Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Joel Shilling speaks to the Warsaw Common Council Monday night about why they should approve a resolution declining a merit commission for the fire department. Sitting behind him is Warsaw Human Resource Director Denny Harlan. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — In order to give Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory firefighters more time to have their questions answered about a merit system, the Warsaw Common Council Monday, Aug. 5, tabled a resolution that would have rejected it.

Denny Harlan, the city’s human resource director, explained that the Indiana legislature passed House Enrolled Act 1016, which was signed into law on May 4, 2023. The legislation changes the language in the Indiana code to where if the city doesn’t take any action by Dec. 31, 2024, then the fire territory will be under a merit commission instead of the public safety board that it currently operates under.

The new rules state that any department that has at least 12 full-time members and serves an area with a population of more than 20,000 citizens automatically has the merit commission unless the council passes a resolution to reject it and a majority of the fire department members vote to reject it.

The legislation only affects the fire department and not the police department because the fire territory is over 20,000 citizens, but the city’s population is below that.

WWFT currently has 38 sworn firefighters and serves a population of over 20,000, Harlan said. The territory was formed in 2010 and has been overseen by the Board of Public Works and Safety since then.

Harlan said meetings were held with all the members of the fire department on July 2-3, where the differences between a merit board and a safety board were discussed. They also gave the firefighters resources and encouraged them to do their own research to make an informed decision.

“Everyone was briefed on the chief’s stance and they were also told this resolution would be forthcoming,” Harlan said.

Explaining how the law works, he said if the council accepts the resolution rejecting the formation of a merit commission, “not before three weeks but within 60 days, the fire department will also have a vote from their members via secret ballot.” If the firefighters vote to have a merit commission, then there will still be a merit commission regardless of how the city council votes.
If the council decides they want a merit commission and doesn’t approve the resolution rejecting it, then there will be a merit commission and the firefighters don’t get to vote on it.

“Both parties have to agree to reject the formation of the merit commission. Essentially, what this law has done is kind of flip this on its head. Before we would vote to have a merit commission, and if we didn’t then we would stick with what we had. Now, they turned it upside down and we have to vote to not have a merit commission and keep it with the board of safety, if that’s the route we wish to go,” Harlan said.

On the differences between the merit and safety boards, he said a safety board has three members; follows statutory procedures concerning hiring, promotions and discipline; allows the chief to have the flexibility of running the hiring process; promotions are based on the recommendation of the chief; and the board oversees disciplinary actions in excess of 40 hours. The chief has the authority to suspend a firefighter without pay for up to 40 hours.

A merit commission has five members, with two appointed by the mayor, one by the city council and two by the fire department. Each of the two appointed by the mayor and by the fire department can’t be of the same political party. The merit commission must adopt regulations governing hiring, promotions and disciplinary procedures. They’re required to maintain a hiring list at all times, and the list is good for two years. All promotions must be from next to lower rank, and members must have held that rank for a period determined by the commission and its rules. They also oversee disciplinary actions in excess of 40 hours.

He reiterated that if the council approves the resolution rejecting the merit commission, then between three weeks to 60 days after their vote, a vote will be scheduled for all full-time members of the department to cast their secret ballot on whether or not to go to the merit commission.

If it’s decided to move forward with the merit commission, Harlan said the WWFT will be under the control of a merit commission beginning Jan. 1, 2025. All appointments must be done by March 1, 2025. The merit commission must then adopt rules governing meetings by March 31, 2025. Within 90 days of appointment, the commission shall adopt rules governing the selection and appointment of members, promotions and demotions and disciplinary actions.

Harlan said the rule books he’s seen are 30-40 pages or more, and many of the larger cities like Fort Wayne and Carmel have the merit commissions. Before the rules are adopted, a public hearing must be held to consider adoption of the rules, and 10 days before the hearing three copies of the rules must be provided to the chief, city and territory administrative staff for public inspection.

