By Fire Chief Christian Tubbs
When I first pinned on a badge more than four decades ago, success in the fire service seemed simple enough to measure: Answer every call, get there fast, do the job well, and come home safe. If the trucks rolled, we provided service, and the community was reassured, we believed we were delivering our promise. We would often liken ourselves to an insurance policy, but it took me many years to understand why nothing could be further from the truth.
Over the years, I’ve come to see that our real promise runs deeper than red lights and sirens. Today’s communities — and tomorrow’s — demand more than a quick response. They need us to prevent what can be prevented, build trust before the crisis, and show, with humility and rigor, that every dollar, every training hour, every policy and every ounce of public trust afforded to us delivers meaningful, lasting public value. Our responsibility is an investment in the quality of life experienced by a community, its local economic engine and resources.
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Defining public value
Like many of you, I didn’t always have a framework for what public value meant or how to measure it. Early in my career, a city manager once challenged me. When arguing for funding, he pushed back, “You guys have to quit using the burning baby argument.” He was arguing for data-driven analysis and decisions. That comment has rattled in my brain for years and led me to an academic journey beginning at the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program and through multiple degrees and executive programs over the years.
Understanding what public value is, how we measure it, and how we gain strategic advantage are questions whose answers have been refined over the years for me. Dr. Mark Moore’s work at Harvard’s Kennedy School was certainly a contributing factor. His simple but profound questions have shaped how I think as a fire chief:
- What is substantively valuable to the public we serve?
- What is legitimate and politically sustainable?
- What is operationally and administratively feasible?
In addition to these questions from Dr. Moore, it has become clear to me that we, as chiefs, must also:
- Know how our community defines public value.
- Learn what those values are that they are willing to invest in.
- Understand how to measure those values.
- Regularly report our performance, as this builds trust and respect.
When I apply these questions to our daily work, the gaps and opportunities reveal themselves fast. It’s not enough to tell the Board, Council or community that our response times are good if our wildfire risk is climbing faster than we can contain it. It’s not enough to celebrate fire prevention inspections if the community doesn’t understand why they matter. It’s not enough to budget for engines and stations if we don’t also invest in the people, partnerships and culture that turn equipment into capability.
I have come to appreciate that a fire department is a reflection of a community’s tolerance for risk — what is the community willing to invest to manage their risk?
Author Steve Kent’s perspective has helped me translate that big-picture value framework into daily practice. Kent reminds us that leadership must provide more than a vague mission statement — it must define clear destinations: Where are we going, why does it matter and how does everyone in the organization help us get there? But destinations alone are just words in a binder on a shelf if our culture doesn’t reinforce them when nobody’s looking.
In my agency, this means being clear about what success looks like beyond response. It means building a culture where firefighters, inspectors, administrative staff — everyone — knows that a smoke alarm installed, a defensible space cleared or a family educated is as worthy of pride as a fire knocked down. It means measuring our impact not just in calls run, but in risks reduced, tragedies prevented and trust earned.
I don’t pretend we’ve perfected it. But I do believe this: If we want the fire service to remain indispensable, we have to define, create and prove our public value. And that starts with us — the leaders, chiefs, board members and elected officials who steward the trust, the dollars and the culture our communities depend on. We need to foster the kind of relationship with our community that allows us to capture how they define value. We then need to measure outcomes, not outputs, that detail those community values, and report on them regularly.
Final thoughts
So, I encourage you: Revisit what you measure. Make sure your strategic plan is a living map, not a shelf ornament. Listen to your community and your people. Keep Moore’s triangle in mind — value, legitimacy, capacity — and Steve Kent’s reminder that leadership plus clear destinations equals strategic advantage.
When we lead this way, we don’t just answer the call — we answer the question our communities are asking: Are we safer, stronger and more resilient because you are here?
If we can say yes — and prove it — then we are doing more than fighting fires. We are creating lasting public value, one quiet prevention effort, one act of trust and one courageous leader at a time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christian Tubbs has over four decades of experience as a fire service executive, currently serving as fire chief for the Southern Marin (California) Fire Protection District. Chief Tubbs serves on the IAFC Technology Council, is a principal member of NFPA 950 and 951, and represents the California Fire Chiefs Association (CalChiefs) on the Cal OES Homeland Security Advisory Committee. He previously served as the president and executive board member of CalChiefs, and also served on the FIRESCOPE board and multiple DHS advisory groups. Tubbs is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School with certificates in public leadership and public policy, and he holds master’s degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and Grand Canyon University, along with bachelor’s and associate degrees in fire service leadership. He is currently pursuing a PhD. Tubbs is an accredited chief fire officer, certified California fire chief, and a member of the Institution of Fire Engineers.
REFERENCES:
Foundational frameworks
- Moore, Mark H. Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government. Harvard University Press, 1995.
- Moore, Mark H. Recognizing Public Value. Harvard University Press, 2013.
Leadership and culture
- Kent, Steve. Leadership Lessons for Fire Chiefs: Navigating Culture, Change, and Challenge. Fire Engineering Books, 2020.
- Kouzes, James M., and Barry Z. Posner. The Leadership Challenge. Wiley, 2017.
Fire service strategy and public value
- National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Standards on Fire Department Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public. NFPA, current edition.
- International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). Guide to Fire Service Leadership and Management. IAFC, 2021.
- U.S. Fire Administration. National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Documentation. FEMA, current edition.
Prevention, trust and community resilience
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems. NIST, 2016.
- Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon & Schuster, 2000. (for trust and community capital concepts).
- FEMA. Building Cultures of Preparedness: Report for the Emergency Management Higher Education Community. FEMA, 2019.
Measurement and outcomes
- Osborne, David, and Ted Gaebler. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Addison-Wesley, 1992.
- Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Harvard Business Review Press, 1996.
- National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Fire Loss in the United States Annual Reports. NFPA, annual editions.
