BACKGROUND:
The Fire Service has long embraced the concept of planning and the cycle of evaluating an organization’s effectiveness. Planning is a deep-rooted process in the fire service and is integrated in all aspects of service from fire response, to managing the fiscal aspects of the department. Strategic Planning happens to be part of the Executive Fire Officer training program through the State Fire Marshal’s curriculum as well as the National Fire Academy. Planning creates vision, and vision creates a unified effort to achieve goals. Cathedral City Fire Department has endeavored to maintain a strategic plan since 2016 and has reaped the benefits associated with maintaining a unified vision.
DISCUSSION:
It is the City of Cathedral City’s desire that the fire department maintain an up-to-date strategic plan and to continually look ahead to ensure we are preparing for challenges that are sometimes foreseeable. In this planning process, the fire department developed a strategic plan that is formatted and complements the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) process for accreditation.
The planning process in this case began with a comprehensive Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, utilizing one of our most valuable resources, which is our members. In 2021, we solicited input from our leadership to help identify our Strengths and Weaknesses. We then focused on ways to address these areas that we identified as in need of reinforcement. Areas like response times, EOC deployment, communications, and technology. Along the way, we were able to identify areas of opportunity such as the Public Safety Enterprise Communications (PSEC) and the Accreditation Process through CPSE. This planning process helped to develop the document that is being presented today.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no direct fiscal impact.