What Happened?
City Council in Snoqualmie, WA, is currently considering a personnel-sharing agreement proposal that would merge fire department resources between Duvall, Fall City and Snoqualmie agencies. Rather than hiring personnel for IT services, for example, in each fire department, the municipalities could share certain personnel for increased savings and cost efficiency.
So What?
The personnel-sharing initiative would not increase taxpayer contributions toward services, while each community will be responsible for costs associated with additional firefighters or resources needed in cases of emergency. Sharing extra staff and equipment across the municipalities will allow fire departments to maintain consistent firefighter levels while reducing overtime costs and maintenance fees. If one community’s vehicles are in need of repair, for example, a neighboring municipality can loan out assets until repairs are completed, reducing the number of vehicles each department must maintain and have access to.
Consolidation Business Plans
The Michigan Suburbs Alliance researched different business models communities are experimenting with when creating collaborative communities that share fire services or other resources. The study focused on cost savings and efficiency in communities experiencing significant cuts to public service funding amid rising demands from residents. As municipality needs and financial resources vary greatly, some communities may be able to share equipment, staff and aid, while others should consider functional or full consolidation strategies. The research broke down the stratum of collaboration options from least to most challenging:
- Equipment and personnel staging When one community is experiencing a crisis that requires all equipment and personnel, resources from neighboring communities can be shared to supplement services to local residents until the situation is addressed.
- Mutual aid If one fire department requests help dealing with an emergency, other fire departments can form an informal partnership to meet temporary demands quickly without sacrificing quality of response. Such a partnership incurs no additional costs and creates zero obligations, however, some communities may benefit from the short-term arrangements more than others.
- Automatic mutual aid Similar to the mutual aid model, this format provides a dispatcher with the control to automatically disseminate assistance to fire departments overwhelmed with calls, creating more formal allocation of resources across communities. Some of these models may require payment for shared services, but staff will always be available to meet community needs.
- Functional consolidation Each fire department remains independent while certain functions operate in cooperation between the agencies. Many communities may consolidate hiring, training, purchasing and dispatch activities to increase consistency and high-quality services.
- Fee-for-service contract One fire department may sell services to another for a predetermined fee temporarily. Because the communities will be familiar with one another, the buyer department will avoid startup costs.
- Full consolidation Multiple municipalities merge fire departments into a single entity with shared ownership and control between communities.
For any model to be successful, municipality leaders must conduct proper administrative preplanning to address common issues of collaboration such as liability and insurance, as well as create an oversight board to ensure policies are followed throughout.
Latest Fire Innovations
Gov1 has followed fire department consolidation studies as well as shift time reductions to increase efficiency.[/dw-post-more]