Title
Fire Department Automatic Aid Agreements (Ordinance S-44086)
Description
Request City Council authorization for the City Manager, or his designee, to authorize Fire Department automatic aid agreements with 22 cities, towns, fire districts, and governmental jurisdictions in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The new term for the agreements will be December 2017 through December 2022.
Report
Summary
The City of Phoenix has been a leader and participant in the automatic aid system since the 1970s, and spearheaded a more formalized arrangement among membership in 1997. Today there are 22 fire providers that are a part of the automatic aid system, a system that is unique to the Phoenix metropolitan area. The automatic aid agreement calls for the automatic dispatch of fire apparatus and other fire resources to an emergency incident without regard to jurisdictional boundary.
Standards for Fire Department deployment, suppression, and emergency medical operations for career fire departments, such as those in the Valley, are established by the National Fire Protection Association Standard 1710. The standard addresses response times, numbers of personnel, and minimum equipment required on various apparatus, among other things. The proposed amendments to the 1997 agreement add certain requirements to the levels of apparatus staffing and equipment provided by each participant, in order to meet NFPA Standard 1710.
A 2011 Efficiency Study of the Fire Department conducted by Management Partners, Incorporated recognized the Phoenix Fire Department's current automatic aid system as outstanding and stated, "If this system was diluted, Phoenix as well as other surrounding cities could have to expend more resources to obtain the same level of system performance."
Automatic aid systems result in significant savings to the taxpayers of the participating jurisdictions through the sharing of resources and avoiding the need to build redundant capital facilities. In addition, residents also receive a standard level of response.
The current Automatic Aid System participants include 22 fire departments covering 28 jurisdictions: Avondale Fire - Rescue, Buckeye Fire Department, Buckeye Valley Fire District, Chandler Fire Department, Daisy Mountain Fire District, El Mirage Fire Department, Gilbert Fire Department (Dispatched by Mesa), Glendale Fire Department, Goodyear (Litchfield Park) Fire Department, Guadalupe Fire Department, Maricopa Fire Department, Mesa Fire Department (Dispatched by Mesa), Peoria Fire Department, Phoenix (Laveen, Paradise Valley) Fire Department, Arizona Fire Medical Authority (Sun City West, Sun Lakes, Whitman), Scottsdale Fire Department, Sun City (Youngtown) Fire District, Surprise Fire Department, Tempe Fire Department, Tolleson Fire Department, Queen Creek Fire Department, and Superstition Fire and Medical District.
Contract Term
The term for the Automatic Aid Agreements will be from December 2017 through December 2022.
Financial Impact
There is no financial impact to the City to authorize the automatic aid agreements.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. and the Fire Department.