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Matrix ¢¡¤£¦¥¨§ ©  £¡§ Comprehensive Assessment of the Fire Department CITY OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT matrix ¢¡¤£¦¥¨§ © £¡§ 2470 El Camino Real, Suite 210 Palo Alto, CA 94306 v.650.858.0507 f.650.858.0509 December 31, 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS December 31, 2004 Page 1. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 2. DESCRIPTIVE PROFILE 15 3. RESULTS OF THE EMPLOYEE SURVEY 41 4. ANALYSIS OF STATION LOCATIONS 64 5. ANALYSIS OF FIRE DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS 91 6. ANALYSIS OF FIRE DEPARTMENT SUPPORT SERVICES 114 7. ANALYSIS OF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 130 8. ANALYSIS OF ADMINISTRATIVE SPACE NEEDS 166 APPENDIX: RESULTS OF THE COMPARATIVE SURVEY 178 1. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The City of Norwalk, Connecticut retained the Matrix Consulting Group to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the management and operations of the Norwalk Fire Department. The City desired to examine its Fire Department’s operations, including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the City’s current First Responder program. Currently, the Police Department serves in this capacity, however the City desired an analysis of the impact of relocating this program to the Fire Department. In addition to the analysis of the First Responder program, the City desired the consultant in this study to examine and assess the following specific operational and organizational areas: • EMS First Response • Service Response. • Departmental Organization • Training • Information and Communication Technology • Homeland Security • Existing Conditions of Fire Stations • Location of Fire Stations • Renovation of Volk Fire Headquarters or Conversion of the Former Norwalk Transit District Maintenance Facility into a New Fire Headquarters • Fire Hydrant Locations • Fire Training Center • Fire Apparatus and Equipment Matrix Consulting Group CITY OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT Final Report of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Fire Department • Maintenance of Fire Equipment • Fire Prevention and Education • Mutual Aid Agreements • Service Fees • Benchmarks From the City’s perspective, then, there are several issues which needed to be addressed. These largely related to facility condition and location, but they also encompassed a wider variety of issues concerning operations, and the potential for expanding the services of the Department (e.g., through provision of First responder services), and the enhancement of existing ones (e.g., training, communications, information technology). The complexity of the Department’s operations as well as the complexity of the study’s objectives, required the project team from the Matrix Consulting Group to utilize a detailed and widely inclusive approach to conducting the study and to developing our analyses and recommendations. Specific elements of the project approach included the following: • Interviews with all command staff of the Department. • One on one interviews with all personnel with unique roles and responsibilities. • Small group interviews in all fire stations. • Interviews with representatives of other City departments and functions that interact with the Fire Department. • Interviews with representatives of the Norwalk Hospital and the Police Department to discuss the delivery of EMS first response in the City. • Extensive data collection focused on understanding operations and services. Matrix Consulting Group Page 2 CITY OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT Final Report of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Fire Department • Review of policies, procedures, training plans, fire prevention and education plans and other key documents. • Development of interim documents for review by a broadly based Fire Study Steering Committee that represented the Department, the bargaining unit, the City’s policy makers and the community. Interim documents were reviewed with the Fire Study Committee at meetings in September, October and November 2004. The focus of this approach has been to maximize the opportunities for input into the process and to ensure that major issues were identified and that recommendations were likely to be implemented. The broadly based Fire Study Committee as well as the members of other interested committees and commissions were an integral part of the review of each of the interim documents and steps. