Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Management & Administration
Diversity Should Be Management’s Priority, Not Just Labor’s, IAFF Rep Says (with Related Video)
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
Pat Morrison said there’s something wrong if fire departments lack diversity and fail to represent the community they serve. ...
Treat the Soil to Grow Diversity in the Fire Service
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
When Rosemary Roberts Cloud was assigned to her first station, she realized the Atlanta Fire Department had picked “new flowers but they hadn’t treated the soil to make sure they could flourish.”...
Relay Your Message and Pass the Baton
By Ronny J. Coleman
In order to develop future chiefs, candidates have to be running with us. This is the best case I have ever made for delegation of authority. If you truly are interested in succession planning, one of the things that you should be encouraging is a more transparent insight into the fire chief’s job....
Volunteer Incentive Act Not Dead Yet
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
S.933 would extend the exemption on taxation of property-tax benefits for volunteer emergency responders and increase the value of other benefits that volunteers can receive without having to report or pay income tax from $360 per year to $600 per year....
Volunteer Recruitment, Retention Act Could Change Tax Law for Volunteer Fire Departments
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
The Volunteer Emergency Services Recruitment and Retention Act would make it easier for communities to provide such financial incentives to emergency- service volunteers and would change the way the tax law is written for government retirement programs....
IAFC Supports Volunteer Firefighters Fairness Act, NVFC Rejects It
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
The IAFC released a statement supporting H.R. 2630, which would clarify the IRS’s treatment of volunteer firefighters and let fire departments issue 1099 forms to their volunteer firefighters instead of W-2s. The IAFC referenced the Fair Labor Standards Act, where a volunteer firefighter can receive up to 20% of the prevailing wage in his or her area before being considered an employee of a fire department....
Departments Short on Dough Need to be Big on Ideas
By Robert Rielage
Most of the fire service has had difficulties just making it through 2011. So what can we, as fire chiefs, do to offer leadership in this time of uncertainty?...
They're Coming to Get You
By Ronny J. Coleman
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....
Strive to be a Purple Cow
By Ronny J. Coleman
Instead of worrying about staffing formulas, apparatus specification and program costs, you need to focus on gross income, per-capita expenditures and equity allocations. The days of writing next year's budgets by merely increasing every number according to the Consumer Price Index is over....
Leading When the Seas are at Their Roughest
By Al Gillespie
When times are tough, the urge to "hunker down" and just hope that you and your organization can survive is strong. But it's times like these when it is more important than ever to look toward the horizon and plan for the future....
Don't Let the Future Happen to You — Plan for it
By Ronny J. Coleman
For departments that plan well, planning is an organic part of the organization. Those departments that don't plan well generally respond only to external influences and seem to bounce aimlessly from crisis to crisis....
The Choreography of Conflict Resolution
By Ronny J. Coleman
Take almost any two things that are causing conflict in our profession and ask these questions: who is the leader, who is the follower and who has the tougher row to hoe....
In Budget Negotiations, There is No Right or Wrong
By Ronny J. Coleman
The role of the fire chief is to propose. The role of the elected body is to decide whether the community can afford it. Two roles. Two responsibilities. Two perspectives....
When Labor and Management Collaborate, Both Sides Win
By Jack Parow
To achieve long-term results, the collaborative service relationship between labor and management must eventually extend beyond the current leadership to the larger departmental culture and the community in which it operates....
Staffing Doesn’t Need to be a Barrier for Volunteer Chiefs Working on Incident Preplans
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
The Plymouth Fire Department's services are provided through a staffed station (duty crew) program and a traditional page-out system, Chief Rick Kline said. ...
Menlo Park FPD Pays Off Debt, Saves Money Through Smart Financial Planning
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose@firechief.com)
The district needed to evolve from a family orientated operation into a fiscally sound business -- which included hiring an accountant to help meet recent budget woes. ...
The Sum of its Parts
By Bill Metcalf
A small effort to fund county-owned firefighting helicopters has grown into a full-fledged fire authority that has consolidated administrative oversight of many of San Diego County’s independent agencies. ...
Creative Thinking Pays Off
By Janet Wilmoth (janet@firechief.com)
Squeezed by the economy and diminishing tax dollars, fire departments from coast to coast are embracing alternative methods of generating revenue and cutting costs. ...
Light a Big Fuse
By Janet Wilmoth (janet@firechief.com)
Preventing first responders from being in inappropriate situations and uniform damage control should a breach occur are top priorities, but a department with open and strong communications with its citizens would be best-equipped to weather such an incident....
Recruitment Help is on the Way
By Robert Rielage
As the recruiting process takes time, effort and money, we’d like to see that it results in quality recruits who become active firefighters -- not just numbers and names on a roster. ...
Working Together is the Key to Solving Problems
By Jack Parow
In order to establish a cooperative relationship, both sides must have committed and quality leadership, mutual trust and respect, recognition of common interest, and an atmosphere that acknowledges the legitimacy of differing opinions....
Knowing Your Enemy is Most of the Battle
By Ronny J. Coleman
Modern fire-suppression operations often involve complexities that can be beyond the scope of normal information sources. Additional resources are needed to keep officers well informed. What I suggest is making a fire-prevention bureau the eyes and ears of the operations division....
Chiefs Must Get Creative to Find Narrowbanding Dollars, Panelist Says
By Mary Rose Roberts
Fire chiefs must upgrade their radio systems to meet the FCC’s narrowbanding mandate by Jan. 1, 2013, or face fines, warned Rick Smith, president of RS Consultants....
3 U.K. Fire Officers Charged with Manslaughter in LODD
By Janet Wilmoth
Fire officers Paul Simmons and Adrian Ashley, who served as watch managers (chiefs), and Timothy Woodward, a station manager, all acted as incident commanders before, during and after the firefighters were sent into the burning building. ...
Looking Back in Order to Move Forward
By Ronny J. Coleman
The fire service always has suffered from budget woes. Learn from history to craft new strategies for justifying investment in cutting-edge technology — such as Class A foam....
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