AGENDA CAPTION:
Title
Receive a presentation, by Emergency Services Consulting International, and hold a discussion on the San Marcos Fire Department’s Community Risk Assessment and Standard of Cover study, and provide direction to Staff.
Body
Meeting date: September 1, 2020
Department: Fire Department
Amount & Source of Funding
Funds Required: N/A
Account Number: N/A
Funds Available: N/A
Account Name: N/A
Fiscal Note:
Prior Council Action: N/A
City Council Strategic Initiative: [Please select from the dropdown menu below]
N/A
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Comprehensive Plan Element (s): [Please select the Plan element(s) and Goal # from dropdown menu below]
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Background Information: The City relies heavily on “Master Plan” type documents to guide strategic planning and budgetary decisions. The last comprehensive analysis of the San Marcos Fire Department was completed in 1980 by Freese and Nichols. Subsequently, in February 2005, the City commissioned Mike Pietsch to develop a report narrowly focused on improving the City’s Insurance Service Office (ISO) Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating. The City also underwent two separate ISO PPC evaluations in 2005 and 2015 respectively. The current Fire Station location model was developed by Chief Stephens, as his fourth and final Executive Fire Officer Program’s applied research project. The station location plan closely followed the Larson Model which gained wide-spread popularity through its use by the City of Austin over the last 25+ years.
When Mr. Lumbreras was hired as the City Manager, he wanted future decisions to be more data driven and not based so heavily on anecdotal evidence. Due to the explosive growth of the City and the age of all the Fire Department’s strategic or technical planning document(s) it was determined that an updated comprehensive study of fire/emergency services for the City was in order. The City Manager’s Office and the Fire Department identified $20,000 each to fund the $38,315 Community Risk Assessment and Standard of Cover study.
The contract with ESCI was executed on January 4, 2019. The project itself took slightly longer than anticipated because ESCI’s lead facilitator on the project experienced some serious medical issues and was subsequently replaced. We met December 13, 2019, with Mayor Hughson, Councilmembers Mihalkanin, Marquez, and Rockeymoore, and Chase Stapp from the CMO, to review the process and solicit CC and CMO input for the final report.
Council Committee, Board/Commission Action:
None
Alternatives:
None
Recommendation: Receive a presentation and hold discussion regarding the Community Risk Assessment and Standard of Cover Study.