City Council Worksession

1. Agenda Documents: 12-10-2019 AGENDA.PDF 2. Supporting Documents Documents: WORKSESSION MEMO 12-10-19.PDF  WORKSHOP CITY COUNCIL MEETING Steve Washburn Deborah Everson 309 Lewis Avenue S., Watertown Lindsay Guetzkow Tuesday, December 10, 2019 Adam Pawellk 5:30 PM Michael Walters 1. Call to Order and Roll Call 2. New Business A. Service Planning Grant & FAB Procedures 3. Adjournment Page 1 of 1 To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Chief Ryan Schroeder & Shane Fineran, City Administrator Date: December 10th, 2019 Re: Service Planning Grant & FAB Procedures 1. State Fire Marshal Planning Grant Fire Department Chiefs from Watertown, Waconia, and Norwood Young America have been discussing the current and future challenges to paid on call departments in the region and have found many similar challenges with meeting service demands, training requirements, staffing recruitment & retention, succession planning, and equipment maintenance and functionality. The State Fire Marshal provides planning grant assistance (https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/sfm/programs- services/Pages/Shared-Services.aspx) to departments within the state to help study and evaluate shared services opportunities, collaborative efforts, and strategic planning by a third party to ensure that area departments are able to meet the demands and needs of those serviced by area departments. The grant requires a various match level based upon the amount of grant awarded. At this point in the process the belief that any consultant study could range from $25,000 to $50,000 with the grant covering 90-95% of the costs with the match being shared by the three cities. Staff will review the program, potential outcomes, and is seeking direction on the support for participation in the cooperative grant application with neighboring departments. Enc: Fire Service Collaboration Assessment 2. Fire Department Capital Acquisition Processes The method of authorizing, evaluating, and acquiring capital equipment is well defined in the City’s financial management policy. However, this process relating to capital equipment expenditures for fire department related items is redundant, as the process is replicated at the City Council and FAB levels. This creates additional and unnecessary work for staff, processing capital acquisition through both bodies and gives contracted communities unnecessary oversight in the financial management of City affairs. Staff would prefer that these decisions be kept at the City Council level. The City would continue to conduct an annual meeting with contracted communities to review the proposed budget, capital plan, and contract rates. Staff is seeking discussion and direction on this process change. Fire service collaboration assessment questionnaire This questionnaire will help you and your colleagues in other departments examine how much you are currently collaborating and identify possibilities for increased collaboration. Please contact your region’s fire service specialist for assistance with this questionnaire. Fire Service Specialists • Northeast MN: John Ehret - John.Ehret@state.mn.us (651) 323-7134 • Northwest MN: Steve White – Steven.I.White@state.mn.us (218)579-0128 • Central MN: Tate Mills - Tate.Mills@state.mn.us (320) 333-2817 • Southern MN: Jared Rozeboom – Jared.Rozeboom@state.mn.us (507) 456-0907 Your Departments List the names of the organizations covered by this assessment (attach a separate page if necessary): Norwood Young America Fire Department, Waconia Fire Department, and Watertown Fire Department Names and titles of persons completing this questionnaire: Steve Zumberge, Norwood Young America Fire Chief Chris Nelson, Waconia Fire Chief Ryan Schroeder, Watertown Fire Chief Have any of the departments/cities received a Shared Services or Service Planning grant from the State Fire Marshal Division? If so, which departments and when? No Response Please select the types of collaboration on incident response that your departments currently engage in. Check all that apply:  Mutual aid agreements  Auto-aid agreements  Box alarm systems  Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines  Other: ___________________________ Page 1 of 4 In general, to what extent are your departments collaborating on incident response? 1 – not at all 2 – a little 3 – moderately 4 – very much 5 - a lot □ □ x □ □ Are you interested in exploring increased collaboration in this area?  Yes  No  Not now, but maybe later Training Please select the types of shared training your departments engage in regularly (once a year or more). Check all that apply:  Firefighters can attend trainings offered by another department  Standard training requirements and expectations across departments  Shared training manual for departments  Joint training sessions on specific topics for department leadership  Joint training sessions on specific topics for firefighters  Joint response drills or table top exercises for chiefs  Joint response drills or table top exercises for firefighters  Other: ______________________________________________________ In general, to what extent are your departments collaborating on training? 1 – not at all 2 – a little 3 – moderately 4 – very much 5 - a lot □ x □ □ □ Are you interested in exploring increased collaboration in this area?  