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Saint Charles committee approves staffing and coverage study for fire department
Summary
The Government Operations Committee approved funding for a comprehensive staffing and standards-of-coverage report intended to evaluate fire department response times, staffing allocation and long-term facility planning to help maintain the city's ISO 1 public protection classification.
The Government Operations Committee on May 18 approved a budgeted comprehensive staffing and standards-of-coverage report for the Saint Charles Fire Department to analyze staffing levels, response times and resource allocation.
The report is intended to support the department’s ongoing effort to retain its ISO 1 public protection classification and to meet accreditation standards from the Center for Public Safety Excellence and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, Fire Chief Moss said. The study will produce data-driven recommendations for station siting, staffing and equipment over a multi-year horizon.
Chief Moss told the committee the report will map current call locations, model ideal station placement and produce a planning horizon that is typically valid for about five years unless population growth accelerates. “It also gives you a plotting of ideally where you’d have stations,” he said, adding the document will help guide future budget and policy decisions without an intention to relocate existing stations.
Committee members asked how the study accounts for mutual aid and shared coverage. Chief Moss said the analysis will focus on city limits but will take into consideration mutual aid and auto-aid agreements with neighboring departments, and that city crews sometimes respond outside the city and other departments do the same. He noted the department’s call volume is “over 60% EMS,” and the study will include recommendations for EMS and fire resource allocation.
Alderman Ron (first name used in committee questions) recalled past work with the Saint Charles Countryside Fire Protection District and asked whether earlier assessments exist; Chief Moss said he found something dated to 2004 but believes a comprehensive report of this type has not been done since. Alderman Jamie asked whether benchmarks will reflect communities of similar size; Moss said the department uses national standards tied to accreditation and ISO criteria and cited the department’s current effective response-force metric of roughly 6 minutes, 42 seconds compared with a target of 6 minutes, 30 seconds.
The committee voted to approve the study. The motion passed on roll call.