“So, in summary, after thoroughly researching the merit system, and after discussions with the chief, it is our opinion that the merit system would not be in the best interest of our department or our firefighters. We feel that the system would slow down the progress that Chief (Joel) Shilling has made to this point regarding the morale and culture of the department, and Chief Shilling has made it clear to me that he does not want a merit system, and I fully support our chief,” Harlan stated.

Councilwoman Diane Quance asked if Wayne Township would have no representation on the merit system. Harlan said no because the city is the supporting unit.

Chief Shilling told the council he was in favor of the resolution rejecting the merit system’s establishment.

“Presently, we utilize the board of works and I feel that there’s been no issues and it works properly and well for the fire department and the members of the fire territory,” he said. “The merit system can work for other fire departments with larger staffing numbers, however, with the 36 personnel that we have serving (WWFT), I believe that the implementation of the merit system is not in the best interest of our firefighters or the fire territory.”

Councilman Josh Finch asked if once the council rejects it, was the issue done? Harlan said no, it can be revisited once every year, but the city doesn’t have to revisit it. If the city does adopt the merit commission, then it has to be brought back up in five years and reauthorize it at that time if they want.

Council President Jack Wilhite said there seemed to be a lot of hoops to jump in order to get the merit commission into place if they wanted it.

“It’s going to take some work if we decide to have a merit commission. My biggest fear is that by the time we adopt it, we appoint the commission, they write the rule book, we’re going to be in third quarter of next year before we can even start a hiring process, which is going to put us behind the 8 Ball,” Harlan said.

Finch said the merit board isn’t going to know who the best person for a promotion is, but the chief will because he’s there.
Wilhite said that with members of the merit board having to be from separate political parties, that would make it more political.
“I think they tried to take politics out of this by putting more politics into it,” Harlan said.

After Quance asked what kind of education did the firefighters receive on the merit and safety systems, Harlan repeated he spoke to them on July 2-3, but hasn’t heard from anyone since then.

Firefighter Drew Shilling, who is also the vice president of Warsaw Professional Fire Fighters Union Local 5461, asked the city council to delay their vote on the resolution by at least two weeks.

“In an effort to get more education on it as we were urged to, we had set up a presentation by the Professional Fire Fighters Union of Indiana, and because there are lots of people trying to get information, as soon as we could get it done was Oct. 14-15, and we did it on two different days so guys could attend it off duty. That will be for union members and non-union members. We are going to extend invitations to board members, council members so everybody can get more education,” he said.

The problem with Oct. 14-15, he said, was that if the council voted on the resolution Monday night, the 60-day window would end before Oct. 14.

Drew said he’s gone through and highlighted a bunch of the code, and he still has questions. Talking to other firefighters, he said there’s guys on both sides of the decision. Some still have misconceptions about it and that’s why they’re still trying to get more information about it.

Regarding a previous email Drew sent to the council and Mayor Jeff Grose requesting the delay on the resolution, Grose asked Drew if he was speaking on his own behalf or on behalf of the union regarding the delay. Drew said union President Max Kinsey read the letter in the email and approved it.

There was discussion about delaying the council’s vote on the resolution until Aug. 19 so the firefighters would have until Oct. 19 to vote on whether or not to go to a merit system. Finch suggested the council could table it until Sept. 3 so everyone could have a little more time to look into the issue further and still not handcuff the merit board in getting everything done should it go that way.

Finch said he personally was in favor of the resolution against the merit board’s establishment, but wanted to make sure everyone had the time they needed. Quance said she was leaning that way, too.

Councilman Mike Klondaris said he didn’t see why the council needed to wait to vote on the resolution, and Councilman Jerry Frush agreed with him. Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said she was more inclined to wait.

Harlan said the merit system has been a topic of discussion for months, and he wasn’t sure how much more information there was to get.

Finch eventually made a motion to table the resolution to Sept. 3, Klondaris seconded it and the motion passed 7-0