Red River council narrows personnel on‑call wording after residents warn 60‑minute window is unsafe

The Red River Town Council on Monday revised the town’s personnel policy for on‑call pay and response expectations after a heated public hearing in which residents and some council members said allowing department heads to set a maximum of up to 60 minutes would be unsafe.

Councilors voted to allow future personnel changes to be made by resolution rather than by ordinance, to standardize on‑call pay across departments on a 1:3 ratio and to remove prescriptive 30–60 minute language from the policy text. Instead, the council directed department heads to establish "reasonable maximum response times" for their units and to report those times to the council at a future meeting.

During public comment and council discussion, multiple speakers pushed back on the 30–60 minute window. One council member said, "60 minutes is too long for emergency response," and a lodge owner told the council she had previously relied on quick local responses to avert a serious incident. Department leaders and marshals argued staffing shortages and geographic realities (staff living outside town and winter road conditions) require flexibility in some cases and that supervisors need tools to discipline staff who fail to meet a declared maximum.

The council’s compromise removes the mandatory 30–60 minute maximum wording and preserves managerial authority to set department‑appropriate times; the council also asked for an explicit report to be returned with the times set by each department so the public can review them. The motion carried on a roll call vote.

Council members and staff agreed that any department that sets a longer maximum should document reasons (geography, safety, staffing) and that the public will be notified when department heads set or change response time expectations.

Next steps: Department heads will submit proposed reasonable maximum response times and the town will schedule a follow‑up report to the council.