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Council invites fire/EMS consultant back after split over spending and scope
Summary
Council discussed four proposals for a fire and EMS study and heard a staff recommendation to hire Innovative Public Advisors; members were split on whether the work could be done in‑house versus hiring external experts, and the council voted to defer final approval and invite the preferred consultant to present at a future meeting.
City staff summarized four proposals to evaluate Test Corners fire department and shared services: two Wisconsin firms (Innovative Public Advisors and Strategic Management and Consulting), Fitch & Associates (Missouri) and Matrix Consulting Group (California). Staff recommended Innovative Public Advisors (IPA) for local government management expertise, stakeholder facilitation and the lowest bid.
Supporters said an outside consultant could provide objective benchmarking against national standards, analyze staffing and call times, and recommend options ranging from continuing volunteers to staffing paid or full‑time personnel. "We need somebody to evaluate where that is — an expert who has gone through these progressions with other communities," Chair said.
Opponents argued the city could assemble the same data internally and questioned spending roughly $33,000 on an external study, with Alderman Schrader calling the cost "throwing money away" and urging reliance on in‑house analysis. Others noted the consultant's proposal included three on‑site visits and the final contract could include additional travel costs.
The council took a nonbinding straw poll on whether to pursue a consultant and then voted to defer formal approval, asking to bring Innovative Public Advisors in for a presentation at the next meeting so members could question the firm prior to contract execution.
What happens next: Staff will invite the recommended consultant to present scope and costs at the next meeting; the council will revisit the resolution after those discussions.
Provenance: Discussion and deferral appear from SEG 1555 through SEG 2071.
