item, and again, our CFO, Cindy Vance is gonna give us a presentation.

Okay.

Um, for this month, we were able to catch up since the the meeting here is on the 16th, so we include everything up to November, where usually we're a little bit further behind because of the timing.

So our current uh revenues compared to 42 percent of budget, which is our our five-month mark, um, is running actually at about just right at about 42 percent, which is good because there's certain revenues that are actually delayed, particularly consolidated taxes.

So running at budget at five months, missing two months of consolidated taxes.

So we're actually running a bit ahead.

Um our revenues, our property taxes, the bigger payments come in August, October, and then January and March.

So really by the third quarter, we've collected a majority of it, and we don't see much in the fourth quarter.

But with the um on how we are running a budget, we're running about two percent above budget currently through November on property taxes.

Our consolidated taxes, we do have three um collections in as of November, and right now they're running about 1.7% above budget.

So hopefully that continues.

Um expenditures are running slightly under budget.

There's some there's detail by department that we've given you, um, but this looks at it just as the general fund as a whole, and we're running um salaries are about 39.8 benefits, 35.2, and services and supplies at 25.6 percent of budget.

And these we do see our accruals, particularly for salaries and wages and employee benefits, those usually are represented in here.

Um there could be some uh different cutoff items that may come a little bit later, but these are running pretty much at five months, so them running under budget is a good sign, and that's some of the um policies that we've put into place to to cut some expenditures.

Okay, the capital projects fund as um again by project, and we did provide the details of those too.

And quick summary, but if there are any questions on that.

Do you have any questions?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Now we're on item 11.

Item 11 is commissioners or fire chiefs announcements, request for information and topics for future agenda uh future agendas.

This is a non-action item.

No discussion among commissioners will take place on this item.

And so are we gonna go to item 12 now or was there any comments that you might have a couple comments under item 11, if I may.

Thank you.

Um I want to start by saying uh thank you to Division Chief Shum and the grants team uh for the writing of that the grant that was received today.

That was incredible.

Um it's probably one of the largest that this fire district has received um from a private uh philanthropic group.

Um, and that we don't take that lightly.

Um, that is gonna help us tremendously to increase uh our ability to provide a high level of service with apparatus and the tools that our firefighters need to do their jobs day in and day out.

So I'm very grateful for that entire team and their efforts uh to bring that to fruition.

Um and then switching gears a little bit.

Um this last week for Trucky Meadows Fire and our fire family has been very difficult.

Um the loss of battalion chief Rzuto and his wife Danielle impacted us tremendously.

Um just a horrible tragic situation.

Um we really appreciate all the support from our partner agencies from all of you, or the community's outreach has just been incredible as the family and we heal as an organization.

Um, and I would politely ask that we close today's meeting in a moment of silence for Chief Rosuto and Danielle, and that's my updates.

Thank you.

Okay, madam chair, if I may, thank you.

I uh have heard from a lot of people.

The um the loss is tragic, and I do think that um I know I have been sharing that there is a fund that's been established to help the family.

And I wonder if you would be so kind to at least point us in that direction if people feel so inclined that there is a fund, and a hundred percent of those funds will go directly to the children that survive.

Yes, thank you for that.

Um the the Truck E Meadows Firefighters Foundation has graciously stepped up to receive those donations to help support the Rosuto family, and 100% of those funds do go back to uh the surviving children to help them.

Um if anyone would like to make a donation, they could go to the Truck E Meadows Firefighter Foundation website.

There's a a link, uh, a box to click right as you go to that that home page and it'll take you right to the donation site.

We really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Any other comments from the board members?

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, madam chair, and uh our hearts go out to the uh family and and to the whole department and and uh all the first responders for uh that sad situation.

Um I've got a couple of other comments.

I'm uh apologizing for being uh coming in late this morning that had something come up that uh I couldn't uh get handled fast enough.

But uh as far as commissioner comments, um I'm very happy to hear that the green waste uh program was was a big success.

There was a point in time when that was uh proposed to be defunded, and I and I spoke out against that, and I and I and the reason being is the one way to uh have less fires is to prevent fires before they ever start, and and let's take away the fuel component of fires.

So that's that's a great success, and and I think the community appreciated it but because of the turnout, and so uh that and uh and your efforts to have uh early and uh uh longer time to burn uh uh is gonna be very helpful as well.

