I. RECOMMENDATION:
The Fire Chief and City Manager recommend that the City Council approve the annual service agreement for Policy Manual Services between Lexipol, LLC and the City of Coalinga Fire Department and authorize the Fire Chief to sign the agreement.
II. BACKGROUND:
Lexipol offers the most comprehensive solution for managing policies and procedures in multiple municipal fire and police departments nationwide, including Coalinga Police Department. Lexipol is recognized for their proactive approach in decreasing liability exposure backed by their technical and legal expertise. The Lexipol system has helped public safety agencies reduce risk and stay ahead of litigation trends while communicating clear and concise policy guidance to their employees. Adopting this policy subscription service will assist in producing clear, effective policy manuals that reflect the true values and fire service philosophies of our department.
III. DISCUSSION:
As in most public safety agencies, there is a strong need for clear and concise policies for the smooth operations of the department. Policies that are in place can include emergency scene policies, daily operations, hazardous material mitigation, administrative policies, and fire prevention guidelines, just to name a few. With the constant updating of numerous federal and state laws, regulations, guidelines, and recommendations the creation of new policies and the updating of existing ones demands that all items are crosschecked and verified by legal counsel prior to be distributing to staff. In 2003, Lexipol was created to develop a system that provides public safety agencies with a “template” policy manual, using input from risk management, legal expertise, and fire department management guidelines. This “master” content can be then customized by the Coalinga Fire Department, providing a comprehensive policy manual. Additionally, Lexipol provides Daily Training Bulletins to all fire department members to present new policies and/or train on existing ones, all web-based and stored in Lexipol’s computer servers. Lastly, all updates to policies, whether changed by Fire Department administration or by Lexipol are updated regularly to keep all members up to date on changes produced by federal or state agencies or by recent case law.
The current policy manual used by the Fire Department was last updated in 2012 and while it is being updated currently, much of the administrative policies are out of date and not reflective of current law or regulations. With the Lexipol system, countless staff and city attorney hours will be saved to devote on other projects, as well as the potential reduction of liability to the City from outdated policies.
IV. ALTERNATIVES:
- Do not accept this agreement, in which case Staff will continue to work on a policy manual using the City Attorney and California Intergovernmental Risk Authority (CIRA) as a resource.
V. FISCAL IMPACT:
The cost of the Policy System Manual and all the training, updates, archiving and support is $7,902.45. This includes a 15% reduction in cost because the Coalinga Police Department uses this service. This cost will be split 50% with CIRA and 50% Fire Department general fund. The cost out of the general fund will be $3,951.23 which was a budgeted item for the FY 21-22. CIRA will also cover 50% of annual policy updates and 100% of the daily training bulletins. | | |