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Matrix Consulting Group has made more than twenty recommendations to the City of Norwalk and to the Norwalk Fire Department. These recommendations, as necessitated by the nature of a management study, focus on the improvement opportunities available within the Department. In order to assist the City and the Fire Department, the project team has provided the recommendations for the project in two forms: • A list of the recommendations in chapter order. • A listing of the same recommendations ranked as near term, medium and long term – regardless of priority or placement within this report. This list takes some items out of priority order and moves them to the top of the list based on the cost of doing them (even though they may be less critical). More detail about each recommendation can be found by reviewing the referenced section of the report. Matrix Consulting Group Page 3 CITY OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT Final Report of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Fire Department Recommendations in Chapter Order Issue and Recommendation Report Section Fiscal Impact Priority Existing fire station locations do not Chapter 4 Capital Lower allow the Fire Department to effectively Section 5 $6.5 million service all areas of the City. The area of primary focus is around the Merrit-7 (Rec.: LT 2) complex. However, the volume of calls in this area is relatively low. Construct a new Fire station in the vicinity of the Merrit-7 complex. Transfer Engine 1 to Station 6. The current rescue unit at Volk HQ (#2) Chapter 4 Annual Lower is staffed with only two firefighters and Section 5 $1.0 million no officer. This situation should be addressed. (Rec.: MT 6) Add a second two-person rescue unit assigned to Yost Station (#1). This should be comprised of an officer and a firefighter. The project team’s analysis of staffing Chapter 5 Annual Cost Medium requirements for meeting current Section 1 $141,000 minimum staffing levels shows the Fire Department to be understaffed. (Rec.: MT 1) However, the cost of benefits for additional employees exceeds the overtime cost of using existing staff by $370,000 for the current deployment. Maintain the current approach to staffing using 1:1. Do not add additional personnel under the current benefit cost structure. The City should fill all eight vacancies in the Department to reduce the reliance on overtime hours by staff. Matrix Consulting Group Page 4 CITY OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT Final Report of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Fire Department Recommendations in Chapter Order Issue and Recommendation Report Section Fiscal Impact Priority The Fire Department does not currently Chapter 5 One Time High utilize a unified approach to incident Section 2 $2,000 command. The City and the Department have already taken steps to address this (Rec.: NT 1) issue. Further, the City and Department are working to begin training personnel in the City in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) which allows public safety and non-public safety agencies to work together under a unified command during major incidents. Immediately implement the ICS system in the Fire Department. Continue the process of training and implementing NIMS in all First Responder and management departments in the City. The project team’s analysis of the Chapter 5 None Medium utilization of the line companies in the Section 4 Fire Department shows that additional workload can be handled by these units. (Rec.: NT 7) Line companies (engines, trucks, rescues) should engage in pre- planning each day shift. This would enable the Department to conduct 1,400 such pre-plans annually. The Police Department is currently the Chapter 5 None – except Medium EMS first responder of record in the City. Section 4 potential training The project team’s analysis shows that stipend for the Fire Department is capable of taking (Rec.: MT 3) obtaining and on this role with minimal impact to maintaining EMT operations (less than 3 calls a day for certification. the Department). The Fire Department should take on the primary EMS first responder role in the City. Consideration should be given to moving to a more highly trained EMT level response (from the current MRT first responder level). This would take at least 40 EMT level personnel (to staff all units with at least one EMT). Matrix Consulting Group Page 5 CITY OF NORWALK, CONNECTICUT Final Report of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Fire Department Recommendations in Chapter Order Issue and Recommendation Report Section Fiscal Impact Priority The project team calculated the number Chapter 5 Unknown. High of EMS transport units necessary for Section 5 handling the 9-1-1 workload of the community and found that there are (Rec.: NT 3) many hours of the day where not enough ambulance units are deployed. The City and the Norwalk Hospital should work closely to determine the best possible solution to this issue. There is a need to add an additional ambulance during peak periods. Hydrant testing and maintenance is Chapter 5 Unknown. Lower currently provided by the First and Section 6 Second Taxing Districts. Maintenance is targeted at nationally recommended (Rec. LT 1) public works levels. Some private hydrants have failed to function at fires in the past several years. The Fire Department should consider supplementing this approach to ensure that hydrants are tested twice a year per ISO. Residents of the northeastern areas of the City should be surveyed to determine their desire to add themselves to one of the water systems. The current approach to training was Chapter 6 Annual High found to be lacking in consistency and Section 1 $50,000 coordination. Further, management training has largely been ignored in favor (Rec.: MT 4) of operational training for line staff. Convert the Deputy Chief (Training) position to a Training Chief (similar to the Fire Marshal) to encourage continuity in the position. Develop a centralized training program in support of the company officers.
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