The chief of a combination department in a southern state recently called me with a problem. He said that his city's administration was considering a 5% cut to his department's budget, which he felt was unreasonable given an increasing demand for service. He said he felt almost duty-bound to oppose the cuts — and thus be at odds with the administration — and wanted to know if I had any “words of wisdom” for him.

I don't know about words of wisdom, but as someone who has been chief of four different fire departments over the course of my career, I at least have had the opportunity to experience much of what probably wouldn't work for him. Along the way I've gained a little insight into what he might find successful.

As chiefs, we're expected to serve as the CEOs for our organizations while simultaneously being members of our municipal management teams. But for whom do we really work: the fire department or the city administration? While the official answer to this question is sometimes spelled out in local statutes, in most cases we're hired — and can be fired — by city or district administration. As long as the values and general priorities of both the municipality and the department agree, financial and most other issues can be resolved with relative ease. But if our administrators or elected officials have a different set of priorities than we do, a moral dilemma can develop that can place a chief in an untenable position.

Failure to be aligned with the priorities of the city could result in a loss of credibility in a chief by city administration and ultimately lead to termination. On the other hand, blindly following misguided directives could effectively destroy the chief's credibility within his or her own department, which can be just as deadly to a career. So what's the answer: How do we avoid being placed into this type of no-win situation? In my opinion, the answer lies in the chief's ability to establish a solid record for being credible, both inside and outside of the organization.

Survival tips

Credibility can be defined as the ability of the chief to be believed and trusted, whether by city administration or by the troops. Obviously, credibility doesn't come with the badge. It has to be obtained the old-fashioned way, earned over time through hard work and a string of issues that demonstrate conclusively that the chief's word, and hence the chief, can be trusted.

Maybe I'm a little biased in this respect, but I firmly believe that without good credibility a chief is destined to fail. To this end, I've developed a shopping list of tips that can help the chief, in the manner of a CEO, establish credibility with city administration.

1. Analyze the issues in your community and know the budget priorities of the administration. In a previous community where I served as chief, the city had changed administrations and the budget priorities had decidedly shifted. I wasn't initially aware of the shift in priorities, although I should have been. During budget preparation meetings with the new city manager, we found our budget under heavy attack. Instead of public safety being the priority that it had been in the past, it turned into a struggle to obtain funding for even essential and often uncontrollable expenses, such as the electric and fuel bills.

   Although there was ample justification for our protests to these cuts, they received only passing interest. City administration stopped replacing emergency vehicles, left vacant positions unfilled, withheld pay raises from employees, and reduced or eliminated many existing employee benefits. Morale plummeted, and the search for the guilty began. To survive in this type of environment, you will need to know where the priorities are, and you may have to become accustomed to doing business differently than you have in the past.

2. Develop a good working relationship with your boss. The importance of a professional working relationship can't be overstated. Take the time to get to know the boss personally: Go out to lunch together, talk about life in general, learn about his personal management philosophy and develop some empathy for the challenges that he's facing.

   To help gain the trust and respect of the boss, be perceived as a straight shooter rather than as someone who will simply tell him what he wants to hear. Some people may disagree with this philosophy, but I have found that most city managers for whom I've worked over the years appreciate an honest, up-front approach as long as it's done with tact and respect.

   Regardless of the approach that you use, the boss should know that your word can be trusted and that you can be counted on to support him while still looking out for your department's best interests. A good working relationship will help to ensure that the boss understands your budget needs and gives them serious consideration.

3. Maintain good planning documents. Every fire department should be guided by a comprehensive strategic planning document based on solid data. Strategic planning is a form of master planning designed to help the fire department meet its vision of the future. In other words, a strategic plan allows the department to look at where it wants to go and determine how it will get there.

   Good planning documents not only chart the course for the future direction of the agency, they also form the foundation for the annual budget request. A strategic plan should include items in the following categories: fire station planning, emergency response analysis, standard of coverage, staffing issues, safety and risk management, training, and administrative support issues. In the final analysis, budget requests that are supported by a comprehensive strategic plan and backed up by solid data are much more likely to receive favorable consideration when the final decisions are made.

4. Educate your elected officials regularly. Fire chiefs should work to educate their elected officials on the services that the department delivers and on the resources needed to provide these services. Very few elected officials truly understand exactly what we do, and fewer still understand concepts such as standards of coverage or how an improvement in the city's ISO rating can lower insurance rates.

   As responsible public safety officials, fire and police chiefs like to think that they're providing indispensable and essential services, a philosophy with which I personally agree. However, when city officials are faced with a list of needs but possess inadequate funds to meet them, they often take the easy way out of financial crises by spreading budget cuts equally across all departments. In the final analysis, it's the elected officials who must ultimately decide the budget priorities in a community. Your job as a CEO-inspired fire chief is to ensure that the elected officials are educated on the issues relating to emergency services so that they can make informed decisions on budgetary matters.

5. Encourage community involvement. A history of community involvement can pay big dividends, especially at budget time. An informed and educated public can bring considerable pressure as voters to bear on elected officials regarding budget priorities. Now, I'm not suggesting that fire chiefs should make an end run around city administration and take their case directly to the public. This approach isn't conducive to job longevity and should be used only as a last resort, and then only with a full understanding of the possible consequences.

   Rather, I'm advocating a commitment to the long-term education of the public that stresses the value of the department and the effectiveness of its services. If an educated and informed public perceives that its local emergency services are under-funded, they may speak out on your behalf. For example, nothing gets the attention of a city council faster than a group of senior citizens who believe that the capability of their EMS system is being compromised. Remember that the ultimate goal of many elected officials is to get reelected, and that they do understand the ultimate truism about senior citizens: They all vote!

6. Be honest about your organization's needs but realistic about the city's ability to pay for them. First, analyze the municipality's financial situation. If budget cuts are being considered, why? Is there simply not enough money available to support current city services, or has a change in administration resulted in a change in budget priorities? If there's not enough money to go around, you may have to take your lumps along with the other departments. Of course, if there's significant pressure from citizens' groups to shift funding priorities or increase funding, this may change. But generally when available funds are scarce, the administration is probably going to expect you, as a member of its team, to accommodate the cuts just like everybody else.

You should prepare for this eventuality by developing a list of possible cuts, along with a description of the consequences of these cuts. When faced with making cuts that can negatively affect public safety, many elected officials will opt to take a second look at the budget rather than support reductions in those areas. This might also be a good time to mention any plans for alternative funding sources that you had been thinking about but hadn't found the right time to investigate or propose. Timing is everything, and tight funds force even elected officials to seek creative ways to solve their budget woes.

So the answer that I gave to my friend's question about budget cuts was three simple words: preparation, preparation, preparation. I believe that fire chiefs who understand budget issues and priorities, have a good relationship with the boss, are supported by good planning documents, work to educate their communities on the value of their services, are honest and realistic about their expectations, and who are perceived as credible will ultimately be successful. You may have to take your lumps in any given year, but if you make a real and continuing effort at these survival tips, I believe that you ultimately will succeed.

Robert L. Ridgeway is the chief of West Palm Beach (Fla.) Fire Rescue and has served as chief of four different fire departments in four states. He serves on the Commission for Fire Accreditation International and currently sits as it chairman, and he represents the International Association of Fire Chiefs on the NFPA 1021 Committee. A member of the Fire Chief editorial advisory board, Ridgeway holds a bachelor's degree in fire service management from the University of Maryland and is completing work on a master's degree in organizational leadership from Palm Beach Atlantic University.