1A, Lake Johanna Fire Budget, Capital Facilities Need Study

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Saint Cloud Fire Department, MN Fire Protection Master Plan- Executive Summary Document Short and Mid-Term Strategies The full report contains a large collection of short and mid-term improvement strategies for the St. Cloud Fire Department. Among these were many recommendations that were operational in nature, directed to the decision makers within the agency itself. However, several recommendations touch on issues of policy that would be of particular interest to elected policymakers and others involve the potential for observable impact to operating budgets. For this reason, we have elected to include a collection of these short and mid-term strategies that address issues likely to be of particular interest to elected and appointed officials of the city of St. Cloud. The recommendations are arranged by category for easier reference. For a full review of all recommendations, see Section IV of the full report. Administrative and Management Strategies After completing the ten-objective evaluation of the Saint Cloud Fire Department, the following short and mid-term strategies are offered as recommendations for improving the administration and management functions of the agency. Individual narrative text describing the issues associated with these recommendations may be found in the appropriate sections of this report. . The organizational structure between the career and paid-on-call elements of the department, as designed by the 1995 merger agreement, is counterproductive and promotes a culture of divisiveness. The organizational structure, to be effective, must be overhauled to reflect a truly unified organization and must be supported by efforts to develop an accepted culture of trust, loyalty, and camaraderie. · The fire department should complete a customer-centered strategic planning process within the organization involving stakeholders from various levels of the department. . The department should develop a truly progressive website with improved access to public information and services. . The department should consider establishing a citizen's advisory group to meet at least twice annually, providing the customer perspective on service delivery, planning and budgeting. . The department should update it records management software to enhance the ability to conduct in-depth performance analysis. In addition, the agency should seek to enhance its ability to work with and utilize Geographic Information Software in deployment, performance, workload, and prevention analysis. 18