KINGSBURG – Following an evaluation of its mission and current performance, the Kingsburg Fire Department (KFD) is ready to improve upon its operations and has plans to better serve the community.
Interim Fire Chief John Binaski presented the KFD Strategic and Master Plan to the Kingsburg City Council on Jan. 15 as one of his final duties for the Kingsburg Fire Department before he handed off the reins to new Fire Chief Rodnie Roberts. The council did not vote on the item but did formally receive the plan and file it into city record.
The KFD Strategic and Master Plan combines different approaches to planning that look at both shorter-term goals and how to get there — strategic planning — and longer-term projections of how the department will meet future needs — master planning. KFD will use these two plans to inform future budget requests, staffing needs and performance goal reviews.
“(The plan) really shows what we dove into, what we looked at and (is) kind of a roadmap for the chief and the department to work on in the future and give you an idea of when we do come for the (budget) ask, … it’s not a ‘We want it,’ it’s more of a ‘This is why we want it,’” Binaski said.
Planning for KFD’s future
Although the city initially budgeted $60,000 for the master plan, Binaski said he was able to keep the cost to $30,000. Binaski brought on Michael Despain, formerly of the Fresno and Clovis fire departments, and his consulting services M.E.D. Enterprises to assist with the strategic planning process. Despain is also a senior management consultant with the firm FireStats, which prepared the KFD Strategic and Master Plan.
Binaski said strategic planning discussions with internal and external stakeholders produced three key themes for the department and 11 strategic objectives that support those themes. The themes ask how the department can continue to improve on saving lives, property and the environment before and during emergency events; how it meets increasing service demands over the coming years; and how it better explains its services and demonstrates its value to the community.
Some of the strategic objectives involve improving safety and survivability for firefighters, fire victims and patients with acute medical emergencies, preparing for potential economic downturns and providing value to the community beyond emergency response.
Through an analysis of the department’s current conditions, its service delivery and performance and a community risk assessment, the Strategic and Master Plan came away with a list of overall findings and 13 recommendations for improvement. One of the biggest takeaways from the plan is that while KFD meets the general needs of the community, it lacks the resources to engage in more training, community engagement and planning.
For example, with just two 40-hour positions, the department’s administrative staffing levels are “inadequate for proper oversight, planning and managing all the required programs of the modern fire service,” according to the findings. Without more administrative personnel, the department also cannot meet community expectations for public education and fire prevention or to run a Community Risk Reduction program.
Overall, KFD has 20 full-time equivalent staff, including two administrative staff — the fire chief and an administrative assistant — and 18 operations staff. Of the 18 operations staff, there are three captains, three fire engineers, six firefighter/paramedics and six firefighter/EMTs. Daily deployment consists of six operations staff, with two assigned to the medic fire engine and the remaining assigned to two rescue ambulances.
Binaski said that with these staffing levels, if any personnel is off, the department has to fill their spot with overtime to ensure six people are on duty. Further, the department does not meet the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) standards for how many personnel it should deploy to a moderate-risk fire, Binaski said. To compensate, the department is “heavily dependent” on mutual aid from surrounding jurisdictions.
Limited staffing is why the plan recommends KFD continue to “aggressively participate and utilize” the automatic and mutual-aid systems within the immediate area. The recommendation notes that KFD will need to commit to responding as often as possible to other jurisdictions as well to ensure the aid systems are equitable.
Other recommendations in the strategic and master plan include adopting a response time objective for each element of response time, begin tracking performance and outcome measurements, reviewing policies and guidelines annually and evaluating the staffing levels required for administrative support services.
