South Iowa News

The Stuart City Council is reviewing the progress of a recent staffing change for the city's rescue unit.

In January, the City Council heard a request from rescue unit director Sean Bovinett, who presented an annual review and report of the unit's operations, which are seeing an increase in calls and transfer cases every year. Bovinett had requested for an assistant director position to be opened in the department and presented a candidate that's already working for the unit part time. Since the position is new, Bovinett said he would create a job description and bring it back to the council. 

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 officials, who already have strict command structure roles. The council opted in favor of approving the creation of this position with a six month trial period after hearing Bovinett explain the struggles of handling all the managerial work himself on top of his other responsibilities. The new candidate was to take over scheduling and training duties, as well as learn the ropes in case of an emergency, or if Bovinett went on vacation or retired.

During the March 13 meeting, council member Kristina Renslow brought the item back for review because she felt they were still having issues with chain of command and complaints from employees. Other 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. 

Some members said there were still scheduling decisions being made for a certain employee, which was supposed to have been settled during a previous meeting. Stuart Mayor Dick Cook reminded everyone that all employees should feel comfortable making complaints or comments, and that they didn't want to hear any more stories from this issue. 

"The advice was, amend chain of command, that’s what we need to have done. We had a special meeting, we discussed the meetings, we shook hands, and that should have been the end of this conversation," Cook said at the meeting. "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]."

Bovinett said they were continuing to work out the kinks, and that two months in, the new hire was still learning the ropes and wasn't ready to take over full responsibilities.