Richard Marinucci

Aerial trucks provide a core function for fire departments. Whether you have a straight stick, ladder tower, bucket, ladder truck, or whatever you use to provide for the traditional jobs associated with these vehicles, you may be questioned as to their need-not because of the functionality but because of the cost.

As the number and severity of fires in many communities decline, policymakers and bean counters look at these vehicles as luxuries they cannot afford anymore. If they are successful in defunding such apparatus, departments will be challenged to provide the services necessary on many fire scenes as well as other related emergencies. Organizations are best positioned when they continually evaluate their needs and can clearly articulate benefits.

Different Approaches

Anyone who has been around for any length of time realizes that many of the emergencies to which departments respond can be handled with fewer personnel than those who respond on the first alarm. Of course, when the 911 center receives the call, it almost always starts as a true emergency to those placing the call. This requires an adequate response to deliver the best possible service. In many cases, resolving the problem does not require all the units initially dispatched. But, departments must prepare and respond as if each case will require the necessary number of personnel and the corresponding apparatus and equipment. Departments cannot allow complacency to set in, and a failure to be ready could result in disaster if the emergency is such that it requires the full response.

It is here where emergency service personnel differ in their approach from politicians (policymakers) and finance people (bean counters). True fire service professionals know that you need to front load resources to achieve a desired outcome. It is better to turn around responding companies if you don’t need them than to be short in cases where a situation clearly warrants full service. The right number of people needs to arrive in the moments that matter. Even in ideal circumstances, this may not always be possible because of multiple incidents occurring at the same time, inadequate staffing (for whatever reason), or vehicles out of service for repair. Yet, the policymakers and bean counters put a price on public safety when they apportion funding to the fire service.

Validation

This is where the fire service needs to really understand its mission and role in the community and be capable of explaining how things work. Justifying an expensive piece of apparatus is a challenge and probably the second most difficult thing to do other than convincing those in charge of the resources required to provide more-some would say adequate or minimal-staffing. With the cost of ladder trucks approaching or exceeding $1 million, there should be no surprise when those with the financial responsibility in the community begin to ask questions. Stating that you need something without good justification will most likely lead to failure. You need to be prepared to validate your reasons.

Start by asking yourself the questions those outside the profession are going to ask: Why do you need such an expensive piece? What exactly does it do? Isn’t there another, more inexpensive, way to provide the functionality? View this from their perspective and look for ways to translate answers into terms that a layperson could understand better. To many in the public, a fire truck is a fire truck. They don’t know the difference, or they recall a hook and

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Richard Marinucci

Columnist

Fire Engineering

Executive Director,

Fire Department Safety Officers Association

People, Politics, and Problems: The Job Description for Chief Officers

Monday, April 18, 2016, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

After nearly four decades in the fire service, I still see individuals inadequately prepared for the new challenges they will face when they are promoted to a higher rank. A newly appointed officer in one of my classes recalled that I told the class that they would be facing issues that they would never have thought about and would find hard to believe. He gave me a few examples, remarking that he couldn’t make up stories like these.

Just being told to expect things that he would never have considered allowed him to better prepare his organization and himself to address the issues. He now understands that these types of challenges happen to everyone and he is not alone.

For some issues, it helps to establish a support network and determine a problem-solving method. We also talked about doing things to help prevent problems. Minimizing problems makes it easier to address those problems that are not prevented.

As firefighters ascend the ranks, they need more problem-solving skills which can be taught and improved. Just like anything firefighters do, we should strive to continually improve. The better prepared an individual is, the less likely that person is to commit an error that will set back his career or job performance. For senior officers, almost all of their significant issues will originate with people or in the political environment. Anything done to improve performance elevates the entire organization and profession.

The issues often raised in textbooks and generic presentations are not easily applicable to a diverse service. We can learn much about people and politics from the “real world.” No department has a monopoly on issues; we will learn a lot by sharing.

By Bill Adams

Many fire apparatus specification (spec) writers pay scant attention to a spec’s boilerplate-those pages of mundane nonfirematic-looking verbiage most macho firefighters consider unnecessary babble.

That’s a mistake. A spec’s boilerplate is just as important as the technical specifications. Usually located at the beginning of purchasing specs, they’re also known as the front sheets. Whether by deceit, design, or ignorance, front sheet verbiage can discreetly influence the competitive bidding process. Use caution-especially in highly regulated political subdivisions where the written word means what it says, attorneys reign, the rule of law prevails, and the fire department may be relegated to bystander status.

Influence

Usually a vendor helps the apparatus purchasing committee (APC) with most of a spec’s boilerplate. Although a questionable procedure, it occurs often. After the APC finalizes the specs, the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) has its legal staff review the document to ensure governmental mandated requirements for public bidding are met. Often, legal beagles don’t know one end of a fire truck from the other. Most are only concerned with the literal law. Literal means being precise, exact, and word-for-word. When apparatus manufacturers’ (OEMs) bid estimators calculate the cost of a purchasing specification they do it the same way-literally. They only price what is written. To them, each line and each word has a value in both the technical nuts-and-bolts portion as well as the boilerplate portions of a specification. They do not read between the lines; they do not second guess; they don’t anticipate. It is not their job.

Other definitions of literal include being factual, truthful, and honest. And, not all purchasing specifications are literal in that respect. This is not an accusation; it is an insensitive but sometimes factually correct statement. In scenarios where a potential bidder helps write a purchaser’s specification, there’s a possibility that hidden meanings may have been slipped into the boilerplate. It is a common practice nobody wants to admit. The spec writer helper will claim ignorance because it has always accepted that the fire department “writes the specs.” Of their own volition, purchasers may also include or omit items in their boilerplates to discretely influence bidding. It’s another common practice that no one will admit-probably because it is illegal in many jurisdictions to knowingly give preference to or to disenfranchise potential bidders. Some purchasers feel immune from being held accountable. Most get away with it.

Before a rig is “factory priced,” the local dealer and perhaps an OEM’s regional or in-house sales manager will interpret the obvious and hidden meanings in the boilerplate and decide whether or not to bid. This is when bidding is influenced. Disenfranchised bidders will either vociferously complain or just let it go. The shoes may be reversed at the next bid.

Real-World Examples

Occasionally fire department spec writers make honest mistakes. What they really want may not be what they actually wrote. Bid estimators don’t know that. Some bureaucrats who enforce formal bidding rules and regulations may not care. Or, legally, they may not be able to address a mistake after the fact. In true competitive bidding, saying I think, I thought, I wished, and I meant to may not hold water. The following sentences were taken from the boilerplate in one municipality’s published purchasing specification. The comments after each are mine. The intent, reasoning, and justification of the spec writer are not being debated. The reality and ramification of his written words are.

It is required that each bidd