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Current emergency operations place the intermediate supervisory officers, Engineers, providing water supplies at the trucks. As this is a function that must be totally maintained, they can not directly supervise the attack crews. Tactical operations then are led by officers with less experience, the Drivers and senior Firemen. This is absolutely wrong. It should always be the most senior and experienced officers in charge of the critical functions. With a Lieutenant and Captain structure, these officers would direct their assigned crew in all actual operations. Pumping and water supply duties would be moved down to the Firefighter/Driver rank. The higher ranking officers would then be free to deal with duties such as directing initial placememt of equipment, reporting an initial "size -up" of the incident, and leading the actual fire attack as directed by the Deputy Chief. It is important to understand that the Lieutenants and Captain would not be "stand in the street and direct" officers, they would be hands on crew leaders working as a team with their crew. The Deputy Chief will still have the same responsibilities under the new structure, however he will have the command and control structure within the department to allow more efficient use of resources and safer operations. In addition to emergency operation needs, this plan provides an overall organization for the management of the department. At present when the Deputy Chief is off, there are three persons of equal rank that may be appointed to fill in. This does not create a pattern of continunity, does not provide a great deal of accountability, and certainly does not specify a person that the Deputy Chief can work directly with. With this structure, the Captian would automatically be in charge. The process to effect this change would involve writing job descriptions for the positions affected, getting Civil Service Commission approval, and testing for the positions. Current Engineers would have opportunity to promote to Lieutenant or Captain and Firefighter/Drivers would be promoted to operate the equipment. This structural change in Fire Department rank is absolutely necessary now with the department expanding to operate four engine companies and is requested as a priority.