Yes  No  Not now, but maybe later Staff Please select the types of staffing collaboration your departments have engaged in in the past 3 years. Check all that apply to at least some members of your group:  Departments share administrative staff (How many administrative staff? _____)  Departments share training staff (How many training staff? _____)  Departments share fire department leadership (How many leaders? _____)  Firefighters work/volunteer for more than one department (How many firefighters? _____)  Departments collaborate on recruitment and volunteer outreach  Departments have a shared pension plan or participate in the same plan  Departments have shared approaches to keeping firefighters involved and committed  Departments have standardized approaches to compensation  Other: ______________________________________________________ Page 2 of 4 In general, to what extent are your departments collaborating on staffing? 1 – not at all 2 – a little 3 – moderately 4 – very much 5 - a lot x □ □ □ □ Are you interested in exploring increased collaboration in this area?  Yes  No  Not now, but maybe later Equipment Please select the types of collaboration on equipment your departments have engaged in in the past 3 years. Check all that apply to at least some members of your group:  Departments have agreed to purchase equipment with standardized features so that it could be used by other firefighters during response  Departments share equipment  Departments have jointly purchased equipment or pooled funds to purchase equipment  Departments meet to discuss and plan large equipment purchases in advance (for example, a shared capital expense plan)  Members of the group have worked together to plan station locations or equipment cache locations  Other: ______________________________________________________ In general, to what extent are your departments collaborating on equipment purchasing or use? 1 – not at all 2 – a little 3 – moderately 4 – very much 5 - a lot x □ □ □ □ Are you interested in exploring increased collaboration in this area?  Yes  No  Not now, but maybe later Planning and governance Please select the types of collaborative planning or governance your departments have engaged in in the past 3 years. Check all that apply to at least some members of your group:  Departments have done joint strategic planning  Departments are members of a JPA or similar governance structure  Department are members of a fire district  Other: ______________________________________________________ In general, to what extent are your departments collaborating on planning and governance? 1 – not at all 2 – a little 3 – moderately 4 – very much 5 - a lot x □ □ □ □ Are you interested in exploring increased collaboration in this area?  Yes  No  Not now, but maybe later Page 3 of 4 Overall collaboration On a scale of 1-10, please rate the overall level of collaboration among your departments. 1 – very low 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 – very high x □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ How can the State Fire Marshal Division help you explore additional collaboration? The Norwood Young America, Waconia, and Watertown Fire Departments have identified numerous challenges impacting the three organizations. Challenges include administrative workload, emergency response, inspections, maintenance, public education, public relations, recruitment, retention, staffing, standard operating guidelines, and training. As each individual organization strives for excellence in each of these areas, it is understood that all of our organizations face the similar challenges. Today, the three organizations are experiencing increases in call demands, community events, non- emergency details, and training expectations. We are facing the increased demand with fewer firefighters. In addition, our organizations have many firefighters eligible for retirement. Retirements will decrease the overall number of firefighters and the experience levels of our organizations. Moving forward, it is imperative our organizations identify solutions to the identified challenges to meet the needs of our communities. In an effort to continue providing a high level of service, we are seeking options for our organizations to work together to overcome these challenges. As we identify solutions to the challenges, it is also important to develop a framework for other organizations to align themselves with us in an effort to achieve their goals. Want assistance? Would you like someone from the Fire Marshal Division to contact you to discuss how they can help you collaborate further? If so, please fill out the following and send in the questionnaire to your fire specialist. Your name: Ryan Schroeder Your phone number and/or email: (952) 297-2327 watertownchief1@ci.watertown.mn.us The best time to reach you: Anytime To email in your questionnaire, send this to your region’s fire specialist: • Northeast MN: John Ehret - John.Ehret@state.mn.us (651) 323-7134 • Northwest MN: Steve White – Steven.I.White@state.mn.us (218)579-0128 • Central MN: Tate Mills - Tate.Mills@state.mn.us (320) 333-2817 • Southern MN: Jared Rozeboom – Jared.Rozeboom@state.mn.us (507) 456-0907 Page 4 of 4