CC - Agendas - City Council - STUDY SESSION - 2/14/2023

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Community First - Courage, Grit, and Duty - Driven by Excellence Page 23 2022 Stakeholder Outreach – Subjective Factors The department’s first step for stakeholder engagement during the 2022 strategic planning process was a thorough examination of where the department is positioned as a group of emergency response professionals, as an asset in the community, and what the challenges and opportunities were that are facing the department. This was to determine if the mission, vision, and values needed to be updated, and if so, what that should be. Below are the key findings from that process: • Key Finding #1: Duty to serve – Hopeful for the future: Prescott firefighters will answer the call and fulfill the fundamental mission of providing the fire/emergency services that keep the community safe. However, their goodwill has been stretched thin by a resource model that has not kept pace for the current environment and is insufficient for the growth of the community. Their outlook is temporarily buoyed by the arrival of new leadership and a collaborative approach to rethinking the organization for that future. But the progress on that future will need to be tangible to reinforce that PFD is making the investments in facilities, systems and people to align with the desired organizational vision and identity for the future. • Key Finding #2: Inability to keep up with growth – Ready for change The challenge for PFD is that the department is playing catch-up relative to the current environment in terms of resource, facilities, compensation and planning. The future environment is already arriving which means that PFD has to execute at a faster rate than the rate of change happening in the community. That means that the leadership style, values and culture have to support a willingness and ability to change. The good news is the outlook of the staff of the PFD related to how they see the current state of the organization, and that they are ready (way past ready) for that change. This indeed creates the need and the opportunity to advance a new organizational identity for PFD—embodied with a refreshed mission, vision, values, culture and sense of that this organization could really look like in the future. • Key Finding #3: Be succinct in words and action – Lead with compassion: The general feedback spirit from the internal stakeholders is to keep the mission simple—emergency services, community context, delivered with skill and compassion. • Key Finding #4: Be bold and build the future: The vision is not just for those that are here today, it is also relevant for the next generation that will join PFD. To be “the best in the west” is a seriously high standard. More important are proactivity, regional leadership, and a leader in the community. The core elements of respect, admiration by peers, and community engagement and preservation of the family culture all seem to connect. This vision, regardless of final language, will need to be guided by the values and cultural components to be viewed as credible. • Key Finding #5: Innovation and push forward - Challenge the status quo: Looking forward with innovation, a drive for constant (or continual) improvement is an element that represents a bridge to the future—"don’t be stuck in the past”, don’t do it this way just “because we always have”. 102