Raisin Township drafts public safety director job description

At a Raisin Township special meeting and workshop on Thursday, Nov. 20, the Raisin Township Board of Trustees moved one step closer to a finalized job description for a public safety director. Trustee Dale Mitchell was the only trustee absent.The board compiled the job description previously used for former Public Safety Director Scott Lambka and one provided by Tom Hawkins from Pittsfield Township, creating a hybrid description of the two.The board then tasked trustee and Township Clerk Betty Holdridge to finalize the draft description at which point the board would reconvene to approve it. The position is currently posted without a description with an application deadline date of December 1. “Which I think that’s a little tight,” said Raisin Township Supervisor Jay Cavanaugh. “I just honestly think that if we go into the beginning of the year without a director of public safety, I really think we’re going to be just fine. Let’s do this right. Let’s take our time.” “Well, I think [Assistant Police Chief] Kevin [Grayer], [Assistant Fire Chief] Jake [Warner] and [Assistant Fire Chief] Eddie [Mathis] will have things squared away at the first of the year,” said Holdridge. “I’m not worried about it,” responded Cavanaugh. “ Are you worried about it Jake [Warner]?”“My only concern is that the board approved to have Scott [Lambka] stay on as somebody to help the new person out,” Warner said. “At the first of the year he’s done.”Betty said that Lambka has been flexible in working with the township and that he may be willing to come back after the first of the year to assist. A Thursday call to Lambka’s last-known phone number went unreturned.“We’re tight, but we can do it,” said trustee Larry Crittenden. “And if they want the job, they will find time to be here.”“But sometimes you have to give it time to get the job out there,” Cavanaugh said, suggesting the deadline be moved to December 15 or 31 at the discretion of Holdridge and Raisin Township Supt. Jim Palmer. “I really think that we got to get rid of this imaginary doom and gloom on December 31 that we’re going to come apart. We’re not. We’ve got qualified people who know what they are doing.”Trustee Debra Brousseau said that whomever the township hires, that person should know what he or she is doing and shouldn’t need to learn the job. “There’s nothing worse than when you feel pressured to do something,” Cavanaugh added. “The first thing you do on the flight deck is look at your timeframe. If you have time, you take your time. And I think we have time. So, let’s do this right.”Cavanaugh added that he doesn’t see “anybody jumping on the table screaming” in regards to extending the application deadline date.“The thing is, personally, with the time they [the board of trustees] have, they will be behind the power curve,” said Grayer in a phone interview on Thursday, Nov. 20. He was not present at the Thursday, Nov. 20, meeting. “They’re going to need somebody to transfer that [the responsibilities of the public safety director] to. I think reality is going to set in.“Like I’ve said before, I don’t want to go from neutral to nitro. They made a hasty decision. Nobody wanted to take charge and get it done.”Grayer has been adamant that the board has been running out of time to fill the public safety director position and that after January 1 there needs to be someone in that position to be the contact person at the township to the state in regards to reports that are due at the end of the year.At the Monday, Nov. 10, regular board meeting, Grayer asked the board, “Come January, who is going to take the ball and run with it?”At the same meeting Cavanaugh said, “We are now, again, behind on getting something done, which is to get the feelers out there for who wants this position. I think the longer we wait, we’re going to put a crush on ourselves. Because as of right now, I don’t think it’s going to happen January 1. It’s not fair to applicants to push them like this. So, we need to get this moving. We’ve already burned up some valuable time.”On August 26, Lambka submitted his letter of resignation to the township. Currently, Lambka is the acting Public Safety Director. On September 11, the board voted to retain Lambka and then on September 17 voted for him to fill the director role in the interim until the end of the year.It wasn’t until a special meeting on October 27 that the board voted to move forward with keeping a public safety department and seeking a director replacement. “We have been derelict, there’s no question about it,” said Crittenden then. “We have let it slide and now its right in our face.”At the September 11 meeting, the trustees said they should get together with the assistant chiefs to discuss the best way to move the township forward. Grayer said that discussion never took place. “I haven’t talked to anybody,” said Grayer at the October 27 meeting in regards to the board talking to current personnel about how they would like to proceed. “What is the best for the township? I believe that you have skilled people right now in place that can help the residents of Raisin Township. But give us direction with what you want and let’s go with it; not just sitting there and talking about it month after month after month.” Crittenden asked Grayer at the November 10 meeting if he would be interested in the public safety director position if he was giving time to complete the firefighter training. He declined saying, “At this point, I have no interest in it.”