Chief tries to rescue staff cut at fire hall

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: September 14, 2010 7:00 PM

Vernon’s fire chief is pushing to have a high-profile staff cut reinstated. Jeff Carlisle asked council Monday to reconsider its August decision not to fill a vacant deputy chief’s position. “This diminished capacity will change the momentum we’ve gained with organizational effectiveness,” he said. The department had a chief and two deputies for a number of years, but council decided to have a two-person administrative team when deputy chief Rick Owens retired in July. Owens was responsible for operational issues while deputy chief Lawrie Skolrood covered protection issues. “The two deputies are not interchangeable. They were hired for different duties,” said Carlisle.
In his report, Carlisle pointed out that the department has moved ahead with a number of initiatives since 2005, including Predator Ridge fire service, regional emergency management, succession planning, centralized training and fire dispatch upgrades. “With the loss of one deputy chief, these tasks can be completed by reassigning priorities and responsibilities. However, time lines will be impacted and increased consultant costs are a probable outcome,” he said. Carlisle added that deleting the position creates a shortfall for emergency activities. “On a day-to-day basis, the deputy chief of operations coaches, mentors and guides the shift officers and firefighters. The loss of this operational expertise increases the risk for mistakes to occur during emergency responses and diminishes the capacity to continually review the response system and effect change.”
Carlisle also goes on to say that money could have been saved without removing a management position. “The city does not require two separate volunteer firefighting associations. The optimum arrangement in Vernon would be the integration into one volunteer firefighter association,” he said of the Vernon and the Okanagan Landing associations, which operate under contract. “This would facilitate an estimated annual savings to the taxpayer of $100,000 a year.”
Coun. Jack Gilroy, who is a former deputy fire chief, believes council was correct not to hire a new deputy. “We have capable people to run the place and the public needed (tax) relief until we knew the costs with dispatch,” he said. Gilroy says that while he was part of the department, he worked in two and one-deputy systems. “A senior officer should be able to take the role of a command officer,” he said. “It may be a lot more work for middle management but it goes with the territory.” Mayor Wayne Lippert would not speculate on whether council will reverse its decision. “We will be going into budget and it’s something to consider,” he said.
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Stoking the fire?

Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: September 14, 2010 7:00 PM
What may be considered stone-cold embers can often spark to life if they are stirred enough. And that situation could arise based on comments Vernon fire chief Jeff Carlisle made about volunteer firefighting services Monday. While trying to convince council to reverse its decision to not fill a vacant deputy chief’s position, Carlisle put forward an idea to save $100,000 a year — or roughly the wage for a deputy. “Having two separate contracts for volunteer associations requires significant extra costs for management oversight and duplicate systems,” he said. “The City of Vernon does not require two separate volunteer firefighting associations. The optimum arrangement in Vernon would be the integration into one volunteer firefighter association.” I’m confident it wasn’t intended by Carlisle, but just the suggestion of amalgamating volunteer forces could reignite hard feelings, particularly for members of the Okanagan Landing association.
Back in early 2009, controversy surrounded a service plan that would have seen paid, full-time firefighters at the Landing hall. Carlisle suggested a change in manpower to reflect what he said was a growing community and concerns about response times. Landing volunteers resisted the move, and challenged response times from their hall. Many felt that this was an attempt to eventually force volunteers out of the station. Public meetings erupted as both sides of the issue stated their case. General perceptions about how Okanagan Landing had been treated since annexation into Vernon in 1993 also overshadowed the entire debate. Ultimately, council opted for the status quo but it took some time for those emotions to cool off.
I suspect some Landing firefighters will see amalgamating the volunteer associations as a way of getting rid of them through the side door. They may feel that because of the 2009 dispute, they are on the outside with management whereas the Vernon Volunteer Firefighters Association is more entrenched in the system because it’s based out of the downtown hall, side-by-side with career firefighters. Some Okanagan Landing residents may also see this as another attempt by the city of stripping away the area’s sense of community and identity. Firefighters — whether volunteer or career — are dedicated and they can work together during an emergency, and that occurs often between the Landing and downtown crews. But talk of amalgamating the associations — and speculating about the reasons behind it — could force previous tension to bubble to the surface.
And in terms of saving money to hire a deputy chief, having just one volunteer association isn’t an immediate fix. It was just in February of this year that the city inked a three-year contract with the Okanagan Landing Volunteer Firefighters Association to provide fire protection. “I am looking forward to working with the OKLVFA and collectively improving our emergency response system to all neighbourhood areas of Vernon,” said Carlisle at the time. “The OKLVFA is a critical component of Vernon’s fire service.” I’m sure that’s still the case, but the concern is how some people interpret Carlisle’s comments from earlier this week.