Laserfiche WebLink
Ramsey, Nowthen, St. Francis, Oak Grove, and Bethel, Minnesota <br />Feasibility Study for Shared or Cooperative Fire and Emergency Services <br />Con: <br />Strategic deployment may not equate to better service because such goals are prone to <br />manipulation wherein resources may be sited more for political reasons and less for quality of <br />service reasons. Outcome goals require the automatic time capture of dispatch and response <br />activities to assure accuracy. Record keeping needs to be meticulous to assure the accurate <br />interpretation of emergency response outcomes. <br />Consider: <br />Contracts for deployment -based fire protection should address the inclusion of administrative or <br />overhead cost, as well as capital asset cost, depreciation, rent, and liability insurance. <br />Service Demand <br />Concept: <br />Service demand may be used as an expression of the workload of a fire department or geographical <br />area. Cost allocation based on emergencies would consider the total emergency response of the <br />service area and apportion system cost relative to the percentage of emergencies occurring in the <br />jurisdictions. Under a system apportioned by service demand, the City of Ramsey and the City of <br />Nowthen (combined)12 would pay 39.3 percent, the City of Oak Grove would pay 16.9 percent, the <br />City of St. Francis would pay 42.1 percent, and the City of Bethel would pay 1.7 percent. <br />Pro: <br />Easily expressed and understood. Changes in the workload over the long term tend to mirror the <br />amount of human activity (such as commerce, transportation, and recreation) in the corresponding <br />area. <br />Con: <br />Emergency response fluctuates from year to year depending on environmental and other factors not <br />directly related to risk, which can cause dependent allocation to fluctuate as well. Further, the <br />number of alarms may not be representative of actual workload; for example, one large emergency <br />event requiring many emergency workers and lasting many hours or days versus another response <br />lasting only minutes and resulting in no actual work. Finally, emergency response is open to <br />manipulation (intentional and/or unintentional) by selectively downgrading minor responses, by <br />12 Response data from Ramsey and Nowthen are combined in the reporting information provided to ESCI, resulting <br />in consolidated incident count. <br />page 90 <br />*,:;,Eniecgestcy Services Consufang <br />