People that live in rural areas have the opportunity to burn burn a lot of their uh green waste on their property and saves fill in the landfill saves fires.

There's so many good reasons for it.

So thank you for having the foresight to do that.

Um next, I want to talk about uh, you know, we've seem to have our just an ongoing every morning.

I wake up 5 30, turn on the news, somebody gets shot, somebody gets stabbed, somebody gets run over.

There's things happening all the time, and uh your folks are are here to prevent fires and help put out fires, and and and it's tragic that your folks have to see this.

We talked about it last week when we talked uh about uh you know the somebody getting run over in cold springs.

The next morning there's a shootout at uh Hallelujah Junction, turnaround and there's a there's a tragedy within your department.

Uh I'm worried about the uh the mental health of your folks and making sure that they have the the resources they need to uh to cope with that.

Uh seeing some of this stuff, once you see this stuff, you don't forget it.

I mean it it's there forever.

It's it's in your mind, and and some of the stuff you don't want to see, but your your folks are tasked with seeing a lot of that, and and the more crime and the more uh you know violence that we see, and you your your folks respond to that.

So I I would ask in the future for a report on uh uh stabbings and shootings and and those kind of things that your folks, you know, you're not you're not law enforcement per se, but you but you're still uh first responders and you're there.

I want to make sure that we have uh adequate services for for your staff.

So I'd like to get those reports on on what you respond to and what what your staff responds to and and what they what they're seeing out there as well because it's got to have an effect on on them over the the long haul.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Okay.

For clarification, uh that report would you like to know more about the the tools that we have for peer support and mental health and well-being of our members?

Yes, yes.

Okay, I want to I want to see I want the public to understand that what what used to be considered firefighters' job is is morphing into something completely different that that people aren't used to seeing they aren't used to seeing this when when they're they're applying for for a position with your your uh organization.

Yeah, we can do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, along those lines to the chief.

Um I I was curious to see how the firefighters utilize the peer support um over the last couple weeks.

If you could take a moment to to talk about the process, just so we're front loading a little bit about uh what Commissioner Clark has requested for future presentations.

But how did that come into play this week?

Um, how are those resources communicated?

How often throughout the year are folks kind of reminded uh about um these opportunities.

And on a side note, I just hopped on to the um the fundraiser.

Um they're still below 20 percent of reaching their goal, so I encourage everybody to hop on the website and um give what you can so that we can make sure that those beautiful kids have everything they need um to move forward in life given the tragedy and the difficult circumstances that they face.

This isn't just gonna hurt for a year, this is gonna impact them for the rest of their lives.

So I encourage you to donate.

Thank you very much to all of you and move in.

Yes, so uh to the commissioner's uh question about uh the peer support resources.

We do have a very robust peer support network here uh in the Valley.

Um we have a peer support team within the Trucky Meadows Fire Protection District, and then when a bigger incident happens, we also rely on our neighbors.

So we had peer support members from Reno, um, PD from uh Washoe County Sheriff's Office from Sparks Fire, Reno Fire, also come together and help with us and help uh get that message out and check in on our members and so forth to make sure that they had the skills and the services they need uh to help process uh the events of this last week and just make sure they're in a in a good mental space in their personal lives and then their professional lives as well.

We also had the International Association of Firefighters, a peer support team, their national team come in and assist with this as well, which has been a huge help as you can imagine.

Just the number of people that were impacted by this event.

Um so we could look to continue to build upon that, and after this event, um we'll look back on that and we'll meet with all those peer support members and look and see what did we do well, what can we improve upon so that we're always refining that process to make sure that we're doing everything we can for our members because mental health and well-being is one of my top priorities for the organization.

Um, and it's not just something we we talk about, it's something we live every day through actions as well, and we're also looking to bolster those services.

And so when we give that presentation, we'll have a couple other big items to share with this group on how we're gonna build that out in the future as well.

Thank you.

Um I feel this is appropriate time now to give our minute of silence to the trucking meadows family members loss.

And now we are in the last public comment.

So item 12 is a public comment, a non-action item.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the Board of Fire Commissioners agenda.

Comments are to be made to the Board of Fire Commissioners as a whole.

We have nobody signed in.

Thank you.

And that leads us to adjournment.

Thank you very much.

Have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Thank you, Madam Chair.