Fire

Citygate performed a Standards of Coverage Assessment Update in partnership with the City of Oxnard, CA Fire Department’s leadership, firefighters, administrative personnel, and City elected and appointed officials. Citygate conducted a comprehensive analysis of community risk factors, reviewed appropriate levels of service, and evaluated existing practices and performance. Citygate collaborated with Department staff to define necessary levels of staffing and provide the Department with insight regarding increased and enhanced emergency management preparedness. Citygate’s thorough assessment will ensure the City’s emergency services are optimally ready to respond to the needs of the public, with deployment analysis and long-term planning that serve the Department’s mission to safeguard the community and its interests by providing emergency and community-based service, motivated by compassion and professionalism.

Citygate conducted a Standards of Cover assessment and developed a Master Plan for the South King Fire District, WA. Citygate utilized a structured analysis through stakeholder engagement and the SOC process to review current conditions and provide a Community Risk Assessment; and analyzed historical data, District funding sources, and threats to funding to establish realistic strategic initiatives for the future. Citygate engaged the community in this process, including management, line staff, and the Board of Commissioners, to develop recommendations for strategic initiatives over a three- to five-year timeframe. The Final Report and Implementation Plan provide a comprehensive review and analysis of current service models, as well as findings and recommendations to expand and enhance South King County’s service model, ensuring the provision of quality fire and emergency medical services—both in the short term and the future.

Citygate was retained to conduct a review of the Verdugo Fire Communications Center’s cost-allocation structure and policies for the City of Glendale, CA. For this engagement, Citygate analyzed the cost-to-expense apportionment framework and needed policies related to operating and capital expenses before preparing a cost-sharing model update.

Citygate conducted a comprehensive assessment of how firefighting services are provided in the State of Minnesota for the Department of Public Safety. For this engagement, Citygate reviewed Statewide incident response, types, and geographical distribution; analyzed life, safety, and property damage impacts; assessed Effective Response Force standards; provided a trend projection analysis benchmarked against national standards and best practices; and reviewed the number of fire departments and types of staffing Statewide. For this significant and far-reaching effort, Citygate’s Project Team was tasked to create an extensive Data Warehouse to enable meaningful assessment of varied Statewide data sources and metrics. Citygate also conduct review of the State’s training, certification, and licensing of firefighters; analyzed the recruitment and retention of fire department staff (including volunteer, paid-on-call, part-time, contract, and full-time); performed a macro-level evaluation of fire department equipment and infrastructure; and conducted a macro-level evaluation of funding for firefighting services in Minnesota benchmarked to that of other states. Citygate worked in close collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the State Fire Marshal, and other Minnesota fire service stakeholders through onsite and virtual meetings, online surveys, and numerous listening sessions and town hall meetings to capture meaningful insight and input throughout the assessment process. Additionally, Citygate developed a final report with practical recommendations for Statewide implementation.

Citygate was retained by the Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles County Fire Department to conduct an additional independent review into the Eaton Fire of January 2025. Specifically, Citygate’s investigation focused on the reported three-hour delay by LACoFD personnel before Evacuation Orders were issued for areas of the unincorporated community of Altadena west of Lake Avenue during the first night of the fire. Citygate was tasked to review available evidence, interview key personnel, and conduct additional research as needed into the Eaton Fire’s behavior as it drove Incident Command decisions during the hours under review.

Citygate conducted a public safety impacts assessment for both Fire/EMS and Police services related to the California Forever development envisioned within the City of Suisun City, CA. Citygate performed an objective study in alignment with county, state, and federal public safety best practices and regulatory requirements to provide recommendations regarding potential impacts and needed adjustments to extend public safety services to a level commensurate with the City’s expanding needs. Recommendations included appropriate trigger points for the provision of additional and expanded services related to the California Forever development, including development of new methods and technologies to act as a force multiplier to the public safety personnel needed to serve the City.

Citygate assisted the Cities of Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach with a review of Redondo Beach’s costs to offer contract fire services to Hermosa Beach. After thorough review of relevant documents and data, Citygate built operational and technical fiscal models before conducting briefings with stakeholders and submitting final project materials and exhibits related to Citygate’s key findings and recommendations.

Citygate assisted the Interim Fire Administrator of the City of Otsego, MN with an implementation plan to establish the City’s new fire services. For this effort, Citygate provided mentoring and coaching, reviewed costs and budgeting, assessed personnel additions, reviewed City staff work regarding best practices and regulatory requirements, and provided ad hoc coaching and briefings.

Citygate prepared a staffing and equipment analysis to provide fiscal impact understanding to the Town of Ross should it choose to staff a fire station permanently rather than solely maintain its current contracted services as part of the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority (RVPA), which provides ambulance and paramedic services to the entire Ross Valley area of Marin County. Citygate provides a cost model for personnel, annual maintenance and operating expenses, capital equipment, and fire apparatus for the Town’s decision-making processes going forward.

Citygate conducted a Standards of Cover Study and Community Risk Assessment for the City of Sugar Land, TX, Fire Department. Citygate provided in-depth planning to assist in the provision of both near-term and longer-term fire services, including evaluation of fire station locations, resources, and capacity; traffic and development concerns; the workload unit-hour utilization of both paramedic and fire units; and Department staffing. Citygate’s detailed Community Risk Assessment was developed in alignment with best practice standards to form the basis of risks to be protected and desired outcomes to drive needed staffing across the City’s service area for first-due and multi-unit responses.