By Jamie Thompson
FireRescue1 Senior Editor
LAS VEGAS — Fire chiefs cannot play the usual “budget games” with mayors in the current economic climate, Fire-Rescue Med was told Tuesday.
Chief Rob Brown told the audience at the conference the worst thing chiefs could do is deliver ultimatums to their managers over financial issues.
“This is not a normal economic downturn where we can play the normal budget games and expect to come out alive,” he said.
Threatening to quit if cuts are made leaves department members “high and dry” and mayors are prepared to call the bluff by chiefs, Chief Brown said. He made the comments during his presentation “Recovering from the Economic Storm” at the conference in Las Vegas, held by the EMS Section of the IAFC.
Chief Brown, of the Stafford, Va., Fire Department, was appointed chair of an IAFC task force at the start of last year dedicated to providing guidance and assistance to fire chiefs nationwide regarding the economic challenges affecting fire and EMS.
He told the session chiefs need to be able to back up claims they make during budgetary discussions with science and data.
When the scale of the economic crisis first became apparent, the IAFC put together a guide on “Weathering the Economic Storm” that also highlighted the need for “good” data.
“The value of good data and analysis is clear: it allows you to portray the impacts of budget cuts in terms of pre-agreed upon performance indicators, such as response times,” it said. “You can discuss an additional 8 percent cut by stating, ‘That would force our response times from 8 minutes to 15 minutes – is this an acceptable impact to you?’ Only through sound analysis and good data can you be credible when you make these statements.”
Chief Brown said some fire chiefs are going to their city councils with preposterous claims as to why they can’t cut their budgets.
“That’s not going to work anymore,” he said. “Someone there is going to ask the question ‘Show me,’ and if that happens, you’re going to lose your credibility.”
Chief Brown told the session that while the economy is in recovery, the impacts will still be felt at the local level. Departments will still face challenges, he said, often depending on state and local regulations, taxpayer “revolts” and revenue streams.
“It all depends how you’re financed,” Chief Brown said. “Some districts rely solely on property tax. Those property taxes are not going to recover real fast.”
The session was told departments need to “reinvent normal” as a result of the economic downturn.
“It’s really time to take your organization, shake it up and down and reinvent it,” he said.
The benefits of costly standards that can burden department budgets — such as those that refer to N95s and P100s, as one example — need to be weighed up, and the use of green, renewable technology and resources considered, according to Chief Brown.
“You have got to look at these organizations and step back from our traditional models and see what really works,” he said. “It’s going to require organizational courage and individual courage from the leader.”
Despite the huge difficulties the fire service is facing because of the economy, Chief Brown said it could become stronger and better as a result in the years to come.
But he said the fire service needs to prove that it has a “real business model, that we have science behind what we do and that we aren’t going out buying new fire trucks just because we want new stuff.”