It is really difficult to have a good time when you are paranoid. While almost anything you do can be scary, paranoia can be debilitating and painful.
So what do you have to be paranoid about? Perhaps the answer can be found in a document that is increasing in size almost daily: the list of state and federal mandates being imposed on fire agencies. Various legislatures, in their infinite wisdom, have seen fit to place more and more requirements on the fire service. There are sufficient grounds for you to be paranoid. The simple fact is, you can be found guilty of doing something wrong or you can be found guilty of not doing something that you should have done. The consequences can be severe in either case.
It is interesting to note that some of these regulatory mandates came into existence because of some catastrophic event. Others came into existence because well-intentioned lawmakers hoped to prevent a catastrophic event. The problem is that such mandates often are weakly enforced. Another problem is that it often is difficult to discern regulations that truly are mandatory from those that are voluntary.
For example, I have seen documents that say that Insurance Services Office training is mandatory. That simply is not true — ISO training is a recommendation that certain practices be incorporated so a department can get the maximum credit when it undergoes a fire suppression rating review. There is nothing mandatory about them at all. However, the consequence of failing to adhere to ISO record-keeping requirements is that your department won’t get as many points on its next grading visit as it might have otherwise.
On the other hand, OSHA regulations have some teeth. If you don’t think that there are consequences for failing to adhere to these regulations, then experience a firefighter fatality or even a serious injury and watch what happens when the OSHA investigating team arrives on your doorstep. They will have a lot of questions. You had better hope that you have the answers.
Regulatory compliance depends on basic business management practices. Record-keeping is the most important of these. Well-maintained records speak very loudly in the investigative process. Conversely, a lack of accurate records has a resounding effect that metaphorically sounds like shattering glass.
The best way to begin an effective record-keeping process is to identify all of the mandatory items to which your department must comply on the local, state and federal levels. Perhaps your state already has developed one of these lists. If not, then it would be a good project for the local or regional fire chiefs association to accomplish. The key is to understand what is mandatory and what is not. Once the list is complete, the next step is to determine how compliance will be achieved and demonstrated.
While we spend a lot of time talking about risk management in the community, managing the risk of running a fire department from a liability perspective is an exercise that cannot be underestimated. Simply stated, the more things for which you are going to be held accountable and the fewer of those that you actually do increases your liability by orders of magnitude. So, it is vital that once regulatory mandates have been identified — particularly those that were established by statute — the task of meeting them becomes part of the objective-setting process.
I doubt that there is a single firefighting agency in the United States that is in 100% compliance with all of the well-intended laws and regulations that have been placed on the books. However, the danger zone is primarily in those agencies that have no clear-cut understanding of what they are supposed to be doing. The safe zone begins to be developed by those organizations that plan for long-term and incremental compliance, rather than ignoring their obligations.
In the final analysis, the way that most of these mandates are brought to the forefront is through some form of lawsuit. When you are being sued for doing something — or not doing something — it is too late to say that you’re sorry. Your best defense is to have in place a matrix that clearly indicates that you recognize what you are responsible for and that you have made incremental efforts to obtain the highest level of compliance, in keeping with your responsibilities and resources.
Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the state of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System.
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
