For many, a new year means new resolutions — lose that extra 20 pounds or break a bad habit. But should fire-department leaders make agency-related resolutions, as well? Specifically, should they resolve to finally initiate an often-postponed leadership or management practice: finding a way to better serve your community through a cooperative effort with another fire department?
There are few departments that haven't felt the effects of downsized 2010 budgets. Mayors, city managers, township administrators and elected officials are looking to cut expenses, and fire/EMS is one of their favorite go-to places. To some, there appears to be a push toward consolidation of services as a quick means of cutting expenses. There is a common misconception that all consolidations will lead to an immediate savings and/or delivery of better service. Proactive chiefs not only should initiate frank, open discussions with their leaders on this topic, but they also should offer alternatives that would maintain or increase service levels while finding ways to economize ahead of forced reductions or further budget cuts.
This becomes an issue of collaboration versus consolidation. Let's define each of the terms so we can distinguish their meaning and the process involved to attain them.
Consolidation: The act of uniting into one system or whole; e.g., combining five separate agencies into a single department.
Collaboration: The act of working together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.
First, let's discuss consolidation. There have been many successful fire service consolidations. Tualatin Valley, Ore., Los Angeles County, and Metro Dade, Fla., are several long-term successes that come to mind. Because of their success, administrators believe they always will be successful with a consolidation. However, I can think of several consolidations in my state that have had very rocky times, some ending in dissolution and disarray.
The Deerfield-Mason Joint Fire District is a prime example of such dissolution. This consolidation began in the early 1990s and brought together departments from two fast-growing regions in Warren County, Ohio: Deerfield Township and the city of Mason. As a department, it was well-led and efficient, and provided fire and advanced life support to more than 50,000 residents. The downfall of this consolidation came when the political entities, the township and the city couldn't agree on such issues as land development and commercial acquisitions. A series of commercial property annexations, including properties of two of the largest employers in the township, led to a breakdown of the trust needed to continue support for this joint venture at the seat of each government. As the state fire marshal, I was asked to help reach an equitable dissolution of this fire district, including the division of the resources and apparatus to the city and township. This was certainly a very painful process for each department, and one that I wouldn't want to experience again.
The potential to save operating costs alone without bettering service levels or response time should not be the sole reason to undertake a consolidation. Consolidation then is a process that requires an extensive and not-inexpensive study conducted by experienced consultants who can look objectively at the whole picture: leadership, personnel, services, apparatus, and the political agenda of the government entities involved.
This process needs the support and cooperation of all stakeholders, including each chief, the union, firefighters' association, politicians and citizens, otherwise critical viewpoints and potential pitfalls may be missed, glossed over or ignored. These pitfalls may be harder to overcome after the fact than during the study.
The study needs to assess both the strengths and weaknesses of every department. The consolidation must build on the strengths of each individual department, as well as evaluate the compatibility of personnel, salaries, equipment, training, facilities and procedures. A consolidation of two or more weak, inefficient or economically challenged departments will only lead to a new weaker consolidated department. Funding methods, service level, response time and the determination of representation on the district's governing board — by population or percentage of contribution to the funding mechanism — are areas that require ample time and good-faith negotiations. Many potential consolidations fail to successfully navigate these issues.
A request for quotations should be one of the first steps to a successful consolidation study. The RFQ should provide a list of the consultants and their fees, experience, qualifications and satisfied clients' contact information. Avoid discussing the amount of money set aside for the study. In this age of grants, the amount of the grant awarded to study a possible consolidation may be known, but this may not cover the total cost of an in-depth analysis. Some consultants may pare down their process to fit the available funding. Others may have a reputation of coming to the conclusion that appears to be expedient to the group paying their bill.
At its best, consolidation still brings with it some fear of the unknown. The department's officers, firefighters and clerical staff may fear negative impact. A chief finding himself in a potential consolidation needs to get ahead of this fear and realistically look after his employees. The best possible solution is to keep them informed of the unification progress and respond to any questions with frank, honest answers. If the troops see the chief falter — or worse, bail — there will be direct repercussions in the efficiency and performance of the department.
Collaboration, on the other hand, can be fire chief-driven and may or may not cost a cent, but it may have the potential to provide better service or lower operating costs. Examples of collaboration include joint purchasing, combined PSAP and dispatch, automatic-aid agreements, and the joint use of technically trained personnel such as fire inspectors, instructors, public educators, and regional hazmat or technical-rescue teams. Each of these allows for the independence of the local fire department, but also provides an economy of scale and avoids duplication of equipment or services. Collaboration may entail the joint use of facilities such as fire stations, training towers or recruit academies. It is much less time consuming to implement and may or may not lead to the future study of consolidation.
Collaboration also can be initiated more easily by progressive fire chiefs who are discussing pressing needs with one another and then taking action to enter into a joint agreement or memorandum of understanding. The costs and responsibilities of each entity should be taken to their respective public officials for any formal agreement or approval that may be needed.
Collaboration can take many forms. For more than 35 years, my department has been providing advanced life support to communities adjacent to our city. For any ALS protocol emergency, the county communications center dispatches the adjoining jurisdiction's EMT transport unit and our ALS chase vehicle. If the run requires ALS, the paramedics transfer the needed ALS equipment and provide this service within the BLS transport. The arrangement for this service has varied over the years. At one time, there was a charge per run to our neighboring jurisdiction based on the level of service and supplies used. Over the years, this has now evolved into a flat monthly fee for our ALS service. In this way, the neighboring communities can better plan their expenses and feel free to call on our medics whenever they feel they are needed without worrying about the additional expense.
Countywide, there is a growing trend to use automatic aid from several departments on structure fire responses to meet the staffing requirements for such events, especially on large assignments or target locations. Depending on the need, we offer one of our engines, 109-foot aerial, rescue-with-air-cascade, or one of our medic units on — large box assignments — in seven nearby communities. In return, depending on our needs, we call upon these communities to assist with our target locations. Once again, this is accomplished by the communications center simultaneously dispatching multiple stations for the pre-assigned units.
By agreement, we use several outside fire-training facilities offered by other departments. These are state-of-the-art sites offering excellent training in burn buildings or flashover simulators, for the cost of a proctor and the materials used during the training scenarios. We are in the discussion stage on several other collaborations, including tapping into the programs provided by one of the best public educators in the state, and offering the expertise of our inspection program, including plan reviews for some of our neighbors.
Most citizens take pride in their fire departments, but when there is an emergency, what they really want is for a large red truck to appear. They just want trained, competent, well-equipped firefighters and medics to arrive quickly and make the situation better.
The best new year's resolution may be for you to be the progressive fire chief your people and your community deserve, who is constantly looking for ways to use the strength of your department to help your neighbors, and use their strengths to compliment your own. We all will face a time when either consolidation or collaboration will be discussed with or without our input. It is our job to prepare our department to be ready to assume the leadership role in these discussions, because we have demonstrated our ability to be proactive in improving our service and response to the citizens we serve.
Chief Robert R. Rielage, CFO, EFO, MIFireE, is the chief of Wyoming (Ohio) Fire-EMS, a 78-member combination fire department bordering Cincinnati. He previously served as the fire marshal of the state of Ohio. A graduate of the Kennedy School's Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University, Rielage holds a master's degree in public administration from Norwich University and is the immediate past-president of the Institution of Fire Engineers-USA Branch. He is a member of the FIRE CHIEF Editorial Advisory Board.
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