I’ve done a cursory review of the fire department risk assessment compilation of recommendations.

Internal strife?  Haven’t been hearing about that around town.

There are a lot of items that are what I consider internal to the department.. operating procedures, equipment, facilities. We expected those recommendations.

There are some interesting recommendations here: addina a deputy chief who is outside the union and removing the chief from civil service are first.

Second, they recommend breaking the union into two.. one for the lower level firefighters and one for the “managers” who supervise them. This makes the grievance process more fair, as the same union is not involved in both sides of a grieveance.

An updaed policies and procedure manual, SOP, etc, is always a good recommendation.

A new firestation for Collinsville, we already have in progress.

The reviewers are advocates of the regional dispatch center (which financially doesn’t seem to be going anywhere yet).

Staffing, of course, should get to 3 people on a truck.

There are some significant issues with regard to EMS serviices, especially important as we are in the middle of an ambulance contract (and possible switch to a new service provider).

More methods of communication.. we get it, you can always use that.

One recommendation is periodic, what we call where I work “skip level meetings” where the chief would meet with all the members of one unit in an open discussion.

There is a whole section here that seems to imply there is a lack of communication.. calling for the cheif to “adopt a more inclusive management style” and make the officers meetings “an open and honest exchange of information”.

The biggest issue I see is an item called “Internal Strife” stating that there are “fractured relationships” that need to be rebuilt. The reviewers also call for a Labor-Management initiative to “help develop and improve cooperative and collaborative relationships, thereby avoiding critical labor-management issues, disputs and costly arbitrations.”

I’ll post the entire reports later for your perusal.