As the News reported this spring, Kauser was originally hired by the Township as a consultant in May after trustees came to an impasse when trying to determine whether or not MTFR could afford to reclassify three firefighter/EMTs as full-time, pensioned employees. (Photo courtesy of Lew Griffin Insurance)
Miami Township Trustees hire consultant to improve fire department
- Published: October 25, 2024
At its most recent regular meeting Monday, Oct. 7, the Miami Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution to contract with consultant Fred Kauser for approximately one year.
Kauser, a firefighter of 40 years and former Mifflin Township fire chief, now serves as a fire instructor, lecturer, trainer and consultant, as well as a professor and researcher with a master’s degree in labor and human resource management and a Ph.D. in workforce development and education.
As the News reported this spring, Kauser was originally hired by the Township as a consultant in May after trustees came to an impasse when trying to determine whether or not MTFR could afford to reclassify three firefighter/EMTs as full-time, pensioned employees — a change proposed by Fire Chief Dennis Powell, who at the time was serving as interim fire chief.
Kauser’s investigation found that MTFR could afford the expense — and that the fire-rescue department would benefit from the additional full-time positions in the long run.
The Township continued Kauser’s contract in May for an additional month, requesting a study and report on the current organizational practices of both the Township and MTFR and ways to improve those practices moving forward.
In late August, Kauser presented the results of his study in a special meeting of the trustees.
“The question that was posed by the fire chief to the trustees to change the classifications of three full-time members would create a change in the financial costs for those classifications,” Kauser said during the special meeting. “That first question raised more questions: What does the future look like? How does the board not only answer this question, but how do they think about retention? What does the staffing model look like in the future?”
Kauser’s final report included an analysis of current and proposed staffing models at MTFR and an overview of revenues and expenses in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
It also included a preliminary report on socio-cultural conditions within MTFR, which Kauser generated following conversations with current members of staff, including Powell, and former MTFR Fire Chief Colin Altman.
These conversations enabled Kauser, according to his report, to get an idea of the MTFR’s history and its years-long transition from a volunteer-only operation to an agency run by career professionals, as well as the challenges that have arisen during that transition. As he noted in his report:
“Organizational change is sometimes expressed or associated with the term ‘dysfunction.’ And dysfunction is almost always associated with unfavorable conditions. Dysfunction, alternatively, allows us to recognize and observe these indicators and the conditions they produce so they can be addressed. … They are not a reflection of the quality nor capability of the current or past firefighters, officers or chiefs. They are sometimes called ‘growing pains,’ and they can be fixed.”
Trustee Chris Mucher noted during the special meeting that one “growing pain” for the organization was the fact that Chief Powell served in his interim position for longer than expected due to a delayed evaluation from the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association that was supposed to have included a recommendation on filling the fire chief position after former Chief Altman retired.
“We did not get this recommendation, and they kept putting us off,” Mucher said. “The personnel who were here were in limbo, because they didn’t know if they had a fire chief or … if they were going to get somebody new.”
Powell’s first official day as interim Chief — Aug. 12, 2023 — was spent helping to put out a massive blaze at Hawthorne Place Apartments. He served as interim chief for more than nine months, until the trustees approved his promotion to fire chief in late May, 2024.
Mucher said the trustees promoted Powell in short order after Kauser made a “strong recommendation” that they do so.
“Making that decision really turned on the organization as it should have been,” Kauser said. “During that interim period, it’s my professional opinion that damage was occurring because that decision had not been finalized.”
Present at the Oct. 7 Miami Township Board of Trustees meeting were Chris Mucher, Marlian Moir and Don Hollister. (Video still)
Analysis of this situation, and others within MTFR and the Township, prodded Kauser to make a number of recommendations for the Township and MTFR moving forward, including:
• Establishing budgetary parameters;
• Providing performance expectations and feedback for the fire chief, as well as management and leadership opportunities and requirements and job-relevant mentoring;
• Implementing a sustainable wage schedule for MTFR employees;
• Reviewing and updating the Township handbook and MTFR policy manual;
• Requiring all fire officers to participate in supervisory training;
• Implementing internal conflict-resolution practices for all Township and MTFR employees and officials;
• Contracting human resources services and using a third-party payroll system;
• Creating an internal and external communications policy;
• Considering a third-party evaluation of the organizational performance and culture of MTFR.
Trustees agreed with Kauser’s recommendations — particularly the final one in that list. Considering the relationship Kauser had built with both the trustees and MTFR staff thus far, the trustees agreed at their Oct. 7 meeting that he would be an ideal candidate to provide a third-party evaluation — as did Chief Powell.
“The experience with him was exceptionally positive, and I’m thankful for the board for taking this next step,” Powell said, adding that the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association was in the process of connecting him with a suitable mentor in response to one of Kauser’s recommendations.
Looking ahead, Trustee Marilan Moir said the Township aims to engage Kauser to shepherd them as they begin to implement “everything he recommended, essentially.”
“We were a volunteer department, and now we are a professional department, but our systems haven’t kept up with our jobs,” she said.
Trustee Chair Don Hollister noted that Kauser will initially work primarily with Chief Powell and Fiscal Officer Jeanna GunderKline, and eventually with MTFR staff in general.
In other Township news:
• Trustees approved the hiring of Bryan Lucas to serve as part-time zoning administrator — a position previously known as “zoning inspector” — to replace Carrie Smith, who resigned this summer to take a full-time position in Clinton County.
Lucas currently serves as a member of Bath Township’s Zoning Commission, and Moir said he was “highly recommended” to her and her fellow trustees by other Bath Township leaders.
“He’s looking forward to it and appears to be a go-getter,” she said.
Contact: chuck@ysnews.com
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