South Bend Fire Department opts for standard state merit board 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Fire Department (SBFD) proposed an ordinance to the South Bend Common Council to establish a merit system.

The council had its first reading on the merit system at Monday evening’s meeting. SBFD chose to go with the standard state version of the merit board, which will become effective Jan. 1.

This wasn’t the first merit board to be discussed recently. In Nov., the council passed a ‘South Bend’ version of the merit board for the police department 6-3.

This comes after a state law passed on May 4th that requires any police or fire department to create their own merit board if they have at least 12 staff members that serve at least 20,000 people.

Meaning either way, a merit board was coming to both South Bend departments. However, they could choose to create their own format of the board, or they could allow the standard state version to be automatically enacted on Jan. 1.

Attorney for the common council, Bob Palmer, explained the reason the police department chose to create their own version, while SBFD went with the state version, was because the police department already has an existing system in place through the Board of Public Safety, while SBFD is starting from scratch.

“The understanding of most people is that the statutes were written with the fire departments in mind and were more beneficial to the way fire departments operate, and then the state legislature decided to include the police department in the statue too,” said Palmer.

He went on to explain that even though the fire department is choosing to go with the state version now, they can re-evaluate later down the line.

“After a year, they can introduce a new ordinance, or try to change from the state mandated procedure, to passing their own, but for at least one year it’s set in stone,” said Palmer.

The second and third reading of the fire department’s merit board will be done by the Board of Public Safety on Jan. 13.