Topeka Hires Consultants to Update Fire Department Studies

Topeka’s city government has announced it had hired national experts to update studies consultants conducted for the city in 2006 and 2014 looking at how the Topeka Fire Department locates its fire stations and allocates its resources.

The city said in a news release it had hired the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Safety Management LLC for $14,200 to verify and update a resource allocation study conducted last year by local consultants Arnold Gordon and Leo Hafner.

The city paid $14,697.90 to Gordon and Hafner to look into the operations of its police and fire departments. Their study concluded Topeka’s police and fire departments were higher than average in relation to several comparison cities in areas that include their number of employees and their per capita costs for police and fire services. The study was part of a process that is also intended to look at the public works department.

Thursday’s news release said CPSM will verify and update the fire department portion of that study while reviewing the fire department’s organizational structure and practices and establishing a benchmark assessment of the department in terms of national and industry-wide best practices.

“This is not just another study,” city manager Jim Colson said in the release. “The 2014 resource allocation study was intended to be a foundation upon which we based further discussion and review. This is the next phase of that process.”

The news release said CPSM will focus only on the fire department.

“The police department already is implementing some of the recommendations from the resource allocation study, and the city hasn’t yet determined if it will request a verification of this portion of the study,” it said.

The release added that the city had hired Wilsonville, Ore.-based Emergency Services Consulting International for $14,638 to conduct an update of a 171-page Fire and Rescue Services Deployment study that company conducted for the city in 2006 for $71,252.

ESCI plans to look in particular at station locations and the distribution of fire services, and will also conduct a demand study, a distribution study, a reliability study and a summary of performance, the release said.

It quoted Fire Chief Greg Bailey as saying: “An updated (global information systems) study is designed to factor in current community risk, while taking into consideration future growth and possible efficiencies, which could be realized by station locations and companies. Such information is essential to providing sound recommendations and decision-making.”

The 2006 study included short-term recommendations that the city put in a new Fire Station No. 6 slightly to the northeast of its current site at 1419 N.E. Seward Ave. and move the site of Fire Station No. 3 from 318 S.E. Jefferson to an unspecified location in west Topeka. The city hasn’t taken those steps. Council members in 2012 approved the construction of a station at 5700 S.W. 6th, but work on that project has yet to begun.

The city manager’s office plans to absorb the cost of the CPSM study while the fire department budget will finance the ESCI study, the release said.

It came at a time when the city government is considering moves that include closing fire stations.

City Councilwoman Elaine Schwartz was quoted in the release as saying she remains insistent that the city use the information gleaned from Gordon and Hafner’s report.

“I have confidence that this is a step forward as was suggested by them to begin determining where we can make the Fire Department more efficient while ensuring Topekans are safe,” Schwartz added. “I have been assured that the study won’t dispel the finding of last year’s report, but will ascertain national best practices we can utilize to change the department for the better.”

The release said the city also plans to carry out a compensation study in the water pollution control division of the public works department to kick off the public works portion of its resource allocation study.

The city’s human resources department will conduct the internal portion of the review, which will compare WPC wages to similar positions within other city departments, the release said.

It added, “The second aspect of the comparison study, which will benchmark WPC employees against other cities, will follow.”