DEPARTMENT: SAFD
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Charles N. Hood
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
The San Antonio Fire Department will be presenting the revised 2018-2023 Strategic Plan for the Fire Department, as well as, the 2017 Community Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover Document.
SUMMARY:
The San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) has begun the process to achieve organizational accreditation through the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. In this process, the department is required to compile several documents that require submission to and/or approval from the authority having jurisdiction, which in this case would be the City Council.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The SAFD has been working through the accreditation process since December of 2015. The goals of the accreditation process are to increase organizational involvement, continuous improvement, conduct a realistic self assessment, and gather data to guide decision making. Completion of the accreditation process will be another tool that Council can use to assure the citizens that the Fire Department is providing the level of service expected. After several years of compiling information, organizing processes, and analyzing data, the Department is ready to present information on the Department’s performance and strategic planning to the City Council.
The Department’s strategic plan was compiled from information gathered through both internal and external stakeholder meetings and has been assessed and approved by the Department’s Senior Staff. The plan focuses on goals and objectives derived from these stake holder meetings and will be used by the Department for the next 5 years (2018-2023).
The Community Risk Assessment and Standards of Cover Document looks at the risks faced by the City of San Antonio and how the Fire Department protects the City against those risks. The City has been broken down into smaller “planning zones” and data to include, but not limited to, response times, demographics, high hazard occupancies, flood crossings, and incident density have been assessed in each zone. Over all, the Departments services have been broken down into categories and critical tasking and response capabilities assessed. The document also studies Departmental response time in a new way looking at the 90th percentile versus average time, which is the model used across the country.
These documents will be used by the Fire Department in future decision making and budgetary requests. By utilizing this level of analysis, the Department can pursue the goal of continuous improvement information based decision making.
In 2017, The San Antonio Fire Department attained an ISO Class 1 rating. In the United States over 48,000 Departments are rated with approximately 300 being classified as Class 1. Currently, there are only 70 agencies that are accredited with a Class 1 ISO rating. Accreditation coupled with our current Class 1 rating, would place the San Antonio Fire Department in a very elite category.
ISSUE:
It is the desire of the San Antonio Fire Department, to brief the City Council of the analysis provided in these documents.
ALTERNATIVES:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There are no additional expenditures for these actions.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Fire Department staff seeks to brief the City Council on these documents. These actions will allow the Fire Department to continue in its pursuit of international accreditation.