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Departments "Sharing" a Fire Chief?
I have been reading about a couple of local metro fire departments considering combining their leadership under ONE chief. The cities of Moline and Rock Island Illinois would combine under a plan being floated by Moline as a result of a $900,000 plus deficit. The mayor looks at it as a money saver. It brings together two communities with a combined population of 83,000 citizens.
I have no information on Rock Island's reply, but you have to admit; it would pose some "logistical" problems, SOGs would have to be revised, different cultures and histories might collide, increased administrative staff to feed the ONE chief OR it might come off rather smoothly.
Here is the link to the news story: http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=438587
I have no information on Rock Island's reply, but you have to admit; it would pose some "logistical" problems, SOGs would have to be revised, different cultures and histories might collide, increased administrative staff to feed the ONE chief OR it might come off rather smoothly.
Here is the link to the news story: http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=438587
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by turk182 on
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I think it would case alot of problems because you would have people fighting over who's officers would be in charge of the calls in different locations that would be something they would have to over come.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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From reading the article, I get the impression that this proposal is DOA. A better way might be to combine the depts. Here's a link to a couple of cities in NorCal that did that. http://www.ci.livermore.ca.us/LPFD/index.html
There is a lot of discussion in my neck of Cal. about consolidation. My city tried contracting out for a few years but that ended in a nasty divorce. Now they are talking about a JPA. The origional plan was to combine 4 depts. One city has already pulled out.
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Silvis, East Moline, Moline and Rock Island all joined by River Drive. If it wasn't for the signs, you wouldn't know where one started and one ended.
Theoretically, you could combine all FOUR. In fact they do, when there's a MABAS call.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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If you're going to share a chief, you may as well consolidate the two departments.
Full integration with one (new) set of SOGs and expectations is better than having one half of the troops with different expectations from the chief.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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It is an interesting concept.
I see where it might problematic, which can happen when politics and egos are involved. As the article eluded to, could one person be able to handle both departments... effectively? Might there be an issue within the unions?
On the other hand, I also see some definite possibilities. Even though it would be different departments and townships (or whatever they call it), it could be considered a consolidation/merger, and might be possible to operate it as such. Egos and politicians taken out of the equation, it might be possible for one person to oversee both departments IF; he/she does not try to micro-manage. IF; he/she has dependable and cooperative subordinates who have the same goals and ideals, and are able and willing to operate independently. IF; the Junior officers and firefighters are able to work together.
Anything is possible, just some things are less probable.
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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Why not just combine the departments? Keep the station officers and make the station Chiefs a District or Battalion Chief. I see some major problems with this.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Lintz on
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Never heard of sharing a chief. it would just make more sense to combine departments. we just had 2 departments back in ohio that combined. The Chief was the most seinor Chief of the two then all the officers stayed as is per station it went really smooth for them...
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