City Council holds special workshop to discuss fire dept.

A one-hour-14-minute workshop was held by the Belleville City Council on Monday to discuss, again, its plan to hire an advisor to be embedded in the department to direct its activities.
The plan, announced at the Nov. 3 council meeting, was to hire an advisor for six months at a cost of $9,600 and then hire a fire chief next spring in the next budget year. After a long discussion, the decision was tabled until the Nov. 17 regular meeting.
Mayor pro-tem Kelly Bates had asked the fire department to come up with a plan. She listed things she wanted to know and Assistant fire chief Chris Zweng said the fire fighters would get together over the next two weeks to present a plan.
But, the fire fighters said they were surprised with the suddenly set Nov. 10 workshop because they hadn’t had time to get together to talk about a plan. There are ten fire fighters in the department, plus a trainer who doesn’t go on runs, down from the 15 they had before the duty crew was canceled when the city budget became a problem.
Councilwoman Julie Kissel, who didn’t offer her input on the matter at the Nov. 3 meeting, gave comments at the Nov. 10 workshop about the background of the issue. She said a year ago on Nov. 12, 2024, former fire chief Brian Loranger’s absence was discussed and there was some talk of retirement. He officially retired March 17, 2025.
Mayor Ken Voigt said that night’s meeting was just to discuss the issue and it would be on the Nov. 17 meeting agenda for possible action.
Police chief Kris Faull, who was also appointed interim public safety director to oversee the fire department while Loranger was retiring, told the council that councilwoman Kissel found an officer-selection procedure or policy in the records left by former city manager Diana Kollmeyer, but it is not in any computer records they can find.
Mayor Voigt said it was an officer selection “procedure” that was found.
Zweng said anything from that long ago is outdated, noting Kollmeyer left five years ago or so.
“We’re looking at best practices,” mayor Voigt said, adding he would like to talk about getting a duty crew back. He said he spoke with Zweng and [Lt.] Landskroner and told them he’s trying to find the money for a duty crew.
He said of all the budget cuts the city made, “That budget cut gave me the most heartburn.” He said they are looking at the advisor and promotion of a chief.
Councilman Jeremiah Beebe said he wanted to understand the workings of a duty crew and so there was a long, detailed discussion on what a duty crew is and how it functioned, before being eliminated eight or nine months ago.
Mayor Voigt then explained the city jumped at a duty crew in 2022 or 2023 during the budget process when the fire department came with a budget request. He said the fire department asked for three days of duty crew and the city asked for five days. He said it was a challenge to fill a day shift. He said in the past local business owners, like Loranger, were present in the city during the day and could answer calls.
Voigt said the way society evolved, and it was a nationwide challenge to get volunteer fire fighters to serve in the daytime. Calls went unanswered, he said.
“A councilman left the city and he said he had a call at his house and there was no response,” Voigt said. He said the council’s idea was to have a duty crew Monday through Friday.
Zweng said a duty crew allows the department to hire people who don’t live in the city. He pointed out one fire fighter lives on the EMU campus and another deep in Sumpter Township. People take their days off to work duty crew, he said. Once the duty crew was canceled, people got full-time jobs instead.
Chief Faull had prepared a list of 30 fire runs dispatched Oct. 1 through Nov. 10 that weren’t answered by the fire department and were answered by police or Van Buren Fire Department mutual aid.
The council began figuring out which ones would have been during duty crew hours and which ones weren’t. Zweng mentioned that nobody other than the council members had a copy of that report and Voigt asked interim city manager Steve Jones to make copies for the fire fighters in the audience and the Independent.
Zweng said if they were bringing duty crews back they could look at changing the duty crew hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., which they had determined to be the highest call hours.
Kissel cut into the discussion saying they shouldn’t be talking about that now.
Zweng said the fire department plans to ask for full-time pay for a crew.
Faull said she compiled the list of calls just to show the council how much the duty crew is needed.
The council was directed to the report prepared by the advisors and went over some of the comments. The final option on the report was merging with Van Buren Township Fire Department.
“Personally, I’m not in favor of that at this time,” Voigt said.
Kissel, speaking in support of an advisor, said she’s been cleaning the offices in city hall for the last two years and she’s seen people in their islands. Once they had a public safety director, they had a different way of working together. She said there was a job posting in September. She said an advisor is a better step for going forward.
Faull said, “We have an amazing fire crew behind us. I’ve been trying to get them not to be an island. I ask them to come by and say hi. They’re not the red-headed stepchildren of the city.”
“I was part of this for five years,” Zweng said. He said former fire chief Darwin Loyer told fire fighters not to tell the city anything and the city doesn’t need to know. He said when police chief Dave Robinson took over, the door was creaking open and the feelings have definitely changed.
Mayor Voigt said the previous city manager separated from the city. “He decided to resign.” Voigt said they had problems with the budget. He said tax revenue goes into one account, state money another, fund balance and money set aside for a municipal facility in another. He said the budget presented to the council in June 2024 was “wildly out of whack.” He said normally the city manager would correct that, “but when the city manager made the problem, we had to make cuts and cut from virtually every department.”
Voigt said, “Not misspent, necessarily, but the amount of expenditures was not sustainable and the city would be bankrupt in a few years.”
Councilman Randy Priest said they should have a full-time chief, not part-time. He said the budget outlook might be a little more positive next year.
Kissel said the posting Faull came up with for fire chief was based on Van Buren Township wording.
Voigt said the chief’s job is $15,000 now, but they could have a chief, still part time, with more hours and higher salary.
“We were functioning fine,” Zweng said.
Bates said the fire fighters should take the information they got that evening as a gift that can be used to help put their report together. She said she would like to see a full list of runs. She said they need guidelines for duty crews. She also wants the names of fire fighters and their certifications. Also, what do other communities comparable in size do to handle these issues? Also, how about a wish list for a public safety millage?
Zweng asked her to email her request to him. He said they were originally asked to comment on an advisor and this is much more. They will have to find all the data and process it in a week to focus on the report.
Bates said fire fighters were asked to come up with a list of what they want.
Beebe noted there are more calls for medical than for fire and Voigt said 98% of the runs are medical.
Fire fighter Ray Martin said November through January are the flu months and the department will get those runs. Martin said when people call 911, fire fighters don’t know if a car is burning, a house is burning, or something else. They have no crystal ball.
“That report didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know,” Martin said, adding morale is down because of everything that’s going on. “We need to have a leader and keep those that are already here,” he said.
Kissel said the report said they could do nothing and stay with the status quo, hire someone, or use who you have.
“I have a better idea of what the challenges are,” Beebe said. He said if you put the duty crew back in, the city would be in the same spot it is now.
Voigt said that evening’s workshop was just to have a conversation. He said sometimes there is friction because things aren’t discussed.