25 - Fire Chief-EMS Chief Positions

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Item No. 25 Memorandum TO: Mayor & City Council FROM: Grayson Path, City Manager SUBJECT: Fire Chief / EMS Chief Positions City Charter Section 23 DATE: March 27, 2023 • � Xiffel 1�1_I� The EMS Chief position has been vacant since January 2023. At that time, Thomas McMonigle, Fire Chief, was selected to serve as the interim department head over the EMS Department. It therefore became the task of the City Manager to determine next steps in filling the leadership role of the EMS Department. STATUS OF ISSUE: Over the past three months, we have had an opportunity to observe how operations might work for both Fire and EMS serving under one Chief. Much like how Public Works or Utilities operates where you have multiple departments working in parallel, but reporting to one department head; we have seen efficiency and opportunity present itself by having both the Fire Department and EMS Department report to the same Chief. With this, it became the City Manager's task to determine whether to return to the previous standard of having a Fire Chief and an EMS Chief, separate from one another, or to try a new route of assigning the EMS Department to the Fire Chief, possibly with the creation of a new Assistant EMS Chief to assist him much like the Assistant Fire Chief does for the Fire Department. The City Manager has met individually with our three EMS Deputy Chiefs, our Assistant Fire Chief, our three Deputy Fire Chiefs; as well as spoken with our EMS Medical Director Dr. Sharon Malone and Fire Chief Thomas McMonigle. Based on their input and all of our direct observation of these past three months, the City Manager would like to recommend: 1. Elimination of the EMS Chief position. 2. Assigning the EMS Department to the Fire Chief.