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Ely council endorses Fire Chief Stork’s performance and orders salary-scale review
Summary
Council unanimously endorsed Fire Chief Pat Stork’s performance, praised staffing and training gains and directed a review of the city’s salary scale for public safety personnel so any raise can be determined at a subsequent meeting. Councilmembers also discussed billing other jurisdictions for out-of-city responses.
The Ely City Council on Aug. 8 endorsed Fire Chief Pat Stork’s job performance and directed a review of the department salary scale to determine any raise for the chief.
Chief Stork told the council the department is now fully staffed, training participation has improved, and "so far this year we've run on a little over eight hundred calls." He credited volunteers and partner agencies and reported that the department’s ISO rating improved to a 4. Stork and councilmembers also described recent equipment acquisitions and ongoing maintenance needs.
Council discussion focused on the budgetary impact of responses outside city boundaries. Councilman Jim Alworth urged the city to explore contract billing so Ely can recover wages when crews respond to county incidents, saying in the meeting that the city is "bleeding ourselves dry" paying personnel costs for calls outside municipal limits. Mayor Nathan Robertson and other members supported revisiting how mutual-aid and out-of-city responses are funded.
The council moved, seconded and unanimously "endorsed for a job well done" the chief’s evaluation and directed staff to return with a reviewed salary scale; a specific raise was deferred pending that review. Council members said they want a compensation structure that recognizes the department’s training and call volume and reduces risk to the city’s operating budget.
Next steps: staff will present proposed salary-scale adjustments at a future meeting for council consideration.
