Councilman Brent Centers was selected as vice mayor for 2018. Centers, who is in his first term on council, is the son of Councilman Denny Centers.
Returning to council after a two-year hiatus is Matt Wilcher. Wilcher has previously served four years on council but was defeated for re-election in 2015.
Wilcher, Denny Centers and Michael Aldridge were sworn-in as council members by newly elected Franklin Municipal Judge Ron Ruppert during Wednesday’s meeting.
Council also approved various standing committee assignments as well as made a number of other board and commission appointments at the meeting.
In addition to the various reorganization appointments, council also approved resolutions amending its organization listings and pay rates for 2018 and approved a position description for a part-time income tax clerk in the income tax division.
Fire Chief Jonathan Westendorf noted the fifth anniversary of the combined Franklin Fire & EMS Division when the city expanded its services to include emergency medical services. He also announced that the city has improved its ISO Public Protection Classification to Class 3 following an analysis of the city’s structural fire suppression delivery systems.
Westendorf said the classification plays an important role in the underwriting process at insurance companies nationwide. He said it’s also used as part of the decision process of underwriters when determining what policies to write, coverages to offer and rates to charge customers for personal, commercial or industrial property insurance. He said insurance companies will automatically notify their subscribers of the classification change and how it will affect their rates.
In Ohio, 226 fire departments are at Class 2. The state has more than 2,400 fire departments.
“There are only 74 fire departments in Ohio that are ranked Class 2 and Class 1 and we’re 3.11 points away from Class 2,” he said.
Westendorf said the city was a Class 6 in 2002 and went to Class 4 after adding its full-time EMS component, which he said was a major contributing factor to the higher rating.
“We are very pleased to see tangible results from our employees’ efforts over the years, which includes reduced fire loss and increased financial savings for many of our residential citizens and commercial partners,” Westendorf said.
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