Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009 - (Page 7)

executive director’s report By Dr. Jim Gaston It’s a Time to Lead ust because the pundits are forecasting a long slump in the national economy there is no reason to hunker down like a turtle. Forecasts are wrong more often than they are correct. But there is little doubt that the plunge in consumer confidence and the housing markets will reduce local government revenues and dry up municipal spending. Whether or not we are in for a fi scal dry spell equal to the Texas draught, the next couple of years will be difficult for fi re chiefs. Service demands will continue to increase just when city managers are reacting to the drop in sales tax revenue and property tax projections. Your local economy will either recover next year, or get worse, depending on the price of oil, the stability of the dollar and the J international fi nancial markets. Fire chiefs need to prepare for either scenario, just like you do for other emergencies. The IAFC has released a guide titled “Weathering the Economic Storm” to assist fi re chiefs with tough decisions. In the more likely event that 2010 is worse fi nancially, fi re chiefs need to be prepared. That’s what you always do, prepare for the worst and hope it doesn’t happen. I like the term consequence management to describe the need to plan a response equal to the challenge. Let’s say, hypothetically, that your town’s major employer closes its doors, or tourism slows to a trickle, or that people don’t buy new clothes or appliances this year. The city’s revenue will take a big hit. Do you have a contingency plan – a budgetary incident management plan – for saving your fi re department’s budget? Have you studied the strategies that will work, quantified the risks, balanced costs and benefits? Have you briefed your senior staff, assigned sectors and trained them to respond when the budget memo arrives? You know that worst-case memo, the one telling you to submit a budget reduced by 10%, 20%, or even 30%. Is there a plan in your locked desk drawer that you can pull out and fl ip open to the necessary section? What happens after you’ve cut everything else and the city manager expects you to reduce personnel expenditures? Can you switch from an offensive attack to a defensive attack before the roof falls in and you lose fi refighters? Elected officials read the news. Since city councils have no control over macroeconomic factors, they will exercise their authority over one thing they can control, the city budget. They have heard about rolling brown outs in other cities, staff furloughs, whole shifts off for fi refighters. They know that major fi re departments have closed stations or parked fi re trucks and moved engine companies from low-volume stations. Even though fi refighter layoffs are mostly in rustbelt cities or cities where population migration has caused a dramatic drop in tax revenues, the techniques for reducing fi re service expenditures are in the news. Politicians love dramatic action during fi nancial crises. Can you answer their questions when the camera and lights are on you? The old admonition to Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way certainly applies in 2009. Fire chiefs have no choice but to lead. Cities across the nation have been required to reduce their budgets by millions of dollars this year. People are counting on you to know what to do if a disastrous budget memo hits your desk. When all around you at the city manager’s department head meeting are in a panic, you must remain calm and step forward. Manage the incident. Mitigate the damages. That’s what fi re chiefs do. It’s time to lead. 7 TEXAS FIRE CHIEF Spring/Summer 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009 Contents Executive Director's Report 2009 Annual Conference Preview Hurricane Resistant Fire Stations in South Texas Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System The IAFC and TV Worldwide Launch IAFC TV KITA and Firefighter Motivation TFCA Legislator Award What Do They See When They See You Coming? Texas Fire Chiefs Academy Standing Tall Lake Travis Fire Rescue Answers the Call 2009 TFCA Executive Board TFCA Region Map Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009

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