Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Fire Medical

TO:	Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager
FROM:	Mark Bradford, Chief
CC:	Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager
Date:	March 1, 2016
RE:	Fire Department Accreditation

Background:

The cornerstone of agency accreditation is the role of community driven strategic planning and community risk assessment.  The objective of accreditation is to be used by the department, city manager and county administrator, and elected officials to evaluate community fire risks using state-of-the-art practices in order to develop polices that reduce fire/EMS risks and result in improved delivery of services to our customers.  This will be our third agency accreditation process.

Current Status:

We are in the process of beginning our 2017 agency re-accreditation by developing a facilitation process.   The purpose of our department’s evaluation consists of the identification of projects and programs that have not been measured or verified in relation to the organizational goals and objectives.  The second purpose is to provide the ability to evaluate programs and activities in relation to improving the quality of the organization and/or increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the department.  The self-evaluation process will result in a more clearly defined purpose, thereby providing a much better basis for measuring the progress of the department and for determining future plans.

Recommendation:

We are recommending a combined community driving strategic planning process in conjunction with a community risk assessment – Standard of Cover facilitation that will be led by the Center for Public Safety Excellence.  The purpose of this process is to establish a strategic plan to continue to serve as a single source collector for results from various planning and administrative processes.  It should be a clear and concise overview of the department’s organizational goals and objectives, budgetary commitments, mission statements and assessments of organizational activity.  It will serve the governing bodies, managers, administrators and the public as a “snapshot” of current organizational programs’ effectiveness and efficiency. 

In addition, CPSE will provide oversight in the development of a community risk assessment.  In previous years we have created this review in-house due to budgetary constraints.  It would be of great value to have the direction of CPSE professional services guide us through this community risk assessment process.

Funding:

Funding is allocated in the department’s 2016 Operating Budget.

Action Item:

Staff is requesting the following items be placed on a City Commission agenda for consideration.

· Utilize sole source purchasing as outlined in the purchasing policy.

· Authorize staff to enter into a Personal Service Contract with Center for Public Safety Excellence in an amount not to exceed $42,000 for design, development and facilitation of a department strategic planning and community risk assessment – standard of cover process.