Graduate level Project and journal

MSE 5201, Advanced Fire Administration 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit III Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

3. Explain the Integrated Emergency Management System (IEMS). 3.1 Determine if/when a Finance/Administration Section should be established during an

emergency incident.

4. Discuss the interorganizational component to the field of emergency management. 4.1 Determine when a Finance/Administration Section should have pre-established agreements,

contracts, and a procedural process with local vendors, suppliers, and contractors on equipment and/or supplies that could be required during a disaster.

4.2 Evaluate the importance of a budget for the fire and emergency medical services (EMS) administration.

5. Design incident documentation.

5.1 Determine effective actions that are taken during Phase I of the Incident Action Plan (IAP).

Course/Unit Learning Outcomes

Learning Activity

3.1

Unit III Lesson Chapter 5 Reading (Fire and Emergency Services textbook) Chapter 7 Reading (NIMS textbook) Unit III Project

4.1

Unit III Lesson Chapter 5 Reading (Fire and Emergency Services textbook) Chapter 7 Reading (NIMS textbook) Unit III Project

4.2

Unit III Lesson Chapter 5 Reading (Fire and Emergency Services textbook) Chapter 7 Reading (NIMS textbook) Unit III Project

5.1 Unit III Lesson IAP Guide Reading Unit III Project

Reading Assignment Fire and Emergency Services Administration: Management and Leadership Practices Chapter 5: Financial Management National Incident Management System: Principles and Practice Chapter 7: Finance/Administration FEMA Incident Action Planning (IAP) Guide Chapter 1: Introduction, pp. 1-4 Chapter 2: The Incident Planning Process, pp. 5-7

UNIT III STUDY GUIDE

Financial Management

MSE 5201, Advanced Fire Administration 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

Phase 1: Understand the Situation, pp. 8-16

Unit Lesson Financial Management After studying this unit, you will learn there are several different budget procedures and realize each type of budget has its strengths and weaknesses. You will learn how to evaluate the most commonly used budget in emergency services, the line-item budget, which is used for monitoring expenditures and tracking financial accounts; although they are generally not as effective as other methods for measuring outcomes. Also, you will describe the integrated management of finances, personnel, facilities, and equipment and information services. In addition, you will analyze the importance of financial accountability, the process of financial audits, and the difficulties involved with making fair and ethical budget cuts. Emergency service and management administrators are responsible for the financial integrity of their agency’s budget. This requires planning and tracking of revenue and expenses based on moral and ethical issues and the legal duty to public officials and members (Smeby, 2014). In addition, administrators must be cognizant about finances and the importance of being able to forecast revenue and expenses. Many times, they work in conjunction with the office of budget management in their organization for justifying purchasing needs and year-end expenditures. In today’s government, there has been a surge in cries for the transparency and accountability of budgets and expenditures involving public resources. With public scrutiny for transparency and accountability looming overhead, many administrators add percentages to their previous year’s budget line items instead of re-evaluating each of the budget’s categories when preparing new budgets. As a result, many governing bodies are now requiring budget justifications as the first step for developing reasonable requests, whereas others require the justifications be attached to the line items requested. In addition, governmental agencies require the use of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) where all related liabilities must be included in the budget line items. The most common type of budgets for governmental use is the line-item and zero-base budgets. Both budgets include revenue available from taxation and other sources, such as tax collection, interest, impact fees, donations, balances brought forward from previous fiscal years, and liabilities. These budgets have three governmental board categories, which are normally grouped as: personnel, operating, and capital. Each of these categories is then broken down into more line items that define the needs of the organization, such as personnel cost, insurance, training, travel, conferences, office supplies, and office equipment. Many governmental boards favor line-item budgeting because it gives them some control over the line items being presented during the budgeting process and public hearings. This also allows for explanations or justifications of the priorities to eliminate over inflation of an item and permits questions from the audience for further explanation. Even though line items reflect operating activities, they can be changed during the fiscal year to reflect additional revenue or expenses. Many times during a fiscal year, there could be an unplanned expense or even a disaster where line items need to be increased or decreased depending on the events. However, there must be some type of administrative control over the transfer of line items. Many governmental organizations require the governing body to approve such transfers prior to being moved; whereas, others allow the transfers to occur at the executive officer level, then brought to the governing body annually or bi-annually for final approval. Smeby (2014) suggests that due to the economic downturn that many emergency service organizations are using zero-base budgeting, where each line item must be approved at the beginning of the budget cycle in order to spend the funds. Zero base budgets also start at zero each year and each category must be justified before it becomes a line item. For instance, each year office equipment and supplies would have to show a need before it becomes part of the budget. The author further suggests that zero-base budgeting is encouraged for emergency services and governmental agencies (Smeby, 2014). However, as an emergency service or emergency management administrator explaining individual expenditures, this may not be practical due to the process being time consuming and exhaustive. Many line items or needs in emergency services may be difficult to define in zero-based budgeting, such as overtime, and would have to be justified each year even though there will always be overtime in emergency services.

MSE 5201, Advanced Fire Administration 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

Points to Ponder During the economic boom, many emergency services programs and even emergency management programs had surplus line items in their budget. Then, the housing market began to slow and the sluggish economy, declining property values, and plummeting stock markets caused leaders to cut spending. Several emergency service and emergency management organizations began experiencing a significant reduction in tax revenue affecting the level of service. Even though there was a reduction in tax revenue, many emergency service agencies experienced escalating demands for services through the increase of incidents. Many of the emergency services had to redistribute firefighters by browning out fire stations in an attempt to freeze nonessential overtime. Many emergency service agencies had to develop steps through a business plan to assist in the loss of revenue during the depressed economy. This included reduction in non-essential spending and no purchases or approving expenditures unless it was absolutely critical to the core mission of the department. As a last resort, many emergency services had to lay off personnel. In the scenario above, was it a good idea to have a plan to protect the highest priorities? Is there a standardized plan that is universally accepted? What services are non-essential that could be cut? There is no standard accepted model, or methodology for identifying and analyzing the risks that exist in a community for cutting budgets or reducing the level of service. In addition, there is no model for effectively deploying resources to provide a level of protection that is politically and financially acceptable to the community, or even the employees of the organization when budget cuts are needed. Moreover, citizens and communities demand a high level of emergency services; however, they are unwilling to pay for it. Many times this leaves leaders no choice other than to brownout stations. Smeby (2014) suggested browning out fire stations is not usually something noticed by the public unless the company that is closest to the fire is the one that is out of service. The author even suggested browning out or closing fire stations is not recommended. However, when there are no funds available and no options to share emergency service resources many times the only option is to brownout stations. Although not popular, this has been seen as many emergency service organizations from small to large across the nation had to brownout stations. Conclusion Even though the challenges may be great, emergency services and emergency management administrators must work with others to create their annual budget. This may include those that will carry out the budget, citizens or others appointed by governing boards. In addition, it is the responsibility of emergency services and emergency management administrators to make sure budgets are as accurate as possible and reflect the level of service that is required to maintain a safe environment for their personnel and the community.

References Smeby, L. C. (2014). Fire and emergency services administration: Management and leadership practices

(2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett. Waugh, W. L., & Streib, G. (2006). Collaboration and leadership for effective emergency management. Public

Administration Review, 66(S1), 131–132.

Suggested Reading To access the following resource, click the link below. Read the Incident Management Handbook below. It explains what is needed to execute operations during any incident. Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2010, January). Incident management handbook. Retrieved from

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/emergency_response/downloads/hazard/Incident%20Management%20H andbook6-09.pdf