WC Iowa News

The Stuart City Council recently discussed a staffing change and how it has gone so far. 

In January, the council heard a request from Rescue Unit Director Sean Bovinett. He presented an annual review and report of their operations, which have been increasing in calls and transfer cases every year.

He then made his request to the council asking for an assistant director position to be made in his department. He supplied them with a candidate, who currently worked for them part time, though his hours were often closer to full time, and the proposed current job description. Bovinett did not have a job description for himself, saying that he had never known one to exist, and said he would create one and bring it back to the council. 

The Stuart City Council recently discussed a staffing change with the Rescue Unit. | Jonnica Hill/Unsplash

"The advice was, amend chain of command, that’s what we need to have done," Mayor Dick Cook said. "We had a special meeting, we discussed the meetings, we shook hands, and that should have been the end of this conversation. I don’t know why in the world, if somebody is coming to council about people, something is not right. We got two guys directing the ambulances, they know what’s going on. They were supposed to come with any problems to Ash and I. I don’t know what’s going on here, this should be the end of the conversation after spending $10,000 [on legal advice]."

The council members questioned if the creation of this new position might cause them issues in the future, however they were reassured by both police and fire already having strict command structure roles. The council did opt in favor of approving the creation of this position with a six month trial period after Bovinett explained that he had struggles doing all of the managerial work on top of other responsibilities and regularly encountering the rest of the staff. 

The new hire was to take over the scheduling and training aspects, as well as learn the ropes in case of emergency or if something happened to Bovinett, or if he went on vacation or retired.

At its March 13th meeting, council member Kristina Renslow brought it back for review because she felt they were still having issues with chain of command and complaints from employees. Council members weighed in, saying that they didn’t feel it was the fault of the new position but they were unhappy to still be having issues with unhappy employees and chain of command. 

Some said there were still some decisions being made about scheduling for a certain employee, which was supposed to have been settled in a previous meeting. The mayor reminded everyone that all employees should feel comfortable making complaints or comments, and that they did not want to hear any more stories from this issue. Shawn Bovinett said they were continuing to work through the kinks, and Luke had not yet taken over full responsibilities because it was only two months in and he was still learning.