Technical Assistance
The IAFF improves fire fighter safety and enhances fire and emergency medical services for jurisdictions through geospatial and data analytics.
GIS Reports
The IAFF Fire & EMS Operations Department provides customized reports for Locals based on data including demographics, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) records, and historical traffic patterns. Our analyses assess department capabilities and compare them to industry standards. We then make data-informed recommendations to improve service to communities and move departments toward compliance with industry standards. Our products include:
- Standards of Cover/GIS Analysis
- Workload Analysis
- EMS Integration
- Risk Assessment
- Resource Allocation
- Station Location Recommendation
- Strategic Plan
- Consultant Report Review and/or Rebuttal
These products can assist your department with vital decisions including determining appropriate staffing, resource allocation, implementing EMS transport, siting stations in the best locations to meet demand, and assessing community risk. With our data-informed approach, we make objective recommendations that will improve your Local’s way of working and aid in negotiations.
Sample reports
The City of Miami Fire-Rescue
Grande Prairie (Alberta) Fire Department
Fairfield (Connecticut) Fire Department
Resources
Request a Report
Consider your Local’s needs:
- Are you experiencing layoffs, station or apparatus closures, or brownouts?
- Does your jurisdiction plan to add a station but need to know where to locate it?
- Have you performed a community risk assessment?
- Do you have negotiations upcoming?
All of these (and more!) are reasons to request a report from the IAFF.
To request a project, have your Local president reach out to your district vice president.
Data Requirements
All reports require active engagement from the Local to progress. The following data may be required to complete your study:
- Photos of your department.
- Response area boundary.
- GIS station/hospital location questionnaire.
- CAD data – most recent 5 years.
- Current CBA.
- EMS Questionnaire.
Once you begin the request process, we will send you more details on the required data and how to acquire them. Don’t let the data requirements prevent you from requesting a report – we work with all types of data! For more information, email [email protected].
testimonials
The report has helped stop a plan to close two engine companies in the city and has provided a fantastic framework to help us advocate for new facilities for our department. So far, this has been a great success.
Alexandria, VA Local 2141 President Joshua Turner
As we currently are in a bit of a battle with our “cut everything” Chief, I have been working with a previous union leader/fire chief to assist with our next move. I can see this being of great assistance in the near future as it is our department’s only data-driven analysis.
St. albert, AB Local 2130 President GREG Harvey
Municipal Financial Analysis (MFA)
What is an MFA?
A Municipal Financial Analysis (MFA) evaluates municipal financial documents to determine the overall financial condition of a city or county government to help you determine its ability to pay.
Governments use an accounting technique that is unique to governments known as “fund accounting.” A fund represents an entity with a separate set of accounting records segregated to carry on a specific activity. Each fund has assets, liabilities, and a fund balance or fund equity that equals assets minus liabilities. Each fund begins the fiscal year with a beginning fund balance from the previous year, takes in revenue during the current year, pays expenses for the current year, and ends the year with a new fund balance that carries over into the next fiscal year.
The fund balance is significant because it represents the fund’s reserves and is an important measure of a local government’s fiscal strength. Although the condition of every fund is relevant when analyzing a government’s financial health, this analysis focuses primarily on the general fund because it finances general government operations, including the day-to-day operations of the fire department, such as salaries. Most municipalities account for the fire department within the general fund.
What documents can I expect from an MFA?
Most of the information needed to evaluate a local government’s financial condition can be found in its comprehensive annual financial report or audited financial statements. This document contains two important financial statements each of which calculates the fund balance in a different way, but both of which give the same dollar figure. They are:
- The balance sheet that shows the assets and liabilities of each fund on the last day of the fiscal year. The balance sheet calculates the fund balance as assets minus liabilities, inclusive of deferred inflows of resources, where applicable.
- The statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance (often called the revenue and expense statement) that shows how much money came in and how much money the government spent during the fiscal year. The revenue and expense statement calculates the fund balance as the old fund balance plus revenue over the year minus expenses over the year.
How to get an MFA from the IAFF
If you are interested in receiving an MFA, contact your district vice president to start the process.
Wage Comparison Reports
When contracts, MOUs, salary schedules, and surveys are received by the IAFF, they are analyzed for both economic and clause data. The analyzed information is then put into a database and can be used to assist Locals in negotiations.
The wage comparison charts include benefits that ALL fire fighters are entitled to. These include wages, longevity pay, uniform and maintenance allowances (when received as cash), shift differential pay, holiday pay, and any other allowances such as guaranteed overtime pay or required certification pay. All of these together equal total compensation. Then scheduled hours, minus any vacation, holiday, and personal leave hours are entered to determine total hours worked per year. Total compensation divided by hours worked gives a cost per hour. Using this information, analysts prepare charts that compare the requesting Local’s data to the average of the group for seven points in time (Years 1, 6, 11, 16, 21 of service, 20-year averages, and the year in which each department reaches maximum base salary).
Wage comparison reports can be requested by a Local president by contacting their district vice president. Comparison groups are limited to no more than seven.